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LGF Archives: January 2002

Thursday, January 31, 2002

condemning terrorism

Thu, Jan 31, 2002 at 6:37:12 pm PST

Christopher Johnson parses the “Beirut Declaration on Condemning Terrorism,” a self-serving hypocritical statement by 17 Arab countries that says—hey, guess what?—Israel is the only terrorist in the Middle East.

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security woes at SFO

Thu, Jan 31, 2002 at 5:09:04 pm PST

I’ve been holding off on writing about the possible shoe bomber who sauntered away from SFO security yesterday, because as Ken says, the media has totally botched the reporting on this one. I’ve now heard and/or read at least four different stories; just getting the basic facts has been ridiculously ...

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send us to cuba!

Thu, Jan 31, 2002 at 2:51:07 pm PST

Many Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners in Afghan jails are pleading, “We want to go to an American prison!”

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bad dog, no bloggie

Thu, Jan 31, 2002 at 12:57:37 pm PST

Thanks to everyone who voted for us in the Bloggies™. But alas, it was not to be. Congratulations to the people at fark.com.

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terror targets

Thu, Jan 31, 2002 at 9:10:00 am PST

More information is coming out about the Al Qaeda documents found in Mohammed Atef’s house: - Documents found in Afghanistan spotlight the U.S. Capitol, Seattle's Space Needle and a portion of Los Angeles, suggesting these areas were being considered for a terrorist attack, ABCNEWS has learned, as new violence threatens ...

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sharon regrets

Thu, Jan 31, 2002 at 7:45:05 am PST

Ariel Sharon says Israel should have “eliminated” Arafat when they had him trapped in Beirut in 1982.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2002

egyptian sea change

Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 6:13:50 pm PST

The Jerusalem Post reports that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is applying pressure on Yasser Arafat to rein in terrorism.

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google takes a stand

Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 5:34:39 pm PST

Three cheers for Google. They’ve taken a public stand against pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-arounds, and all the other advertising hell-spawn that have been turning the web into an increasingly annoying experience.

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pilger fact check

Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 4:32:21 pm PST

On that Pilger bilge I wrote about earlier, Kathy Kinsley and Anthony Adragna have ganged up on him and fact-checked his sorry ass into next week. They fact-checked him so hard they debunked his whole family. They fact-checked him like a red-headed stepchild. They fact-checked the taste out his mouth. ...

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the photo ID that wasn’t

Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 3:34:55 pm PST

Today’s jaw-dropper: a Muslim woman is suing Florida for suspending her driver’s license after she refused to remove her face-covering veil for the photograph. The ACLU is handling her case. And CAIR, of course, is outraged that the state of Florida would actually expect a photo ID to be useful ...

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sanity watch

Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 11:47:17 am PST

MEMRI has translations of an amazing series of articles by Qatari liberal Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, calling for reform in Arab educational systems, and the renunciation of violence and xenophobia. "I am among those who maintain that some of the preachers in the mosques incite hatred towards those of a ...

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it’s awesome rant day

Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 10:26:19 am PST

Found on the referrer page: some guy I never heard of, “David Lee Beowulf,” who also goes by the handle “Angry Viking,” has written a great rant about blogs, Chomsky, Gitmo, and the mental stability of US soldiers. Read the whole thing or he’ll kick your ass, damn it.

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one day when i’m rich

Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 9:51:54 am PST

I think Ken has been dipping into the Peruvian marching powder again; at 4 am this morning he penned this awesome rant, beginning with the etymology of the word “gadget” and ending with Muslims on spaceships. But somewhere in the middle, while extolling the virtues of true multiculturalism, he makes this ...

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state of the union speech

Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 8:31:52 am PST

Here is the full text of President Bush’s State of the Union Address. I was struck by several passages that seemed to be directed at Saudi Arabia. For example: America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere. No nation ...

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arrogant bush

Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 8:13:23 am PST

Iran says we’re arrogant, and the war on terror is a plot to distract the world from the evil Jews. Manila says we’re arrogant, and the war on terror is a plot to justify intervention in other countries’ internal affairs. Bilious John Pilger has gone completely off his rocker, and says the ...

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Tuesday, January 29, 2002

arab hypocrites

Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 4:49:34 pm PST

At the Arab News—the official mouthpiece of a corrupt and parasitic regime that brutally executes homosexuals, beats women for revealing their ankles, and exports religious extremism around the world—they’re accusing America of savagery.

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realignments?

Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 2:52:33 pm PST

Ha’aretz has more on what may be signs of the beginning of the end for Arafat, as high-level meetings take place between Israel and Egypt.

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egyptian about-face

Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 1:54:24 pm PST

DEBKA is reporting that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has had a sudden change of heart toward the Sharon government, and is joining the US-Israel-Jordan bloc against Yasser Arafat.

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unlawful combatants

Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 1:21:46 pm PST

Law professor Ronald D. Rotunda writes about unlawful combatants, American law, and the Geneva Convention: No POWs.

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detainee business

Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 12:50:54 pm PST

The Washington Post reports on Saudi Arabia’s demands that Saudi prisoners at Guantanamo Bay be returned to them for “interrogation.” (They’re probably worried that the US will discover further evidence of Al Qaeda ties to the Kingdom.) The article contains this reaction from a Human Rights Watch official, about the decision ...

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shameless self-promotion

Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 8:09:08 am PST

This is your last day to vote for LGF in the Second Annual Weblog Awards. Scroll down to “Best Weblog About Politics.” Hey, who does that handsome green football belong to? And with such a lonely button beneath it, just begging to be clicked. Come on, loyal LGF readers—help us win! ...

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thank you, newsrack

Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 7:44:44 am PST

Thanks to Thomas Nephew for the very nice things he said about us. Be sure to visit his weblog often; he speaks fluent German and provides translations of interesting stories in German media (and German weblogs!).

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Monday, January 28, 2002

europe dithers while the world burns

Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 6:44:10 pm PST

Sadly, the European Union proves once again that they are incapable of taking a disciplined moral stand: EU Stands by Arafat.

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give ’em back

Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 3:41:19 pm PST

Of the 158 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, nearly 100 are Saudis, according to the Arab News. Interior Minister Prince Naif is deeply concerned: He said the Riyadh government was deeply concerned over the Saudi detainees. “We’ll demand that the Saudi detainees be handed over, because they are subject to the ...

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just like george

Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 2:33:55 pm PST

Yasser Arafat wants us to know that he’s just like George Washington. (Except with suicide bombers and anti-semitism.)

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war and gitmo

Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 2:12:09 pm PST

Victor Hanson weighs in on the issue of the detainees in Cuba: Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Neither the Taliban government nor al Qaeda signed the Geneva Convention, which, like the U.N. proclamations on human rights, is solely a product of the Western liberal tradition of jurisprudence. They ...

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reporter kidnapped

Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 9:21:55 am PST

Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal is in big trouble, kidnapped by a Pakistani terrorist group with ties to Al Qaeda. Unfortunately for him, there’s no way the US government can even acknowledge the demands of his kidnappers—which does not bode well for Pearl.

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where danger lurks

Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 8:41:07 am PST

After many years of war, Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous places on Earth. Here’s a good article at TIME.com on the risks facing US forces as they try to clean out pockets of Al Qaeda and Taliban resistance: Where Danger Lurks. On an icy, still night in Kabul, ...

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Sunday, January 27, 2002

a perfect soldier

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 7:03:48 pm PST

In today’s LA Times Terry McDermott has an in-depth look at the background of Mohammed Atta: A Perfect Soldier.

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watch out bozos

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 5:33:46 pm PST

Jeff Jarvis says: Watch out, bozos: If the anti-world-trade bozos coming to New York cause me the slightest inconvenience or fear as I head into the city, I swear, I will bite their noses off and spray them with mace and spit on them and find any way I can ...

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rumsfeld vs. powell

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 2:46:37 pm PST

Donald has a message for Colin. On his flight down to Cuba, Rumsfeld told reporters that whatever comes of any debate, the Cuba detainees will not be designated prisoners of war."They are not POWs," he said. "They will not be determined to be POWs.""These are among the most dangerous, best-trained, ...

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enough

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 1:56:12 pm PST

Andrew, please. Enough with the Krugman already.

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the truth about the pbc

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 1:44:49 pm PST

The usual screamers were screaming as usual when Israel destroyed the headquarters of the Palestinian Broadcasting Company. But as Andrea Levin writes, the PBC is a hate machine: One week after the Dolphinarium bombing on June 1, 2001 in Tel Aviv in which 21 people, mainly young girls, were killed, ...

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where was the cia?

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 1:10:38 pm PST

I have to agree with Alex Knapp, who says that instead of investigating Enron, we should be looking into the failure of our intelligence services to prevent the 9/11 attacks.

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the lion of kabul

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 10:22:00 am PST

A very sad story: Lion of Kabul roars his last.

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new video of flight 587

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 9:45:10 am PST

TIME.com reports that a new video of the crash of flight 587 in Queens has been discovered, taken by a surveillance camera in a toll booth.

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a female bomber

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 9:31:27 am PST

In a really ugly new twist, today’s suicide bomber in Jerusalem was a female student from Al-Najah University.

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the moral low ground

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 8:20:31 am PST

The terrorists are doing their best to provoke Israel into open war; another suicide bomber has struck at innocent civilians in Jerusalem, killing one person and injuring dozens. Israel has dismissed the cease-fire calls by the Palestinian leadership as meaningless, and says Arafat has simultaneously been encouraging militants. Israel has ...

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saudi boycott threat

Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 1:51:25 am PST

The Saudis revealed their true colors yet again, at last week’s International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan in Tokyo, by threatening to boycott the conference if Israel attended. "The Americans said they would support any decision we took," an Israeli diplomat in Washington said. "They promised us their full ...

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Saturday, January 26, 2002

saudi warnings

Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 6:12:32 pm PST

The NY Times reports that Saudi Arabia’s senior intelligence official today called Yasser Arafat “a man of peace” and urged the US not to “weaken” him—and the article also contains this shocking bit of information about Saudi feelings toward the US: In a wide-ranging interview, Prince Nawwaf bin Abdul Aziz, ...

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the sellout

Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 5:17:06 pm PST

Colbert King says it’s time to stop participating in The Saudi Sellout. The kingdom publicly boasts of its proselytizing in America under King Fahd, heralding the fact that it has spent millions of dollars funding an Islamic academy in Washington, 15 mosques and Islamic centers, and nine Islamic research institutes ...

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the you-know-who watch

Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 4:02:48 pm PST

I’m starting a new category for Saudi/Arab news items, called the “You-Know-Who Watch.” I’ve been seeing more and more of this lately—they don’t want to say “the Jews” or “the Zionists” outright, because they’re starting to get a clue that it makes them look like a bunch of unhinged anti-semites. ...

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serious weapons program

Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 2:49:22 pm PST

As documents obtained in Afghanistan are exhaustively analyzed, more evidence is emerging of Al Qaeda’s serious weapons program with a heavy emphasis on developing a nuclear device.

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we was tricked

Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 10:26:25 am PST

Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a French newspaper that Saudi Arabians who took part in the 9/11 attacks were unwitting dupes of Osama Bin Laden, based on the videotape where he laughs about their lack of knowledge. Uh, wait a minute. I thought that tape was supposed to be ...

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powell urges pow status

Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 9:23:25 am PST

Colin Powell, showing the lack of spine for which he is well-known, is recommending that the Gitmo prisoners be given POW status. I hope this idea is resisted until we’ve extracted every drop of valuable intelligence from these freakazoids. If ever there were a time for hard-headed pragmatism, it’s now. I ...

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i missed it

Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 7:59:57 am PST

I missed all the fun last night. While every other weblogger in Los Angeles was carousing at Brian Linse’s Bacchanalian revel, I was fending off Saudi assassins nursing a strained back. Sorry I missed it, everyone; next time you won’t be so lucky!

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Friday, January 25, 2002

veiled threat

Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 2:26:04 pm PST

At the New Republic, Martin Peretz has an eye-opening piece about his 1991 trip to Saudi Arabia: Veiled Threat. When I applied for a visa, my Saudi hosts suggested that on the line marked "religion," I answer "Christian." I explained that my ancestors died rather than abjure their faith. "What ...

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not down with the ICRC

Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 11:57:10 am PST

The American Red Cross would like us to know that they have nothing to do with their numbskull European namesakes, the International Committee of the Red Cross.

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veiled insults

Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 11:44:45 am PST

The Saudis want the right to oppress US servicewomen the same way they oppress their own women: Saudis Want US Servicewomen Veiled. A member of the Committee for the Preservation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, a government agency for enforcing Islamic law, said all women must wear the ...

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worth 1000 words

Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 10:58:48 am PST

One of the articles at today’s Arab News denies that Palestinian/Arab media stirs up public opinion against Israel. I was going to quote from the article (which also calls for all Arab nations to “boycott everything American”) but then I discovered this “editorial cartoon” that proves my point far more ...

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continental shift

Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 10:32:35 am PST

A member of the Saudi Shura Council (a committee that advises Saudi leaders on strategic matters) says the Saudis are being wrongly accused of supporting terrorism by Zionist US media, and it’s time to shift allegiances to Europe. (The author assumes they’ll find more support for their anti-semitic agenda in ...

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american self-doubt

Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 10:04:08 am PST

Every three or four days, Victor Hanson produces another great column: Roots of American Self-Doubt. In the midst of one of the most stunning military campaigns in the last half-century, characterized by both the daring and competence of our military, Americans are still advised to be full of doubt concerning ...

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attack in tel aviv

Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 8:33:26 am PST

Another suicide bombing in Israel, this time in a crowded shopping mall in Tel Aviv. Such heroes these Palestinians are; one of the victims is a 4-year old boy. Here’s the Arab response, from an article in today’s NY Times: In Morocco, the Islamic Conference Organization's Jerusalem Committee, Islam's main world ...

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Thursday, January 24, 2002

the evidence

Thu, Jan 24, 2002 at 8:28:15 pm PST

President Bush has presented the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan with evidence of Yasser Arafat’s complicity in the Karine-A smuggling incident: Bush Gives Arabs Smuggling Evidence.

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not a blog

Thu, Jan 24, 2002 at 4:04:02 pm PST

That wacky bunch of conservatives at the National Review has a new, uh, thing on their site that they don’t want to call a weblog: The Corner. (Psst. It’s a weblog. Pass it on.)

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the forgotten suspects

Thu, Jan 24, 2002 at 3:55:05 pm PST

Meanwhile, back in Afghanistan, human rights organizations are nowhere to be seen as more than 4800 Afghan and Pakistani prisoners face truly inhumane conditions: The forgotten suspects - inside an Afghan prison. KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - With each step deeper into the ground, the air grows colder and staler.The stairs give ...

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how ridiculous can you get

Thu, Jan 24, 2002 at 9:19:52 am PST

Mark Steyn has a good piece about the UK’s anti-American Guardianistas: How ridiculous can you guys get? ...according to an ITN report carried on PBS over here, these poor prisoners will have to ‘endure the searing heat’. Actually, these beach huts are perfectly designed for one of the most agreeable ...

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the bloggies

Thu, Jan 24, 2002 at 8:27:33 am PST

Hey, somehow we got into the finalists for the 2002 Bloggies™! (Scroll down to “Best Weblog About Politics.”) Our esteemed competition includes kill your tv, fark, Jeff Jarvis, and Andrew Sullivan. (No, you don’t get links to them; they are now our sworn enemies, and we’re going to eat their ...

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Wednesday, January 23, 2002

who loves ya, baby?

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 4:23:24 pm PST

Muhammad ibn Saeed Al-Ahmad says, “Hey, come on! Who ya gonna trust? The American media ... or your buddies, the House of Saud?” The fear, my American friends, is that you may be persuaded by what seems to be fact since it is so often repeated by those whom you ...

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defiantly in the minority

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 12:03:22 pm PST

The editors of London tabloid The Mirror defend their right to be proud anti-Americans, even though more than 90% of their readers disagree: Jail Parade Will Breed New Terror. It is wrong to assume that the prisoners have committed evil - they are innocent until proved guilty. Some may be ...

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run, sammy, run

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 10:28:53 am PST

Thomas Friedman in today’s NY Times, writing about the Arab world’s sympathy for murderers like Osama Bin Laden: Run, Osama, Run. On the way back from Kabul, I passed through Pakistan, the Persian Gulf, London and Belgium, where I had a variety of talks with Arab and Muslim journalists and ...

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first person

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 9:31:15 am PST

Here’s a collection of first person accounts from the most recent terrorist attack in Jerusalem. If things like this were happening in a US city, what do you think our response would be? And the situation is heating up even more; Hizbullah forces in South Lebanon have been launching missile attacks against ...

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asian terror web

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 8:57:08 am PST

The Christian Science Monitor has a good article about the Al Qaeda terror cell in Singapore that was planning devastating attacks against Western targets: 'Activated' Asian terror web busted.

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indonesian islamists

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 8:04:34 am PST

Bin Laden and Al Qaeda have been working to establish a presence in Indonesia, funding local terrorist groups and providing military training: Asian terrorists trouble U.S. If a terrorist cell could operate in rigidly controlled Singapore, American officials say they shudder at what Al Qaeda may have achieved in the ...

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the mountain is moving

Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 7:53:10 am PST

US attitudes about Saudi Arabia are changing, after years of one-sided “cultural sensitivity”: Saudi Dress Code for Female Troops Revised.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2002

the breeding ground

Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 6:41:55 pm PST

Yet another compelling Victor Hanson essay, on cultural responsibility and the role of war in human society: Breeding Ground. The breeding ground for autocracy is not only hunger and disease, but also national amnesia and ignorance. The culprit is, then, a state of mind in which millions lose their senses ...

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prioritizing

Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 6:22:26 pm PST

Maybe Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International should start setting some priorities. Maybe they should pay some attention to abominations like this. With 30-foot-high walls studded with broken glass, machine guns mounted in the corners and armed guards standing behind the gate, Ejaz Arbab's warehouse in Jamrud looks much like ...

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smells like terror

Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 12:15:25 pm PST

Well, the New York Times and the Washington Post may gag on the word, but I have no trouble calling a creature who shoots unarmed civilians at a bus stop what he is—a terrorist.

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more surprises from MS

Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 12:02:19 pm PST

Here's an interesting commentary on January's XP Surprise which awaits users that haven't activated their product through Microsoft.

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the pinnacle of silliness

Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 11:24:00 am PST

Damian Penny found what has to be the funniest damned thing I’ve seen in the last month. London tabloid the Mirror (think “National Enquirer” but with less class) assigned a reporter to dress up like an Al Qaeda detainee for a whole hour. Hilarity ensued! The darkness filled me with ...

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no abuse

Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 9:41:18 am PST

The Washington Post reports on the insanely exaggerated stories about Al Qaeda detainees in the British press: British Find No Abuse of U.S. Captives At Cuba Base. With Prime Minister Tony Blair under pressure from left and right, newspaper headlines here are screaming "TORTURE!" and "Monstrous Inhumanity" at the U.S. ...

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hi there

Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 8:56:11 am PST

If you’re visiting through a link on the antiwar.com Letters page, welcome! If I cared, my feelings would be hurt by the mean, cruel things that were said about me on that page. Instead, I’ve channeled my poor injured ego into ... a limerick! If words were rocks I’d be a ...

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Monday, January 21, 2002

kill the messenger

Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 7:09:06 pm PST

At Slate, Anne Applebaum says Israel is right to target the Voice of Palestine broadcasting station: Kill the Messenger. Worst of all are the TV programs for children. I was shown some of these when in Israel a few years ago and can testify to their creepiness: I distinctly remember ...

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hit me baby

Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 6:52:27 pm PST

The Independent can always be counted on for a good bracing jolt of anti-Americanism, and they’ve been especially busy today. Here’s old reliable Kabul Bob Fisk, telling us the terrorists have won: Congratulations, America. You have made bin Laden a happy man. And here’s an article that screams about the horrible treatment ...

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the report

Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 10:42:58 am PST

Here is the Human Rights Watch World Report 2002. Read it and decide for yourself. I haven’t read it all yet. I do have a life. But the introduction makes almost no mention of the great improvement in the human rights of the people of Afghanistan, freed from the rule of ...

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a deadly error

Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 10:11:22 am PST

Another great piece by Daniel Pipes, looking at the dangerous folly of our current “anti-profiling” policies: A Deadly Error. The government insists on what it calls the "but for" test. "But for this person's perceived race, ethnic heritage or religious orientation," security personnel must ask themselves, "would I have subjected ...

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human rights fraud

Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 10:00:58 am PST

Human Rights Watch has released its annual survey of rights around the world, and according to OpinionJournal it’s more of the same old anti-American idiotarianism: The Human Rights Fraud. Start with the war in Afghanistan, where it says U.S. "conduct so far has not been auspicious." Apparently those dancing Afghans ...

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no complaints

Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 8:35:04 am PST

What a surprise! Apparently those arrogant Americans, even though crazed by war triumphalism and bent on barbaric vengeance, have somehow managed to restrain themselves: Captive Britons have 'no complaints'. The prime minister's official spokesman said the government would now take time to study the report in detail. "We said people ...

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Sunday, January 20, 2002

wine is good

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 6:01:49 pm PST

Well, here it is 6:00 Sunday evening. I think I’ll have a glass of this nice Chilean Chardonnay I got at Trader Joe’s a couple of days ago. Mmm. I’m so glad I don’t live in Saudi Arabia, where I would be screaming under the lash right now. Someone remind me. They ...

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no tv for terrorists

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 4:22:59 pm PST

Brian Linse has a good take on why there should be no television cameras at Zacarias Moussaoui’s trial: If I were on trial for my life, I'd want to be sure that the prosecutor wasn't campaigning for DA on my time. I'd want to be certain that the judge wasn't ...

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iraq’s nuclear program

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 2:48:20 pm PST

An in-depth interview with the former director of the Iraqi Nuclear Program: Does Saddam have nukes?

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still waiting

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 1:05:43 pm PST

Colin Powell is still waiting for Yasser Arafat’s explanation for the Karine-A arms shipment. Don’t hold your breath, Colin.

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security and saudi arabia

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 12:49:23 pm PST

A good editorial at the Washington Post examines the implications of withdrawing US forces from Saudi Arabia: Security and Saudi Arabia. For some time, Prince Abdullah has been moving to appease the conservative Saudi clergy by distancing himself publicly from the United States and blaming the Bush administration for the ...

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do as we say, not as we do

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 12:13:24 pm PST

With all the finger-pointing and high-handed lecturing on human rights coming from lefty Brit papers like the Guardian and the Independent, it might be illuminating to look at how the UK is treating their terrorist prisoners: UK terror detentions 'barbaric'. The Belmarsh detainees are locked up for 22 hours a ...

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x-ray photos

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 11:55:06 am PST

Here’s a Yahoo slideshow of Reuters photographs of Camp X-Ray.

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arafat resigning?

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 11:26:09 am PST

According to the Jerusalem Post, Yasser Arafat is considering resigning as head of the PA. Arafat is reportedly fed up with what he considers the abandonment of the Palestinians in the face of Israeli escalation, the source said, including the continuing closure on PA territories, according to a report appearing ...

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geneva talk

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 11:04:35 am PST

Bruce Rolston has a lot of good stuff on his blog about the Geneva Convention, and whether the Al Qaeda fighters should be covered under its rules. My own objection to classifying them as GC Prisoners of War lies in Article 4, Section A2, dealing with the definition of POWs: ...

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going it alone

Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 3:07:46 am PST

William Quick has some straight talk for European hand-wringers concerned about us poor dumb Americans and our cowboy ways.

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Saturday, January 19, 2002

the true definition of terrorism

Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 7:25:19 pm PST

A powerful essay by Representative Eric Cantor and former Senator Frank Lautenberg spells out the true definition of terrorism. Terrorism is a very specific type of violence. It is the deliberate killing of innocent civilians in the name of a political cause. George Washington was a revolutionary, but he was ...

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arafat should have emulated clinton

Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 5:00:04 pm PST

Here is an absolutely mind-boggling op-ed at the Arab News (where else?), that says Arafat should have acted like Clinton when he was caught smuggling 50 tons of weapons into the PA. The issue would not have become so complicated if the PA had not attached so much importance to ...

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terrorists released

Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 3:19:48 pm PST

Buried in this ABC News story about the Palestinian attack on a children’s party are these very revealing paragraphs: At about 5:15 a.m. today, an Israeli F-16 warplane attacked the government headquarters in Tulkarem, destroying part of the compound and killing a policeman, said the local police chief, Mahmoud Awadallah. ...

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un clown show

Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 11:09:57 am PST

In his very first speech to the UN Security Council, the Syrian ambassador attacked Israel by likening the bulldozing of Palestinian buildings to the 9/11 atrocities. Proving once again that the United Nations has become an irrelevant clown show, their agenda hijacked by terrorist-supporting, anti-Semitic pond scum. (Update: Christopher Johnson (no, we’re ...

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another victim of terror

Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 10:06:08 am PST

This is the 12-year old girl whose bat mitzvah party was destroyed by a filthy murderous animal last Thursday. The look in her eyes is heartbreaking.

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racing for their lives

Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 8:46:31 am PST

The mysterious Media Minder has an interesting story about bias and race baiting at a midsized Southern newspaper.

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a popular dictator

Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 8:25:13 am PST

The Washington Post has a story about Saddam Hussein’s popularity in the Arab world. "The (Iraqi) leadership is working on liberating Palestine and uniting the Arab nation and this is something the enemy does not want," Loqman said after Friday prayers in the Sheik Abdel Qader al-Qeilani mosque, one of ...

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the herold fallacy

Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 7:22:08 am PST

I’m glad to see Mark Steyn publicly debunking Marc Herold’s mendacious report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan, which has been starting to show up in the mainstream media.

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Friday, January 18, 2002

a lesson in americanism

Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 6:54:37 pm PST

In an excellent piece at the National Review (the ghost of my liberal past is spinning in its grave) Michael Long writes about the unbelievably respectful treatment afforded the Al Qaeda detainees—even though they still want to kill us all: A Lesson in Americanism. We respect and provide for the ...

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another sign of sanity

Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 6:26:47 pm PST

I refuse to be self-conscious about linking to items at MEMRI. So there. Their latest dispatch is another hopeful sign of sanity in the Arab world: The Role of Fatwas in Incitement to Terrorism. Liberal Tunisian columnist Al-'Afif Al-Akhahdar denounces the religious fatwas that drive so much of the violence: "The ...

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no tv for moussaoui

Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 3:35:25 pm PST

A federal judge has denied Zacarias Moussaoui’s request for his trial to be televised. The right decision, I think.

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iraq

Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 3:28:22 pm PST

Moira Breen asks me to clarify my view on Iraq: ...were they all credulously swallowing any hint of an Iraqi connection to 9/11, eager to find any pretext for attack, while having no sound, pre-existing reasons for believing that Iraq should be dealt with militarily? It’s true that when evidence ...

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full bore

Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 11:07:22 am PST

David Carr at Libertarian Samizdata has discovered that Justin Raimondo is even creepier than he looks.

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you go, girl

Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 10:14:52 am PST

Andrea Harris has a most excellent rant on Euro-whinging about the evil US’s “mistreatment” of Al Qaeda detainees. The mad dogs being held at Guantanamo Bay were not wearing uniforms. They were not fighting for a recognized nation/state. They used guerilla tactics. They continued to resist after surrender. And they have ...

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oh, and by the way...

Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 9:40:55 am PST

Arabs Still Want to Destroy Israel, writes Daniel Pipes. As far as being target nations goes, Israel is a bit further along the learning curve. The attempt to destroy the Jewish state has gone on since it came into existence in 1948. For over a half century, the majority of ...

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last one out shut off the lights

Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 8:50:25 am PST

I’ve been expecting something like this: Saudis May Seek U.S. Exit. The bloated egos that rule Saudi Arabia have to come up with some kind of blustery threat to respond to the thrashing they’ve taken in US media since September 11. Saudis give several reasons for deciding that the Americans ...

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flippy floppy

Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 8:25:11 am PST

Here’s another meta-blog article at the Online Journalism Review, this one by Tim Cavanaugh. And just as with his previous article about MEMRI, the viewpoint flops around like a fish out of water. What am I talking about? Geraldo had to go all the way to Afghanistan to get lost ...

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Thursday, January 17, 2002

putting our house in order

Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 6:25:19 pm PST

Straight talk for the House of Saud from Editor-in-chief Mort Zuckerman of US News and World Report: Putting our house in order. President Bush may say that a tax increase would be passed only over his dead body, but what will he do–what can he do?–about the equivalent of a ...

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feeding the hand

Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 5:55:59 pm PST

I missed this excellent piece by Jared Diamond (author of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies) when it appeared in the Washington Post last Sunday: Why We Must Feed the Hands That Could Bite Us, in which he makes a concise and cogent case for preventive involvement ...

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celebration time

Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 5:24:24 pm PST

According to this article at Israel Insider, celebrations broke out in the town of Nablus following the attacks against unarmed civilians at a wedding hall. Haaretz reported that the Al Aksa Brigades, a branch of Arafat's Fatah organization, said the attack was carried out by Fatah member Abed al Salem ...

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and again

Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 1:56:56 pm PST

Once again, Palestinian terrorists have launched a sickening, horrific attack against Israeli citizens—this time at a wedding hall. Five people are dead. It’s beyond all understanding what the Palestinians hope to achieve by atrocities like this.

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so unfair

Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 9:54:48 am PST

The poor widdle Saudis think we’re being unfair to them. The opening paragraph of this LA Times article is priceless: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Sheik Mohammed bin Jubeir sat comfortably on a silk-covered couch in his gold-trimmed robe and reflected on the pain Saudi Arabia has endured. Victim is the ...

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detainee furor

Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 9:36:45 am PST

Glenn Reynolds has a post today about the status of the Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, in which he makes this excellent point: The experience of American prisoners, from Bataan to Korea, to Vietnam, has been one of consistent maltreatment in violation of international law, ...

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much ado about nothing

Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 9:15:27 am PST

Everyone’s already linked to creepy looking Justin Raimondo’s idiotarian whine, so if you want to read it check one of the anti-idiotarians on the right. My name is in there, in a couple of quotes from Ken Layne, who writes Raimondo under the table. But what do I know? I ...

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iraq defiant

Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 8:20:34 am PST

Dubya and Saddam are rattling sabers at each other.

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Wednesday, January 16, 2002

microsoft's achilles heel

Wed, Jan 16, 2002 at 10:51:18 am PST

Security Flaws May Be Pitfall for Microsoft - if it's possible to stop this juggernaut, this may well end up being the best reason to do so. "Microsoft's decade-long focus on cramming new features into its products has come at the expense of protecting computers against viruses and hacking attacks, ...

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nyt bias on the front page

Wed, Jan 16, 2002 at 9:37:15 am PST

Yesterday in Israel, Palestinian terrorists kidnapped and killed a 71-year old man, and opened fire on a car, killing a 45-year old woman and badly wounding her aunt. Clearly not military targets; these swine deliberately attacked an old man and a car with two women in it. So why the hell ...

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terrorbytes

Wed, Jan 16, 2002 at 8:31:37 am PST

MSNBC has more details on documents retrieved from an Al Qaeda computer, including a report on the travels of an operative who may very well be Richard Reid.

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rat trap

Wed, Jan 16, 2002 at 8:01:38 am PST

Johnny “The Rat” Walker is not out of the woods; Ashcroft says he may still be charged with crimes that could carry the death penalty.

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Tuesday, January 15, 2002

what about johnny?

Tue, Jan 15, 2002 at 7:26:44 pm PST

According to our totally unscientific poll of 193 people (so far), almost 40% of you think Johnny “The Rat” Walker should be tried for treason and then put up against a wall and shot. Well, the government is seeking life in prison. Which is much, much worse. That’s what I voted for. ...

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bias at nyt

Tue, Jan 15, 2002 at 10:50:04 am PST

In a grotesquely worshipful article at the NY Times, James Bennet praises Raed al-Karmi, terrorist. This outrageously biased piece is accompanied by a photo of a bandaged Karmi with the caption: “The late Raed al-Karmi in September, after Israelis attacked him.” Bennet has consistently been a Palestinian apologist, but in ...

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Monday, January 14, 2002

self-examination

Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 6:54:45 pm PST

Here’s a reminder that the human spirit will not be denied: The Fault Lies in Our Education - Not in American Society. There are good people in the Arab world, in spite of everything they’ve been through. And we need to support them.

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al qaeda tapes

Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 3:57:17 pm PST

You may have heard about the Al Qaeda training tapes shown on ABC news in Australia. This page has the story, along with a link to RealVideo clips from the tape. Scary stuff.

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the arab zone

Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 3:31:41 pm PST

This morning I linked to a Daniel Pipes piece about the Arab tendency to deny unpleasant facts. Well, I was going through the garbage again and hey, whaddayaknow? Here’s a perfect example at (where else?) the Arab News: Karine-A. Venture with me if you dare, into a world where logic does ...

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more mideast bloodshed

Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 2:03:42 pm PST

After an explosion that killed Raed al-Karmi, members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade retaliated by shooting an Israeli soldier. At this point, Israel has not claimed responsibility for Karmi’s death, although they did try to get him before. I think it’s very possible it was a targeted killing, but also ...

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explaining to colin

Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 1:37:16 pm PST

Wall Street Journal readers came up with some funny excuses Arafat could give Colin Powell for the Karine-A affair. My favorite: “We need the weapons for self-defense, Mr. Secretary. In case you haven't heard, Palestine is lousy with trigger-happy terrorists!”

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tech innovation

Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 10:47:36 am PST

An amusing article about the new iMac and other innovatively designed tech gizmos - Please Lick This iMac

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the only thing

Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 9:01:12 am PST

To paraphrase FDR, the only thing we have to fear is the pretzel itself.

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the denial

Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 8:57:33 am PST

Daniel Pipes and Jonathan Schanzer write about the Arab world’s refusal to face unpleasant truths: Denial: A River in Egypt. This pattern of avoiding unpleasant facts offers an insight into the problems of Muslim society. Turning defeat into victory, evidence into forgery, and terrorism into an "inside job" creates an ...

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the follies of modern art

Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 3:13:58 am PST

A great new Lileks screed: The Follies of Modern Art.

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Sunday, January 13, 2002

broke

Sun, Jan 13, 2002 at 12:05:08 pm PST

Afghanistan is flat broke, says Thomas Friedman in Kabul; they need billions to avoid falling back into anarchy. The Afghan banking system was basically destroyed by Taliban looting in the final days of their retreat from the major cities. Friedman makes a suggestion I think should be widely publicized: Maybe the ...

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god’s warrior

Sun, Jan 13, 2002 at 11:31:59 am PST

There’s a very good in-depth investigation into the backgrounds of the September 11 hijackers, focusing on Mohammed Atta, in the Sunday Times (requires free registration): God’s Warrior, Part One and Part Two.

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saudi watch

Sun, Jan 13, 2002 at 10:40:15 am PST

SAUDI WATCH – Our “allies” the Saudis recently revealed their dangerous cultural imperialism by demolishing a 200-year old Ottoman castle, so they could build hotels and a convention center. Turkey, of course, is outraged, comparing it to the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddha statues at Bamiyan. The Saudi response: In ...

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kissinger on iraq

Sun, Jan 13, 2002 at 9:25:44 am PST

Crusty old cold-hearted Henry Kissinger turns his considerable intellect to the Iraq problem: Phase II and Iraq. Anti-terrorism policy is empty if it is not backed by the threat of force. Intellectual opponents of military action as well as its likely targets will procrastinate or agree to token or symbolic ...

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al-jazeera in india

Sun, Jan 13, 2002 at 7:58:53 am PST

Given Al-Jazeera’s record of hysterical anti-Semitism and blatant sympathy for Islamo-fascism, this is not good news: Al-Jazeera to set up shop in India. Explaining [Al-Jazeera’s] new found interest, [chief editor Ibrahim] Helal said India is a hotspot especially because of its volatile relation with its neighbour Pakistan. Besides it’s a ...

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Saturday, January 12, 2002

reading email headers

Sat, Jan 12, 2002 at 6:42:39 pm PST

I don’t know about you, but ever since the start of the new year the volume of spam email I receive has doubled or tripled. It’s incredibly annoying. The people who are flooding the internet with this trash have something deeply wrong in their brains. Here’s a good tutorial on reading ...

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the birds fly with one wing

Sat, Jan 12, 2002 at 12:11:42 pm PST

Here’s a disturbing story about the reappearance of an age-old Kandahar custom: Kandahar comes out of the closet. Now that Taleban rule is over in Mullah Omar’s former southern stronghold, it is not only televisions, kites and razors which have begun to emerge. Visible again, too, are men with their ...

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tough love

Sat, Jan 12, 2002 at 11:18:01 am PST

Reid Stott has some downhome tough love for you Anti-Idiotarians who are still hosted on Blogspot. You know who you are. Yes, that’s right. You.

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dictionary/thesaurus bookmarklets

Sat, Jan 12, 2002 at 10:34:33 am PST

OK, here are new versions of the Merriam Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus bookmarklets. I believe these new ones should also work on framed sites. Give ’em a whack and let me know.PC versions:

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from the arab side

Sat, Jan 12, 2002 at 10:08:27 am PST

At the Nando Times, Linda Seebach writes about how the Karine-A arms shipment is being reported by Al-Jazeera: Looking at the story from the Arab world's side. The Jan. 4 story describes the "massive arms cargo," 50 tons of weapons, including "antitank (missiles) of the type used by Hezbollah with ...

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thesaurus bookmarklet

Sat, Jan 12, 2002 at 8:43:10 am PST

A dictionary without a thesaurus is like pancakes without syrup. Like Cher without Sonny. It’s just slightly wrong. Therefore I present for your edification, the Merriam Webster Thesaurus bookmarklet. Use it just like the dictionary bookmarklet.

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musharraf speaks

Sat, Jan 12, 2002 at 8:23:48 am PST

In a brave speech, Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf announced the banning of the terrorist groups responsible for the attack on India’s parliament, and promised a crack-down on madrassas that promote militancy. Here’s the full text of his speech.

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Friday, January 11, 2002

new merriam webster bookmarklet

Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 5:52:04 pm PST

Announcing a new improved version of the Merriam Webster Dictionary bookmarklet. (Alert the media!) This one should work with any browser (no need for separate PC/Mac versions), and opens the dictionary page in a new window. To use it (as with all bookmarklets), drag the link to your browser toolbar. To ...

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holy war inc.

Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 2:45:11 pm PST

Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc. and one of the few Americans who’ve actually met Osama Bin Laden, is interviewed at the Atlantic Online: Terrorism’s CEO.

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opt-out links

Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 2:06:51 pm PST

This is great! A list of links to opt out of many common ad servers. (via Reductio ad Absurdum.)

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the new antisemitic myth

Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 12:45:07 pm PST

Thanks to Geoffrey Meltzner for pointing out this astonishing compilation of Arab anti-Semitic insanity, in a special report at MEMRI: A New Antisemitic Myth in the Arab Press: The September 11 Attacks Were Perpetrated by the Jews. Dozens of quotes from Arab sources illustrate their attempts to blame the 9/11 ...

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put “chilling” on ice

Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 11:48:14 am PST

I must agree with Moira Breen and Andrea Harris that it’s time to retire the word “chilling” from weblog posts about terrorism. Without making a crusade of it (ouch! sore subject!) I’ve been shunning this word already; do your part, won’t you? I do reserve the right to use it in ...

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the future of bin ladenism

Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 11:39:10 am PST

Former CIA spy Reuel Marc Gerecht, in an op-ed for the NY Times: The Future of bin Ladenism. The Bush administration would do well not to confuse the impact of America's military victory over the Taliban with that over Osama bin Laden. Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, was essentially ...

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the ship of truth

Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 11:02:42 am PST

Charles Krauthammer at the Washington Post, on Yasser Arafat’s Ship Of Truth. I strongly agree with him that the Karine-A arms shipment could not possibly have been planned without Arafat’s knowledge: The weapons were on the ship Israel intercepted en route from Iran to Gaza. The ship's captain has been ...

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more brinksmanship

Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 10:35:15 am PST

A volatile situation that is still perilously close to spiraling out of control: India “ready for nuclear war.”

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the saudi idea of root causes

Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 9:12:02 am PST

The Saudis are lecturing us again about the “factors spawning terror.” RIYADH, 11 January — Saudi Arabia urged the United States yesterday to eliminate the causes of tension in the Middle East as part of its global anti-terror campaign."If this campaign should extend to the Arab world, we would hope ...

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Thursday, January 10, 2002

the definition is in

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 6:36:47 pm PST

Well, here’s what we’ve all been waiting for: Muslim “scholars” at a conference in Makkah have defined terrorism. And sadly, there are no surprises here. MAKKAH, 11 January — Muslim scholars from around the world yesterday spelled out their definition of terrorism saying ‘it covers all acts of aggression unjustly ...

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not the first

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 2:59:00 pm PST

According to this UPI story at the Washington Times, the Karine-A was the third in a series of arms shipments to the PA—and the first two got through. U.S. intelligence and administration sources also said that Egyptian military intelligence aided the PA in arms smuggling attempts."The feeling is that the ...

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musharraf is trying

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 2:00:44 pm PST

Pervez Musharraf seems to be getting serious about cracking down on Pakistan’s Islamo-fascist terror groups.

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hanson: why muslims misjudged us

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 1:03:17 pm PST

Victor Hanson is on in this wide-ranging essay for City Journal: Why the Muslims Misjudged Us. Many Middle Easterners have performed a great media charade throughout this war. They publish newspapers and televise the news, and thereby give the appearance of being modern and Western. But their reporters and anchormen ...

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implausible denials

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 11:04:02 am PST

In the NY Times, William Safire writes about the seizure of the Palestinian arms shipment and the involvement of Iran: Arafat's Implausible Denials. Following Saddam's Persian Gulf war defeat, Arafat switched his allegiance to Iran. The ayatollahs then armed Arafat's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon and became what the U.S. State ...

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saudi trash monitor

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 10:41:53 am PST

Ken Layne has delegated Bjoern Staerk and me as the daily Saudi trash monitors, in a stirring call to turn up the heat under the House of Saud. He’s right—the Saudis are spending tens of millions of dollars on public relations campaigns to fool the West into believing they’re generous, ...

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attacks will resume

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 8:27:01 am PST

Palestine’s Islamic Jihad loons are going to keep killing Jews.

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mine all mine

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 8:13:52 am PST

According to this story at the Guardian, India’s armed forces are creating an 1,800 mile minefield, along the entire length of India’s border with Pakistan, up to three miles deep in places.

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blogspot blockage

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 7:48:14 am PST

Blogspot’s down again. And I’m still not gloating.

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freedom for iran

Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 7:44:06 am PST

At the Washington Post, Reza Pahlavi (son of the late shah of Iran) writes about the growing youth movement in Iran: Beyond Khatami. In no uncertain terms, the 50 million youth of Iran want secularism, freedom, economic opportunity and modernity. They have come to the painful realization that a prerequisite ...

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Wednesday, January 09, 2002

merriam webster bookmarklet

Wed, Jan 9, 2002 at 5:29:32 pm PST

Mac IE5.x version: Look up a definition. PC IE6 version: Look up a definition. If I did it right, this should be a Javascript bookmarklet that calls the Merriam Webster online dictionary to look up any selected word on a web page. If no word is selected, it prompts you for one. ...

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wtf?

Wed, Jan 9, 2002 at 5:15:32 pm PST

What the? I have no idea what this is all about, but we got over 3000 hits today with this page as the referrer. Huh? There sure has been a lot of strange bot/crawler activity lately. Hmm.

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new prisoners

Wed, Jan 9, 2002 at 5:04:39 pm PST

We’ve captured at least two very high-ranking Al Qaeda freakazoids in the latest haul. And according to this story, former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan and irrepressibly wacky spokesturban Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef is now spilling his guts to US intelligence.

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the culture of hatred

Wed, Jan 9, 2002 at 11:26:47 am PST

I thought I’d already seen the most depraved stuff in the Arab press; nothing could shock me any more. But today at MEMRI there’s a translation of a column in the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh, titled The Culture of Hatred, that is so over-the-top wigged-out stark raving looney that it ...

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not gloating

Wed, Jan 9, 2002 at 10:26:55 am PST

Reading about all the problems my fellow Anti-Idiotarians are having with Blogger and Blogspot, I’m trying really hard (and succeeding, I think!) to avoid gloating about my blazing fast, utterly reliable, custom-built PHP content management system. I’m so proud of myself for not gloating.

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disturbing search requests

Wed, Jan 9, 2002 at 10:21:30 am PST

Our latest bizarre search requests: “fart inside mouth stories” (this one came from a coprophiliac in Germany) and “barefoot turd.”

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Opera 5

Wed, Jan 9, 2002 at 9:58:09 am PST

Version 5 of the Opera browser for Mac OS 9 and X has been released. It is generating less than glowing reviews on the Versiontracker page linked above for it's poor css implementation and standards support.

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more palestinian violence

Wed, Jan 9, 2002 at 8:47:04 am PST

Palestinian gunmen kill four Israeli soldiers, ending the so-called “lull” in the violence. Hamas has claimed responsibility in a statement that said they were retaliating for Israel’s seizure of the Palestinian arms shipment. the Qassam brigades, in their statement, said they had decided to retaliate for Israeli incursions, the killings ...

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it all points to arafat

Wed, Jan 9, 2002 at 8:19:18 am PST

At the Washington Post, Michael Kelly says: It All Points to Arafat. Of course it does. Arafat has been getting away with this kind of stuff for so long that he failed to notice the change in the weather; he thought he could carry on his murderous business as usual even ...

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Tuesday, January 08, 2002

angered by stereotypes

Tue, Jan 8, 2002 at 4:54:59 pm PST

The slippery slope of racial profiling can lead to what this poor man is experiencing.

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what the captain said

Tue, Jan 8, 2002 at 3:15:39 pm PST

The National Review has published the full statement of the captain of Flight 363, about the reasons for his decision to boot Secret Service agent Walid Shatter off the plane: Security Scuffle. Very interesting stuff, backed up by another statement from an American Airlines employee. I left my seat to ...

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more on el fadl

Tue, Jan 8, 2002 at 2:35:51 pm PST

I’ve written before about UCLA law professor Khaled Abou El Fadl; today the National Review has a good piece about him: Inside Islam. Abou El Fadl doesn't have much respect for leading Muslim-American advocacy groups, who in his view shy away from addressing plainly and directly things they fear will ...

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bombarded by rhetoric

Tue, Jan 8, 2002 at 2:23:20 pm PST

At the National Post, another great Mark Steyn column: Bombarded by brutal rhetoric. Here's what would have happened had the aid agencies got their way and pressured the U.S. into a bombing pause: many more Afghans would have starved to death, the Taliban would have been secured in power at ...

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bush’s gaffe

Tue, Jan 8, 2002 at 12:43:13 pm PST

The Times of India on how our President’s latest verbal pratfall is going over in the subcontinent: Dubya shoots from the lip, again. WASHINGTON: President Bush dropped one of his trademark clangers on Monday, referring to Pakistanis as "Pakis", a term that is considered an ethnic slur, especially in Britain. ...

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how is tom doing?

Tue, Jan 8, 2002 at 10:11:02 am PST

New poll today: How satisfied are you with what Tom Ridge is doing as head of Homeland Security?

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hiding from spambots

Tue, Jan 8, 2002 at 9:05:04 am PST

I just realized this morning that I hadn’t visited Jeffrey Zeldman’s site for a few days; what do I find there but a discussion of encoding email addresses to fool “spambots”—those heinous little tools of Satan that crawl the web 24/7 looking for email addresses, so their demonic owners can ...

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the next phase

Tue, Jan 8, 2002 at 8:06:47 am PST

A story in Hong Kong’s Asia Times suggests that things are about to get interesting: Afghanistan enters new phase of warfare. KARACHI - The United States and its opponents are preparing for a new phase of combat in Afghanistan, with information suggesting that after March a renewed anti-US struggle is ...

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Monday, January 07, 2002

lgf artmail released!

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 6:22:34 pm PST

If you run a weblog with Greymatter, you’ll be interested in this! Now your weblog can have an “Email This Article” feature, just like you see here and on major sites like the New York Times and the Washington Post. I’m releasing my new PHP script that lets your visitors email ...

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warning shot

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 5:48:55 pm PST

God fires a warning shot across our bow.

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blogspot bogged down

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 3:41:14 pm PST

Looks like Blogspot is down again, which means that just about all of the Anti-Idiotarians are inaccessible. This is becoming a daily occurrence. I’m starting to suspect a vast Idiotarian conspiracy.

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from the bottom of my heart

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 3:12:17 pm PST

In another interesting bit at MEMRI today, Israeli leftist author A.B. Yehoshua is quoted in the Arab-Israeli newspaper Kul Al-Arab, “I Hate Arafat From the Bottom of My Heart.” Kul Al-Arab: "Do you believe that the Israeli left still exists?"Yehoshua: "There is no doubt that the Israeli left suffered a ...

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bitter enemy

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 2:34:47 pm PST

Arafat gets a promotion, from “irrelevant” to “bitter enemy.”

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bellicose saudis

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 1:30:27 pm PST

More twisted Arab ranting at MEMRI today. From an editorial in the Al-Jazeera daily: "In this article I will respond to those who launched this attack using [quotations from] the curricula in the Western schools which show that the West itself trains terrorists who disseminate corruption and oppression on the ...

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on security

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 11:46:21 am PST

Almost four months after, it’s very disturbing that a suicidal 15-year old with a Bin Laden fixation is able to fly a plane into a building. What if it were a cropduster, loaded up with smallpox or anthrax or sarin gas? There’s a good discussion going on among the Anti-Idiotarians about ...

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the street-fightin’ prof

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 9:53:56 am PST

Palestinian apologist Professor Edward Said (who is also an expert in ballistics) has a new essay titled “Is Israel more secure now?” in which he beats a very familiar drum; Israel is an occupier and an oppressor, they have to deal with Arafat, their actions are making them less secure, ...

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futbols petit vert

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 8:57:41 am PST

Wow! One of our very favorite writers, James Lileks has added us to the short list of blogs on his new Screed page; what an honor! Welcome to our new visitors! (At first I thought he was linking to the BizarroWorld French version of LGF—but the URL’s ours.) And there’s a ...

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advance warning?

Mon, Jan 7, 2002 at 8:34:34 am PST

Did Walid Arkeh, a Jordanian national in jail in Florida, tell the FBI about the impending attacks in August? A jailed Seminole County man who had served time in a British prison with three suspected associates of Osama bin Laden claims the FBI ignored his warnings in August that terrorist ...

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Sunday, January 06, 2002

new iMac?

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 11:21:03 pm PST

TIME canada.com has pictures and an article about the new iMac, a very cool looking new computer that will (I presume) be officially announced tomorrow in Steve Jobs' keynote address at the Macworld SF Expo. Update: The picture has been pulled, but the story is still available here Update II: ...

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taliban?

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 7:02:45 pm PST

Taliban?

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similar attacks

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 5:16:21 pm PST

According to this SF Chronicle story, US and British officials are concerned that Richard Reid’s bombing attempt may have been a trial run for a much bigger, coordinated attack. Am I ever glad that I’m not in a touring band right now.

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married to al qaeda

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 1:58:36 pm PST

The fascinating story of April Brightsky Ray, an American Muslim woman whose husband Wadih El-Hage was Osama Bin Laden’s personal secretary and is now serving a life sentence for taking part in the 1998 bombings of two American Embassies in East Africa. (Note to anti-profilers: is this woman throwing off enough ...

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da cat

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 11:24:03 am PST

For those of us who grew up in the ocean, it is sad to see that Miki Dora has passed away. One of the first surfboards I ever owned was a huge 9' long "Cat" board shaped by Miki. It seemed even larger to me because I was 10 years ...

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unilateralism

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 11:24:02 am PST

Steven Den Beste has a great essay today on the downfall of multilateralism. Go now and read of it.

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this oughtta be good

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 11:15:21 am PST

I’m sure this is really going to help: Scholars urged to define terrorism. Scholars from around the world who began a six-day conference in the holy city of Makkah yesterday were urged to work out a clear definition of terrorism to help ward off a malicious smear campaign against Islam ...

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maher on king

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 10:59:16 am PST

Geoff Meltzner emailed us about Larry King’s interview with Bill Maher. Since I was one of those offended by Maher’s boorish remark about lobbing cruise missiles from a distance, it’s only fair to give him his propers now, because he sounds eminently sensible in this interview. (By which I mean ...

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our true enemy

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 9:53:36 am PST

Daniel Pipes says we should aim the war on terror at militant Islam. Islam itself--the centuries-old faith--is not the issue but one extremist variant of it is. Militant Islam derives from Islam but is a misanthropic, misogynist, triumphalist, millennarian, anti-modern, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, terroristic, jihadistic and suicidal version of it.Fortunately, it ...

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rancid humor

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 9:24:38 am PST

Wasn’t Terry Jones funny in Monty Python? Or was I hallucinating those brilliant sketches and movies? (Not impossible...) Because now his humor has gone as rancid as unrefrigerated mayonnaise. In this column he waxes snarky about the bags that were placed over the heads of some Al Qaeda prisoners. I spotted ...

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a look back

Sun, Jan 6, 2002 at 2:16:07 am PST

James Lileks looks back at the year 2002. I knew there had to be a reason why I woke up in the middle of the night; now I can go back to sleep. Good night.

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Saturday, January 05, 2002

anti-idiotarian bloggers

Sat, Jan 5, 2002 at 5:21:49 pm PST

Glenn Reynolds (who seems to be having an off day today, with only 14 posts so far) answers the question “Where are all the non-libertarian bloggers?” What bloggers are more than anything, I think, is anti-idiot. That makes life tough for Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, and the Revs. Falwell, Robertson, ...

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the september 11 ledger

Sat, Jan 5, 2002 at 3:20:50 pm PST

Jason Soon brought our attention to this excellent, insightful essay by Barry Rubin at Australia’s The Review: The September 11 Ledger, subtitled The truth about US Mid-East policy. Rubin defends US Middle Eastern and Arab policies, with numerous examples and lucid writing. One of the most fascinating aspects of the ...

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effects of sanctions on iraq

Sat, Jan 5, 2002 at 1:39:06 pm PST

Matt Welch has put together a fantastic compilation of links for investigating the effects of sanctions on Iraq, at the Online Journalism Review. Matt must have filed this one from the land of the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys.” (via Thomas Nephew.)

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the jihad’s over

Sat, Jan 5, 2002 at 1:14:06 pm PST

An op-ed in the Indian Express looks at the difficulties ahead for Gen. Musharraf as he tries to dismantle Pakistan’s jihadi regime—the Islamo-fascist elements in Pakistan’s ISI army intelligence agency.

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belaboring the obvious

Sat, Jan 5, 2002 at 10:14:01 am PST

Israeli security officials, according to the Jerusalem Post, are telling Anthony Zinni that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are using the reduction in violence as a chance to regroup and rearm for the next wave.

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sheikh yerbouti

Sat, Jan 5, 2002 at 9:04:40 am PST

Those wacky, irrepressible Saudi imams are at it again! Today’s Arab News delivers a nice shot of anti-Americanism as straight news, reporting on a laff-a-minute Friday night sermon: Makkah imam slams Western arrogance. The imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah yesterday slammed the Western arrogance saying that it thrives ...

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Friday, January 04, 2002

separated at birth?

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 6:22:48 pm PST

Reid Stott unearths another uncanny resemblance. Is it possible this whole “war on terror” thing is a conspiracy among Geraldo Rivera, Jacques Chirac, and Richard Starkey? Go ahead. Prove me wrong.

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made in iran

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 12:44:24 pm PST

And by the way, most of the weapons on that Palestinian ship were made in Iran.

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busted

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 12:27:31 pm PST

The Palestinian Authority, caught red-handed smuggling a huge shipment of weapons, now resort to their usual tactics of blustery denial and conspiracy theories. According to Israeli authorities the ship had been bought by the Palestinian Authority, was skippered and partly staffed by officers of the Palestinian naval police, and senior ...

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show trial

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 11:17:45 am PST

A criminal trial is too good for the likes of Zacarias Moussaoui, who by any definition of the words has to be considered a spy and a saboteur. But he will now be afforded all the rights and privileges of a US citizen, in a trial that has a good ...

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how secret is this?

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 10:20:11 am PST

A few more thoughts on the Arab American Secret Service agent who got booted off an American Airlines flight on Christmas day: The pilot should receive a commendation. The tendency to subject every decision made by people under pressure to a microscopic examination of their motives is wrong. If we’re going ...

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moussaoui wants TV

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 10:00:28 am PST

Here we go again. Zacarias Moussaoui wants his trial televised. I don’t really need to bring up O. J. Simpson, do I? I just wonder why Moussaoui wasn’t brought before a military tribunal, instead of being given the opportunity to turn this into a world-wide circus.

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the saudi threat

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 9:32:05 am PST

A great piece at OpinionJournal by Ralph Peters: The Saudi Threat. The poor, put-upon House of Saud thinks the (Zionist-controlled) US media is being too hard on them. This essay isn’t going to make them feel any better. Since Sept. 11, the Saudis have mounted a well-funded campaign to convince ...

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god and mammon

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 9:04:24 am PST

A new essay by Daniel Pipes shatters many of the myths about the “root causes” of terrorism: God and Mammon: Does Poverty Cause Militant Islam? The events of September 11 have intensified a long-standing debate: What causes Muslims to turn to militant Islam? Some analysts have noted the poverty ...

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khaled abou el fadl

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 8:57:34 am PST

A couple of days ago I linked to an LA Times article about Khaled Abou El Fadl, a UCLA law professor who is one of the few Muslim scholars speaking out for moderation and tolerance. In a short interview on the radio this morning, El Fadl was asked why more ...

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reorientation

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 8:12:10 am PST

The AP reports that US mediator Anthony Zinni will focus mainly on pressuring Yasser Arafat to continue dismantling Palestinian terror groups, in a short visit. U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni will concentrate on trying to persuade Yasser Arafat to dismantle terrorist cells on the West Bank and in Gaza in his ...

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the saudi connection

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 8:03:29 am PST

An article at Ha'aretz has more information about the Hamas plot to build long-range rockets with Saudi financing.

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weapons intercepted

Fri, Jan 4, 2002 at 7:53:42 am PST

Israeli air force and navy units boarded a Palestinian freighter in the Red Sea yesterday and discovered 50 tons of offensive weapons headed for the Palestinian Authority. The weapons were packaged in waterproof containers, to be dropped overboard and picked up by smaller craft.

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Thursday, January 03, 2002

profiling or precaution?

Thu, Jan 3, 2002 at 5:40:32 pm PST

When Wallid Shatter, an Arab American Secret Service agent, was ordered off the plane by the captain of American Airlines Flight 363, CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) wasted no time lodging a complaint with the airline, accusing AA of racist profiling and demanding an apology. But there’s much ...

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sullivan redesigns

Thu, Jan 3, 2002 at 3:00:06 pm PST

What a joy to be able to easily link to individual entries on Andrew Sullivan’s newly redesigned site. Much better.

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rafsanjani’s nuclear threats

Thu, Jan 3, 2002 at 2:37:25 pm PST

Former Iranian “president” Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in a sermon at Tehran University on December 14, said that if the Islamic world ever obtains nuclear weapons Israel will cease to exist. This has been reported elsewhere, but MEMRI has more extensive translations of Rafsanjani’s disgustingly anti-Semitic sermon. Rafsanjani stated that ...

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a most lovely rant

Thu, Jan 3, 2002 at 2:24:51 pm PST

A well-crafted Lileks rant is a thing of sheer beauty. There are some people whose hackles prick up and twitch if you say the West is culturally superior to the Arab world. This usually brings one of two responses:1. “Well, that’s what you say, you live here.” As if freedom ...

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musharraf as good as gone

Thu, Jan 3, 2002 at 2:05:56 pm PST

Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy says General Musharraf is as good as gone. Confronting India to liberate the Muslims of the divided state of Kashmir is a basic ethos of the Pakistani army. Before Sept. 11, supporting the Taliban had ensured that Pakistani rather than ...

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saudis fund hamas rockets

Thu, Jan 3, 2002 at 12:59:04 pm PST

The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel’s Shin Bet security agency has thwarted a plot by Hamas to produce modified Katyusha rockets, an adaptation of a North Korean design. The rockets can carry 22 pounds of TNT, and travel for about 6 miles; potentially a very devastating weapon. The plot was uncovered ...

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zinni the yoyo

Thu, Jan 3, 2002 at 8:34:02 am PST

Zinni is headed back to Israel. Let’s hope his presence doesn’t set off another wave of suicide bombings, or an attempt on his life. A U.S.-drafted truce deal calls for Israel to stay out of Palestinian-controlled areas and lift travel restrictions on Palestinians. A truce? Who is going to sign ...

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Wednesday, January 02, 2002

mandela does an about face

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 8:19:08 pm PST

Wow. I don’t know what to say about this; Nelson Mandela has repudiated his condemnation of Osama Bin Laden in a surprising about-face, possibly in response to Muslim pressure. How disappointing.

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fighting big oil

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 6:35:09 pm PST

Have you noticed that gasoline is getting cheap? Well, so has OPEC, and while the world was looking the other way, they decided last week to cut oil production in order to drive prices back up. Rich Lowry writes about a hard-headed pragmatic reason for toppling Saddam Hussein: Fighting Big ...

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escape for jihad’s sake

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 5:36:15 pm PST

In a book described as his “last will,” Osama Bin Laden’s right hand freak Ayman al Zawahiri tells Al Qaeda fighters to escape for jihad’s sake. The treatise, filling 100 pages, is perhaps the most clear window yet into the thinking of al Qaeda's leaders as they faced U.S. bombs ...

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coincidence?

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 5:02:08 pm PST

Ringo StarrYasser ArafatSeparated at birth?

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more found

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 3:52:19 pm PST

On New Year’s Day, more than three months after we were attacked, 13 more bodies were found as recovery workers get close to a lobby area where many people were trapped on the morning of September 11. I hope their families can now have some peace. And I hope we never forget. ...

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battling the puritans

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 3:40:35 pm PST

Mary Setterholm wrote to alert us about a good piece in the LA Times (for a change) about a UCLA law professor who grew up as a fanatic Muslim in Kuwait, and now battles the intolerant puritans of Islam. UCLA law professor Khaled Abou El Fadl remembers beating up other ...

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for the record

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 3:20:55 pm PST

I just heard that Norm Mineta soundbite from 60 Minutes on the Larry Elder show. For the record (both mine and Mark’s), Mineta was asked about a “70-year old white woman from Vero Beach, Florida” and a “young Muslim from Jersey City,” or a “group of Middle Eastern men talking ...

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a ruff interview

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 2:17:57 pm PST

A friend of Jonah Goldberg interviews Pakistani President-For-Life Pervez Musharraf.

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best of the post

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 1:56:04 pm PST

A splendid photographic slideshow at the Washington Post showcases some of their best images from 2001.

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saudi justice

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 1:36:34 pm PST

Lest we forget where the Taliban got their, er, peculiar concept of justice, yesterday our bloodthirsty Wahhabi “allies” the Saudis used swords to hack off the heads of three men for the capital crime of homosexuality.

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enron stockholders

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 1:12:52 pm PST

Joshua Micah Marshall has made a list of all the Bush administration appointees who owned stock in Enron, commenting: Now it's important to keep in mind that most of these folks listed below just owned stock in the company, which probably only means they got suckered and cleaned out by ...

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changes

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 12:49:03 pm PST

I’ve been cleaning things up a bit around here and adding some great new weblogs to the list, like: Muslim Pundit, The Edge Of England's Sword, Andrea Harris, Kathy Kinsley, and William Quick.

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interview with the dead

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 12:28:51 pm PST

Last week the Christian Science Monitor published an interview with Qari Ahmadullah, the now-deceased Taliban leader, in which he claimed he was going to be in charge of “new guerilla operations.” Guess again, Taliboy.

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the coffee issue

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 11:19:19 am PST

James Lileks started it, with a rant about some nimrod who ground his hazelnut-flavored coffee in the “Unflavored Only” grinder. Then Big Boss Jeff Jarvis laid down the law about flavored coffee in the workplace. Well, thanks to the wondrous Internet, I’ve discovered a suitable punishment for hazelnut abusers. Of course, such ...

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how unlikely is it?

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 10:51:48 am PST

Steven says he’s becoming convinced that Al Qaeda doesn’t have anything else like 9/11 waiting in the wings, since nothing happened in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. While I share his relief at that, I can’t share his belief that Al Qaeda blew their whole arsenal on 9/11. And I ...

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got one

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 9:54:12 am PST

Taliban militia intelligence chief Qari Ahmadullah has been confirmed killed in the bombing, along with several associates. Great news. Every time we get one of these guys, the message is reinforced: attack the US, and you’re going to die.

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threat against the taj mahal

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 9:44:44 am PST

If there’s one thing the Islamists are good at, it’s destroying beautiful things. Now the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba is threatening to blow up the Taj Mahal.

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indo-pak nuclear conflict unlikely

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 9:26:22 am PST

The Times of India has a piece arguing that nuclear war between India and Pakistan is unlikely. I’d like to feel reassured, but Pakistan’s intelligence agency (ISI) really worries me; it’s basically a fifth column Islamist organization within the Pakistani government, and a dangerously destabilizing force.

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friedman: let’s roll

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 8:24:54 am PST

Thomas Friedman wants Dubya to apply the leadership and resolve he’s shown in the war to the domestic front, and wean the US away from the Middle Eastern oil teat: Let’s Roll. I don't want to be dependent on Mideast oil anymore. Countries in that region haven't had a good ...

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moussaoui has no plea

Wed, Jan 2, 2002 at 8:14:35 am PST

Zacarias Moussaoui, the Algerian suspected of being part of the 9/11 conspiracy, has pleaded innocent...sort of. "In the name of Allah, I do not have anything to plead. I enter no plea. Thank you very much," Moussaoui told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema after walking to the courtroom lectern.Brinkema said ...

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Tuesday, January 01, 2002

intelligence gathering

Tue, Jan 1, 2002 at 8:28:23 pm PST

US Marines have completed a search of a massive walled compound in the Helmand province, believed to have been used by Mullah Omar. (They were not, as the press reported, on a mission to capture Omar.) Expect to hear more revelations of Al Qaeda depravity soon.

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unholy alliance

Tue, Jan 1, 2002 at 3:35:33 pm PST

Saying they were “greatly concerned” at the latest LGF Poll results, Geraldo Rivera and Jacques Chirac are seen here after signing an historic mutual defense agreement.

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pakistan wants evidence

Tue, Jan 1, 2002 at 1:48:55 pm PST

Sounding very much like the Taliban did when they responded to US demands to turn over Bin Laden, Pakistan wants evidence before arresting the 20 Islamist militants India says were behind the attack on its parliament.

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evil is alive

Tue, Jan 1, 2002 at 12:54:55 pm PST

Is Dubya really exaggerating when he calls Bin Laden and his followers “evildoers?” He sure gets mocked enough for it. But is there a better word for this? (Sunday Times, free registration required.) The video begins innocently enough: a wildlife documentary presented by Sir David Attenborough shows him raving about rare ...

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ahmed rashid

Tue, Jan 1, 2002 at 12:40:17 pm PST

Who says Ted Rall is worthless? Reading one of his columns is like smashing your finger repeatedly with a hammer—it feels so good when you stop—but buried in his latest is a reference to Ahmed Rashid, whose book Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia I have not ...

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terror watch, 1944

Tue, Jan 1, 2002 at 12:09:38 pm PST

At the Washington Post, Tom Wheeler writes about the V2 bombardment of London in 1944, and Churchill’s response: Terror Watch, 1944. Bringing his unquenchable desire for action to the matter, yet confronted by something outside his experience, Churchill flew off in multiple directions, some of which did not reflect his ...

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2002

Tue, Jan 1, 2002 at 7:56:57 am PST

Happy Palindromic New Year! Ugh. I probably shouldn’t have had that last glass of wine. Some freshly ground Trader Joe’s Bay Blend to the rescue!

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