Category: Networks

I happened to see the live TV coverage of the press conference in Baghdad Sunday morning announcing the capture of Saddam, and about an hour’s worth of fill before the briefing. CNN, for all of its spin, still has the best on-the-ground coverage in Iraq, and they actually showed some videophone imagery of Iraqis firing shots into the air, passing out candy, honking their horns, and yes, dancing in the streets. On this day, there was no doubt that they’re happy to have the Coalition’s troops in their country.

MSNBC was the first to bring a translator on-line for the press conference, which was good because the reaction of the Baghdad press was so amazing. About half-a-dozen Iraqi newspaper people were called on, but only two actually asked questions; both about the trial. The others simply thanked the US and the Coalition for capturing the monster, called out for his death, and generally praised Allah, George Bush, and Tony Blair. They weren’t pretending to straddle some imaginary line that makes murderous tyrants excusable, in other words. Howard Dean is probably on the brink of a heart attack, as is his Internet guru Joe Trippi who was bumped from Meet the Press by the story of Saddam’s capture, appropriately enough.

Somewhat lost amid the celebration is another large piece of news, the memo discovered by the UK Daily Telegraph on the training of 9/11 pilot Atta in Iraq:

In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta “displayed extraordinary effort” and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be “responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy”.

The second part of the memo, which is headed “Niger Shipment”, contains a report about an unspecified shipment – believed to be uranium – that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

Although Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, Dr Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq’s ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.

I believe the memo is probably genuine, but we will see. If it is, then it means that the liberation of Iraq was anything but a “distraction” from the war on terror, and we can therefore say goodnight to Dr. Dean, Mr. Kerry, and Mr. Edwards.

The elation and relief that Iraqis feel over Saddam’s capture is something you can best read about in their own words; go to The Mesopotamian and then follow his links to Iraqi blogs.

UPDATE: The Atta Memo was most likely a hoax, which I should have realized all along. Most things that seem too good to be true, are.

It seems to me that Noam Chomsky’s dodging on his claim that a genocide was taking place in Afghanistan as a result of the US/UK invasion is the real miserable failure, and I’d like to encourage others who share this view to link to Rob Hinkley’s page on the subject. As you may know, the pro-Saddam element on the far left of the Blogosphere has Google-bombed miserable failure to an inappropriate place, and we should give credit where it’s deserved: Noam Chomsky and his ilk are the real miserable failure of our time.

Zeyad’s Healing Iraq blog reports from the anti-terrorist demonstration in Baghdad today:

We started at Al-Fatih square in front of the Iraqi national theatre at 10 am. IP were all over the place. At 12 pm people started marching towards Fardus square through Karradah. All political parties represented in the GC participated. But the other parties, organizations, unions, tribal leaders, clerics, school children, college students, and typical everyday Iraqis made up most of the crowd. Al-Jazeera estimated the size of the crowd as over ten thousand people.

You can find a list of some of the parties that we noticed there at Omar’s blog. At one point it struck me that our many differences as an Iraqi people meant nothing. Here we were all together shouting in different languages the same slogans “NO NO to terrorism, YES YES for peace”.

I spent most of the time taking pictures. heh, I really enjoyed playing the role of a journalist. Everyone was tugging at my sleeves asking me to take their photos mistaking me for a foreign reporter. Some people recognized a reporter from Al-Arabiyah station and they started taunting him. One old man shouted to him “For once, speak the truth”.

He’s got pictures (and more pictures), so check it out. This is the kind of thing that makes me proud to be an American.

Zeyad’s buddy Omar lists some of the participants:

• Iraqi communist party.
• INC.
• SCIRI.
• KDP.
• PUK.
• INA.
• Al-Da’wa party.
• Iraqi Islamic party.
• Independent democrats’ congregation.
• Iraqi democratic trend.
• The Iraqi Turkomen front.
• Iraqi Assyrian democratic movement.
• Iraqi medical association.
• Iraqi dental association.
• Iraqi workers union.
• Iraqi women association.
• Iraqi human rights organization.
• Iraqi farmers union.
• Iraqi independence party.
• And many independent individuals like us.

Via Jeff Jarvis.

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This David Brooks column, Boots on the Ground, Hearts on Their Sleeves, is a must read:

If anybody is wondering: Where are the young idealists? Where are the people willing to devote themselves to causes larger than themselves? They are in uniform in Iraq, straddling the divide between insanity and order.

Singapore is a tiny little island with a predominately Chinese population of 6 million surrounded by 150 million Muslims. Despite its dearth of natural resources, it has managed to cobble together one of the highest living standards in the world, and the highest rate of home ownership in the world. So when its founder and former prime minister speaks out on Islamist militancy, we would all do well to listen. Here’s an article from the Singapore newspaper I gleaned from Tim Blair:

THE Europeans have got it wrong in thinking the terrorist threat can be contained by taking a localised, kid-gloved approach.

What the world is grappling with now is a new, globalised menace, one that has to be fought jointly by developed countries and moderate Muslims, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew said in an interview with Newsweek.

‘The Europeans underestimate the problem of Al-Qaeda-style terrorism,’ he said. ‘They compare it to their own many experiences with terror – the IRA, the Red Brigade, the Baader-Meinhof, ETA. But they are wrong.’

He goes on to say that Bush is missing the point by going after the “worker bees” instead of the “queen bees”, and that ultimately it’s up to moderate Islamic leaders to win this war.

I stepped out the house where I’ve been staying in Greater Portland the other morning to be greeted by this sight.

People in the Frisco Bay Area have to drive three or four hours for this stuff, which was all gone the next day.

A robust defense of freedom – The Washington Times has a good summary of the President’s speech in London yesterday. Here’s the beef:

The president forcefully rebutted critics who complain about the supposedly “unilateralist” foreign policy approach pursued by the United States and the Bush administration in particular. “In all these cases, military action was proceeded by diplomatic initiatives and negotiations and ultimatums, and final chances until the final moment. In Iraq, year after year, the dictator was given the chance to account for his weapons programs, and end the nightmare for his people. Now the resolutions he defied have been enforced,” the president said. “And who will say that Iraq was better off when Saddam Hussein was strutting and killing, or that the world was safer when he held power? Who doubts that Afghanistan is a more just society and less dangerous without Mullah Omar playing host to terrorists from around the world?”

Apparently some people doubt that Iraqis and Afghans are better off today than they were before their respective liberations, as some 30-50,000 objectively pro-fascist demonstrators turned out in Trafalgar Square for the kind of protest that’s been commonplace in England since the 1930s, when “anti-war” meant “pro-Hitler”.

According to The Guardian, Brits have better things to do than protest Bush:

Peace campaigners dressed as the US president and the Queen in a horse-drawn carriage headed the procession, which also included a pink “love tank” and demonstrators dressed as weapons inspectors and Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Around 200 protesters gathered at Jubilee Gardens on London’s South Bank for the parade, which was due to finish at Trafalgar Square.

Some campaigners expressed disappointment at the modest turnout but Aiden Hutton from Suffolk, who played the role of George Bush, said: “There have been about 14,000 police, I think that’s a wonderful turnout.”

Some scheduled protests didn’t even happen, according to this from Iain Murray’s source on the ground:

The tannoy said there may or may not be a peaceful demo at Victoria Station at 3pm. It’s now 3.45. Heard nowt.

I tell you, civil disobedience isn’t what it was…

Suppose they gave a protest and nobody came.

Omar, an Iraqi blogger, says we owe his countrymen an apology … for waiting so long to liberate them from Saddam:

I don?t know really know why Saddam?s regime lasted for over three decades, but I am sure as an Iraqi who survived that period that there?re no legal or moral justifications for it to remain.

I was counting days and hours waiting to see an end to that regime, just like all those who suffered the cruelty of that brutal regime.

It?s been really a disgrace chasing the world ,the world of the 21st. century, reminding it how incapable it was to aid the oppressed and to sue those who dispised all the values of humanity.

Through out these decades I lost trust in the world governments and international committees. Terms like (human rights, democracy and liberty..etc.)became hallow and meaningless and those who keep repeating these words are liars..liars..liars.

I hated the U.N and the security council and Russia and France and Germany and the arab nations and the islamic conference.

I?ve hated George Gallawy and all those marched in the millionic demonstrations against the war .It is I who was oppressed and I don?t want any one to talk on behalf of me, I, who was eager to see rockets falling on Saddam?s nest to set me free, and it is I who desired to die gentlemen, because it?s more merciful than humiliation as it puts an end to my suffer, while humiliation lives with me reminding me every moment that I couldn?t defend myself against those who ill-treated me.

I’m sorry, Omar, that we waited so long, and that we supported and then tolerated Saddam as long as we did. We’re on a different course now, and I hope it won’t happen again. During the Cold War it was our policy to support any regime that wasn’t overtly Communist, but we’ve come to realize that sort of thing isn’t productive, so President Bush intends to make the USA an evangelist for democracy.

Some of our citizens, mainly those on the Left but some on the far Right as well, oppose him on this new direction, but I’m counting on the good will of the majority to overcome their selfishness and short-sightedness. We’ll see who wins this battle in the years to come, but I’ve got faith in the good will of the American people, perhaps naively.

Meanwhile in London, former Iraqi blogger and new house Arab for the Guardian Salam Pax sounds more like a Baathist agent than ever (scroll down):

I hate to wake you up from that dream you are having, the one in which you are a superhero bringing democracy and freedom to underdeveloped, oppressed countries. But you really need to check things out in one of the countries you have recently bombed to freedom. Georgie, I am kind of worried that things are going a bit bad in Iraq and you don’t seem to care that much. You might want it to appear as if things are going well and sign Iraq off as a job well done, but I am afraid this is not the case.

Some suspected Salam of being a Baathist stooge during the invasion on account of his nasty tone and uncanny ability to escape detection, but now that he’s moved to London and taken up residence at The Guardian’s offices, it’s becoming quite clear that he was a friend of the old regime all along.