Target Centermass

Author: Gunner

  • Swedish Foreign Minister Resigns over Cartoon Clampdown

    The dreaded Mohammad cartoons have chalked up another victim– the job of a Swedish government minister that apparently lied about preemtively axing a web site soliciting further such drawings.

    Sweden’s foreign minister resigned Tuesday, accused of lying about shutting down a far-right Web site that solicited cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

    Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds told a news conference she could not stay in the government in the “current situation.” Prime Minister Goran Persson said Freivalds would be temporarily replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Bo Ringholm.

    Freivalds has been criticized for her role in shutting down the Web site of a far-right party that was planning to publish caricatures of Muhammad like those that led to deadly protests by Muslims worldwide.

    The site was closed Feb. 9 after a Foreign Ministry official contacted the Web hosting company, which critics said was an intrusion on the freedom of speech.

    Freivalds had told Swedish media she did not order the ministry official to contact the company. A later report from the ministry said she was involved in the decision.

    Good. Not knowing what cartoons the web site may have received and actually published, there was no legitimate reason, in my view, to justify prior restraint in this case. That the minister lied about the matter only supports the opinion that this was wrong, a strange case of governmental forcefulness boldly applied for the cause of cowardly timidity.

  • Security Council Delays Iran Meeting

    The U.N. Security Council once again stands forth as a shining example of impotence.

    The U.N. Security Council postponed a meeting Tuesday on Iran’s suspect nuclear program as the West searched for new ways to break a deadlock with Russia and China over the best way to pressure Tehran, diplomats said.

    The decision came after senior diplomats from the five veto-wielding members of the council and Germany made little headway on bridging their differences during a 4 1/2-hour meeting Monday evening. Diplomats said Russia was the main holdout, with China following behind.

    That deadlock has forced Britain, France and Germany — the European troika leading negotiations on Iran — to reopen the text of a statement that would be the first Security Council response. Diplomats will focus on bilateral talks to try to find an agreement, they said Tuesday.

    “We’ll just keep working on it,” U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.

    The United States and its European allies want a statement reiterating demands by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, the process that can be used to generate nuclear power or make nuclear weapons.

    Get that? The council cannot even make progress towards a statement. Is there any realistic hope for some action that could be considered resolute or decisive from this bunch on the Iranian nuclear hunt? I’m thinking not.

  • Prince Charles Calls for Tolerance in Egypt

    More naivety from our Euro friends? Apparently so, this time courtesy the British crown prince.

    Britain’s Prince Charles began his visit to Egypt on Monday urging people to bridge the gap between the Western and Islamic worlds even as his own trip to Cairo’s most renowned Islamic institution courted controversy.

    “As I’m going to say at Al-Azhar university, I find my heart is incredibly heavy from all the destruction and death that occurs,” Charles told Egypt’s state-owned satellite Nile TV channel, in an interview pre-recorded in London.

    […]

    Al-Azhar’s decided to honour Charles for his conciliatory stance during the recent controversy over cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed, but the move has angered some of the institution’s directors.

    “All that Prince Charles did is to say that Islam is the most widespread religion in the world and that’s a reality, not a discovery made by the prince,” Al-Azhar lecturer in Arab literature Abdel Azim al-Mataanni told AFP.

    In his interview with Nile TV, Charles touched on the broad issues of attacks carried out by Islamic extremists and the recent wave of violent Muslim and Arab protest over the cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed.

    “I know so well from having experienced the horror of terrorism myself, in losing my beloved great-uncle Lord Mountbatten back in 1979 when he was blown up in a terrorist bomb,” Charles said, invoking the memory of his mentor killed by the IRA.

    “I do have some understanding I think, a little, of what people go through with these horrors.”

    He pleaded for people on both sides of the Muslim-West divide to find common ground and acknowledge the shared heritage of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

    Before mentioning Judaism, perhaps Prince Charles should look around Cairo for the apparently-fashionable swastikas. Yes, that’s a sure sign of a fertile common ground.

  • Defiant Hamas Packs Cabinet with Hardliners

    Guess what. The terrorist group-become-democratic-victors of Hamas have yet to be mollified by the rigours of leadership.

    Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, has named a government dominated by its own leadership, defying international pressure and confounding hopes that it would moderate its extremist stance.
    After other Palestinian factions refused to join a coalition, the victorious Islamist group nominated a Cabinet whose senior members have all been jailed, deported and escaped Israeli assassination. Chief among Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniya’s 24 ministers are Dr Mahmoud al-Zahar, a hardliner, as Foreign Minister, and Said Siyam as Interior Minister. Most others are Hamas, with some pro-Islamist independents and technocrats, one woman and one Christian.
    President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to approve them but may try to delay the decision until after the Israeli general election on March 28. However, Shaul Mofaz, Israel’s Defence Minister, said that if President Abbas accepted the line-up he would “officially turn the Palestinian Authority into a terror entity”. Hamas faces a cash crisis, as EU foreign ministers met in Brussels yesterday to consider how to continue providing aid to Palestinians without endorsing what is regarded as a terrorist organisation by the EU and US.

    The article describes four of the key named figures as follows:

    Prime Minister: Ismail Haniya, 43. Imprisoned by Israelis twice

    Foreign Minister: Mahmoud al-Zahar, 55. Imprisoned once by Israelis. Survived Israeli assassination attempt but lost a son. Hardliner. Hostile to Israel and the US

    Finance Minister: Omar Abdel-Razeq, 48. Arrested twice by Israel

    Interior Minister: Said Siyam, 46. Teacher. Lost job with UN relief agency over political affiliations. Member of the Hamas’s political office in Gaza In charge of foreign relations for Hamas. Jailed four times by Israelis

    Should we be surprised that Hamas has yet to turn into a bunch of Pollyannas? No, of course not. First, they have yet to really shoulder the strain of actually trying to govern the madness that fills the Palestinian regions. They did get a taste of the “society” they’re expected to lead today, as Palestinian gunmen engaged in multiple firefights. Strangely, these violent outbursts of cordite involved no Israelis.

    Unfortunately, some of the immediate pressure of governing was alleviated from Hamas as the European Union agreed to a release of $78 million in emergency aid. Luckily, that largesse was accompanied with the oh-so-stern warning that Hamas must play nice.

    In Brussels on Monday, EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner handed a cheque for 64m euros to Karen AbuZayed, of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

    She was insistent that Hamas, which has refused to recognise Israel or renounce violence, needs to fall into line with the international community.

    Hamas immediately buckled. No, wait, they actually took the money and thumbed their nose at their naive benefactors.

    A Hamas spokesman, Salah Bardawil, said the group recognised that the PA faced economic difficulties.

    “But we will not go begging to the United States and Europe because we will not be blackmailed over our political positions,” he said.

    He said Hamas, an Islamic organisation, would seek new funding from the Islamic world.

    Ah, sweet progress toward peace. I do, however, look forward to the times when Hamas does actually try to govern the mess it has played no small part in creating. If only fools would quit enabling Hamas and actually force them to confront the consequences of their positions.

  • Belarus President Faces Challenge from Protesters

    After victory in an election that the U.S. has decidedly declared “invalid,” the president of Belarus is trying to ride out a swarm of protests.

    Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko faced a challenge to his electoral victory on Tuesday from international critics and protesters who camped out in the capital overnight accusing him of rigging the count.

    Lukashenko, in power since 1994 and criticized in the West for authoritarian Soviet-style rule, swept back into office on Monday with an official tally of 82.6 percent.

    Nearest rival Alexander Milinkevich, with 6 percent, called the poll fraudulent, a view shared widely in the West.

    About 300 protesters defied warnings by Lukashenko’s state security services and camped out in the early hours in dozens of tents in an action reminiscent of the highly organized 2004 “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine.

    Supporters brought sleeping bags, food, hot drinks and blankets to them.

    Witnesses said riot police were stationed in sidestreets near the square but there was no sign of any action against the unsanctioned rally, summoned by Milinkevich to demand a rerun of the election and denounce Lukashenko’s human rights policies.

    “We must stay here while we have the strength to do so. We must stay until victory,” Milinkevich told the rally on Monday.

    Unsurprisingly, Publius Pundit‘s Robert Mayer comes through with some of the best blogging on the region, this time providing lengthy and oft-updated coverage of the protest.

  • From the Blogroll

    I’m not in the mood for more tonight. As such, I would instead like to point you to a few postings from the fine members of my blogroll.

    Gateway Pundit honors the three-year anniversary of the Iraqi invasion by looking back at the predictions about the war and the global turnouts of protests on that anniversary.

    Protein Wisdom‘s Jeff Goldstein asks for help in shredding a recent “news” piece. He actually does well enough on his own, but his commenters chip in aplenty.

    TexasBestGrok‘s JohnL finally brings back some aircraft cheesecake with some sweet Raptor pics.

    Phil at Shades of Gray (finally) writes again. This time, it’s about, well, writing.

    Finally, Eric the Straight White Guy ponders on … Kiwi polish … and today’s society … and buffing brushes. Yes, I still keep and use one.

    That is all for tonight. See y’all tomorrow.

  • Aggie Hoops at the Dance: A&M Falls in Second Round’s Final Seconds

    Ah, last night brought such a heart-breaking loss, ending the Aggies’ season when they were only seconds away from the Sweet Sixteen.

    LSU calls the play “special,” and Darrel Mitchell ran it to perfection.

    With the clock running out on his team’s hopes, the Tigers’ lone senior made a long 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds remaining to give the Southeastern Conference regular-season champions a 58-57 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday in the second round of the Atlanta Region.

    […]

    The victory sends fourth-seeded LSU (25-8) to the regional semifinals against top-seed Duke (32-3) on Thursday night.

    Davis led LSU with 21 points, including a key basket in the final minute. Mitchell finished with 16.

    The Tigers seemingly were in control when Mitchell made two foul shots for a 53-46 lead with 3:31 to go. But No. 12 seed Texas A&M (22-9), in the tournament for the first time since 1987, wasn’t ready to go home.

    The Aggies wiped out the seven-point deficit over the next 91 seconds, then went ahead 55-53 on Joseph Jones’ jump hook in the lane.

    “That’s how it’s been all year. Things ain’t always going to go well for us,” Law said. “Coach always tells us to stick with it, continue to fight, continue to fight. We played a bad game. We weren’t ourselves tonight, but we continued to fight.”

    […]

    Law finished with 15 points on 5-for-16 shooting. Kavaliauskas added 12 for the Aggies.

    The Aggies were in the second round of the tournament for only the third time, and their victory over Syracuse was their first in the NCAAs since their only trip to a regional semifinal in 1980.

    Despite the loss, the Aggies clearly have a program on the rise under coach Billy Gillispie, the former Bill Self assistant who inherited a team that was winless in the Big 12 and won seven games overall two years ago.

    “This will leave a sour taste in our mouths. But it doesn’t take away from the year we had,” Law said.

    “A lot of people didn’t expect us to do what we did. We finished in fourth place and got 10 wins in the Big 12 and got our first Big 12 Tournament victory. … We had an outstanding year, but unfortunately for us, we didn’t finish out the year the way we wanted to.”

    All this just two seasons removed from an 0-16 Big 12 campaign. Yes, this is certainly a program on the rise.

    Thanks for the thrills and constant effort, Ags. I’m glad I finally got to watch my alma mater in March Madness.

  • Quote of the Week, 19 MAR 06

    You will usually find that the enemy has three courses open to him, and of these he will adopt the fourth.

    —Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke, the Elder

  • How U.S. Assault Grabbed Global Attention

    Yesterday, I questioned a media description of Operation Swarmer as the “biggest attack since the Iraqi invasion.” Today, the media is questioning itself and finding its own coverage overblown because of a lack of understanding of American military terminology.

    It was billed by the US military as “the largest air assault operation” since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, with attack and assault aircraft providing “aerial weapons support” for 1,500 US and Iraqi commandos moving in to clear “a suspected insurgent operating area north-east of Samarra.”

    The international news agencies immediately rang the urgent bells on the story.

    Around the world, programmes were interrupted as screens flashed the news, which dominated the global media agenda for the next 12 hours or more.

    […]

    By the middle of Day Two, the operation had already been scaled down to 900 men.

    Operation Swarmer clearly bore no comparison in scale to the initial attack which brought down Saddam Hussein’s regime, or to the massive assault on the insurgent stronghold in the city of Falluja in November 2004.

    Nor did it appear to match a series of counter-insurgency operations involving air strikes and ground forces in remote areas near the Syrian border in western Iraq last year.

    In one four-day campaign last May, the US military said it had killed 125 insurgents for the loss of nine of its own men killed and 40 injured.

    So how and why did this latest apparently routine combing operation, yielding a few arms caches and netting some low-grade suspects, manage to win stop-press coverage around the world?

    The use of the phrase “the largest air assault operation” was clearly crucial, raising visions of a massive bombing campaign.

    In fact, all the phrase meant is that more helicopters were deployed to airlift the troops into the area than in previous such operations.

    The 50 “aircraft” that had been deployed were not combat jets blasting insurgent targets, but helicopters ferrying in the forces. There was no rocketing or bombing from the sky.

    In US military parlance, “air assault” means transporting troops into a combat zone by air. It could include, but does not necessarily imply, air strikes.

    Ah yes, the media — get the story out, get it right later … maybe.

  • Six Meat March Madness Update

    Well, yesterday was good for the ol’ Gunner, as I found myself all alone in first place.

    Unfortunately, day two has been not so kind to my picks.