Vice President Dick Cheney will address representatives from six Iraqi opposition groups Saturday via a videoconference link a day after the group had what they said was "important and constructive" talks with U.S. State Department and Pentagon officials. He will speak via a "secure videoconference" from his vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a day after the six groups based in London and Tehran won encouragement from Secretary of State Colin Powell in their pledge to work together to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. This is the only "coalition" that's going to count in this war. It's going to be fragile, especially if we don't achieve immediate, spectacular successes, like the army turning on Sammy and tossing him out. And after Sammy is gone, we're going to have to contend with the internal agendas of the opposition, most especially the gravitation of the Shi'ites to Iran. It wouldn't do at all to dump Sammy and then have the country we just liberated turn around and embrace another member of the Axis of Evil â but that's the way gratitude works in the Middle East...
Those attending represent what the administration considers the six most prominent Iraqi opposition groups. The representatives included: Sharif Ali bin Hussein, of the Constitutional Monarchy Movement; Iyad Allawi, of the Iraqi National Accord; Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, of the Iran-based Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution; Masoud Barzani, of the Kurdish Democratic Party; Ahmad Chalabi, of the Iraqi National Congress; and Jalal Talabani, of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. In a telephone interview following the meeting, Chalabi told CNN that the United States made clear it was the opposition's "partners in the removal of Saddam." So is Talabani actually on board? Or is he going to stay bought by the Soddies?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 08:27 am ||
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Read an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune that noted that many Iraqis are fed up with Saddam, though they won't say so publicly, for obvious reasons. The other interesting comment was how they all saw themselves as Iraqis first, regardless of their ethnic/religious background. The article noted that Iraqis, despite the war, blockade and Saddam, remain a cosmopolitan people. It looks as if the Shi'ites might be pleased as punch to be part of a federal Iraq that is forward looking and rebuilding with some oil wealth, as opposed to being saddled with a new set of oppressors, er, mullahs. Certainly the Kurds would be in clover.
Regards (and a big thanks once again for your continued excellence on this website)
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2002 14:02 Comments ||
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Two men suspected of killing a senior Chinese diplomat in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek have been handed over to China. Both ethnic Uighurs, the two men are allegedly active members of an underground Uighur separatist organisation, the news agency reported. The Chinese diplomat and his driver were gunned down in the centre of Bishkek at the end of June, in an attack which local officials speculated may have involved Muslim separatists from China's Xinjiang region. Kyrgyz officials said in July that three ethnic Uighur Chinese nationals had been detained on suspicion of being linked to the shooting. But they also said at the time that the men would be not be handed over to the Chinese authorities, but tried in Bishkek. Guess they changed their minds. Tylenol doesn't help with the headaches those guys are gonna get...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 07:10 pm ||
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Two unidentified attackers opened firing on the car of a senior military officer Brigadier Bahtar Hussain Khan Naqvi, currently serving as the head of National Database Registration Authority, Balochistan, and wounded him seriously on Friday morning. Brig Naqvi was coming to his office on Zarghoon Road in his official car when two masked men riding a motorbike opened indiscriminate fire on his car with an automatic hand gun causing serious injuries to him. Hospital sources said he received two bullets in his shoulder. Just about a daily occurrence in Pakland, isn't it?
The accused managed to escape from the scene in broad day light without facing any resistance. "We have cordoned the entire area and would surely apprehend the attackers," said a local police official hours after the incident. Hope they didn't wait until hours after the incident to do the cordoning...
When contacted, Inspector General of Police Balochistan Dr Shoib Suddal did not rule out the possibility of religious or sectarian factors behind the attempt on the life of military officer. However, he said, police would be able to comment on the cause of attack after investigation. Everything in Pakland — and especially in Baluchistan — seems to be connected to "religious or sectarian factors". This is probably the most religiously indignant bunch on the face of the earth...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 08:27 am ||
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Headline on the Markaz ad Dawa website:
Government should not force us to adopt a violent path. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed should be freed immediately. Jamaat-ud-dawa. Notice that they're not capable of controlling their own actions? 'Tis not for them to make the decision of whether or not to adopt a violent path, but the government.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 04:48 pm ||
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Jordan on Saturday recalled its ambassador to Qatar in a diplomatic row over a program on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel that the government said was insulting to the royal family. Ambassador Omar Al-Amad was recalled for consultations three days after Jordan shut down the Al-Jazeera office in Amman and revoked the credentials of its correspondents. Al-Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government. The Arabic news channel describes itself as semiofficial. We've gotten cheezed at al-Jazeera, too, but this is overreaction on the Jordanians' part. It's that free press thang. It can be really uncomfortable sometimes, when you don't agree with what's being said...
The program, "Opposite Direction," hosted a U.S.-based Palestinian university professor, Assad Abu-Khalil, who rebuked the Jordanian royal family, including King Abdullah II and his late father, King Hussein. Abu-Khalil accused Jordan of pro-Israeli stances even before it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. He also claimed that Hussein, who died of cancer in 1999, was on the CIA's payroll, receiving $1 million a year. Pretty incendiary. But a better way to combat such statements would be to refute them if they ain't so, or to justify them if they are so...
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher summoned the Qatari ambassador to Amman, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Bin Jassim Bin Mohammad Al Thani, to inform him of the government's "strong anger and annoyance" over the talk-show broadcast on Tuesday. Muasher said the program was an "insult to all Jordanians regardless of their political background." True or not, huh? King Hussein was, from our point of view, the voice of sweet reason in the Middle East. That means from the overall Arab point of view he was... well, not someone to be happy with. And that annual million from the CIA apparently didn't go far, when Saddam Hussein bought King Hussein's loyalty during the Gulf War — probably by offering to make him Protector of the Holy Sites after kicking out the Sods.
Al-Jazeera's "Opposite Direction" has often stirred controversy in Arab capitals because of its critical approach to Arab politics and leadership.
Al-Jazeera has run into problems with authorities in other Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Bahrain. Unlike state-run media, the station often airs views of local opposition figures and their criticism of the countries' rulers. That tells me that, whether I agree with its programming or not, al-Jazeera's a good thing. I'd like to see six or seven competitors up and running. Together they'd raise quite a few ripples in the pond of feudal stagnation.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 04:36 pm ||
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In southern Gaza, eight people, including four children, were lightly wounded in Khan Yunis Saturday by Israeli tank shells, according to Palestinian hospital sources. The Israeli Army said its forces were near settlements around the Khan Yunis refugee camp and returned fire with machine guns toward Palestinian gunmen. "I'm gonna go open fire on them Zionist tanks over there, Fatimah. Got the kiddies ready?"
"Sure do, Mahmoud. Now, you kids mind yer manners at the hospital, y'hear?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 08:27 am ||
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Would you think he's saying that the Israelis have no reason to mistrust him, but that they can't trust the Zionists as long as they are constantly being invade by them.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat held ongoing meetings with U.S. officials and acknowledged the challenge of overcoming the "below-zero" trust level between Palestinians and Israelis. "I am not going to raise any expectations at this stage. This is going to be a difficult process of rebuilding the trust and confidence between Palestinians and Israelis," Erakat told CNN. Christ, they're trying to "build trust." If the Paleos never adhere to an agreement, what's to trust? If they lie, cheat, steal, obfuscate, and kill people at random, what's the reason to trust?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 08:27 am ||
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Israel forces Saturday prevented a Palestinian carrying hand grenades and other ammunition from crossing the Gaza border into Israel. The forces identified a man near northern Gaza who they said was armed and fired at him. There was an explosion, and he was killed, the army said. The army initially believed he was wearing an explosives belt, but a check of the body revealed he was carrying grenades and other ammunition. It was not clear what set off the explosion. G'bye, whoever you were. It wasn't nice knowing you...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 08:27 am ||
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Israeli forces said Friday they arrested a Hamas commander at Qalqilya in a house where they found an explosive belt. The spokesman said the capture of Abdel Rahman Dhamas "prevented a large attack that was planned for the near future inside Israel." If the Paleos were serious about achieving some sort of peace with Israel, they'd declear Hamas and Islamic Jihad enemies of the PA and crack down on them. But they won't — not because they don't realize that the Islamists are as much their enemies as the Israelis, but because Yasser and his clique know they'd get a civil war — and they're not at all sure they'd win it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 08:27 am ||
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Gunfire in a Jordan Valley settlement killed a suspected Palestinian militant and an Israeli woman late Saturday. Two Israelis were also wounded in a gunbattle with the army near the settlement of Mechora, said Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman for the settlers' organization. It was unclear if the wounded Israelis were soldiers or settlers. Mor-Yosef said the woman who died was a civilian. The army did not confirm the gunbattle but said soldiers were searching for more possible infiltrators. Israel Radio described soldiers moving through the settlement, where residents were under lock-down. The radio quoted residents as saying they saw more than one infiltrator, but had no official numbers. Yaakov Greenberg, a Jordan Valley Council official, told Israel Radio roads to the area were closed. He said at last one gunman entered the settlement through a fence. They make me think of mousquitos, swarming at a screen door on a summer night, trying to find a way in to get to the blood that's just waiting for them...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 02:40 pm ||
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Twenty-two family members were gunned down on Saturday in the country's bloodiest vendetta killing since 1995. Three other members of the Al-Hanashat family were wounded in the ambush set up by members of the rival Abdul Haleem clan near Sohag, in Upper Egypt, 250 miles south of Cairo. The victims were on board two minibuses, traveling from their village, Beit Allam, to Sohag, the provincial capital, when they were ambushed by five or six gunmen from the rival clan hiding in the fields. The Abdul Haleems ordered the buses to a halt and began firing machine guns, killing all passengers except the three, who took shelter under the seats. Seems they were unarmed, too...
The Al-Hanashats were heading to Sohag to attend the court hearing of two relatives charged with the murder of a Abdul Haleem family member last April. Helmi Ahmed and Ali Mahmud, members of the Al-Hanashat family, were accused of killing Hamman Abdul Haleem in revenge for the murder of a relative 11 years ago by the rival clan. An official, who ruled out the possibility that the violence was a "terrorist" act, said security forces have been deployed in Beit Allam and sealed off the village in order to bring the situation under control. And the coppers did one hell of a good job at that, didn't they? Or was that after 22 people had been slaughtered?
The interior ministry confirmed in a statement that the rivalry between the two families went back to 1990. Police have raided the village several times since, confiscating firearms, said the statement, adding that during the last operation, in April, seven weapons were seized, including three machine guns. Vendettas are fairly frequent in Upper Egypt, and this one was the bloodiest since 1995, when 24 people were killed with gunfire and knives in a clash between two families outside a mosque in the Minya province. In March 1998, a man involved in the 1995 vendetta, killed seven people and injured nine others from the rival family. Past feuds have also been linked to fundamentalist groups. Mr Official ruled out the possibility that it was a "terrorist act," even though 22 people were killed in the kind of atrocity that would even draw attention in Kashmir or Algeria. Then the writer (Marwa Abdel Rehim, of Agence France-Presse) tosses out the throwaway that such feuds have been linked to fundamentalist groups. And this brings up that old chicken and egg question: how much of the terrorism were see, specifically in the Islamist movements, is a cultural thing? Even without the involvement of terrorist organizations, this sort of thing is common enough in Pakistan and Yemen and for that matter in most other countries where turbans aren't out of style.
A while back, Bill Quick touched on the honor-shame culture that's dominant on The Other Side. And I've made passing reference time and again to the fact that the laws of cause and effect are a Western discovery that's viewed with suspicion by ayatollahs and mullahs and muftis and similar nasty people. That's why "Islamic" science has never taken root. There has to be a disbelief in cause and effect for a proper vendetta culture to work: "We'll avenge our dishonor in blood and then the issue will be over." Just ask Hamas. There's not a sense of guilt associated with the death of the other side's innocents, never an apology. After all, "our side suffered, so we have the right." That's a depth of insularity that's missing from almost all of western culture.
That still leaves the question of how to deal with this kind of thing. It's obvious that we'll never root out terrorism world-wide if it's rooted that deeply in the culture. But we can look at western cultures where vendetta has figured prominently until recently (some as recently as a few months ago) and try and apply the factors that brought, say, Sardinia from a land of banditti to being a place where lawnorder (usually) prevails. I'm not a social psychologist, but it would seem that three factors seem to go into the breakdown of honor-shame:
The expectations of the outside world. Italy expected Sardinia and Sicily and large parts of Calabria to behave like the rest of Italy; France expected Corsica to behave more like the rest of France. Television, radio, and lately the internet have shown them all a world that doesn't run the way these places did a hundred or even fifty years ago.
The vestiges of feudalism were broken down by the central governments. In Italy that meant displacing the hereditary landowners who held a peasantry in factual serfdom. As Italy modernized, there was more money to be made in being an industrialist than in being lord of the manor â and under Mussolini there were was more prestige to it. Luckily for Italy, that carried over into the postwar world, even if Mussolini didn't. Without feudal justice systems in place, laws and their application became much more uniform and the need for secret societies and individual vengeance dropped.
Individual liberty. This is closely tied to the disappearance of the local lords of the manor, but also to the rise of social democracy, which for Europe represents vistas of personal liberty, even though to Americans they still live in a straightjacket. With personal liberty comes personal responsibility. Responsible people, despite what some brownshirts in Idaho might think, don't take the law into their own hands. They work out their differences, compromise, and if need be they sue each other. When you have some rights of your own, you tend to respect others' more. Huey Long's credo of "Every man a king" is a thumbnail sketch of individual liberty: kings sometimes go to war, but usually they make treaties and form alliances.
I think those are the conditions that are necessary to "defeat terrorism." That, and the eradication of the wahhabi sect and its offshoots, of course, since they're so closely tied to the feudalists who make the culture possible. We're trying to get outside opinion into their societies, and the Bush administration has expressed its expectations. But there isn't a regime in the world more literally feudal than the House of Sod, and the very concept of individual liberty and its attendant responsibility seem alien to the Arab mind. So that's a tough one. It isn't going to be an easy win for our side...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 04:18 pm ||
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I like the idea of honor/shame but note that you can hardly compare Corsica, Sardinia etc which are small enclaves and island belong to a larger ok country. In the ME it is the country itself rather than a smallish offshoot that is the root cause of the problem. what do these countries have in common? Muslim beliefs and lack of democracy.
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Corsica's the home of the word "vendetta," and all the areas I mentioned have historically been serious practicioners. The other thing they have in common is that for most of their history they were very devout. Spain also had a long history of a tetchy personal honor culture, though I don't believe the vendetta concept caught on as thoroughly as it did in the island enclaves. I'd like to hypothesize that it had something to do with the high priestly headcount and the tight control of the Church over daily life, but there's always the example of the Papal States to prove me wrong - I don't recall that vendetta ever caught on seriously there. So I think it's maybe high priestly headcount, coupled with insularity and maybe another couple elements.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2002 6:45 Comments ||
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Members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) arrested by security forces admitted to carrying out attacks in the Algiers area in which more than 100 people died in recent weeks. Members of the 16-man group made their admissions in a documentary film shown by the Algerian information ministry. The cell was smashed this month following revelations by an extremist who had turned state witness. One gang member was quoted as saying orders to the cell had come directly from GIA chief Rachid Abou Tourab, who had allegedly ordered them to kill "without exception". "I mean, what else is there to do in Algiers on a Saturday night?"
In the worst incident, a bomb exploded on July 5, Algeria's independence day, in a market place at Larbaa, causing 38 deaths and dozens of casualties. The choice of Algiers region for the campaign had been intended to sow terror and anxiety among the population and create a new climate of insecurity, according to admissions by the captured extremists. Extremists had likewise admitted to being behind a bomb explosion on May 15 in a market place at Tazmalt in Kabylie, east of Algiers, causing four deaths and 17 injuries. Rachid Abou Tourab had also wished to create confusion in Kabylie, the centre of unrest among Algeria's Berber ethnic minority, and so escalate hostility between Berbers and the rest of Algeria, one extremist was quoted as saying. Tourab took over as GIA chief from Antar Zouabri, killed by government forces last February. He swore to continue his predecessor's radical policies, but the press reported on July 30 that he had died in a government security operation at Tamesguida, south of Algiers. The death has never been officially confirmed. That lack of official confirmation is a bad sign. It implies it was just somebody who looked like him...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 08:27 am ||
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Six armed Islamic extremists have been killed and 16 others arrested by Algerian security forces in two separate operations in the Boumerdes region, 50 kilometers east of the capital Algiers, newspaper reports said Wednesday. Six extremists were killed by army troops in an operation to root out insurgents in the town of Ammal, which lies between Boumerdes and Bouira, 120 kilometers (75 miles) further southeast, the papers said. In a separate operation in Dellys, east of Boumerdes, security forces arrested 16 people suspected of having links to armed Islamic groups, the papers reported. Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) is known to operate in the Boumerdes region. Pity the poor Algerians. This is a job that'll never get done, but if they stop doing it they've got the much greater of two evils.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 08:27 am ||
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Fred, is there a more hopeless situation out there right now than Algeria? Even Kashmir looks to have more reason for optimism.
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2002 14:04 Comments ||
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There's also an element of what goes around comes around. This situation is an outgrowth of the tactics of terror and alienation that the Algerians invented in the course of the civil war. They worked against the French, so they figure they'll work against anyone else they don't agree with. If the government went under today, the guys who weren't in power would be using them against the GAI/Salafists, assuming they were the ones who took charge. They've managed to make this sort of thing a part of their national culture.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2002 14:32 Comments ||
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In a major expansion of democracy, Indonesia's top legislature amended the constitution Saturday to require direct presidential elections and end reserved parliament seats for the military. Closing out its annual two-week session, the 700-member People's Consultative Assembly also turned back calls to impose Islamic-based law in the world's most populous Muslim nation. The assembly's decision to abolish its own role as an electoral college that picks the head of state is considered the most important government change since the 1960s, when Indonesia was shaken by political unrest. When Speaker Amien Rais asked the delegates to agree on a direct presidential ballot beginning with the 2004 election, they chorused: "Agreed." The Islamists will keep pushing for Shariah, since it gives them control over every aspect of people's lives. This is an issue that won't go away until the Soddies do.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/10/2002 04:24 pm ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
