Month: April 2005

Islamofascists Disenchanted With Arab TV Networks?

Islamofascist groups like al-Qaeda and Tawid and Jihad have used Arabian satellite TV networks as a propaganda arm for their terrorist causes. Terrorists routinely select stations like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya to publicize their videotaped butchery or their exhortations to the faithful. However, the Lebanon Daily Star reports that the Islamists may no longer be enamored of these media outlets after their coverage of Pope John Paul II’s death:

[R]adical Islamists, who advocate the expulsion of non-Muslims from Islamic countries, have been using Islamist Web sites to vent their anger at Arab television stations for according the pope such importance.
One such user lashed out at Al-Jazeera, saying viewers were “annoyed” with extensive reports eulogizing the pope, who the user described as an “old tyrant.”
“What is mortifying is that this hooligan channel pretends [to defend] Islam,” added the user, who wrote under the name Muhib al-Salihine on the Islamic News Network, a site often used by Islamist militants operating in Iraq.
“What is more humiliating – I think that it was Al-Arabiya channel – is that the imam of a mosque … praised the memory [of the pope],” said Seri Eddine le Libyen on the same site.
“I have started to hate Al-Jazeera for the multiplicity of information on the grieving” for the pope, said another user.

What a shame! Do you mean to tell us that the Islamists oppose free speech and a free press? The two news agencies should consider this reaction when the nutcases try to exploit them in the future to promote their radical brand of fascism. Helping these people gain power will prove completely self-defeating for Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, and perhaps this reaction will serve as a mild wake-up call for their manegement.

John Bolton Gets Petitions Of Support

John Bolton received public support for his nomination as the American ambassador to the UN, with 64 former defense strategists and arms-control specialists signing an open letter to Senator Richard Lugar. Led by luminaries such as Caspar Weinberger, James Woolsey, and Frank Gaffney, they argue that the 62 Bolton critics who sent a letter opposing his nomination have other motives in mind:

Caspar W. Weinberger, a former secretary of defense, R. James Woolsey, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and 64 other retired arms control specialists and diplomats are lined up in support of John R. Bolton, whose nomination to be the American ambassador to the United Nations has stirred some opposition.
In a letter planned for delivery on Monday to Senator Richard G. Lugar, the Indiana Republican who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, other committee members and Congressional leaders, they said the attack on Mr. Bolton was really an attack on President Bush’s policies. …
Mr. Bolton’s supporters said his stance “reflects a clear-eyed necessity of the real limits” of accords with other nations that demand one-sided terms from the United States. The supporters included Max M. Kampelman and Edward L. Rowny, arms control negotiators in the Reagan administration. Their campaign was organized by Frank J. Gaffney Jr., a Pentagon official in the Reagan administration.

Gaffney and his allies have it right. The United Nations has become a cesspool of corruption and incompetence, and the last thing we should do is to send someone who gives the impression that the US will “make nice” with current management. We fund 25% of the UN and it’s high time that we start demanding some accountability for that money. Milquetoasts like Madeline Albright and Bill Richardson would instead dance with Kofi Annan (literally, in Albright’s case) just to make the world feel slightly less anti-American for a brief moment. In the meantime, UN aid programs would continue to steal money from the mouths of the hungry and stuff it into the pockets of UN bureaucrats and tyrants. UN troops would continue raping and pillaging the people they supposedly are tasked to protect.
The United Nations is a disgrace. The US should not send someone to Turtle Bay that would make the current corrupt and incompetent regime comfortable. We need to make them as uncomfortable as possible. John Bolton will not shrink from that task, and he will demand that any UN-negotiated treaties and sanctions carry verification and substantial penalties for failure. Had the UN not transformed itself into the League of Nations for the past fourteen years and allowed the permanent members of the Security Council to be bought off with Iraqi oil futures, then Bolton’s nomination would not be necessary. The UN will get the US ambassador it has plainly earned.

The Long-Distance Kyrgyz Resignation

Askar Akayev, the former president of Kyrgyzstan, accepted reality after being deposed last month and formally resigned his position. Akayev had to meet a Kyrgyz delegation at the embassy in Moscow as he has been declared persona non grata in his homeland:

Kyrgyzstan’s deposed President Askar Akayev formally resigned on Monday allowing the Central Asian state’s new rulers to consolidate their grip on power seized in last month’s coup and prepare for a new election.
The veteran leader formally stepped down in a ceremony at the Kyrgyz embassy in the Russian capital, where he had fled after the coup on March 24.
“Askar Akayev has already signed the (resignation) statement,” Bermet Bukasheva, member of a Kyrgyz delegation dispatched to Moscow to negotiate with the ousted leader, said in comments shown on Russian television.

After a confusing two weeks where two Kyrgyz parliaments struggled for control and the interim security chief threatened to arrest the people who freed him from prison, Akayev’s resignation eases the political tensions immensely for interim president Kurmanbek Bakiev. It allows the new parliament constitutional standing to place Bakiev in charge, if retroactively, until new presidential elections can be held in three months. Bakiev has already announced his candidacy, while Felix Kulov, the more popular opposition candidate who now heads the security forces, has yet to decide.
Akayev asked for his country’s forgiveness for any past “mistakes” he may have made. Making the request from the safety of Moscow probably suits the circumstances for Akayev. I doubt he’ll get the chance to return to Kyrgyzstan soon, if ever, unless he returns in Kulov’s custody.

Canadians: Linking To CQ May Be Bad For Your Freedom

After CTV named Captain’s Quarters on their news program last night, the site got swarmed with tens of thousands of visitors, leading to some slower response times (sorry!) and a “magnitude” increase of traffic for blogs who I’ve linked, especially on this story. However, if you’ve linked your blog to CQ and you live six or seven hours north of me, you may receive a summons from your government, according to this report from the London Free Press this morning:

A U.S. website has breached the publication ban protecting a Montreal ad executive’s explosive and damning testimony at the federal sponsorship inquiry. The U.S. blogger riled the Gomery commission during the weekend by posting extracts of testimony given in secret Thursday by Jean Brault.
The American blog, being promoted by an all-news Canadian website, boasts “Canada’s Corruption Scandal Breaks Wide Open” and promises more to come. The owner of the Canadian website refused to comment yesterday.
Inquiry official Francois Perreault voiced shock at the publication ban breach, and said the commission co-counsel Bernard Roy and Justice John Gomery will decide today whether to charge the Canadian website owner with contempt of court.
“We never thought someone would violate the publication ban,” Perreault said. “Maybe we were more confident than we should have been.”

The Canadian website in question is Nealenews.com, which linked to my post on Saturday night or early Sunday morning. It only provided a link back to my site; it carried none of the testimony itself. In fact, it’s still headlining a link to CQ despite the threat of legal action.
In an age of instant communications and greater freedom of the press, one would think that this kind of publication ban would obviously prove futile, especially when dealing with the kind of corruption that the Gomery Commission is investigating. However, if Perreault is to be believed, no one even considered the notion that someone might talk. Either M. Perreault is hopelessly naive, or he gets the Captain Louis Renault award for being shocked, shocked that free speech goes on in a democracy.
However, despite the publication of the material in an American blog and its review by thousands of Canadians, the Gomery Commission insists that the information is not public. Perreault warns Canadians that any link to CQ or even a mention of the blog name in any Canadian publication could lead to prosecution:

Perreault warned that even if Brault’s testimony has been outed by a U.S. website, it doesn’t mean it’s now public information.
“Anyone who takes that information and diffuses it is liable to be charged with contempt of court,” Perreault said.
“Anybody who reproduces it is at risk.”

Well, you’ve been warned, my Canadian neighbors.
UPDATE: The Globe and Mail interviewed me yesterday, and published this Jane Taber article:

The explosive testimony given out of the public eye last week at the Gomery commission began appearing on websites yesterday, capping a weekend of frenzied rumours about snap elections and covert political meetings in Ottawa.
Conservative deputy leader Peter MacKay even suggested yesterday that the testimony, which is under a publication ban, could lead to criminal charges against senior Liberals. …
The publication ban does not restrict Americans from publishing or broadcasting the details of the in camera hearings. Still, the blogger joked that he isn’t planning any vacations soon to Canada.
“It’s an interesting story. It’s fascinating,” he said. “First off, I think it’s a terrible thing that you guys can’t publish this. This is the type of thing that a free press exists for is to hold their government accountable. ….. It should be you guys reporting this.”
The fact that the testimony is now circulating on the Internet and by word of mouth calls into question the effectiveness of the publication ban, Mr. MacKay said. … Mr. MacKay said his party is considering whether it should appear before the inquiry to fight the ban.
Mr. Duceppe [Bloc Quebecois] wouldn’t say whether the Bloc will seek the lifting of the publication ban.
“I want to talk to our lawyers first, to see the implications of what’s happening in the United States,” he said, referring to the Internet blog.
Said Mr. MacKay: “There is no question that if it is in fact now being circulated and is out publicly in the States or elsewhere, that this sole purpose of having the ban in place has just evaporated. There is no point. So once somebody has violated the ban there is no purpose in having it there.”

Taber reports that McKay plans on challenging Prime Minister Paul Martin in Parliament today to answer for the information that has already arisen from the Brault testimony. It could be an interesting day in Ottawa.

Liberals To Request Standing At Gomery Commission For Cross-Examination

In a late update to the Adscam story, the Canadian Liberal Party will request standing at the Gomery Commission tomorrow in order to cross-examine Jean Brault. This news has not yet been published in any Canadian newspaper, but I understand that it has been broadcast on CTV. This may be a result of the Brault testimony being made public here at CQ, but as soon as I get some better detail on the request and what it might mean for the investigation, I’ll update this post.
UPDATE: Here’s a CTV report on the release. It came out prior to their lawyers approving the mention of CQ in relation to the story. Believe it or not, Canadian news sources could wind up committing a crime just by linking to my blog now:

Some of the so-called explosive testimony from the Gomery Inquiry that Canadians aren’t supposed to see has found its way onto U.S. political weblogs.
On a U.S. weblog, the anonymous author said this about his source: “For obvious reasons, I cannot reveal this person’s name or position, but this person is in a position to have the information. Bear in mind that this comes from a single source, so while I have confidence in the information, you should consider the sourcing carefully.”
The testimony of some witnesses has been blocked from publication by Justice John Gomery in an attempt to protect their rights to a fair trial. …
Even with the ban, as more and more opposition MPs are becoming aware of the testimony, what they are hearing has some thinking it could be enough to bring down the Liberal government.
“Members of Parliament say this dramatic testimony goes to the heart of the way the Liberal Party machine operated in Quebec under Jean Chretien and his Quebec lieutenant, Alfonso Gagliano,” Fife said.
On CTV’s Question Period, NDP Leader Jack Layton said Sunday the revelations are damning.
“There certainly seems to be an atmosphere of real disturbance because we’ve been waiting for Liberal corruption to be exposed, and perhaps we’re on the threshold of seeing the dimensions of it.”

Perhaps the MPs are on the verge of seeing the dimensions, but Justice Gomery apparently doesn’t trust the Canadian voters to see it for themselves.

Canadian Visitors Find CQ

I spent most of the day offline, as today was my birthday and I’m still trying to shake off the effects of the flu or a nasty cold (not sure which). I spoke with a couple of Canadian reporters regarding the Brault testimony, and I also worked on another source which confirmed the overall accuracy of my original source for the material.
I also got a note from CTV News that their lawyers cleared them to mention Captain’s Quarters on their evening news, which started at 10 pm ET. Since then, traffic has tripled this evening, so if you’re dropping by the blog for the first time, welcome aboard.
More information should be forthcoming regarding the embargoed testimony either tomorrow night or Tuesday. I plan on staying with the story regardless of whether the ban stays in place. Hopefully, the publication here will convince Judge Gomery to do what should have been done in the first place: allow for Canadian reporters to keep Canadians informed of what their government officials have done with their money.

Iraq Political Deadlock Breaks

The new Iraqi parliament made significant progress this morning towards forming a governing coalition. They selected Hajem al-Hassani, a Sunni, as their new Speaker of Parliament and have settled on all but one vice-presidential position that has been designated to the Sunni as well:

In a ballot, the members of the 275-seat National Assembly voted overwhelmingly to elect Hajem al-Hassani, the current industry minister, as speaker. Hassani, a religious Sunni, is an ally of Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
“We passed the first hurdle,” Hassani told reporters afterwards. “The Iraqi people have proven that they can overcome the political crisis that has plagued the country for the last two months.”
But he also warned against complacency.
“If we neglect our responsibilities and fail, we will hurt ourselves and the people will replace us with others,” he said.
Shi’ite politician Hussain Shahristani and Kurdish lawmaker Arif Tayfor were elected deputy speakers. The Shi’ites and Kurds, who came first and second in the Jan. 30 election, had agreed between them that a member of the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority should be speaker.

As Dick Cheney said a week ago, the Iraqis have been frustrated by the slow progress, but the simple fact is that Iraqis have little experience in multiparty electoral and parliamentary politics. They have not developed the skills necessary to effect the kinds of compromises and coalition-building required to effectively form parliamentary governments. The only way to learn is to actually do it, and it appears that the Iraqi politicians may have worked their way through the first try.
The other positions will fall into place rather quickly, with the posts expected to gain approval in the next session of the National Assembly. A Kurd will be named president, Jalal Talabani, and a Shi’ite will take on the more powerful position of Prime Minister, Ibrahim Jaafari. The Shi’ites and Kurds took care to ensure participation of all three major sects in the new government, even though the Sunni wound up with less than ten percent of the seats in the Assembly due to their boycott. By the end of this week, they should be in a position to determine who will fill the ministry posts, which will then complete the transition to a popularly-elected government for the Iraqi people.

Gray Lady Plays Pauline Kael At Pope’s Death

My friend John “Rocket Man” Hinderaker caught the New York Times exposing its elitist sensibilities in reporting the death of Pope John Paul II. In its initial release on the Pope’s passing, the Times reveals that they had a firm grasp on criticism of John Paul, but apparently no one in their newsroom knew anyone who liked one of the greatest Popes of the modern Church:

Even as his own voice faded away, his views on the sanctity of all human life echoed unambiguously among Catholics and Christian evangelicals in the United States on issues from abortion to the end of life.
need some quote from supporter
John Paul II’s admirers were as passionate as his detractors, for whom his long illness served as a symbol for what they said was a decrepit, tradition-bound papacy in need of rejuvenation and a bolder connection with modern life.
“The situation in the Catholic church is serious,” Hans Kung, the eminent Swiss theologian, who was barred by from teaching in Catholic schools because of his liberal views, wrote last week. “The pope is gravely ill and deserves every compassion. But the Church has to live. …
In my opinion, he is not the greatest pope but the most contradictory of the 20th century. A pope of many, great gifts, and of many bad decisions!”
Among liberal Catholics, he was criticized for his strong opposition to abortion, homosexuality and contraception, as well as the ordination of women and married men. Though he was never known as a strong administrator of the dense Vatican bureaucracy, he kept a centralizing hand on the selection of bishops around the world and enforced a rigid adherence to many basic church teachings among the clergy and Catholic theologians.

Obvoiusly, this article went into publication prematurely, but the fact that Ian Fisher could not find any celebration of John Paul II’s life or work, when the cable channels have had numerous luminaries speaking about almost nothing else for the past 48 hours says volumes about the elitism and isolation of the NYT. Even its updated version only inserts this paragraph where Fisher or his editors meant to provide some balance:

John Paul II’s admirers were as passionate as his detractors, for whom his long illness served as a symbol for what they said was a decrepit, tradition-bound papacy in need of rejuvenation and a bolder connection with modern life.

What an appalling effort on behalf of the so-called Paper of Record. Such laziness on the part of a reporter and editors cannot simply be accidental. It reminds one of the cluelessness of Pauline Kael who exclaimed her disbelief about Nixon’s landslide re-election: “No one I know voted for him!” If the New York Times can ever be capable of embarassment, this incident should shame them greatly.
UPDATE: Here’s a screenshot of the original article that John got before they updated it (click for larger image):

President Bush’s Announcement On John Paul II’s Death

Laura and I join people across the Earth in mourning the passing of Pope John Paul II. The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd, the world has lost a champion of human freedom, and a good and faithful servant of God has been called home.
Pope John Paul II left the throne of St. Peter in the same way he ascended to it — as a witness to the dignity of human life. In his native Poland, that witness launched a democratic revolution that swept Eastern Europe and changed the course of history. Throughout the West, John Paul’s witness reminded us of our obligation to build a culture of life in which the strong protect the weak. And during the Pope’s final years, his witness was made even more powerful by his daily courage in the face of illness and great suffering.
All Popes belong to the world, but Americans had special reason to love the man from Krakow. In his visits to our country, the Pope spoke of our “providential” Constitution, the self-evident truths about human dignity in our Declaration, and the “blessings of liberty” that follow from them. It is these truths, he said, that have led people all over the world to look to America with hope and respect.
Pope John Paul II was, himself, an inspiration to millions of Americans, and to so many more throughout the world. We will always remember the humble, wise and fearless priest who became one of history’s great moral leaders. We’re grateful to God for sending such a man, a son of Poland, who became the Bishop of Rome, and a hero for the ages. (via The Corner)

Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II, Dies At 84

Pope John Paul II died today at 1:37 pm CT.

Pope John Paul II, the Polish pontiff who led the Roman Catholic Church for more than a quarter century and became history’s most-traveled pope, died Saturday night in his Vatican apartment. He was 84. … “The Holy Father died this evening at 9:37 p.m. (2:37 p.m. EST) in his private apartment. All the procedures outlined in the apostolic Constitution `Universi Dominici Gregis’ that was written by John Paul II on Feb. 22, 1996, have been put in motion.” …
Since his surprise election in 1978, John Paul traveled the world, inspiring a revolt against communism in his native Poland and across the Soviet bloc, but also preaching against consumerism, contraception and abortion.
John Paul was a robust 58 when the cardinals stunned the world and elected the cardinal from Krakow, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

I offer St. Brigid’s Prayer in honor of his passing.
Lo, unbroken silence, I adore thee.
Forsake me not during my time of prayer.
Guardian angels, convene around me.
Lord, humbly my heart pleads solely to be
Safe by your side through eternity there.
Lo, unbroken silence, I adore thee.
Traveling onward, cloaked by a desert sea,
Into the sky but for a sign I stare.
Guardian angels, convene around me.
Utter stillness of the night, come free me.
Starlight, guide me across the sand so bare.
Lo, unbroken silence, I adore thee.
Dedicated to the Holy Trinity,
This fervent journey by moonlight I dare.
Guardian angels, convene around me.
Shimmering dreams foretell that I may see
The path God has chosen for me with such care.
Guardian angels, convene around me.
Lo, unbroken silence, I adore thee.
Don’t forget to read The Anchoress for her well-written and touching thoughts during her live-blog.