Target Centermass

Category: Europe

  • French Econ Policy: More Jacked than I Knew

    Okay, so I knew about the stupid French governmental regulations capping work hours, bloating vacation and keeping an unsustainably low retirement age. I did not, however, have a clue at how anti-business and anti-employment France’s tax policy was.

    Jacques Chirac, France’s president, has announced plans for tax reforms in an attempt to discourage companies from dismissing French workers or moving production overseas.

    In his televised New Year’s Eve address, Mr Chirac called on his government to meet the challenge of globalisation by changing the way it raises funds for social welfare – including unemployment benefits, family assistance, pensions and healthcare.

    The tax plan was the most significant new idea in Mr Chirac’s address, as he adopted a more friendly tone towards global capitalism than in previous speeches, calling on French people to “make globalisation an asset for our growth and our jobs”.

    Instead of taxing companies based on the number of employees, which experts say encourages them to dismiss workers and discourages them from hiring staff, the government is expected to examine alternative ways to raise funds for social welfare.

    “Today the more jobs a company cuts, the more production it moves overseas, the less social charges it pays. Our system of corporate charges must favour companies that employ people in France,” said Mr Chirac.

    Please remember that the U.S. unemployment figure, even at the time well under six per cent, was considered an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign. Here we have a state, already wrestling with double-digit unemployment figures, that essentially punishes its economic contributors based upon how many people they employ. That is beyond sad, and it is far more screwed up than I would have given the French credit for managing.

    Ace points us towards an article [another version here, as Yahoo!News expires their stories] stating that Chirac is struggling to remain relevant in today’s Franco politics. Should he manage a restructuring of such an abortion of common sense tax policy in his twilight days, I might just have to give him a hearty bravo. Unfortunately, I don’t think the weasel will manage anything of any significance that I would consider progress. After all, for years his legacy has looked to be cemented — Jacques Chirac, a worthless man who whiled away his country, opportunistically trading opposition to America for short-term French gain but at the expense of true principle.

  • Poland Keeping Troops in Iraq Another Year

    Bully for the Poles, among our staunchest of allies.

    Poland’s president on Thursday approved extending the country’s military mission in Iraq for another year, the prime minister said.

    “The president made such a decision on the government’s request,” Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said on TVN24 television during a ski trip at a mountain resort. “The issue is closed and taken care of.”

    Marcinkiewicz’s government requested Tuesday that President Lech Kaczynski, the commander in chief of Poland’s armed forces, reverse plans by the previous government to bring home troops serving with the U.S.-led coalition in early 2006.

    […]

    Marcinkiewicz’s announcement offers some relief to President Bush, who has seen the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq dwindle and faced withering criticism at home and abroad over his handling of the war.

    Ukraine and Bulgaria announced this week that their remaining soldiers had pulled out of Iraq.

    In calling for an extension Tuesday, Marcinkiewicz called the move “a very difficult decision” but said that it was a step meant to help maintain stability as Iraq progresses toward democracy.

    Though the mission will be prolonged, the number of Poles serving in Iraq will be cut from about 1,500 to 900 by March, officials have said. The Poles are based at Camp Echo in the central city of Diwaniyah, one of the nation’s more stable areas, where they mainly train Iraqi security forces.

    Poland has been a staunch U.S. ally in Iraq. It sent combat troops to the country and in September 2003 took command of an international force that now numbers some 3,000 troops from 12 countries.

    However, the deployment is unpopular, and some in Poland have complained that they have not seen sufficient rewards such as easier access to U.S. visas or more rebuilding contracts for Polish companies. Seventeen Poland solders have died in Iraq.

    I feel that there is much merit to the idea of insufficient rewards to date, not only for Poland’s sacrifice but also for the growing importance the country seems willing to accept on the world’s stage.

    Four months ago, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute – a Washington-based think tank known for neo-conservative ideas – wrote a treatise urging US financial backing for further deployments of eastern European troops in Iraq, citing Poland as a particularly attractive candidate.

    “The Polish military, unlike the public, is upbeat about its service in Iraq, recognising that the mission has done wonders for the army’s preparedness,” the AEI scholar wrote. “Does it always make sense to hire private contractors, with all their legal and political baggage, when you could have real soldiers for less money?”

    It was a prescient suggestion. The writer, Radoslaw Sikorski, has since traded Washington for Warsaw, and in October became defence minister in Poland’s new centre-right government, which on Tuesday recommended extending the country’s deployment in Iraq for another year.

    […]

    “What Poland has done is decided it wants to be a strategic player,” said Kurt Volker, the number two official in the State Department’s European bureau. “People always make the assumption a country does this to please the US . . . Poland sees this as valuable in itself for the role it can play globally.”

    Poland, along with the UK and Australia, were the only international partners to provide combat troops for the invasion of Iraq. It has since commanded a multinational division based in the south-central city of Diwaniya, now one of the most stable regions in the country. In that role, it has overseen the troops of at least a dozen countries and trained the Iraqi army’s 8th Division.

    The deployment has cost Poland money and personnel, however, with 17 soldiers killed, 45 seriously wounded, and financial costs of about $600m – a high price for a country with a $6bn (€5bn, £3.5bn) defence budget.

    And while the deployment has given Poland international prominence, Mr Sikorski has also attempted to use the decision to win more US military aid, making the push most recently in meetings at the Pentagon this month.

    The US has already spent about $300m assisting the Polish mission. Because Poland does not have its own long-range military transports, the US helped fly Polish troops and ship equipment to Iraq. In theatre, the US has supplied fuel, food and occasionally trucks and other vehicles.

    I have long argued for military assistance for Poland, not only as a reward for the nation’s willingness to sacrifice but also as an investment for the betterment of a friend that can be trusted in time of need. In February I blogged the following:

    Military assistance is entirely appropriate for a country with a backbone and a willingness to stand along side its allies. Certainly, Poland and other coalition nations, particularly those whose militaries were shaped and equipped during the days of the Warsaw Pact, could stand to have some martial modernization.

    In many ways, Poland was the first crack in the Iron Curtain. They are now placing themselves towards the forefront of nations to which America can turn to and see a true ally, along with the steadfast friends we have in the U.K. and Australia.

  • U.N. Asks Belgian to Take Over Assassination Inquiry

    The U.N. investigation into the assassination of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian former prime minister Rafik Hariri will continue under new leadership.

    The United Nations has asked a Belgian prosecutor to take over its investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, according to a spokesman for the prosecutor and senior U.N. officials.

    U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan wants Serge Brammertz, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to succeed German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who will step down next month. Mehlis has led a six-month U.N. inquiry that has implicated members of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s inner circle in the Feb. 14 killing of Hariri.

    A U.N. spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said that an announcement of the appointment will not be made until Jan. 11 but “we can confirm the secretary general has completed the selection process.” She said Annan “is satisfied there will be continuity in the leadership of the inquiry.”

    Senior U.N. officials said that Annan is delaying a public announcement because Brammertz wants more time to assure governments that support the criminal court that his departure will not disrupt its war crimes investigations in Sudan, Congo and Uganda. They also expressed concern about Brammertz’s safety.

    And what a rewarding position it is, replete with radicals wanting blood.

    Mehlis has received frequent death threats since taking control of the U.N. probe in May. A Lebanese newspaper, An-Nahar, reported Wednesday that a pro-Syrian organization that claimed responsibility for killing the paper’s editor, Gibran Tueni, issued a new threat against Mehlis’s successor. The group said Mehlis is lucky it has not killed him.

    There is more on the death threat here, including this juicy little bit of Arab rationalization of violence.

    The statement described Mehlis, a German prosecutor, as a “filthy infidel” who had politicized the investigation to implicate Syria. It warned Mehlis’s successor, who has not been appointed, not to come to the same conclusions.

    The statement ended with an ominous Arabic saying: “He who has given advance warning is excused.”

    Good luck, Mr. Brammertz, as you try to both keep your head and nab the guilty.

  • Germany Paroles Hijack Murder Terrorist

    Mohammed Ali Hamadi, a convicted terrorist with American blood on his hands and long wanted by the U.S., sat for years in a German prison. Four days ago, Germany quietly set him free.

    German authorities have paroled Mohammed Ali Hamadi after he served 19 years of a life sentence for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and the killing of a US Navy diver.

    Hamadi has been released from prison and has left Germany, said Doris Moeller-Scheu, a spokeswoman for the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office. She said she did not know his destination.

    She said Hamadi’s case came up for a regular legally mandated review by a parole court and he was released after an expert assessment and a hearing.

    TWA flight 847 from Athens to Rome was hijacked to Beirut, where the hijackers shot US Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Maryland, and dumped his body on the tarmac.

    […]

    A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Martin Jaeger, said there was no connection between his release and that of Susanne Osthoff, a German woman released at the weekend after spending more than three weeks as a hostage in Iraq.

    Hmmm … tit for tat?

    Stethem, 23, was beaten and shot on June 15, 1985, while the plane was in Beirut. He was the only casualty during the hijacking ordeal, in which 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days. He received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart decorations, and a US Navy guided missile destroyer is named in his honour.

    Hamadi was arrested at Frankfurt Airport on January 13, 1987, when customs officials discovered liquid explosives in his luggage.

    Germany insisted on trying Hamadi, refusing to hand him over to the U.S. in opposition to the American death penalty.

    Well, ain’t that great. We don’t want to be overly harsh to killers and terrorists. Meanwhile, Hamadi has already returned to Lebanon and is in contact with the terrorists of Hezbollah.

  • Islamic Troubles Link Dump, 19 DEC 05

    So many stories, so little time on my accursed dial-up connection.

    Man Accused of al-Qaida Link Admits Gun Buy

    A Canadian terror suspect confessed to buying guns and rocket launchers for al-Qaida to use against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, according to a court filing Monday.

    In an affidavit submitted to the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto, where Abdullah Khadr appeared at a preliminary hearing, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Konrad Shourie said Khadr admitted ties to senior al-Qaida members and confessed to buying guns and rocket launchers for them in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Khadr also admitted to a role in an unspecified plot to assassinate Pakistan’s prime minister, Shourie wrote.

    Khadr, 24, who entered no plea at the hearing, faces extradition to the United States on charges of possessing, and conspiracy to possess, a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, where the charges were filed. He faces a maximum of life in prison if convicted.

    Khadr was arrested Saturday. A bail hearing could come as soon as Wednesday.

    He is alleged to have bought AK-47 and mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and containers of mine components for al-Qaida. The weapons purchases were made at the request of his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian who was killed in 2003 when a Pakistani Cobra helicopter fired on a house where he was staying with senior al-Qaida operatives, authorities said.

    Abdullah Khadr was born in Canada in 1981 and settled with his family in Pakistan in 1997.

    The U.S. attorney in Boston said he received military training at a camp in Afghanistan for four months in the mid-1990s. Pakistani intelligence officers picked him up in a car in Islamabad on Oct. 12, 2004, and he was returned to Canada in early December.

    Some may ask Abdullah why he deals with terrorists. Well, it’s a family tradition.

    All three of Khadr’s brothers have been detained at various times and linked to terrorism.

    One brother, 19-year-old Omar Khadr, is the only Canadian detainee at the U.S. camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. He faces trial on charges of murder and attempted murder for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic.

    Spain arrests 15 suspects involved in Iraqi insurgency

    Spanish police arrested early Monday 15 people suspected of recruiting fighters for Iraqi terrorist groups, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

    The suspects, arrested in coordinated police raids in several provinces across Spain, were accused of belonging to a group which recruit, train and send fighters for Iraq to fuel the insurgency.

    Police also seized a great amount of documents, fake credentials, cash and components for explosive devices in the raids.

    According to the statement, eight of the 15 are Moroccans, and the seven others include an Iraqi, a Saudi Arabian, an Egyptian, a Belarussian, a French, a Spaniard and a Ghanaian.

    The group, led by a 25-year-old Iraqi who had close contact with al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was well-organized, the statement said.

    Police intelligence showed that the suspects themselves had also been engaged in terrorist activities in Iraq and other Islamic countries, but there was no sign they had any plans to launch terrorist attacks in Spain.

    This is not a new thing, as Spain has earlier claimed to have cut terrorist pipelines to Iraq. After an earlier Spanish round-up, I blogged the following:

    I would like to point out, however, that the success probably is not nearly grand as it sounds — the country is merely treating symptoms of the Islamist movement within its borders, having already run away from the attempt in Iraq to provide an alternative to the Arab world, a possible last ditch to salvage a huge chunk of the world’s population from falling hopelessly into sheer barbarism and madness.

    This kind of success, while dramatic and helpful, is fleeting. Al Queda will find other ways to move its jihadists, much as the human nervous system can sometimes find alternate routes when nerve pathways are severed. Unfortunately for Spain and the rest of Europe, other paths already exist and this one will be replaced, thus making it obvious that simply treating local symptoms of radical Islam while ignoring the global disease is not enough.

    The Spanish have yet to heed my warning.

    Video ‘shows cold-blooded killing of kidnapped US contractor’

    A barabaric video believed to show the killing of Ronald Schulz, an American security contractor kidnapped in Iraq two weeks ago, was released on the internet yesterday.

    It depicts a man with his hands handcuffed behind his back and blindfolded by an Arab headdress kneeling in an empty, open area of dirt.

    A gunman standing two yards behind him then shoots him in the back of the head, toppling the figure to the ground, before his body is then shot repeatedly.

    Although the victim cannot be identified, any hope that the former US marine may still be alive appears extinguished by a picture of him alive that appears on a split screen as the footage is aired. His identity card is shown briefly.

    The Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for his death.

    For those still ignorant of the bloody, cowardly nature of our enemy, the Jawa Report is always a good place to find such videos. As for me, I don’t need them and see no need to host them. Those who are blind will still refuse to see and continue to shriek “Abu Ghraib” as they try to demonize any allegation of atrocities thrown against American soldiers.

    ‘Dr. Germ,’ Others Released From Iraq Jail

    About 24 top former officials in Saddam Hussein’s regime, including a biological weapons expert known as “Dr. Germ,” have been released from jail, while a militant group released a video Monday of what it said was the killing of an American hostage.

    […]

    An Iraqi lawyer said the 24 or 25 officials from Saddam’s government were released from jail without charges, and some have already left the country.

    “The release was an American-Iraqi decision and in line with an Iraqi government ruling made in December 2004, but hasn’t been enforced until after the elections in an attempt to ease the political pressure in Iraq,” said the lawyer, Badee Izzat Aref.

    Among them were Rihab Taha, a British-educated biological weapons expert, who was known as “Dr. Germ” for her role in making bio-weapons in the 1980s, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as “Mrs. Anthrax,” a former top Baath Party official and biotech researcher, Aref said.

    “Because of security reasons, some of them want to leave the country,” he said. He declined to elaborate, but noted “some have already left Iraq today.”

    Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, would say only that eight individuals formerly designated as high-value detainees were released Saturday after a board process found they were no longer a security threat and no charges would be filed against them.

    It may take years to correctly judge the wisdom of these releases. Because of that, I’ll refrain.

    EU May Cut Aid if Hamas Wins at Polls

    Europe’s top diplomat warned Sunday the European Union might cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas militants win next month’s parliamentary election, reflecting international alarm over the Islamic group’s strong showing in West Bank local voting.

    Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said during a tour of the region that European taxpayers would have a hard time supporting the Palestinian government if it included a party that supports violence and advocates Israel’s destruction.

    The U.S. House of Representatives approved a similar declaration Friday. The Palestinian Authority counts on foreign aid for half its budget.

    […]

    The main challenge facing the Palestinian Authority now is the Jan. 25 election for parliament, where Hamas is fielding legislative candidates for the first time to challenge Fatah, which has ruled Palestinian politics for decades.

    Last week, the younger generation of Fatah leaders split from the party and formed their own group, Future, leaving Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and other Fatah old-timers with a candidate list filled with Fatah veterans that many Palestinians consider corrupt.

    The split was expected to weaken Fatah just as Hamas got a large boost its string of victories last week in West Bank local elections.

    Hey, why foot the medical bills when the lunatics are running the asylum? Still, I have little faith in Europe to actually enforce such a strong stance at this time.

  • Iran’s Leader Criticized at Home, Abroad

    The recent statements by the hard-line Iranian president that Israel should be moved to Europe and that the Holocaust is a myth have continued to cause an international tempest that even angered the Saudis and some Iranians.

    Saudis fumed Friday that Iran’s hard-line president marred a summit dedicated to showing Islam’s moderate face by calling for Israel to be moved to Europe, and the chief U.N. nuclear inspector said he was losing patience with the Tehran regime.

    Even some of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s conservative allies in Iran were growing disillusioned, fearing he has hurt the country with his wild rhetoric.

    “The president has to choose his words carefully. He can convey his message to the world in better language tone,” Hamid Reza Taraqi, a leader of a hard-line party, the Islamic Coalition Society, told the Associated Press.

    The U.S., Israel, Europe and Russia condemned Ahmadinejad over his remarks, made Thursday on the sidelines of the Mecca, Saudi Arabia, summit of more than 50 Islamic nations.

    Hours before the participants issued the summit’s centerpiece — the Mecca Declaration, promising to stamp out extremist thought — Ahmadinejad spoke at a news conference, casting doubt on whether the Holocaust took place and suggesting Europe give land for a Jewish state if it felt guilty.

    Privately, Saudi officials were furious Friday. Three senior Saudi officials complained that the comments contradicted and diverted attention from the message of tolerance the summit was trying to project.

    One Saudi official compared Ahmadinejad to Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, whose renegade statements frequently infuriated Arab leaders.

    The Saudi reaction is somewhat surprising, and there’s even more about their anger in this article, which takes pains to point out that the anti-Israeli comment were not carried in the Saudi written press. The best quote of the article is the following:

    “The Iranian president seems to have lost his direction,” said Gilan al-Ghamidi, a prominent commentator in Saudi media. “Iran should be logical if it wants to receive the support of the world. The president didn’t score any points. He lost points.”

    Lost points? Well, let’s run a little tally. Who, besides the Saudis, has come out against Ahmadinejad’s comments?

    Is anybody getting Ahmadinejad’s back on this matter? Well, of course there is, as the world is more chockful of crazies than Microsoft products are of bugs (theoretically, as it would be difficult to actually run the figures). Chief among the nutcases supporting Ahmadinejad’s statements is his nation’s supreme religious leader and de facto boss.

    Iran’s supreme leader has backed the country’s President, who said the state of Israel should be moved to Europe.

    In a TV interview last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cast doubt on whether the Holocaust happened, and then suggested that Israel should be moved to Europe.

    […]

    Iranian state radio is quoting the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, as describing the international criticism as weakness and fear, dismissing it as nothing more than the sensitivity of the Zionists and the American supporters.

    Ahmadinejad may or may not actually believe his own words, but it is quite certain that he knows where his Iranian bread is buttered.

  • 6,000 NATO troops set for Afghanistan

    There was a rather interesting development in NATO yesterday, as the alliance members agreed to shoulder a little more of the burden in Afghanistan.

    NATO foreign ministers approved plans yesterday to send up to 6,000 troops into southern Afghanistan, a major expansion of the alliance’s peacekeeping mission into some of the most dangerous parts of the country.

    The deployment next year of mostly European and Canadian troops will free United States forces to focus on counter-insurgency operations against Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan’s volatile south and east.

    “They will bring peace to more people in Afghanistan,” said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the secretary-general of NATO.

    “They will help to ensure that terrorism cannot take hold again of this country and use it as a base from which to threaten the world.”

    […]

    The Pentagon has yet to say how many troops it is likely to withdraw.

    The plans give the NATO peacekeepers a stronger self-defence mandate and guaranteed support from US combat troops if they face a serious attack, and set out rules for handling detainees – all issues which have concerned some European allies mulling participation in the expanded force.

    Why is this interesting? NATO has been dragging its heals on any deployment to the Afghan hinterlands, forcing the Brits and the Commonwealth to express a willingness to step up to help the Americans (previously discussed here and here). Obviously, this should then be considered quite a step forward. However, I do not feel that it is as big a step as the following article seems believe.

    Analysis: ‘Zombie’ NATO springs to life

    “A zombie organization,” is how former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar described NATO in an interview with United Press International last week.

    Some zombie.

    At a meeting in Brussels Thursday foreign ministers agreed to expand alliance operations in southern Afghanistan and boost the number of troops in the war-torn state from 10,000 to 16,000. They defused an increasingly bitter transatlantic row about alleged C.I.A. camps in Europe after receiving reassurances from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that suspected terrorists would not be tortured or sent to countries where they would be tortured. And they penciled in two summits of NATO leaders on transforming and enlarging the military bloc in 2006 and 2008.

    That is just the tip of the iceberg of the alliance’s activities.

    Since the terrorist attacks against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, NATO ships have been monitoring the waters of the Mediterranean to help prevent rogue strikes against vessels and ports. In just over four years, 60,000 ships have been monitored and almost 500 non-military vessels escorted.

    In the mid-1990s there was a torturous debate within the alliance about whether NATO forces could act out of area — that is, outside the borders of its member states. As leaders argued, hundreds of thousands of civilians in Bosnia and Croatia were killed before NATO planes finally forced Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic to the negotiating table.

    The next time violence erupted in the Balkans — in Kosovo — NATO had less qualms about leaving its cozy confines. After a robust intervention lasting just 78 days, the bloodletting was ended, although there are still 17,000 alliance troops keeping a fragile peace in the country.

    Since Kosovo, the 26-member alliance has not just gone out of area, it has gone out of Europe altogether. It leads the 16,000-strong International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, is training Iraqi officers outside Baghdad and helping the African Union airlift troops and equipment to the Darfur region of Sudan.

    […]

    For all the alliance’s slights, setbacks and self-doubts, it is difficult to argue — as Aznar does — that it remains mired in a cold-war mind-set based of tanks facing each other across the Fulda Gap. By the end of next year it will have a 25,000-strong rapid reaction force capable of intervening anywhere in the world within five days. It is slowly acquiring airlift capacity to transport troops long distances and its primary focus is now fighting terrorism and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, not stopping a land invasion of Europe from the east.

    This transformation is set to continue in the run-up to the next leaders’ summit in the Latvian capital Riga next November. The very fact that NATO is holding a top-level meeting in a member state that was a Soviet republic less than 15 years ago is testimony to how much the alliance has changed. It also reflects its magnetic pull for neighboring countries. An organization that started off with 12 members in 1949 now has 26. Three more states — Croatia, Macedonia and Albania — are expected to join shortly after the 2008 enlargement summit and Ukraine and the remaining Balkan countries look set to come on board next decade.

    NATO may have its problems — it is under-funded, its mission statement is in need of a rewrite and there is a chronic capabilities mismatch between its European and American members — but this does not seem to dissuade states applying to join the Brussels-based club. Nor does it seem to put off people calling for the alliance to intervene when there are humanitarian disasters or looming conflicts. If it is a zombie organization, NATO is doing a good impression of looking like an body in rude health.

    I’d say it’s not very complimentary to brag that NATO, an alliance based upon mutual defense, can heartily be relied upon for humanitarian disasters but is rather pick-and-choose on military assistance, always quite willing to find a reason to avoid exposure to potential danger. That is not a strong foundation for mutual defense. NATO really must be re-envisioned or cast away as a Cold War relic.

    To be honest, part of the hemming and hawing about commitment into southern Afghanistan is understandable, as there are lessons to be learned from previous NATO efforts.

    ‘Shades of Srebrenica’ overshadow Nato’s mission in Afghanistan

    The Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity in Europe since the Nazi era, cast a shadow over Afghanistan yesterday when the Dutch government demanded guarantees that its troops would not face a similar disaster again.

    A plan by Nato to send 6,000 troops into southern Afghanistan was subject to last-minute wrangling as the Dutch government voiced fears that its troops could be stranded.

    Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and other Nato foreign ministers, offered reassurances that around 1,000 Dutch troops would be supported when the new peacekeeping mission was launched next year.

    The intervention by Ben Bot, the Dutch foreign minister, shows what a sensitive issue Srebrenica is in the Netherlands, a decade after 8,000 Muslim refugees were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces under the eyes of Dutch peacekeepers in what was meant to be a safe haven. A report on the massacre, which found that the peacekeepers handed over the refugees to the Serbs knowing what awaited them, prompted the mass resignation of Wim Kok’s Labour government in 2002.

    “There were shades of Srebrenica in today’s talks,” one Nato official said yesterday.

    The last-minute wrangling came as Nato foreign ministers approved plans to send 6,000 troops to southern Afghanistan to expand its peacekeeping mission. Under the plans, which are expected to come into effect in May, the number of Nato peacekeepers will increase to 16,000 as the alliance takes responsibility for security in 75% of the country. Washington has been pushing for the extra troops, who will mostly be Dutch, British and Canadian, to allow US forces to concentrate on Taliban and al-Qaida forces.

    Nato has responded to European fears that peacekeeping troops could become embroiled in offensive operations by improving links between the two missions. It insists that its troops will be equipped to deal with threats. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato general secretary, said: “There should be no doubt, our forces will have the equipment and the support they need to do the job.”

    I find it sad that an alliance was relied upon to fight tooth-and-nail across Europe against the feared onslaught of the Red Horde has to provide assurances that it can be equipped to provide security and handle some patrols in a handful of Afghan provinces.

    All that said, thumbs up for this development.

  • Iran President: Israel Should Move to Europe

    The new Iranian president quickly showed himself to be a hardliner true to the spirit of the radical 1979 takeover by calling for the destruction of Israel. Now, he is showing himself to be as deluded as too many in the Moslem world are by denying the Holocaust, one of the cornerstones for Israel’s creation.

    Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reignited the controversy provoked by his recent calls for Israel to be “wiped off the map” yesterday by casting doubt on the historical authenticity of the Holocaust and demanding that an alternative Jewish homeland be established in Europe.

    In remarks that sparked outrage in Washington and Jerusalem, Mr Ahmadinejad rejected the “claim” that millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis, but called on those who believe to set up a Jewish state in countries such as Germany and Austria.

    He told journalists at an international Islamic conference in Mecca: “Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail. Although we don’t accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: ‘Is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?’

    “If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe – like in Germany, Austria or other countries – to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe. You offer part of Europe and we will support it.”

    Okay, let’s get this straight: the Holocaust didn’t happen so Israel shouldn’t exist but, if it did happen, Israel shouldn’t exist in the Middle East. Well, apparently this guy could find a sad way to twist the statement “water is wet” into a reason for Israel to not exist.

    Under Ahmadinejad, Iran is pushing at breakneck speed towards two goals — becoming a power with nuclear weapons and positioning itself as the key opponent to Israel in the eyes of the Moslem world.

    Israel quickly responded to the Holocaust-denying, move-Israel claptrap.

    Last night an Israeli government spokesman, Raanan Gissin, decried “the consensus that exists in many circles in the Arab world that the Jewish people … do not have the right to establish a Jewish, democratic state in their ancestral homeland”. He added: “Just to remind Mr Ahmadinejad, we’ve been here long before his ancestors were here.”

    Had this Israeli spokesman been typing up his response on an internet forum, the previous statement would have been closed with the following:

    Osiraq, beotch!

    Perhaps unfortunately, while appropriate, such a closing is not yet welcome in diplospeak. Also, definitely unfortunate is the fact that a repeat of Osiraq, Iranian-style, would be rather difficult for the Israelis.

  • Nobel Winner Brands Bush, Blair War Criminals

    Besides being dementedly wrong, I bet his plays suck.

    Playwright Harold Pinter has launched a fierce critique of the Iraq War, branding the US President and British Prime Minister war criminals in his lecture as winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature.

    Pinter has demanded George Bush and Tony Blair be prosecuted under international law in the lecture.

    “The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law,” he said.

    […]

    Pinter used nearly all of his nearly hour-long lecture to criticise the US.

    […]

    “The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them.

    “You have to hand it to America.

    “It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force of universal good.

    “It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.”

    Did I say demented? Yeah, Pinter’s that and then some. Hell, let’s just ignore America’s political opposition to a multitude of regimes that have together killed millions upon millions. Let’s ignore America’s sacrifices that have freed other millions from brutal oppression that Pinter was apparently quite happy to have as a part of the global neighborhood.

    Hell, let’s not stop at demented. Let’s go for lying jackhole.

    “We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11, 2001. It was not true.”

    Hey, Pinter, you sick old leftist probable-hack (really, I haven’t read or seen his crap but, hey, I’m merely prejudging — he’s the one actually lying), just which one of those you accuse, Bush or Blair, said Iraq “shared responsibility” for 9/11? Answer: neither, jackhole.

    Meanwhile, al Jazeera is quite happy echoing Pinter’s garbage.

  • Pager-forced Link Dump

    I have been owned by the oncall pager, but here’s some reading for y’all.

    ‘This is our Belgian kamikaze’

    Belgians were trying to come to terms Thursday with the news that a working class woman from an industrial southern city had turned from a “nice” shop assistant into a suicide bomber who blew herself up in Iraq.

    “This is our Belgian kamikaze killed in Iraq,” headlined the newspaper La Derniere Heure on Thursday over a picture of a thoroughly normal-looking, smiling girl looking into the camera.

    When her mother, Liliane Degauque, saw police coming to her doorstep on Wednesday, she immediately knew what it was about. The evening before, she had heard the reports there had been a terrorist attack on Nov. 9 by a Belgian woman.

    “When I saw the first pictures, I said to myself, ‘it is my girl.’ For three weeks already I tried to contact her by telephone but I got the answering machine,” she told the RTBF network on Thursday.

    Authorities on Thursday formally arrested 5 of the 14 suspects they detained in dawn raids the day before and charged them with involvement in a terrorist network that sent volunteers to Iraq, including Degauque’s daughter Muriel, who died at 38.

    Nine were released. Those placed under arrest were a Tunisian and four Belgians, three of whom had foreign roots.

    “This action shows how international terrorism tries to set up networks in western European nations, recruit for terror attacks in conflict areas and look for funds to finance terrorism,” said Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.

    In her younger years, Muriel lived a conventional life in the Charleroi area. Media reports said she finished high school before taking on several jobs, including selling bread in a bakery. “She was so nice,” said her mother. The picture in the paper dated from that time.

    She told media, however, that her daughter could easily be influenced.

    Muriel changed first when she married an Algerian man and later one with Moroccan roots. She was increasingly drawn into fundamentalist religion.

    “It is the first time that we see that a Western woman, a Belgian, marries a radical Muslim, and is converted up to the point of becoming a jihad fighter,” said federal police director Glenn Audenaert.

    Belgium. France. The Netherlands. All have been served notice of the Islamist danger in their midst. None yet have taken their individual national wake-up calls seriously enough yet. This is not just a condemnation of these three countries but also of all around them. After all, to paraphrase Otto von Bismarck, any fool can learn from his own mistakes, but it is preferable to learn from the mistakes of others, as well.

    Ramadi Insurgents Flaunt Threat

    Armed fighters claiming allegiance to Abu Musab Zarqawi took to the streets of a western Iraqi provincial capital Thursday in a fleeting show aimed at intimidating Iraqi Sunni Arab leaders taking part in dialogue with U.S. Marines in a stronghold of the insurgency, provincial officials, residents and other witnesses said.

    The scene — lean figures, many in masks and dark tracksuits lugging shoulder-mounted rocket launchers or wielding AK-47 assault rifles — reinforced what the U.S. military has acknowledged is the strong insurgent presence in the Euphrates River cities and towns of Anbar province, an overwhelmingly Sunni area near the Syrian border. The appearance of the fighters dismayed many of the residents of Ramadi, the war-blighted provincial capital.

    […]

    The armed fighters on the streets left statements in the name of Zarqawi’s group, saying their show of force was in response to negotiations between the “Sunni midgets and the stooges of the occupation forces.” The statements contained pledges to kill each Sunni leader participating.

    The U.S. military, which maintains Marine bases and thousands of troops on the outskirts of Ramadi, denied the accounts of unrest, saying that the city was largely calm Thursday and that insurgents were manipulating the news media. “Today I witnessed inaccurate reporting, use of unreliable sources, media using other media as sources, an active insurgent propaganda machine, and the pack journalism at its worse,” Capt. Jeffrey Pool, a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division, said in an e-mail to news organizations.

    Witnesses in Ramadi said they saw some of the armed fighters instruct a journalist for an Arabic-language news outlet to report that Zarqawi’s group, al Qaeda in Iraq, had taken over the entire city. The Arabic outlet by late Thursday was reporting only that the fighters had held some streets of the city center — a description of events in line with the eyewitness accounts and reports from other news organizations. News directors for the organization did not respond to requests for comment. The news organization is not being identified for security reasons.

    This is about as clear evidence as you can have that there are two wars being conducted — on the battlefield and in the media. The terrorists know this and, unfortunately for them, showed themselves to be truly crippled if little stunts like their assaulting and briefly holding a couple of city blocks comprise their current hope to pull of a Tet offensive-type media success.

    Germany: No ransom for Iraq kidnappers

    German leaders said Thursday they still have had no contact with the kidnappers of a German woman seized in Iraq and Chancellor Angela Merkel said considering paying a ransom was “not up for discussion” at this time.

    Susanne Osthoff and her Iraqi driver were taken last Friday, and were pictured in a videotape blindfolded on a floor, with militants – one armed with a rocket propelled grenade – standing beside them.

    The militants are reportedly demanding that Germany cease its dealings with Iraq’s government or they will kill the hostages. Germany was an ardent opponent of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has refused to send troops there, but has been training Iraqi soldiers and police outside the country.

    Merkel indicated in a speech Wednesday that Germany will not change its Iraq policy, stressing that the country “will not let ourselves be blackmailed” over Osthoff’s abduction.

    On Thursday, Merkel told reporters that the government was “doing all its can to save her life and that of her companion.”

    Asked if Germany would consider paying a ransom, Merkel said that was “not up for discussion at all now.”

    “At the moment it is about very elementary questions … First of all, we are interested in finding out how to make contact” with the kidnappers, Merkel said.

    Well, that’s not actually a very strong stance. Hopefully, Merkel will prove to have more of a spine than to cave in to terror and help finance future bloodshed for short-term political gain. You know, like the Philippines. Or allegedly the Italians and French.

    Finally, two blog must-reads:

    The Telegraph’s Nose Just Grew Ten Feet

    Should we hold newspapers accountable for exagerating or just lying? No, I do not mean legally, but as consumers we do drive their paychecks to print out blatent lies and mischaracterizations. Take for instance the following article in The Telegraph [headlined US ‘paid journalists to lie about war’]

    […]

    As a member of the free press, that is unless George Soros has purchased The Telegraph, the rag should know how the same press they operate under works. Apparently they do not. First things first though in this abysmal piece of journalism. Even though The Telegraph cites the Los Angeles Times for breaking the story, no where in the LA Times piece is there any information regarding the United States “paid journalists to lie about war” as stated in the title. I urge everyone to read the original LA Times piece to verify.

    Read it all. This story is growing and needs to be seen for its absurdity as early as possible.

    Picturing Polls, Red vs. Blue

    Here are recent (already outdated) poll numbers put into picture form of President George W. Bush’s approval ratings as seen on numerous Leftist websites.

    Not a good show for Chimpy-Bushitler, that is for sure!

    Too bad their data is no longer accurate. The current and respected Rasmussen Report has his approval rating back to 46%.

    These earlier polls do make you assume that if “W” is having such a hard time, then surely his democratic opponents are reaping the benefits. Right?

    But, looking at Congressional Democratic approval ratings you get this…

    Go see Gateway Pundit’s collection of red-blue maps. Interesting and unheralded, though not surprising.