Target Centermass

Category: General

  • New Allegation of Detainee Abuse

    Just wanted to make sure this story got some play. Don’t count on it reaching the front page of the New York Times or Washington Post, though, as it concerns an American citizen detained in Egypt.

    A California man who was detained in Egypt for nearly a week says he was beaten and questioned before authorities released him without explanation.

    Abdul Ghafoor Mahboob, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City, said he was repeatedly beaten with a stick on his thighs and punched in the stomach and head.

    “Without my prayers, I would have gone crazy,” Mahboob told the Los Angeles Times in a phone interview from London on Friday.

    Won’t get much play without photos of Abdul on a leash, I’m betting.

  • French Consulate Demands Respect

    Apparently, manners are now a must when visiting French consulates.

    In a sign that relations between Washington and Paris remain a bit testy, a notice on the front door of the French Consulate in New York warns Americans applying for a visa to check their attitude before entering.
    “Visas for France are not a right. Persons applying for visas are requested to show due respect for Consular personnel. Failure to do so will result in the denial of the application and denied entry into any of the EU countries,” says the sign posted in English at the French Consulate at 10 East 74th St., referring to the European Union.

    Someone must’ve gotten a tad snippy. Nevertheless, I somehow doubt the entire EU has surrendered control of their borders to French veto. Oh, but I forget, Bush is the one with the arrogance problem.

  • Committee on the Present Danger Being Reformed

    A Cold War relic is being reincarnated for the War on Terror.

    Citing what they call the need for a more aggressive war of information against, and education about, Islamic extremism, two U.S. lawmakers appeared Tuesday at a news conference formally announcing the latest reincarnation of a group that had its beginnings during the Cold War.

    In 1950, in the earliest years of the “Cold War” with the former Soviet Union, the Committee on the Present Danger was formed to serve as a way of building support among Americans for a strong national defense and opposition to Moscow’s expansionist aims.

    Described in history texts as a conservative, although bi-partisan group, the committee counted among its members numerous people who went on to work in several presidential administrations. It also included, at one point in 1979, a politically ambitious Ronald Reagan who would go on to win the presidency.

    In the 1960s, the group became less visible with the growth of public opposition to the war in Vietnam, only to re-emerge in the mid-1970’s amid a debate about the direction of U.S. security policies regarding the Soviet Union, and the efficiency of the intelligence community.

    Now, the group has appeared again, this time with the objective of educating Americans and the world about what its members call the threat from radical Islamist, as opposed to Islamic, terrorism.

    Chaired by former CIA director James Woolsey and fronted by Sens. Joe Lieberman and John Kyl, the Committee on the Present Danger, quite simply, gets it:

    The 9/11 attack had a similarly stimulating effect on the terrorist network that perpetrated it, and on legions of Muslim youths across the globe from among whom that network draws its recruits. Nothing succeeds like success, it is said, and Al Qaeda’s “success” in hitting America on 9/11 was a far greater rallying event than all of Bin Laden’s screeds and Al Jazeera’s agitprop, combined. As it moved from suicide bombers in Tel Aviv to weaponized commercial aircraft in New York and Washington, there was no escaping the reality that the Islamist jihad took a quantum leap on 9/11. And with it leapt the danger confronting the free world from the “insane courage” (a term Bin Laden favors) of radicalized, Islamo-fascist killers.

    I’ll most certainly be keeping an eye on the efforts of this group, and it’s comforting to know that the tradition and memory of the Cold Warriors continues. The more I read from Useful Idiots by Mona Charen, the more parallels I find between the struggle against communism and the fight against Islamofascist terrorism. This is especially true when I watch those against the struggle and listen to the recycling of talking points from decades ago.

  • Movies Really Can Put You in the Mood, Study Finds

    As I’ve long suspected, chickflicks suck the testosterone out of a man.

    Sentimental films such as “The Bridges of Madison County” caused levels of the hormone progesterone to rise by more than 10 percent in both men and women, the team at the University of Michigan found.

    Women’s testosterone levels were unchanged during and after the Clint Eastwood movie about a love affair, while men’s testosterone levels fell.

    “The Godfather Part II” aroused a different sort of passion. While watching the crime and action film, men with the highest levels of testosterone had them soar by as much as 30 percent more.

  • Ideal Challenger…Disastrous Champion

    A tip of the CVC to FauxPolitik for this look at Garry Kasparov analyzing Bobby Fischer, a man who has always fascinated me, both the good and the bad. Check that, both the brilliant and the horrid.

    As we’ve heard, Fischer has gone of the deep end (well okay, that was long ago – it’s just that he’s finally reaching the bottom of the pool), and is currently in custody in Japan; one step removed from being in custody in the U.S. But Kasparov is more interested in what might have been with young Robert….

  • Iraq’s Neighbors Agree to Improve Security

    Or, probably more likely, at least pay lip service to security.

    Iraq (news – web sites)’s neighbors agreed Wednesday to hold a high-level security meeting and share intelligence about cross-border infiltration, answering the war-ravaged nation’s plea for assistance.

    Facing almost daily car bombings and firefights, Iraq accuses foreign Muslim infiltrators of being behind some of the deadliest attacks and says neighboring countries are either facilitating or turning a blind eye to infiltration across borders.

    After a day of long-winded deliberations and minor disagreements, Arab foreign ministers welcomed the proposal of Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari to convene interior ministers and security officials to discuss how to “eliminate all terrorist and other armed groups present and emanating from Iraqi territory which constitute a danger to Iraq and neighboring states,” the final statement of the meeting said.

    The date of the meeting, to be hosted by Iran, has not yet been decided. But delegates at the sixth regional meeting of Iraq’s neighbors said the meeting will mean intelligence sharing, and possibly reinforcement of border patrols.

    Note the hint that Egypt is possibly realizing their own danger that is being fostered by the terror:

    “Just as neighboring countries affect the situation in Iraq, they are affected by it,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said.

  • Israel to Sideline EU after UN Vote on Security Fence

    Fed up with the partisan U.N. vote against its security barrier, Israel has said the European Union is possibly kaput as a player in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

    Israel made clear to senior European officials at United Nations headquarters yesterday that “it will be very difficult in the future to include the EU as a party in efforts to advance the peace process,” after the European Union joined the sweeping majority that passed an extreme resolution on the separation fence.

    In a round of talks with EU representatives, Israeli diplomats stated that “the atmosphere created at the UN following passage of a one-sided resolution makes it doubtful that the EU, UN, and Quartet will be able to play the role of honest broker.”

    Israel said that by backing the resolution, “EU countries ignored even Israel’s right to defend itself. How can Israel place its future in your hands?”

    Right now, why would anyone place their security in the hands of Europe. Even the likes of Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic refused to side with Israel or, at the very least, abstain (kudos to Australia for their nay vote, and a mild golf clap Canada for their abstention).

    Playing their usual role, the Europeans immediately took their traditional two steps backwards.

    Several European ambassadors tried to assuage Israel’s anger. “We succeeded in balancing the wording of the resolution,” a senior European diplomat told an Israeli colleague.

    Senior EU officials also pledged that “we won’t support additional measures that [Nasser] al-Kidwa is planning,” referring to the PLO observer to the UN.

    I’ve studied a lot of history, but I have yet to come across the moment in time when so many Europeans became invertebrates.

  • Al-Zarqawi Group Warns Japan to Withdraw

    Having tasted success from the Philippines’ submissiveness, the terrorists have now set their sights on Japan.

    “To the government of Japan: do what the Philippines has done. By God, nobody will protect you and we are not going to tolerate anybody,” said an online statement signed by the Khalid bin al-Waleed Brigade, the military wing of the Tawhid and Jihad group.

    “Lines of cars laden with explosives are awaiting you; we will not stop, God willing,” said the statement, carried by an Islamic forum, known as a clearinghouse for statements by extremist groups.

    “You didn’t come to support the people of Iraq but to protect the Americans. Your destiny will be the same of Americans,” the statement said.

    Japan has dispatched about 500 troops to southern Iraq for non-combat duty to rebuild local schools, provide medical supplies and supply clean water.

    Thanks, Philippines, for joining Spain in the Coalition of the Wilting. You’ve helped to make the world a more dangerous place.

  • Kerry aide: Bush ‘flat-out lied’ on Iraq

    Ummm, okay.

    According to “badly wounded Vietnam war veteran” and ousted Senator Max Cleland, President Bush led the U.S. into the Iraq war on a “pack of lies.”

    Cleland said that Bush went to war “because he concluded that his daddy was a failed president and one of the ways he failed was that he did not take out Saddam Hussein (news – web sites)” in the 1991 Gulf war. “So he (Bush junior) is Mr. Macho Man.”

    He added that Kerry, from Massachusetts, agreed with the assessment of Bush’s credibility. “About a year ago John Kerry said,’The president lied, he lied to me personally,’” said Cleland, a badly wounded Vietnam war veteran.

    The response from the Bush team was simple:

    The Bush campaign issued a statement denouncing Cleland’s “rage-filled rant” and accusing Kerry of playing politics with national security, while White House spokesman Scott McClellan shrugged off the Democrats’ attacks.

    “I would remind you that the president’s opponent looked at that same intelligence and made the same decision to support the use the force to remove that regime from power,” McClellan said. “I know he’s all over the map since that time.”

    So much bitterness on the left side of the aisle these days. Check that, Cleland no longer sits left of the aisle.

    By the way, I have yet to find any specifics from Cleland as to what the president’s “lies” were.

  • Militants Burn Building in Protest Aimed at Arafat

    Continuing to feel the repercussions of their long dance with the terror devil, the Palestinian Authority continued to scramble amid protests over their latest display of cronyism.

    Members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades burned down offices of the Palestinian intelligence services Sunday in southern Gaza, protesting a security shake-up announced by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

    The Palestinian Authority president announced a major restructuring of security services Saturday.

    The changes included consolidating more than 12 security agencies into three main units and replacing two top security officials. One was replaced with Arafat’s cousin, Musa Arafat.

    Within hours of Saturday’s announcement, leaders of Arafat’s Fatah movement in southern Gaza resigned and about 2,000 demonstrators took to the streets, many of them armed, accusing Arafat of replacing “corruption with more corruption.”

    I don’t yet believe the PA is in danger, but two things are obvious. First, the Palestinian Street is finally growing tired of false reforms and the game of musical chairs being played by Arafat’s inner circle. Second, when you allow terrorism to grow and blossom because of the convenience that said terrorism is aimed outward, don’t be surprised when the day comes when the bastards turn and look over their shoulder at you. We may be seeing it in the Palestinian areas soon. We’ve seen it in Saudi. We’ve seen plots stopped in Jordan. The lesson should have been obvious from the start; unfortunately, I’m not sure any of the Arab states have truly learned it.