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LGF Archives: December 2001

Monday, December 31, 2001

get him!

Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 5:36:07 pm PST

We may be closing in on Mullah Omar.

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loose lips

Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 5:00:00 pm PST

Claire Berlinski seems to be trying to start a blog buzz around her novel Loose Lips, about a young woman training to be a CIA spy; I got an email from her too. Today I finally made time to read the first chapter (available online for free), and hey! It’s ...

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worst man of the year

Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 2:49:51 pm PST

In a pan-Arab poll published on Monday by Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper, Ariel Sharon was voted the worst man of the year. The top four: Ariel Sharon: 56% George Bush: 29% Osama Bin Laden: 11% Mullah Omar: 3% (via Fredrik Norman.)

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Noam's Folly

Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 12:21:09 pm PST

Somehow I missed the earthshaking news that Noam Chomsky’s new book about the September 11 attacks was released in October. Here’s a withering review at the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Jason Soon). In this volume, which went to press Oct. 15, he rails at America’s supposed demand that Pakistan cut off ...

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the necessity of fear

Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 10:47:27 am PST

Former CIA spy Reuel Marc Gerecht wrote a piece for the July/August issue of the Atlantic titled The Counterterrorist Myth, explaining why the CIA was powerless to do anything about Osama Bin Laden. A former senior Near East Division operative says, "The CIA probably doesn't have a single truly qualified ...

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back from the brink?

Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 9:45:01 am PST

An encouraging development: Pakistan has arrested Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba organization blamed for the attack on Indian Parliament. India called the arrest “a step forward.” I just saw a report on Fox News as well, that India and Pakistan have agreed to a face-to-face meeting.

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nuclear trash talk

Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 8:44:39 am PST

This is not exactly the best attitude for India to have: We will win nuclear war, says India.

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files of al qaeda

Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 8:30:11 am PST

A desktop computer found in an Al Qaeda building is proving to be a goldmine of information. Used by Mohammed Atef and Ayman al Zawahri, the computer holds a detailed record of Al Qaeda dealings, including their plans for chemical and biological weapons. One of the finds: the letter written ...

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Sunday, December 30, 2001

what el al does

Sun, Dec 30, 2001 at 6:41:03 pm PST

At Business 2.0, a short but informative article on the security techniques used by Israel’s El Al Airlines: The El Al Approach. Here's the section about their profiling methods: El Al unabashedly "profiles" its passengers. Security agents classify travelers by race, nationality, gender, and so on, and ask each a ...

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barrel scraping

Sun, Dec 30, 2001 at 1:45:48 pm PST

One of the problems with societies that don’t value logic and the scientific method is that they tend to be unable to distinguish credible information from the ravings of lunatics. Case in point: today the Arab News has an article by Michael Collins Piper trying to deny that the 9/11 ...

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photos of flight 63

Sun, Dec 30, 2001 at 9:41:10 am PST

The NY Times has obtained photographs of the action on Flight 63, taken by a passenger sitting a few rows back from Richard Reid.

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naked air

Sun, Dec 30, 2001 at 8:50:45 am PST

Jeff may have been the first warblogger to write about flying naked, but this little meme has been floating around in the national subconscious for a while. Reader Louis Nick III emailed to tell us it was mentioned in this newsgroup post on September 12. A search for “fly naked” on ...

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Saturday, December 29, 2001

whassup, avantgo?

Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 7:25:23 pm PST

Like Steven, we’ve been getting seriously thrashed by a spider/bot thingy that seems to be from AvantGo. We’ve had thousands of hits today from this stupid thing; it’s wasting our bandwidth and clogging up our server logs by reloading the weblog page over and over. I finally got fed up ...

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mark steyn replies

Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 4:18:57 pm PST

Dear Charles, I very much enjoy your site and am always happy if something I write attracts your attention. You blog guys are one of the great innovations of this war, and render even more mystifying the strange determination of The NY Times, Boston Globe, LA Times et al to keep ...

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demonstrative foreigners

Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 3:16:27 pm PST

An “international solidarity movement” consisting of British, French, and Italian students has been conducting “non-violent” demonstrations in Jerusalem, on behalf of Palestinian students who have been barred from Bir Zeit University. On Saturday, this multinational group of EuroGandhis peacefully set fire to an empty army post near Ramallah, and non-violently ...

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roll credits

Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 10:20:47 am PST

Jeff Jarvis can’t seem to buy credit for his Fly Naked initiative. First, Thomas Friedman claimed the idea as his own in the New York Times. Now, in a new column for the National Post that touches on some of the same issues we’ve been discussing here recently, Mark Steyn ...

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this is difficult?

Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 9:17:00 am PST

This story at the LA Times reveals the politically correct agenda that mars so much of their reporting: Terrorists Are Difficult to Profile. The article itself makes a very good case for exactly the opposite conclusion. For instance: "What do you need, a neon sign not to let him on ...

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Friday, December 28, 2001

al qaeda’s plans

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 7:24:05 pm PST

Another very disturbing report on discoveries in Afghanistan about Al Qaeda’s plans for weapons of mass destruction: Scientists confirm bin Laden weapons tests. The breadth and detail of al-Qaeda’s aspirations have taken the security services by surprise. At one point the documents discuss creating an explosion using 500kg of TNT ...

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about al jazeera

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 5:05:25 pm PST

At the OpinionJournal (free registration required), a good editorial looks at the true agenda of Al Jazeera TV: Bin Laden's Private TV Channel. The secret of al Jazeera's undoubted success, however, lies not in its craven approach to Arab leaders, but elsewhere. It tells Arabs what they already think the ...

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profiling works

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 3:09:59 pm PST

My little ditty about profiling brought a storm of comments, pro and con. I can see that you folks have strong feelings about this. So do I, and I see the issue in very simple terms. We’re under attack, at war with enemies who will stop at nothing and don’t care ...

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new mac browsers

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 1:53:06 pm PST

At A List Apart, Tantek Çelik (lead developer for IE5’s Tasman presentation engine) and Håkon Lie (CTO for Opera Software) respond to Zeldman’s comments about the latest crop of browsers for the Macintosh. Great new feature in IE 5.1: you can type the first few letters of a hyperlink to ...

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saudi anti-semitism in full flower

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 1:20:12 pm PST

The prevalence of virulent anti-Semitism in the Arab world is deeply troubling. The horrible toll this poisonous philosophy exacts from both proponents and victims should have been demonstrated conclusively by the Second World War; and yet, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are taking root in every dark corner of the Arab street. ...

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your father’s europe

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 11:52:51 am PST

A scathing piece by Victor Hanson examines European hostility toward the US, and the disaster-in-the-making called the European Union: It Really Is Your Father’s Europe. Perhaps it is the rather small confines of Europe, the pressures on its resources, its history of internecine war — who really knows? — that ...

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fallows and mead

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 11:32:22 am PST

The Atlantic’s James Fallows has been carrying on a fascinating dialog with Walter Russell Mead, the author of Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World. The last exchange is now online, and Mead applies the ideas in his book (written before 9/11) to the events since. ...

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hit me baby one more time

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 10:44:11 am PST

Tim Blair does an absolutely hilarious take-apart of Robert “Hit Me” Fisk’s latest noxious emission. In this one, Fisk reveals that attacking American civilians was all his idea: On 20 March, 1997, I would meet him [Osama Bin Laden] again. Although only 41 at the time, his ruggedly groomed beard had ...

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geraldo != journalist

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 10:20:05 am PST

Joanne Jacobs says Geraldo Rivera’s pants are on fire. And according to our poll results, as soon as we’re finished with France, it’s clobberin’ time for Jerry Rivers.

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the travels of “richard”

Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 9:35:49 am PST

Richard Reid was a remarkably well-travelled Islamic petty thief; he visited 7 countries in the months before his attempt at mass murder, including Egypt, Pakistan, and possibly Afghanistan. This article in the Times also reveals that French authorities were even more inept than I thought—Reid had actually “crudely ripped” pages ...

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Thursday, December 27, 2001

battle of two cultures

Thu, Dec 27, 2001 at 2:42:34 pm PST

At the Spectator, a great piece by Mark Steyn about anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism in Europe: War between America and Europe. American sympathy for Israel and European support for the Arabs are essentially cultural statements, unrelated to the finer points of the ‘Palestinian question’. America supports Israel not because it’s Jewish ...

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france gets defensive

Thu, Dec 27, 2001 at 2:00:56 pm PST

Bomb Attempt Has Officials in France on Defensive. PARIS, Dec. 26 — The failure of the French police to realize that a man they were questioning was a human bomb and their attempts to explain how he made it through security onto a flight to Miami turned into finger-pointing and ...

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shoe bomber poll

Thu, Dec 27, 2001 at 1:16:06 pm PST

New poll: Do you believe the shoe bomber is connected to Al Qaeda?

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petn

Thu, Dec 27, 2001 at 1:01:49 pm PST

CNN reports that Richard Reid had 10 ounces of PETN packed into each athletic shoe, and that the devices were “very, very sophisticated.” Searching for information about PETN, I came across a Newsday article from 1996 about the discovery of a small amount of PETN on a passenger seat in the ...

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Wednesday, December 26, 2001

bad news for blogger

Wed, Dec 26, 2001 at 7:19:26 pm PST

Steven Den Beste passes on a message from Evan Williams. Blogger was hacked, big time. Yes, it’s Christmas, a lousy time for something like this to happen, but I wish Evan had shared more details about exactly which information was compromised.

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osama tv

Wed, Dec 26, 2001 at 5:23:30 pm PST

Here’s an excerpt of Crazy Sammy’s latest release, direct to video. He’s not looking too well in this one. Gaunt, pale, and with a lot of new grey in his beard. And the craziness is starting to show; his statements are even more self-contradictory than usual, and his eyes dart around ...

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new bin laden tape?

Wed, Dec 26, 2001 at 1:06:11 pm PST

I just heard a report on the radio that Al Jazeera is going to show a new videotape of Osama Bin Laden. They haven’t said when the tape was made.

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do the french spoil terrorists?

Wed, Dec 26, 2001 at 9:20:20 am PST

OK. I was willing to give the French the benefit of the doubt. But reading about their insanely deferential treatment of Richard Reid, I’m starting to think a declaration of war shouldn’t be out of the question. He was actually stopped and interrogated the day before, because of his strange attitude ...

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the al qaeda connection

Wed, Dec 26, 2001 at 8:19:37 am PST

MSNBC reports that Afghan prisoners recognize Richard Reid from Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. This article also quotes an investigator saying the shoe bombs were “alarmingly sophisticated.”

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part of the islamic terror network

Wed, Dec 26, 2001 at 7:21:46 am PST

New information on the shoe bomber, Richard Reid: this UPI story draws links to the Al Qaeda network. Reid attended the same mosque as Zacarias Moussaoui. The chairman of that mosque says there may be as many as 100 deluded freaks ready to become suicide bombers.

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Tuesday, December 25, 2001

hunger in afghanistan

Tue, Dec 25, 2001 at 6:57:24 pm PST

Kenneth Goldstein follows up on the story I used as an excuse to bash the Noamster, that says no hunger-related deaths are expected in central Afghanistan this year. Turns out this story is from an Iranian source, so it’s (to say the least) somewhat questionable. However, as Kenneth discovered, the news ...

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the big 2K

Tue, Dec 25, 2001 at 4:14:34 pm PST

Nothing gives an event an aura of specialness like a big round number with lots of zeros. So I’m nearly overcome with joy on this momentous occasion to announce that this is LGF entry number:2000!Our plan for world domination is on track.

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blogger hacked?

Tue, Dec 25, 2001 at 3:48:56 pm PST

Interesting ... a little while ago Glenn Reynolds reported that someone had hacked into his weblog, and left a message. The message was still there when I visited. Now, all the sites in our warblog list that are hosted by blogspot are either very slow, or inaccessible. Something is afoot.

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for want of a lighter

Tue, Dec 25, 2001 at 2:19:28 pm PST

What do you know? His name really is Richard Reid. And the exploding shoes were no joke. The Boston Globe quoted an unnamed Massachusetts state official as saying preliminary examination of Reid's black suede athletic shoes revealed four to five ounces of explosive packed into each one."Because of the complexity ...

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history of terrorism, part 1

Tue, Dec 25, 2001 at 1:19:39 pm PST

I swore I wasn’t going to post much today. “Why then,” you ask, “did you visit Arab News? Did you think you were going to find more evidence of moderation, Westernboy? Huh? Didja? Huh?” Hey, back off there, Unspecified Omniscient (Possibly Arabic) Voice in My Head. But OK, I guess you’re ...

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india and pakistan

Tue, Dec 25, 2001 at 11:21:51 am PST

As troops mass along the India/Pakistan border, the possibility of nuclear war looms. Admittedly not in the “Christmas spirit” to mention it, but this is very troubling news.

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a warblog christmas

Tue, Dec 25, 2001 at 7:12:06 am PST

On this Christmas morning of the year when the world changed, I’d like to thank the thoughtful, intelligent, cantankerous people who’ve enriched my life immeasurably since September 11, people like Matt Welch, Ken Layne, Jeff Jarvis, Glenn Reynolds, Steven Den Beste, Andrew Hofer, that big lunk Reid Stott, Thomas Nephew, ...

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Monday, December 24, 2001

gifts

Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 6:01:57 pm PST

Also, I wanted to mention that I received a couple of packages from Amazon.com today—gifts from my wishlist! I’m waiting until tomorrow to open them, and until then I’ll continue to pretend they were delivered by an obese, bearded man with supernatural powers, clad in a strange red and white ...

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that christmas thing

Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 5:14:29 pm PST

I’ve been sitting here for five minutes trying to think of a “meaningful” way to wish all our readers a happy and safe holiday season. Finally I decided to just say it. And now, in the spirit of the season, I give you: CATS AND DOGS LIVING TOGETHER

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arab cartoons

Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 11:18:51 am PST

There are lots of ugly sentiments in the “editorial cartoons” of the Arab News, but this one takes the prize. It seems as if they’re so steeped in anti-Semitism they don’t even notice it any more, and don’t see anything wrong with putting it out there in front of the ...

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follow the trail

Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 11:08:25 am PST

Does the anthrax trail lead to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia?

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wysiwyg

Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 11:02:34 am PST

What you see is what you get. The true face of Yasser Arafat. (Move over the magnifying glass icons to zoom in and out.)

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rare signs indeed

Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 10:43:16 am PST

An op/ed at the good old Arab News about signs of hope in the Middle East contains this odd perspective: If it can dare be said after so many breakdowns, for the first time in months there is a small glimmer of hope spotted in the Middle East conflict. Israeli ...

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al qaeda uranium

Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 8:07:49 am PST

Steven Den Beste (via one of his visitors) points out that U-238 is relatively harmless, and that if Al Qaeda intended to try to build a dirty bomb with it, they were a bunch of idiots. I don’t debate the last point. But what I find very troubling about the discovery ...

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battle at the hospital

Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 7:30:19 am PST

Remember that hospital in Kandahar where a gang of wounded Al Qaeda soldiers were threatening to blow themselves up? Well, looks like their little shtick is starting to get old; a gunfight broke out when an attempt to trick them into leaving the hospital failed. I’m sorry. I know it’s a ...

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Sunday, December 23, 2001

uranium found

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 8:01:19 pm PST

No doubt about it now; Al Qaeda had U-238.

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not a hijacker

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 6:08:18 pm PST

I’ve seen several folks refer to this “Richard Reid” (I’m going to keep calling him that until I hear a positive ID) creature as a “hijacker.” But isn’t he really an attempted suicide bomber?

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poll results

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 5:23:17 pm PST

Well, it’s hardly a scientific sample with 30 votes so far, but if this poll is any indication of popular American sentiment, Jacques Chirac had better start looking for a cave in the Pyrenees. But hey now. Let’s not forget what Joanne Jacobs (who needs individual entry links) writes today: Not ...

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confirmed

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 2:03:28 pm PST

It’s official—he really did have bombs in his sneakers.

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the hairy eyeball

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 1:42:55 pm PST

Via Ken Layne, here’s a creepy photo of “Richard Reid” giving the camera the evil eye. Almost looks like his chin is resting on the fed’s shoulder. In Hawaii, this form of menacing one-eyed stare is known as “the hairy eyeball.” Confirms my theory that one of his lights got ...

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arafat to defy ban

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 12:03:55 pm PST

Israel orders Arafat to stay away from Bethlehem. So of course, to defend “Palestinian honor” (which, as we know, is more important than life itself) he’s going to defy the ban and go to Christmas Eve mass even though he’s not a Christian. Maybe he should bring his Nobel Peace Prize ...

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press release

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 11:44:25 am PST

In an impromptu press conference today at his hotel in Pakistan, Noam Chomsky should have surprised international journalists by announcing: “I’m a big enough man to admit I was wrong. Remember all that stuff I said about a ‘silent genocide?’ Well, looks like I sorta missed the mark on that ...

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“we’ll all see”

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 10:08:55 am PST

One of the guys who helped subdue “Richard Reid” was Kwame James, a 6'8" basketball player from Trinidad. CNN caught up with him and got some eyewitness details. James says the freak was incredibly strong, that he “seemed possessed.” After tying him up they asked why he did it; his ...

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the triumph of reason

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 8:56:53 am PST

Usually I click through to the Guardian only on anti-war spelunking missions, after putting on my miner’s hat (it’s dark in there) and hip boots (dank and smelly too). Imagine if you will my surprise at discovering this jewel by Henry Porter, taking the anti-war journalists to task for being ...

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bin laden’s butt boy

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 8:24:35 am PST

Look much like a terrorist? Somebody hit him with a good right cross; that left eye looks swollen shut. May he have numerous contusions. So what’s up with French security? (Oxymoron at 9:00.) With the entire Western world on high alert, they let him on a plane looking like that? With no ...

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how he’ll haunt us

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 7:46:00 am PST

At Newsweek, a good look at the big picture: How He’ll Haunt Us.

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person of the year

Sun, Dec 23, 2001 at 7:41:26 am PST

TIME’s Person of the Year: Rudy Giuliani!

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Saturday, December 22, 2001

coming about, sir

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 7:22:14 pm PST

Like an aircraft carrier under full steam, it’s taking Arab media a l o n g time to execute a full 180 degree turn, but it looks like they’ve almost made it now: Who will cry for Saddam?

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disaster averted, pt 2

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 6:25:51 pm PST

Just heard on the radio that “Richard Reid” was seated directly over the forward fuel tank. If he had been able to ignite that detcord and use his body to direct the force of the charge downwards, it could have caused a massive explosion. Similar to TWA 800. Where did he pass ...

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in their dreams

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 5:46:07 pm PST

A great Krauthammer column at TIME.com, on how to win a religious war: Only in Their Dreams. The West has not fought a serious religious war in 350 years. America is too young to have fought any. Our first reaction, therefore, to the declaration of holy war made upon us ...

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disaster averted

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 4:36:06 pm PST

This report at MSNBC has the most details I’ve been able to find so far about the guy who apparently tried to blow up an American Airlines plane from Paris to Miami this afternoon. He was traveling with a fake passport; he looks Middle Eastern but the passport says “Richard ...

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“my apologies to the dogs”

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 3:44:06 pm PST

This is what Al Jazeera Television sounded like before the West was paying attention, in a special on Osama Bin Laden that aired on July 10, 2001. Quoting from the host’s opening remarks: Host Al-Qassem opened the program: "...Has bin Laden not become a worthy opponent, feared by America – ...

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gotta be the jews, part 768

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 1:46:05 pm PST

After a day of bloody internecine rioting that left 6 Palestinians dead, leaders of Fatah already know who’s responsible: The rumour placing the responsibility of the incidents on "mercenaries from Israel" is picked up by the population, which refuses to accuse one side or the other, on both the Islamist ...

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smuggling uranium

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 1:35:13 pm PST

Police in Georgia (the Russian Georgia) have arrested an Armenian for trying to smuggle 10.5 ounces of U-235 into Turkey. It would be nice to know who he was planning to sell it to. For each one they catch, there are probably 5 that they don’t. It’s getting damned scary on ...

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red cross followup

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 11:22:43 am PST

One of the charges that people like Fisk and Herold repeat ad nauseam is that Red Cross warehouses in Kabul were deliberately targeted by US bombers, because they were clearly marked and identified to the US military—therefore the bombing must have been intentional. The only trouble with this assertion is that ...

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al qaeda’s hunt for weapons

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 10:40:14 am PST

Evidence continues to mount that Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were engaged in a serious and dedicated quest to obtain nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

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US muslims say it’s our fault

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 10:28:42 am PST

A poll of 1,781 adult Muslims living in the US yielded disturbing results: 79% say US foreign policy led to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and 67% say that changing policy in the Middle East is the best way to wage war against terrorism. Taking a wild guess at which ...

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kabul bob rides again

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 9:45:43 am PST

Tim Blair likens “human punching bag” Robert Fisk to a sideshow geek. An apt comparison, except the geek probably has a better editor. In his latest bucket of hog swill, Kabul Bob reveals that he’s actually been writing a science fiction serial about an alternate universe, where the United States has ...

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who should the us attack next?

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 8:25:55 am PST

New poll to start off the weekend: Who should the US attack next?

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fbi warning about windows xp

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 8:09:39 am PST

The FBI is recommending that Windows XP users disable “plug and play” to protect against hackers. Microsoft, of course, says this is unnecessary.

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the anthrax investigation

Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 7:56:25 am PST

The NY Times reports that despite their best efforts, investigators have failed to link Iraq to the anthrax mailings. Remember, though: absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence.

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Friday, December 21, 2001

more on herold

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 6:25:35 pm PST

Bruce R. at Flit also takes a good hard look at Herold’s numbers. Scroll down through this archive for the full story.

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triply inverted racism

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 6:17:33 pm PST

Dr. Frank points out the logical contortions Marc Herold uses to ultimately blame Afghan civilian casualties on US racism.

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woolsey in israel

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 5:48:43 pm PST

A must-read off-the-cuff hotel-bar interview with former CIA chief James Woolsey at the Jerusalem Post: The Spymaster’s Prescription. Most of the time, Woolsey notes, American foreign policy is seen as a contest between three schools of thought: Jeffersonianism, which sees the US as a model of democracy and very reluctant ...

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iraqi strikers

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 4:41:01 pm PST

At MSNBC, new details about Iraqi sabotage plans from a report in Vanity Fair magazine. According to Vanity Fair, defector Abu Zeinab al-Qurairy, whom it described as former close aide to Saddam Hussein’s son Uday, administered a 1,200-strong commando force called “The Strikers.” At Uday’s orders, he told Vanity Fair, ...

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saudis assail “media blitz”

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 3:00:40 pm PST

Two top Saudi officials, the defense minister and the ambassador to Washington (who happen to be father and son. Imagine that! And they’re both princes! What are the odds?), are speaking out against the cruel campaign of slander being waged against Saudi Arabia by the Zionist-controlled Western media: Saudis Assail ...

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two decades of evil

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 2:04:17 pm PST

The Wall Street Journal has taken a look back at the last two decades of Saddam Hussein’s reign in Iraq, putting together a convenient chronology of terror.

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swiss cheese redux

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 12:03:20 pm PST

sigh. that's right folks. yet another security flaw discovered in a microsoft product, this time in the brand spankin' new XP OS. there is a patch available for this one, but if you use windows you have to be getting a little tired of the constant need to patch and ...

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new mac browsers

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 10:35:01 am PST

zeldman comments on the newest mac browsers available - a new beta version of Opera and IE 5.1. Check a list apart in the next day or two for an in depth assesment of these browsers. also available via zeldman is this info about a new subset of css2 ...

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an ode to martyrdom

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 9:59:49 am PST

The constant flow of hate from Arab media really is astonishing. Before 9/11 I guess I realized it was there, but didn’t appreciate its true extent. And here’s another example; a poem published in Al-Istiqlal, a Palestinian weekly: “Because I Am a Palestinian.” Because I am a PalestinianBecause I am enamored ...

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web perspectives

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 9:35:07 am PST

3 different perspectives on the future of the web over at Cnet - What will the Web be tomorrow? - the contributors include

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why palestinians support terror

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 9:25:14 am PST

Last Tuesday I wrote about a Palestinian poll that showed 64% supported suicide bombings, and almost 80% supported the intifada against Israel. Very disturbing results that beg the question: Why Do Palestinians Support Terror? Arafat gets most of his financial support from Arab oil states such as Saudi Arabia. They ...

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about mines

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 8:35:52 am PST

Steven Den Beste knows way too much about mines.

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who are the brain police?

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 8:26:18 am PST

Professor Kenneth Hearlson was suspended from Orange Coast College when several Muslim students accused him of racist remarks. He was reinstated when a tape of the actual class proved the allegations were totally false. The students faced no disciplinary action. Now 24 of Hearlson’s colleagues have signed a petition condemning ...

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blair shames war weasels

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 7:51:08 am PST

In a dossier that marks 100 days since September 11, Tony Blair takes aim at Bin Laden’s cheerleaders. You’ll recognize the names—Fisk, Pilger, Roy, Milne, Bunting. A veritable who’s who of journalistic Quislings.

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portable nuke threat

Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 7:16:05 am PST

According to this story from the UPI wire, the FBI is very concerned that Al Qaeda may have gotten their filthy paws on portable nuclear devices from the Soviet Union. And the story contains another frightening revelation: Perhaps the most startling testimony came from a defector from the Russian military ...

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Thursday, December 20, 2001

declarations of war

Thu, Dec 20, 2001 at 8:48:32 pm PST

Ken Layne wants to declare war on Saudi Arabia. Ann Coulter wants to declare war on France.

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the anthrax vaccine

Thu, Dec 20, 2001 at 6:59:59 pm PST

“Sgt. Stryker” on the anthrax vaccine, and what seems to be a continuing propensity in the US military for using soldiers as guinea pigs.

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what about johnny?

Thu, Dec 20, 2001 at 4:52:00 pm PST

New poll today: What about Johnny?

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secret iraq weapons sites

Thu, Dec 20, 2001 at 3:43:19 pm PST

In the NY Times, ominous revelations from an Iraqi defector who, in addition to building Saddam Hussein’s first whirlpool bath, also worked on at least 20 hidden weapons sites in Iraq, including one beneath the Saddam Hussein Hospital in Baghdad.

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arafat’s words

Thu, Dec 20, 2001 at 1:45:46 pm PST

Yesterday I wrote about Arafat’s incendiary speech in Arabic for Palestinian television. Today MEMRI has a complete translation. Why was this speech virtually ignored by Western media?

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civilian casualties

Thu, Dec 20, 2001 at 8:20:16 am PST

The cute little play-anarchists at Indymedia, Common Dreams, and Zmag (among many others) are having such fun with this piece of bogus “research” by Marc W. Herold. Herold is a Professor of Economics and Womens’ Studies at the University of New Hampshire; how this qualifies him to produce a document ...

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Wednesday, December 19, 2001

it’s not time to relax

Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 7:15:24 pm PST

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Al Qaeda is much more organized than we wanted to believe. "We are learning that many assumptions that we operated with are out of the window," says Richard Shultz, a terrorism expert at Tufts University in Boston.Al Qaeda's level of organization is one of ...

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noam alone

Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 11:55:11 am PST

If you debate Noam Chomsky’s twisted theories with one of his followers, you will invariably hear the line (started by Chomsky himself) that you can’t really get Chomsky unless you read one (or preferably all) of his books, and study the facts with the unbelievable god-like single-minded concentration of which ...

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decrepit leopard

Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 10:59:34 am PST

Fifty-five people have taken our poll asking whether they believed Arafat was sincere when he called for an end to the violence against Israelis. 18% said they did believe the decrepit leopard of the PLO. But has he really changed his spots? RAMALLAH – Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has ...

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rappelling santas

Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 8:31:13 am PST

Rappelling Santas.

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watch out for the world tribune site!

Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 8:16:06 am PST

Just went to the Drudge Report and clicked on a link that’s supposed to go to the World Tribune website—and discovered that www.worldtribune.com has been compromised by what appears to be the Nimda worm or some variant. I’m not linking to it, because it’s the nasty kind that can infect ...

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IE 5.1

Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 8:01:24 am PST

Hmmm. An annoying display bug seems to have crept into IE 5.1 for Mac. If you hover over the links on this page and scroll with the mouse wheel, the inverted links are not properly restored when the window scrolls. Hmmm. Glad I didn’t trash version 5.0 yet...

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the meaning of surrender

Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 7:39:50 am PST

Once again, captured Al Qaeda members, after “surrendering,” have turned on their guards in a desperate mad-dog battle. No doubt Amnesty International will find a way to blame this “massacre” on the US.

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Tuesday, December 18, 2001

explorer 5.1 for mac

Tue, Dec 18, 2001 at 4:55:26 pm PST

Maybe I’ve been out of the Mac loop lately, but today’s release of Internet Explorer 5.1 for Mac caught me by surprise. Still my favorite browser...

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palestinian poll

Tue, Dec 18, 2001 at 2:35:19 pm PST

According to a poll conducted between December 6 and 9, 57.6% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza feel a "cease-fire is unjustified in the current circumstances," and 64% support suicide bombings against Israelis.

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saddam wants a summit

Tue, Dec 18, 2001 at 9:04:27 am PST

Palace enthusiast and fair-weather Muslim Saddam Hussein is feeling the heat, so he’s calling for an emergency Arab summit in the city of Mecca. BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday called for an emergency Arab summit to be held at Islam's holiest city - Mecca in Saudi ...

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EU funds terror

Tue, Dec 18, 2001 at 8:08:07 am PST

As Israel tries to cut off Arafat’s funding and the terror groups show no signs of backing down (even threatening the US now), the European Union continues to send tens of millions of dollars directly into Yasser’s bank account. And who do you suppose is donating the bulk of the ...

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they won’t stop

Tue, Dec 18, 2001 at 7:23:30 am PST

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have issued statements that not only will they continue their terror attacks and suicide bombings against Israel, they will now be targeting the US as well. “What about me? Don’t I deserve to be attacked too?” Robert Fisk should have said.

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Monday, December 17, 2001

literature

Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 7:01:45 pm PST

OK, I know I said I was going to try to make it through Infinite Jest again. And I will, as soon as I finish Dreamcatcher.

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how to save the arab world

Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 6:03:05 pm PST

Dan Hartung points out this excellent article by Fareed Zakaria at Newsweek, about the next step on the diplomatic front of the war on terrorism—encouraging democracy and free markets: How to Save the Arab World.

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talk like an egyptian

Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 5:01:43 pm PST

According to the Washington Post, Egyptian singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim had a runaway hit last year with a tender ballad featuring the lyrics, “I love Amr Moussa, I hate Israel.” This article looks at the schizoid nature of Egyptian pop culture, where messages of hate are routinely included in otherwise ...

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legality of the settlements

Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 2:06:59 pm PST

At the Jerusalem Post, Shmuel Katz defends the legality of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. I’m no expert on the Geneva Conventions, but the arguments in this article seem persuasive.

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a moderate palestinian

Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 12:07:57 pm PST

Dr. Sari Nusseibeh is an official in the Palestinian Authority who believes in Israel’s right to exist, one of the few hopeful signs in an otherwise bleak landscape. If he manages to survive (he has been physically attacked for his views) he should be given a voice in the post-Arafat ...

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dirty dealings?

Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 10:26:41 am PST

An interesting article about a surge in financial transactions that occurred just minutes before the WTC was hit - German Firm Probes Final World Trade Center Deals - coincidence or advance knowledge? Hopefully we will find out soon...

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does terror work?

Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 8:39:45 am PST

Historically, terrorism has been the tool of oppressed people with no other voice, a way to make their cause more urgent, and a method of destroying the morale of the oppressor. But the emergence of Islamist death cults of suicide killers in Palestine and elsewhere, cynically supported by the PA ...

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lileks demolishes rall

Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 7:57:49 am PST

Ted Rall is an embarrassment. I find it amazing that a (sort of) reputable paper like the Village Voice prints his meandering, badly written, factually wrong, relentlessly negative whining. Rall hates everything and everyone, and with each column sounds more like a candidate for the rubber room. Why does this ...

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Sunday, December 16, 2001

where did it come from?

Sun, Dec 16, 2001 at 6:25:29 pm PST

A very interesting article by Wendy Orent at The New Republic looks at what we know about the possible origins of the anthrax letters. The source of the highly refined anthrax powder in those envelopes is still a mystery.

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plo “politics”

Sun, Dec 16, 2001 at 2:06:36 pm PST

Farouq Al-Qaddumi, head of the PLO's Political Department, says Israel is on the way to collapse. "Sharon is the last bullet in the Israeli rifle. If Sharon is defeated, the rapid countdown [to the end] of Israel will begin, because that country was established through historical coercion and will find ...

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naji’s taliban phase

Sun, Dec 16, 2001 at 8:38:36 am PST

In today’s NYT Magazine, a moving story of two men from the same Afghan tribe who ended up fighting on opposite sides: Naji's Taliban Phase. Then came Sept. 11. Naji first learned of the attacks on America when U.S. planes dropped leaflets -- "books that fell from the sky," he ...

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victory for the EU?

Sun, Dec 16, 2001 at 8:05:27 am PST

Blowhard Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel astounded listeners at an EU summit meeting when he tried to portray the British-led peacekeeping force as a victory for the European Union.

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the rat looks dirtier

Sun, Dec 16, 2001 at 7:34:43 am PST

If you can believe what he says, Johnny “The Rat” was far from an innocent young man caught up in events beyond his control—he was training to be a terrorist. Walker acknowledged a lot more than fighting for the Taliban: according to administration sources, he also admitted to being a ...

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Saturday, December 15, 2001

zinni come home

Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 5:32:33 pm PST

Finally someone in the government read our weblog (ahem) and saw sense: U.S. Envoy Returning From Mideast. They don’t mention it in this article, but I’m sure the State Department was also concerned about his safety. Zinni might as well have been wearing a big red target—and if he were ...

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the son of little green footpolls

Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 4:30:00 pm PST

Never satisfied with leaving well enough alone, I’ve been working on this little poll application. It’s not so little any more. Stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s gonna get. I can now set up as many polls as I like, and the weblog page chooses one at random ...

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the label trick

Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 11:01:54 am PST

The geekier among our readers may have noticed that in our new poll section, you can click on the text to select the radio button next to it. This is done with a little trick that isn’t widely known, but is supported in all versions of Explorer and in Mozilla/Netscape ...

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registering the madrassas

Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 10:17:53 am PST

One good thing Pakistan’s President Musharraf has done is to start requiring the privately-funded fundamentalist madrassas—which often become schools for militant extremists—to register with the government. Many of these schools are financed by wealthy Saudi Arabians trying to spread Wahhabism in Pakistan and the neighboring countries, and there is currently ...

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whose side is europe on?

Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 9:54:45 am PST

Like many things about the French, their lectures about America’s justice system are awfully hard to take. There are some good points in this editorial at the Wall Street OpinionJournal: Welcome to Europe, Mr. Ashcroft. It's charming that Europeans are worried about an outbreak of American fascism, though we'd point ...

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the definition of “massacre”

Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 9:29:40 am PST

Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines “massacre” as: 1: the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty. As far as I know, it means the same thing in the UK. So would someone please tell me why the ...

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veto time

Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 9:04:51 am PST

The US has vetoed another stupid Arab-sponsored UN Security Council resolution. The Security Council has been hijacked; for me its credibility was completely blown when Syria was allowed to join.

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blair’s blog

Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 8:45:07 am PST

Tim Blair exhibits a horrifying predilection for bad puns. But don’t let that stop you from visiting his site; his daily warblog roundup is a great idea. And he must have special connections, because he got a copy of the unedited OBL tape and discovered a previously unrevealed conversation between ...

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hate-me crimes

Sat, Dec 15, 2001 at 8:30:15 am PST

Mark Steyn’s a bit behind the warbloggers (who’ve pretty much dismantled Robert Fisk’s strange self-loathing already), but his column about Kabul Bob and the Kala-i Janghi “war crimes” accusations is still worth reading: Hate-Me Crimes. These two stories usefully clarify the peculiar pathology of the antiwar left. On the one ...

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Friday, December 14, 2001

lgf polls

Fri, Dec 14, 2001 at 12:27:34 pm PST

Got a new feature for y’all today. It was raining this morning so I wrote a little polling program in PHP, the results of which you now see in the left sidebar. If you’re quick, you can even be the first one on the block to vote! (Nothing scientific going on ...

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hizbollah

Fri, Dec 14, 2001 at 8:35:19 am PST

The leader of Hizbollah (another one of those Mideast groups/locations whose name can be spelled any way you like, as long as it approximates the pronunciation) is telling Palestinians not to hold back, ’cuz it’s Jew-killin’ time! These guys sure know how to pick their moments. What will it take for ...

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why do they hate arabs?

Fri, Dec 14, 2001 at 7:20:20 am PST

In the aftermath of JDL chairman Irv Rubin’s arrest for plotting to bomb the King Fahd Mosque, there is a question that needs to be asked. Of course, any attack of this nature is abhorrent and must be condemned by all civilized people. But maybe the Arabs in these expensive mosques need ...

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Thursday, December 13, 2001

cornered?

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 5:48:28 pm PST

Crazy Sammy may be cornered...

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wolf's frontier

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 5:22:27 pm PST

The Washington Post reports on Lewa Saradi, or Wolf's Frontier, Osama Bin Laden’s “showpiece” training camp—a weird mix of domesticity and mass murder. Built like a warlord's fort, surrounded by high mud walls, several football fields long and almost as wide, it seemed designed to impress recruits to the holy ...

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war is a way of life

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 5:15:49 pm PST

Another amazing photo essay at the NY Times by James Hill, titled War Is A Way Of Life.

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another statement from sammy

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 2:58:44 pm PST

Another videotaped statement from Crazy Sammy has surfaced: Bin Laden Offers U.S. One Last Chance To Surrender. "Enemies of Allah, this is your last chance to leave Afghanistan alive," said a battered, soot-covered bin Laden in a videotaped statement broadcast on the Al Jazeera satellite network. "I mean it."Staring directly ...

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the whole thing

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 2:32:32 pm PST

If you’re like me, you want to read the transcript of the whole tape—which you will find on this page at the Christian Science Monitor, in PDF format.

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atta’s dad

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 2:26:44 pm PST

Mohammed Atta’s father, a crusty old anti-American himself, says the videotape is a forgery.

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arab reaction

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 1:49:07 pm PST

What a surprise. Arabs Split Over Bin Laden Video; Some Call It Fake. "This is shameful," said Abdul Latif Arabiat, head of Jordan's mainstream Islamist party the Islamic Action Front."Do the Americans really think the world is that stupid to think that they would believe that this tape is evidence?" ...

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bad reporters

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 1:17:31 pm PST

Been out all morning, so I just checked in on Ken Layne, who caught fire last night. Here’s his take on whether journalists deserve (or should expect) special protection in dangerous places: But Fisk is just a stupid jackass. His car broke down on the bad side of town, and ...

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home movies

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 12:19:56 pm PST

Here’s a link to the CNN page where you can find excerpts from the video of Bin Laden and his pals exulting over the 9/11 atrocities: “We calculated in advance the number of casualties.” Imagine if we had film of Hitler’s final days in the bunker, talking about Auschwitz. That’s how ...

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hmmm...

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 11:59:11 am PST

John Walker's curious quest. “Still a mystery how the young Marin County convert to Islam made the transition from spiritual scholar to Taliban soldier” - never mentioned in this article is the psychological impact of naming your child after a famous brand of Scotch...

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game over

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 8:26:40 am PST

Yasser Arafat has blown his last chance.

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the new media

Thu, Dec 13, 2001 at 8:10:27 am PST

Last night when I was sound asleep dreaming about human-sized bacteria (don’t ask), Matt Welch was writing this great piece about the emergence of weblogs as a new, more immediate form of personal journalism.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2001

a lingering fondness

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 6:36:43 pm PST

How can I account for the code I just added to our weblog master template? Except to say that, somewhere, there must be a lingering fondness for Netscape 4, the lone challenger to the Microsoft Monolith? In spite of numerous betrayals? But anyway (and I know I’ve said it before, but this ...

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jdl bomb plot

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 4:44:54 pm PST

Irv Rubin, chairman of the Jewish Defense League, has been arrested for plotting to blow up the King Fahd mosque in Culver City.

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jordanian physician on women’s rights

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 11:41:40 am PST

Former chairman of the Jordanian Physicians’ Association Dr. Tareq Tahboub defended Arab treatment of women in this hilariously incoherent rant translated by MEMRI. Buried among his bizarre comments on date rape and fashion models is this curious expression of sympathy for violent right-wing American groups: What children's rights are they ...

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a nomination

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 11:23:47 am PST

DROPPED BALL AWARD NOMINEE - Glenn Reynolds’ Dropped Ball Awards wouldn’t be complete without including Robert Scheer, the resident Los Angeles crypto-defeatist whose columns in the LA Times have been as gloomy as they were wrong. I only have time to pull a couple of examples, but pick up just ...

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it's not just hamas

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 10:41:43 am PST

I haven’t been visiting Salon much lately since most of their articles became “premium content,” and they loaded their site down with so many ads and popunders and web bugs that it’s just basically a pain in the neck. But Norah Vincent’s piece today is too good to miss, and ...

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sticky sites

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 10:08:21 am PST

How do users interact with the Web? Check out these six tips for creating a sticky site.

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hofer vs. schlesinger

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 10:01:49 am PST

In reaction to Glenn Reynolds’ Dropped Ball Awards, Andrew Hofer deconstructs the defeatism of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in great detail.

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another palestinian atrocity

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 9:48:04 am PST

Another Palestinian attack by suicide bombers and gunmen. Why is Anthony Zinni still in Israel? The Powell approach has clearly failed (again). Zinni (and the US by association) is being made to look like a fool by the people he went there to help. It’s a total embarrassment. He should return ...

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confront, don't engage

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 9:28:31 am PST

At the OpinionJournal, Michael Rubin argues against engagement with repressive Islamist regimes. He went to Sudan to research the effects of US diplomacy there, and the picture he paints is not pretty: Don't 'Engage' Rogue Regimes. To see how well engagement works, I traveled to Sudan. Because Khartoum restricts the ...

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the rat squeaks

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 7:57:49 am PST

According to the Washington Times, Johnny “The Rat” has told US interrogators that Al Qaeda plans a second large attack on the US within days—this time with biological weapons.

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descending further into depravity

Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 7:39:39 am PST

Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, apparently oblivious to the grievous harm they’re doing to their own cause, are applauding the use of toxic chemicals by suicide bombers.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2001

memri today

Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 11:38:09 am PST

Great stuff at MEMRI today. First, an interview with Egyptian President Mubarak, in which he blames most of the world’s problems on the Jews, and then this story about the surprising about-face of extreme left-wing Israeli historian Benny Morris, who stunned a Berkeley audience recently by saying the Arabs are ...

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when journalists are attacked

Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 11:03:38 am PST

After reading Amy Langfield’s blog entry about the need to protect journalists from attack, I felt briefly guilty about my snide take on the beating of Kabul Bob. Then I got over it. After all, if Fisk himself thinks he deserved a good thrashing, who am I to argue?

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the lies of edward said

Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 10:33:33 am PST

Natalie Solent parses an interview with Edward Said, seen above taking a brief sabbatical from his intellectual, professorial pursuits to throw some stones at an Israeli guard station. For more on the rockin’ prof, see Jeff Jacoby’s article: The Lies of Edward Said.

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the ideology of murder

Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 10:05:36 am PST

It has become a cliché to note that the Islamist killers have proven remarkably adept at corrupting Western technology; turning its power for creativity into a force of destruction. In his memoirs, Bin Laden’s right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahri shows how they also pervert our ideologies, viewing democracy not as a ...

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the pied piper of tora bora

Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 9:39:43 am PST

Even when Victor Hanson goes a little over the top (which he does in this piece, I think) he’s always, as the Brits say, a cracking good read: The Pied Piper of Tora Bora. The educated of the Middle East hid in the dust and melee of bin Laden's entranced ...

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total control

Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 9:02:03 am PST

Now that I have our weblog software humming along, I’m starting to look at making a few changes in the way things work around here. If it ain’t broke, always try to fix it, I say. The first thing I’ve done is change the way our URLs work, to make them ...

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three months on

Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 8:16:35 am PST

Jeff Jarvis has a very moving look back at the changes wrought by September 11.

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Monday, December 10, 2001

chemical bombers

Mon, Dec 10, 2001 at 1:33:29 pm PST

The Times reports that the most recent Palestinian suicide bomber was planning a chemical attack, before being caught by an alert policeman: Bomber 'planned chemical attack'. There’s more at Israel Insider, where they say traces of rat poison were found after the December 1 bombing.

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signs of intelligent life?

Mon, Dec 10, 2001 at 11:54:40 am PST

here's an amusing site - Sign Language - a collection of various signs found along the highways and biways our great country.

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what's up at reuters?

Mon, Dec 10, 2001 at 10:15:40 am PST

The caption for this photo at Reuters is: Members of Hamas pray during a rally held at Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near the port-city of Sidon in south Lebanon, December 9, 2001. Whoever wrote it didn’t think it was important to mention that these freaks have dynamite belts around their ...

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self hatred

Mon, Dec 10, 2001 at 8:19:55 am PST

Kabul Bob Fisk tells the story of his mugging. The Great White Bwana, strutting around in pith helmet, shaking hands, cell phones and overstuffed packs hanging off him like ripe fruit ready for the picking, remaining sympathetic to the noble savages even as they smash rocks into his head. His ...

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bin laden suicide plot

Mon, Dec 10, 2001 at 6:57:36 am PST

According to London tabloid The Mirror, Crazy Sammy is planning a televised suicide that will trigger a world-wide wave of terror. This information comes through a Russian TV interview with Bin Laden’s estranged wife. (Who bailed out on Sammy when he “married” a 17 year old.) Hey ... if it’s good ...

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Sunday, December 09, 2001

infinite jest

Sun, Dec 9, 2001 at 6:17:07 pm PST

So, I’m looking at David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, which I bought three years ago, and wondering if I’ll ever make it all the way through. The damned thing has defeated me 5 or 6 times. And I’m thinking about trying it again. I wouldn’t bother, except I have a feeling ...

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from: johnny@therat.com

Sun, Dec 9, 2001 at 4:45:43 pm PST

Before Johnny “The Rat” renounced all evil Western music, he was into hip-hop. And he left lots and lots of messages on newsgroups.

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the last stand

Sun, Dec 9, 2001 at 11:52:13 am PST

Here’s a good account of what things are like in the mountains around Tora Bora, as the hardest of the hard core Al Qaeda fighters prepare for the final battle.

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more al qaeda evidence

Sun, Dec 9, 2001 at 10:51:02 am PST

The Washington Post reports on another document found in an abandoned Al Qaeda house: A Terrorist's Guide To Infiltrate (the) West. FARM HADA, Afghanistan, Dec. 8 -- Handwritten notes found today in a house abandoned by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization amount to a detailed handbook for operating undercover ...

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deteriorating faculties

Sun, Dec 9, 2001 at 10:09:43 am PST

British journalists, suffering from severe cognitive dissonance caused by the failure of their dire war predictions to come true, exacerbated by acute Stockholm Syndrome, are losing their alleged minds. Here’s Kabul Bob Fisk, talking out of his swollen face: "I don't want this to be seen as a Muslim mob ...

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arafat’s suicide factory

Sun, Dec 9, 2001 at 9:55:02 am PST

Daniel Pipes writes about the sick society that produces suicide bombers: Arafat’s Suicide Factory. Convincing healthy individuals to blow themselves up is obviously not easy, but requires ideas and institutions. The process begins with the Palestinian Authority (PA) inculcating two things into its population, starting with the children: a hatred ...

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a true hero

Sun, Dec 9, 2001 at 9:41:10 am PST

If you thought it couldn’t get much worse than that horrible Freedberg column, think again. Shiloh Bucher found an “article” by the spoiled brats at Indymedia that says Johnny “The Rat” should get the Congressional Medal of Honor.

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storm approaching

Sun, Dec 9, 2001 at 8:37:06 am PST

Leave it to the Independent (home of Kabul Bob Fisk) to take the Times story about the interrogation of Johnny “The Rat” I mentioned below and whip it up into a full-blown accusation of war crimes: Video shows CIA threatened to let prisoner be killed. The human rights groups who are ...

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Saturday, December 08, 2001

johnny the rat, part deux

Sat, Dec 8, 2001 at 6:05:52 pm PST

When I read the first accounts of the videotaped interrogation of Johnny “The Rat” Walker by CIA agents, I thought “uh oh.” The language they used, in a situation that probably already seemed to be slipping out of control (this was after at least one “prisoner” had detonated a hidden ...

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learning

Sat, Dec 8, 2001 at 3:31:14 pm PST

I’ve written before about how Bin Laden and his buddies learned from their mistakes in the 1993 bombing of the WTC. Well, so did we: Evacuation plans saved thousands on Sept. 11.

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ok, i'm scared

Sat, Dec 8, 2001 at 2:18:43 pm PST

DEBKAfile is trying to scare me again. DEBKAfile Exclusive intelligence sources:Bin Laden Family Packed out of Afghanistan - Preparation for His Biggest World Strike?8 December:  Osama bin Laden has packed his entire family out of Afghanistan - wives, sons and daughters - and their wives, husbands and offspring. Roughly 10 ...

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johnny the rat

Sat, Dec 8, 2001 at 1:00:48 pm PST

Louis Freedberg has an op-ed piece in the SF Chronicle that advocates letting Johnny “The Rat” Walker off the hook. Scot free. He writes: Instead of labeling him a traitor, as we did to Aaron Burr, Tokyo Rose and Ezra Pound, President Bush should allow Walker's parents to fly him ...

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the decline and fall of everything

Sat, Dec 8, 2001 at 8:37:49 am PST

Someone, please stop me from screaming. Tell me that headline from CNN over there in the “top stories” section isn’t really “U.S. warplanes hone in on Tora Bora.” Ah... aahhh...

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about pakistan

Sat, Dec 8, 2001 at 8:29:32 am PST

Pakistan Ended Aid to Taliban Only Hesitantly. Even after agreeing to end support for the Taliban, Pakistan’s intelligence agency continued to ship arms and ammunition to them—as late as October 8. This article at the NY Times raises the interesting possibility that the air war alone may not have been ...

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Friday, December 07, 2001

omar captured?

Fri, Dec 7, 2001 at 5:58:52 pm PST

The Times reports that freak-of-the-week Mullet Omar may have been captured.

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who will replace arafat?

Fri, Dec 7, 2001 at 1:49:59 pm PST

Israel Insider has an interesting article today titled Who, or what, will replace Yasser Arafat?

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a sad anniversary

Fri, Dec 7, 2001 at 10:08:50 am PST

On the 60th anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, we look back and remember.

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netscape, why must thou plague me so?

Fri, Dec 7, 2001 at 9:37:42 am PST

In today’s issue of A List Apart, Jeffrey Zeldman answers a question from a reader: Why Don't You Code For Netscape?

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the persistence of memri

Fri, Dec 7, 2001 at 9:10:11 am PST

At the Online Journalism Review, Tim Cavanaugh takes a critical look at MEMRI. Uh, I think it’s a critical look; the viewpoint seems a bit confused to me. He seems to be arguing simultaneously that 1) MEMRI’s translations are picked to make Arab media look bad, and 2) the ...

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an observation

Fri, Dec 7, 2001 at 8:35:53 am PST

While watching television footage of the riots that broke out in Palestine when the PA put the “spiritual leader” of Hamas under house arrest, I noticed a curious and disturbing thing. One scene showed a mob of people running frantically to escape the batons of the Palestinian police—but in the ...

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how we can still blow it

Fri, Dec 7, 2001 at 8:24:33 am PST

Michael Ledeen says we could still lose the war on terror if we show compassion too soon. We must demonstrate that the entire crazy enterprise was a disaster, so that they won't be tempted by this sort of madness for many generations. And that means we must not, not, not ...

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protocols of the elders of zion

Fri, Dec 7, 2001 at 7:53:32 am PST

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a vicious anti-Semitic hoax that first appeared in Russia at the end of the 19th century, was used by Adolf Hitler to justify the extermination of the Jews, and was irrefutably ruled a forgery by a Russian court in 1993, is being made ...

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Thursday, December 06, 2001

words to ponder

Thu, Dec 6, 2001 at 8:18:25 pm PST

Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson once said: "The Constitution of the United States is not a suicide pact."

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sheer insanity

Thu, Dec 6, 2001 at 6:31:46 pm PST

Bjoern Staerk points out this unbelievably ugly Palestinian rationalization for the murder of women and children. To merely describe a young Palestinian man who blows himself on a busy street or as he rides in a crowded bus as simply "evil", "wicked" and "terrorist", portrays a severe lack of understanding ...

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US 1, Psychos 0

Thu, Dec 6, 2001 at 6:17:15 pm PST

Fred Pruitt riffs brilliantly on the decline and fall of a bunch of twitching psychotics.

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neil

Thu, Dec 6, 2001 at 5:47:54 pm PST

Neil Young. What can I say? I always thought he was one of the smartest and most perceptive guys to make it out of the 60s, and he continues to prove it with a song about the heroes of Flight 93, titled Let’s Roll.

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the manual

Thu, Dec 6, 2001 at 2:43:05 pm PST

The DOJ has made available sections of the Al Qaeda training manual that Ashcroft displayed during today’s hearing. This link takes you to a page where you can get the 8.5Meg PDF file. (via Oliver Willis.)

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death at lunchtime

Thu, Dec 6, 2001 at 11:50:26 am PST

By the time I finished this article at USA Today by Jack Kelley, about the horrific suicide bombing at a pizza parlor in Jerusalem, I was weeping: Explosion, then arms and legs rain down. The popular Sbarro restaurant, like other shops and eating places along Jaffa Street, was packed at ...

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options

Thu, Dec 6, 2001 at 8:56:25 am PST

I’ve been challenged to think constructively about the Israel/Palestine situation. Well, I must admit I doubt anyone in a position to do anything about it is reading our weblog, so (apart from the intellectual exercise) I don’t really see much value in coming up with constructive suggestions for “solving” the ...

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lefty-baiters

Thu, Dec 6, 2001 at 6:47:57 am PST

“People dislike bullshit,” says Matt Welch, responding to a very bad and dishonest column by Jacob Weisberg in Slate. Weisberg seems to think there are really no anti-war sentiments beng aired in US media—that it’s all being concocted out of fairy dust by right-wing fanatics to give themselves something to ...

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Wednesday, December 05, 2001

zawahiri: worm chow?

Wed, Dec 5, 2001 at 9:31:00 pm PST

There are reports that Egyptian Al Qaeda freakazoid Ayman al-Zawahiri may have been killed in a US airstrike against the Tora Bora cave complex. May he rest in pieces.

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tribunals

Wed, Dec 5, 2001 at 8:47:54 pm PST

I’m still on the fence about military tribunals. The Ghost of My Liberal Past stands out in the back yard, rattling its chains and whispering dire predictions. But the Ghost of My Pragmatic Present knocks on the front door, offers me a margarita, asks if there’s any way (after OJ, ...

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myths of the middle east

Wed, Dec 5, 2001 at 6:34:08 pm PST

In October 2000, Arab American journalist Joseph Farah wrote an excellent column for WorldNetDaily about the Myths of the Middle East, looking at the truth behind Palestinian religious claims on Jerusalem, and the history of Palestine itself. The truth is that Palestine is no more real than Never-Never Land. The ...

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long quote coming up

Wed, Dec 5, 2001 at 12:16:22 pm PST

DEBKAfile’s website, unfortunately, provides no way of linking to specific articles. So I’m going to quote this one in its entirety. Some of the DEBKA stuff has proven to be hooey, but the death they report in this article really did happen, and there really has been a noticeable lack ...

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the hamas bombings

Wed, Dec 5, 2001 at 11:02:36 am PST

Well said, Thomas: We've bought into the theater of the Middle East for too long: this reprisal is calibrated to match that one, diplomats phone each other to share the delusion that they matter, media personalities chatter about the cycle of violence, peace prizes are bestowed. And killers keep recruiting ...

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arabs have never accepted israel

Wed, Dec 5, 2001 at 9:54:11 am PST

Arabs Have Never Accepted Israel. This article by Daniel Pipes looks at the sorry history of Arab attitudes toward Israel, attitudes which now also target the US: If it was possible to believe in the Arab acceptance of Israel in 1993, surely today's inflamed rhetoric and the drumbeat of Palestinian ...

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arab hatred in the ny times

Wed, Dec 5, 2001 at 9:32:39 am PST

Again I ask—what the hell is going on at the NY Times? The excellent Thomas Friedman column mentioned below is unfortunately accompanied on the op-ed page by a rancid slab of Arab anti-Semitism: Sharon's War Cannot Be Won. As a Palestinian I am often challenged by the press on my ...

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and again

Wed, Dec 5, 2001 at 8:12:49 am PST

And last night, those stupid murderous assholes did it again.

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the intifada is over

Wed, Dec 5, 2001 at 8:02:37 am PST

A great piece by Thomas Friedman in today’s NY Times: The Intifada Is Over. The Palestinian Intifada II is finished.It ended with last weekend's spasm of suicide bombings against Israeli kids — a signal that the Palestinian national movement was being taken over by bin Ladenism, which is the nihilistic ...

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Tuesday, December 04, 2001

loose nukes

Tue, Dec 4, 2001 at 4:29:28 pm PST

An excellent and very frightening piece at the Christian Science Monitor looks at the efforts of terrorist groups to get their hands on nuclear materials: Loose nukes. The shadow army of terrorism, the force responsible for the deadliest day on American soil since Antietam, is trying, methodically, patiently, to acquire ...

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america's stockholm syndrome

Tue, Dec 4, 2001 at 3:31:45 pm PST

An op-ed piece at the Jerusalem Post suggests that America has been suffering from Stockholm Syndrome in its dealings with Arafat; historically, every new atrocity has resulted not in censure, but in rewards: The past 20 years have shown that the best way for the PLO to get what it ...

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the next stop

Tue, Dec 4, 2001 at 2:50:34 pm PST

Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle writes at Israel Insider about the compelling case for dealing with palace enthusiast Saddam Hussein: Next stop, Iraq. By the way, for those who are not sufficiently concerned about the possibility of the anonymous delivery of biological weapons from Saddam's arsenal of those ...

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iraq officially threatens israel

Tue, Dec 4, 2001 at 2:03:20 pm PST

It’s official; Iraq says directly that if the US acts against them, they will “swallow Israel up.”

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colonialism is alive and well

Tue, Dec 4, 2001 at 1:55:29 pm PST

A good column by Michael Gove in today’s Times, arguing that colonialism lies at the heart of the West’s attitudes toward the Middle East: Colonialism is alive and well in the Middle East. It is not Israel which is guilty of colonialism. It is Israel which is now the victim ...

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new warnings tied to nuclear fears

Tue, Dec 4, 2001 at 10:48:51 am PST

When I heard the new warning from Tom Ridge yesterday, my first thought was that it was connected to the intelligence being gathered from abandoned Al Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan. I’m sure you’ve seen the stories that their nuclear documents were based on Internet spoofs, and this kind of stuff ...

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cycling in afghanistan

Tue, Dec 4, 2001 at 9:59:04 am PST

Afghan cyclists on the road again. Need I say more?

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actors and victims

Tue, Dec 4, 2001 at 8:26:32 am PST

More gold from the referrer log: Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s Electrolite. This morning he refutes another twisted, borderline anti-Semitic editorial in the Guardian that suggests Israel welcomed the recent terror attacks. It's really hard to read this as anything other than an imputation that Israel cunningly arranged the murder of 25 ...

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Monday, December 03, 2001

conservatives vs. hippies

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 6:31:38 pm PST

Andrew Sullivan has a great little paragraph about conservatives vs. hippies on his site. Unfortunately I can’t link directly to it, because Andrew’s site is a usability nightmare. Usually I can find a way to link to a specific entry on almost anyone’s site; you may have noticed that I try ...

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sad sack

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 4:50:13 pm PST

This story would be absolutely frickin’ hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. Mohammed Jamil, like thousands of other hopelessly deluded young Pakistanis, went to Afghanistan to do battle against the Great Satan—and ended up in a Three Stooges episode with real grenades. Mohammed Jamil must be one of the world's ...

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the tip jar

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 3:44:50 pm PST

Matt Welch shamelessly hypes his tip jar, covering it up with an amusing story about “busking”—entertaining passersby on the street for donations—and likening busking to blogging. Apparently his partially-clothed greed was inspired by reading Glenn Reynolds’s boast of receiving a $500 check from a fan of InstaPundit. I’ve done that street ...

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saddam and osama?

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 2:53:43 pm PST

According to the Iraq Report, on November 22 the Karachi newspaper Ummat carried a story that Saddam Hussein offered asylum to Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar: SADDAM REPORTEDLY OFFERS ASYLUM TO BIN LADEN, MULLAH OMAR. The Karachi newspaper "Ummat" of 22 November carries an article saying that Saddam Husseyn ...

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a changed world

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 2:30:30 pm PST

Cool—the Christian Science Monitor has a weblog.

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land of weenies

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 12:44:16 pm PST

Man. I’m going to have to write an extension for my Mac that watches URLs in IE, and stops me from ever visiting the Metafilter comments areas again. I have a lot of respect for guys like Dan Hartung, Steven Den Beste, and Oliver Willis for pulling on the hip boots ...

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the enemy below

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 11:45:36 am PST

Newsweek has a pretty nice multimedia presentation on Bin Laden’s cave hideouts.

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arab “news”

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 8:59:53 am PST

Ken Layne links to this strangely moderate story in today’s Arab News, and remarks: I smell something ... yeah, that's it ... Fear. Yep, it’s pretty obvious the word came down from Prince Too-Many-Names to put the blocks on open anti-Semitism. Problem is, their insanity keeps bubbling up in spite of ...

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on to baghdad?

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 8:15:14 am PST

Daniel Pipes and Jonathan Schanzer identify the six main arguments against taking out Saddam Hussein, and decisively smack each one of them down: On to Baghdad? Yes - The Risks Are Overrated.

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arafat's suicide

Mon, Dec 3, 2001 at 8:08:31 am PST

John Podhoretz at the NY Post: Arafat’s Suicide. Israel will not disappear from the earth. She will defend herself. And the consequences will be tragic - but not as tragic as the consequences for her and the Jewish people if she did not do so. Israelis, so desirous of living ...

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Sunday, December 02, 2001

israel's 9/11

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 9:25:51 pm PST

At Israel Insider, Reuven Koret expresses the anguish of a country that has reached a turning point: Israel’s 9/11. In the first twelve hours of this day, in four separate attacks, terrorists have killed more than 25 Israelis, wounded more than 220, from north to south and from east to ...

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it ... the thing ... make it go

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 6:52:05 pm PST

Here IT is.

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round 3

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 6:29:22 pm PST

The Lunk turns and fires. In response to comments on Sharon's trip to the Temple Mount, Charles rebuts: "First, this completely ignores the fact that Palestinian incitement and violence was on the rise for weeks before Sharon’s visit. The visit did not 'trigger' attacks; the attacks were already taking place." ...

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war, not crime

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 3:32:29 pm PST

It’s good to see so many writers working to dispel the invidious—and wholly false—claims made by Amnesty International (to whom I once gave money—never again) that the three day battle to stop the prison revolt was a “war crime.” Joanne Jacobs joins the choir.

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the temple mount issue

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 2:55:46 pm PST

From camera.org, here’s more about the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount; even Palestinian leaders have gone on record saying the intifada was planned long in advance of Sharon’s visit. Among the Palestinian leaders who admit that Sharon's walk on the Temple Mount did not cause the widespread ...

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2011

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 2:28:25 pm PST

Feeling optimistic about the progress against Al Qaeda? Then don’t read this, if you don’t want your day spoiled. Take the long view. What will New York be like on Sept. 11, 2011? It's not difficult to imagine a rather wretched future. You need only visit one of those cities ...

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photos of the battle

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 1:56:00 pm PST

At TIME.com, a harrowing photo essay on the battle for Qalai Janghi (spelling #14): The Battle for Mazar-i-Sharif.

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you should be proud

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 1:14:33 pm PST

At the Jerusalem Post: Palestinians on suicide bomber: 'We are proud of him.' Habashi was stunned as neighbors and friends came to congratulate him. "He got engaged one-and-a-half months ago and we were getting ready for his wedding," Habashi said, crying and holding on to relatives for support.Hundreds of Palestinians ...

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the lunk has spunk

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 12:59:37 pm PST

Reid apparently took exception to being called a “lunk.” He even looked it up in the dictionary (which is more than I did). But hold on there, cowboy! Let’s repeat the full sentence: Ya know I love ya, Reid, ya big lunk, but you’re wrong on this one... I hope ...

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please don’t preach to us

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 10:56:16 am PST

At the Jerusalem Post, Stewart Weiss expresses the outrage I’m sure many Israelis feel right now: Please don't preach to us. The story is told of a yeshiva student in Poland before the war, who returned from a visit to Germany and came to see his rosh yeshiva (principal). The ...

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an american taliban

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 10:29:56 am PST

MSNBC interviewed the American traitor who managed to survive the battle at Kala-i Janghi: Tale of an American Taliban. They also report that he has been taken into custody by US Special Forces. (I have now encountered at least a dozen different spellings of the fort’s name...)

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why europe hates israel

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 10:13:45 am PST

At OpinionJournal, a great analysis of Why Europe Hates Israel. More than a half century after the Holocaust, a Europe awakened to the importance of human rights is looking to punish the leader of the world's only Jewish state for a crime that was actually committed by a Christian Lebanese ...

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signs of intelligent life at the guardian

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 9:13:23 am PST

At the National Review ... no, wait ... my eyes must be deceiving me! ... at the Guardian: The case for tough action against Iraq.

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the fort of hell

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 8:30:07 am PST

The Sunday Times has the most complete account yet of the battle in Qala-i-Janghi fort, with a surprising revelation: The fort of hell. At 10am the remainder agreed to surrender. Nobody was sure how many were left in the hellhole. One by one they came out of the shattered entrance. ...

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another suicide attack

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 8:17:59 am PST

Bombing in Haifa Follows Attack in Downtown Jerusalem. HAIFA, Israel -- A suicide bomber detonated nail-studded explosives on a bus in this port city Sunday, police said, killing himself and at least 14 people just hours after Islamic militants set off deadly explosions in downtown Jerusalem.

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the toll of terror

Sun, Dec 2, 2001 at 7:56:41 am PST

Jerusalem, Haifa Suicide Blasts Kill 25. The victims in the Jerusalem attack ranged in age from 14 to 20, said police, who released their names Sunday.The bombs went off around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, an hour when the Ben Yehuda mall is usually crowded with young people strolling and sitting at ...

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Saturday, December 01, 2001

more terror in israel

Sat, Dec 1, 2001 at 2:44:03 pm PST

Two suicide bombers have attacked a crowded shopping mall in Jerusalem. This has to stop. If I were Israeli, this might well be the final straw.

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the last holdouts

Sat, Dec 1, 2001 at 2:29:27 pm PST

More than 80 (!) Taliban fighters who were holed up in the Qalai-Jangha fortress have finally surrendered: Taliban Holdouts, More than 80, Give Up at Fort, Looking Desperate.

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the next front?

Sat, Dec 1, 2001 at 12:45:24 pm PST

DEBKAfile reports on unusual troop movements in Israel. December 1:  Israeli defense minister Binyamin bin Eliezer, accompanied by his deputy, Dalia Pelosof-Rabin, called on US envoy Anthony Zinni Friday night for what was described as an urgent meeting. A call of this nature on a Friday night is most unusual ...

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undeterred

Sat, Dec 1, 2001 at 11:40:45 am PST

I noticed this piece by Steve Chapman in Slate yesterday, in which he argues against doing anything about Iraq on the grounds that Saddam will be deterred from using weapons of mass destruction by the threat of retaliation. This argument seems incredibly flawed to me, and I had it on ...

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rsvp

Sat, Dec 1, 2001 at 9:48:08 am PST

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is apparently not from Earth, but rather from the Bizarro world where people do everything backward: Schroeder Discourages U.S. From Launching Attack on Iraq. Mr. Schroeder, in concert with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has warned the United States that an attack on Iraq could crack ...

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elephant piss

Sat, Dec 1, 2001 at 9:03:17 am PST

At the Independent, David Aaronovitch has a great piece about the people who can’t seem to distinguish between “war” and “war crimes:” Not every regrettable killing in Afghanistan is a war crime. With a bitterly funny subtitle: “Some people emit outrage like elephants' piss. The sheer quantity soon covers the ...

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honored comrades?

Sat, Dec 1, 2001 at 8:01:00 am PST

What the hell is going on at the NY Times? This article about US pressure on Iraq to allow inspections is accompanied by a photo of Iraqi soldiers with the caption: During a ceremony in Baghdad today, Iraqi soldiers honor comrades who died in wars with Iran and the United ...

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