FDD

POTUS Showing Resolve (CM)

From President Bush’s speech at the Naval Academy this morning:

"This is an enemy without conscience - and they cannot be appeased. If we were not fighting and destroying this enemy in Iraq, they would not be idle. They would be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our own borders. By fighting these terrorists in Iraq, Americans in uniform are defeating a direct threat to the American people. Against this adversary, there is only one effective response: We will never back down. We will never give in. And we will never accept anything less that complete victory. …

"Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a message across the world that America is weak and an unreliable ally. Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies - that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends. And setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorists' tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder - and invite new attacks on America. To all who wear the uniform, I make you this pledge: America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am your Commander-in-Chief."

Hat tip: Gary Bauer.  (The BauerBlog is here).

Lieberman on Iraq (CM)

“The leaders of Iraq's duly elected government … asked me for reassurance about America's commitment. The question is whether the American people and enough of their representatives in Congress from both parties understand this. I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November's elections, than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead.

”Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.”

Read his lucid, well-argued op-ed here.

MTV – Iranian-Style (CM)

An Iranian music video glorifying suicide-bombing Israelis – MEMRI has the images, the sound and English subtitles here.

Woolsey on Iran (CM)

FDD Distinguished Advisor R. James Woolsey, Director of Central Intelligence under former President Bill Clinton, before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, 11/21/05:

There is no reason in economics or common sense for Iran to be involved in fuel enrichment and processing [key steps in assembling atomic arms] unless it has a nuclear weapons program.

How soon might Iran obtain nuclear weapons? It all hinges on how soon they can obtain adequate fissionable material. Some aspects of the capabilities of a more sophisticated plutonium weapon might be desirable to those managing the Iranian nuclear weapon and missile programs. But it should be remembered that once nuclear material such as highly enriched uranium is available, a simple shotgun-design weapon, similar to that which we used on Hiroshima sixty years ago could be quickly produced. Estimates of how far the Iranians are from having nuclear weapons thus doubtless depend heavily on assessments of the maturity of their fuel enrichment and processing capabilities. But if they were supplied with highly enriched uranium by some outside source, such as their erstwhile collaborator, North Korea, simple nuclear weapons could be available to them in very short order.

What then are our options? First we must be clear-eyed about the nature of the Ahmadinejad regime. There is no possibility, none, of working with it or moderating it. For example, at the recent "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran, Ahmadinejad displayed a large hour-glass with a broken USA lying in the lower half of the glass and Israel falling through the glass to break beside it. The president of Iran said in his speech, ". . . a world without America and Zionism? But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved . . . . "

Appeasement, whatever euphemism is used, of Iran or any other dictatorship determined to deploy nuclear weapons and support terror will not work any better than it did in the 1930's. It is time to stop deluding ourselves that security can be obtained in today's world on the cheap and without sacrifice.

It cannot be.

Hat tip: Josh Block.

GINGRICH TO CONGRSS: “Time is not on our side”

Former House Speaker (and FDD Distinguished Advisor) New Gingrich recently testified on the Hill about the threat that Iran represents to the United States, to Israel and to the Free World. 

Excerpt:

Not since the failure of the League of Nations in the 1930s to confront the aggression of the dictatorships in Japan, Italy, and Germany have we seen the willful avoidance of reality which is now underway with regard to Iran.

In the 1930s Winston Churchill read Hitler’s Mein Kampf and came to understand that Hitler meant exactly what he said. Churchill found himself isolated and alone among British political leaders as the British government refused to recognize the depth of Hitler’s evil and the seriousness of his statements.

The League of Nations found itself able to issue press releases and diplomatic condemnation but unable to do anything effective about the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and later China, the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and later Albania, Germany breaking the Versailles Treaty by remilitarizing the Rhineland and then absorbing Austria and occupying Czechoslovakia. 

Each weak, paper response of the democracies simply increased the contempt and boldness of the dictators.

There are lessons to be learned from the 1930s and those lessons apply directly to the current government of Iran.

Indeed, the new Iranian President does not even require us to read a book like Mein Kampf to understand how serious he is. He enthusiastically makes speeches proclaiming to the world his commitment to genocidal annihilation of another nation …

Meanwhile the civilized world wrings its hands and the United Nations acts with contemptible weakness.

The central proposition of this testimony is this:  the combination of two elements – the virulence of the ideology of Iran’s current regime and advanced military capabilities it is working energetically to acquire – when added to Iran’s inherent endowment – its strategic location, natural resources, population, and proximity to the vital resources of other nations in the region and the seaways through which these sources reach the rest of the world – poses a threat of such scope and magnitude which leave us with no choice but to take it with the utmost seriousness.  We must prepare and take actions of the same intensity and seriousness as the threat. 

Yet, time is not on our side.

Read the rest here.

Dispatches from the Danger Zone

The Maldon Institute had another interesting report this week.  It was on support among some US college students for the French rioters.

Muslim students in New York, Chicago and San Francisco have been trying to create on-campus sympathy for the rioters. 

One report said dozens of students had signed sympathy pledges with many more joining as the week progressed.

This Sunday's Danger Zone lineup is here.

The View from CENTCOM

FDD’s Eleana Gordon and I spent the whole day Tuesday at Central Command in Tampa – touring, talking, getting briefed.

It was absolutely fascinating; smart people, brave people, dedicated people -- the kind of warriors (yes, warriors) a great nation ought to have.

Actually, everyone we met was not American. There are representatives at CENTCOM from 62 nations – all the countries that are members of the U.S. coalition, from Denmark to Slovakia to Poland to Pakistan to Mongolia.

In what used to be a big parking lot, their trailers are neatly lined up in rows – flags flying from the roofs. It’s kind of like the U.N. except, of course, it’s not corrupt and anti-American. BTW, the trailers are used only for offices – I wouldn’t want you to think that all these foreign soldiers were living large in their double-wides.

My take-away: America’s fighting men and women do not want to be saying in five years, “You know, we could have won that war in Iraq but the politicians in Washington wouldn’t let us.”

For more comments, please see this week's e-newsletter.

The Middle East Democracy Digest is Available

"We are so unused to seeing officials held accountable that the sight of Saddam answering charges may prove cathartic for people across the entire Arab world, not just Iraq.” Mona Eltahawy

Read the full publication.
Read past issues.

FDD Media Roundup

Claudia Rosett' on FoxNews.com, New U.N. Scheme: Alliance of Civilizations:

After the epic disaster of Oil for Food, one might imagine the United Nations would tread carefully before launching any new and controversial efforts. Hardly.

Andy McCarthy in National Review, Fitzgerald's Day:

The two-year criminal investigation into the “outing” of Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee ended with a whimper rather than the bang so obsessively sought by the Bush administration's critics.

Maneeza Hossain in The Daily Star, The Future of SAARC:

The 21st century may yet prove to be the century of Asia. In the case of South Asia, the global media, as well as unimaginative bureaucracies, however, seem to have failed to grasp this potential.

Walid Phares on FrontPageMagazine.com, Jordan's Anti-Terror Rallies:

In world history, it is rare to see a monarchy leading a revolution, but in Jordan, it may be happening now.

This Week's Danger Zone is Available Online

The most recent episode of Danger Zone, FDD's anti-terror radio show, is now available for download.  In addition to the podcast archives, you can listen to the show Sunday nights at 9pm on WMAL in the DC area or via the WMAL website.

Dispatches from The Danger Zone

Foreign money for Russian terrorism continues to flow to Chechen militants in the Caucasus.

According to a report by the Maldon Institute, money has been transferred to Muslim Terrorists in Russia from people and organizations in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Great Britain, Indonesia, even Vietnam-for a total of forty countries.

Maldon says that money to destabilize Dagestan is coming now from Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

Three organizations-The Muslim Brotherhood and two which are part of the al-Qaeda international network –Al-Haramain and the “Center for the Fight Against Infidels” (there’s a title not easily forgotten) have sent $10 million into Russia for terrorist operations against Moscow and in the North Caucasus.

Senate Blog-o-Rama

FDD, along with about a dozen other bloggers, was invited to the first “Blog-o-Rama” organized by the Senate Republican Conference yesterday, where we were given comfortable chairs and internet connections (though a few of us relied on old fashioned pencil and pad), and were briefed for two hours by a parade of Senators, including Bill Frist, Rick Santorum, Saxby Chambliss, Wayne Allard, Craig Thomas, John Thune, George Allen, and Sam Brownback.

A lot was covered, but here are some highlights:

House To Vote Tonight on Withdrawal From Iraq

They'll be voting for a victory strategy -- or a defeat strategy.

NoEndButVictory will be live-blogging.

Dispatches from the Danger Zone

Arizona's Minute Men -the border watchers- are now active in liberal Vermont.

An offshoot of the group watching the US-Mexican border for illegal aliens is now spread thinly along the Vermont-Canadian border, at least on the weekends. 

That border is about 300 miles long and has long been thought a crossing for potentially dangerous jihadists.

Maine, New Hampshire, New York and points West are next the Minute Men say.   

The U.S.-Canada border is heavily wooded, remote and about 5,525 miles long. 

A dozen or so Minutemen were out in Herndon in Northern Virginia this week –armed with video cameras,they were taking photos of contractors cruising the local 7/11 looking for day labor, much of it illegal.

Dodge Ball at the United Nations

Claudia Rosett's latest article, The Mercedes Monologues, is up on NRO:

The mystery of the Kojo-and-Kofi-Annan Mercedes Benz gets deeper by the day. The real riddle by now is why the U.N. secretary-general's office keeps dodging all questions about the fate of the luxury car on which the secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, allegedly saved a bundle back in 1998 by buying it in his father's name and shipping it to Ghana under his father's U.N. privileges — allegedly without his father's knowledge or consent. Read the full article.

"Future Jihad, Terrorist Strategies Against America"

Washington, D.C. (Nov. 18, 2005) – Dr. Walid Phares, a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, is the author of the newly released book, Future Jihad, Terrorist Strategies Against America, which examines the strategies that will be needed to defeat a new, more lethal strain of terrorism that now threatens America and the free world.

Read the full release here.  Read reviews of the book here.

CLIFF MAY: "Boogie to Baghdad"

Byron York explains what the phrase means and why it’s important to understanding what U.S. intelligence really believed prior to the invasion of Iraq.

In a nutshell, it’s “the phrase that Richard Clarke, when he was the top White House counterterrorism official during the Clinton administration, used to express his fear that if American forces pushed Osama bin Laden too hard at his hideout in Afghanistan, bin Laden might move to Iraq, where he could stay in the protection of Saddam Hussein.

“Clarke’s opinion was based on intelligence indicating a number of contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq, including word that Saddam had offered bin Laden safe haven.

“It’s all laid out in the Sept. 11 commission report. “Boogie to Baghdad” is on Page 134.”

His column is here.

CLIFF MAY: No End But Victory

Check out the new No End But Victory blog - dedicated to the proposition that Americans can, must and will prevail over our enemies in Iraq and beyond.

CLIFF MAY: If I Were Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, I'd be Feeling Mighty Fine Today

President Clinton told students at the American University of Dubai that the United States made a "big mistake" when it invaded Iraq.

A story is here.

Meanwhile, “the Senate yesterday issued its most direct challenge yet to President Bush's handling of the conflict, as it pressed for concrete steps toward troop withdrawals and a requirement for the White House to provide more information on military operations.” More here.

FDD Senior Fellow Andy McCarthy has more on the Senate’s steps – or missteps – here.

And Sen. John McCain said Tuesday said that the Pentagon budget for the war in Iraq can't be sustained. More here.

Yes, Zarqawi has every reason to be more hopeful today – and to fight harder tomorrow.

RICHARD CARLSON: Dispatches from the Danger Zone

The French government has introduced a long awaited anti-terrorism bill.

It would stiffen sentences for convicted terrorists,broaden the use of surveillance cameras, and increase physical and electronic surveillance of citizens traveling in and out of certain mideastern countries -- ones that are known to have training camps for Muslim fanatics.

The Interior Ministry has led the campaign to strengthen French laws since the London bombings of this past summer.

President Chirac has said he hopes the bill will become law by the end of the year.

The week in France saw a continuance of rioting in Paris suburbs with large Muslim and African populations.  One suspects the legislation is ever closer to passage in the wake of those thousands of firebombings.

FDD MEDIA ROUNDUP

Andy McCarthy explores the legalities and the Senate's position on the status of enemy combatants in "Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory; The Senate Reverses Itself and Opens the Courts to al Qaeda," and Claudia Rosett discusses the United Nations' 'so-called' World Summit on the Information Society that opens today in Tunis, Tunisia, in "'Divide' and Conquer?"

CLIFF MAY: Lieberman Doesn't Go Wobbly

“I strongly supported the war in Iraq. I was privileged to be the Democratic cosponsor, with the Senator from Virginia, of the authorizing resolution which received overwhelming bipartisan support.  As I look back on it and as I follow the debates about prewar intelligence, I have no regrets about having sponsored and supported that resolution because of all the other reasons we had in our national security interest to remove Saddam Hussein from power – a brutal, murdering dictator, an aggressive invader of his neighbors, a supporter of terrorism, a hater of the United States of America. He was, for us, a ticking time bomb that, if we did not remove him, I am convinced would have blown up, metaphorically speaking, in America's face.”

His floor statement on Iraq, made Monday night, is here.

RICHARD CARLSON: Dispatches from the Danger Zone

A Maoist terrorist was killed by police in India in a shootout.

The man belonged to the Adivasi Liberation Tigers (ALT) part of the Maoist Communist Party of India.

Separately, two other CPI-Maoists were seized along with large amounts of cash, military uniforms, explosives and detonators in the Adilabad district of India.

Outside of a few American college faculty lounges and in the mountains of Nepal, we thought you could count the number of serious “Maoists” left in the world on your fingers and toes. Of all the outfits in the world, why would any sane person want to be a “Maoist”.  Dumb and pathetic

Certainly there are few true believers still breathing in China, where Mao is slowly being recognized, albeit silently, as the greatest mass murderer in human history, non-pareil.

FDD MEDIA ROUNDUP

Claudia Rosett delves deeper into the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal in her latest NRO article "Mercedes Mystery."

Andy McCarthy discusses Guantanamo Bay and the legalities surrounding alien enemy combatants in his NRO article "Restoring Law & Order," and tells you to "Say “No” to the McCain Amendment" here.

Cliff May's weekly Notes & Comments are available in the weekly e-newsletter here.

RICHARD CARLSON: Dispatches from the Danger Zone

Remember those four al-Qaeda suspects who escaped from a very secure U.S. military prison in Afghanistan?

It happened this summer but word only leaked out recently.

The Pentagon now says one of them was a top lieutenant to Osama Bin Laden – Omar Al-Faruq, a Kuwaiti captured in Indonesia three years ago.

Al-Faruq had been secretly flown back into Afghanistan in 2002 –and locked up with hundreds of other terrorist suspects in a prison heavily guarded by U.S. and Afghanistan soldiers, outside of Bagram air base.

If the Pentagon knows how the four men, including a Syrian, a Libyan and a Saudi, all wearing orange jump suits got through the three security rings around the prison-  including a live mine field, they have not said.

An Afghan Taliban leader interviewed by Newsweek claimed the escape was a ruse -that the four men had been exchanged in secret for captured US Special Forces operators.   

The pentagon said the claim was false “and absurd.”

CLIFF MAY: Bush's Veteran's Day Speech

It’s well worth reading – perhaps his best yet.

Key excerpt:

The murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great challenge of our new century.  Yet in many ways, this fight resembles the struggle against communism in the last century.  Like the ideology of communism, Islamic radicalism is elitist, led by a self-appointed vanguard that presumes to speak for the Muslim masses.…

Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy teaches that innocent individuals can be sacrificed to serve a political vision.  And this explains their cold-blooded contempt for human life.  We have seen it in the murders of Daniel Pearl and Nicholas Berg and Margaret Hassan and many others.  In a courtroom in the Netherlands, the killer of Theo Van Gogh turned to the victim's grieving mother and said, "I don't feel your pain … because I believe you're an infidel."  And in spite of this veneer of religious rhetoric, most of the victims claimed by the militants are fellow Muslims.

Recently, in the town of Huwaydar, Iraq, a terrorist detonated a pickup truck parked along a busy street lined with restaurants and shops, just as residents were gathering to break the day-long fast observed during Ramadan.  The explosion killed at least 25 people and wounded 34.  When unsuspecting Muslims breaking their Ramadan fast are targeted for death, or 25 Iraqi children are killed in a bombing, or Iraqi teachers are executed at their school, this is murder, pure and simple -- the total rejection of justice and honor and morality and religion.   

These militants are not just the enemies of America or the enemies of Iraq, they are the enemies of Islam and they are the enemies of humanity.  And we have seen this kind of shameless cruelty before -- in the heartless zealotry that led to the gulags, the Cultural Revolution, and the killing fields.

Read the rest of the speech here.

CLIFF MAY: Who is Lying About Iraq?

The distinguished author, Norman Podhoretz, writing in the December issue of Commentary, tells the whole story – and the whole truth, conclusively demonstrating that that the charges being leveled against President Bush are not only baseless but – are themselves a lie. You can read it – and you really must – here.

IRANIAN THREATS

On October 26, 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at the “World Without Zionism” conference in Tehran.  In widely reported remarks, Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and expressed the goal of witnessing a “world without America.”  While some suggested Ahmadinejad's remarks were meant for a domestic audience, the fact that the “World Without Zionism” banners were in English suggests his audience was the outside world.

For a history of threats made by the Iranian regime against the Western World, see the latest FDD Backgrounder here. 

For more information on Ahmadinejad's statements at the "World Without Zionism" conference and international reaction, see FDD's recent briefing here.

RICHARD CARLSON: From the Propaganda File

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has issued a statement saying that “the foreign media” has obscured the “truth” of the severity of crimes committed in Iraq by allied forces. 

With the long memory for which al-Qaeda religious theorists are famous, they refer back to the first century and call the allies “Crusaders”.

They claim the Western media is undercounting the number of American casualties in Iraq.  Now there’s a phony charge that just jumps out at you:

Al-Qaeda claims 20,000 Americans have died so far, not the well publicized 2,000.

Here’s a second charge, equally out of touch with reality:  the western media is trying to “confuse” its readers and viewers into supporting the War.  We don’t think so. I guess they don’t watch CNN or read any British newspapers.

Last, al-Qaeda called the American and British soldiers “poorly paid” and “frightened toys”.  They said they “lack the energy and the intelligence to win.”

They are talking about the two best educated, smartest and most highly paid armies in the world -- Britain and the US.

Pajamas Media Welcomes Cliff May

FDD President Clifford May is the latest editorial board member to be profiled over at the new Pajamas Media site (http://pajamasmedia.com/).  Pajamas Media is the new blog-media project being put together by some top bloggers.

CLIFF MAY: Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Jordan Bombings

Remember the letter in which al-Qaeda VP, Ayman al-Zawahiri, told the al-Qaeda CEO in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, that he was getting bad PR by murdering Shiai Muslims?

Well, maybe the bombings in Amman, targeting Jordanians who are Sunni Muslims, was an attempt to demonstrate that Zarqawi has mended his ways – that he is attempting to become an equal opportunity exploder.

AP has the text of al-Qaida’s claim here.

CLIFF MAY: Terrorists Hit Amman

Suicide bombers attacked three hotels frequented by Westerners in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

Yes, they want to kill Americans and other westerners who stay at such hotels. But they also want to send a message to King Abdullah II and other Arab leaders. They are saying, in effect: You need to be afraid of us, not the Americans. You need to curry favor with us – if you want to stay alive.

Also: After the breakup of a terrorist plot in Australia, the Militant Islamists were no doubt feeling pressure to show they are still strong, still operational, that they have not been neutered. 

No one has yet claimed responsibility but Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, is high on the list of suspects.

Keep in mind: If they could have done this in New York, Washington or Los Angeles – they would have. 

And whenever they can again, they will. Preventing that is an immense challenge, one that requires both defensive and offensive measures.

A story is here.

RICHARD CARLSON: Dispatches from the Danger Zone

An Afghan identified as one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins has been extradited from Afghanistan to face drug smuggling and other charges.

Baz Mohammad is accused of using drug profits to support terrorism and the Taliban –and naturally, himself.

Mohammad has been directly linked to the Taliban.  He once public ally boasted that selling heroin to Americans was an effective form of jihad.   

Mr. Mohhamad has a point.

CLIFF MAY: Saddamn's WMD and Terrorist Ties

"Think how many can be killed by just a tiny bit of anthrax. ... Think about all the other terrorists and other bad actors who could just parade through Baghdad and pick up their stores."

When Bush said that, we now know, he was lying -- and trying to manipulate us into war!

Actually, I’m they one who is fibbing. Bush didn’t say that.

Clinton did. 

It’s in this interesting New York Sun piece on Ahmed Chalabi by Laurie Mylroie (who served as a Clinton advisor on Iraq)...

For more comments by Cliff, see this week's e-newsletter.

CLIFF MAY: Paving the Path to the Franco-Fada

Nidra Poller, writing in Canada’s National Post:

For five years, resentful French Muslims have been fed a steady diet of romanticized violence--jihad-intifada in Israel, jihad-insurgency in Iraq, jihad-insurgency in Afghanistan. When they started firebombing synagogues and beating up Jews in the fall of 2000, the media dutifully reported that these thugs were products of the "frustration" felt in regard to the treatments of Muslims in the Middle East and Central Asia. France's own government was full of hectoring words for the Americans, after all. The protesters were very much on message.

In elite French society, the enemy was clearly identified: not Islamism or Islamofascism, not the stewing mobs in the Paris suburbs, not Saddam Hussein, not al-Qaeda, but the British and U.S. troops in Iraq. The burned-out cars and buildings that litter French streets are the domestic residue of the jihadi cult that these French Muslims have been drugged on through al-Jazeera, and which has been legitimized by a French intellectual class that has always romanticized resistance in all its forms.

… this is the terrible price to be paid for turning a blind eye to those who preach violent resistance.

Read the rest of her piece here.

CLIFF MAY: Who Dunnit?

Ireland Online reports that “Five men were being questioned today in connection with the beheadings of three Christian schoolgirls” in Indonesia.

The report strives mightily to avoid suggesting that those responsible might just possibly be Militant Islamists, saying only that the Indonesian province in which this occurred “has long been plagued by sectarian violence.” 

The report does note: “There have been several other bombings and killings in the area in recent years, including a market attack in Poso last May that killed 22 people, most of them Christians.

CLIFF MAY: Ban the Burka?

The tolerant, multi-cultural Netherlands is likely to become the first country in Europe to impose curbs on Muslim clothing. A story is here.

CLIFF MAY: Iranian Poster

From the "World Without Zionism" conference.  It's here. Do notice the symbol of America -- shattered -- at the bottom of the hour glass.

CLIFF MAY: More Oil-for-Food Fallout

India's Foreign Minister resigns. The International Herald Tribune has a story here.

CLIFF MAY: Gary Bauer on the Eurofada

Gary Bauer writes in his “End of Day” newsletter: 

The rioting that began in the suburbs of Paris, France, nearly two weeks ago has now spread not only to other French cities, but also to Germany and Brussels as well. And as the conflagration spreads, the level of violence is becoming more severe.

Over 1,400 vehicles were torched in France last night and schools, government buildings and churches were firebombed by the predominately Muslim rioters. Ten policemen were wounded by shotgun blasts and demoralized law enforcement officials say they fear that heavy weapons will be used against them soon. Authorities found a firebomb factory in a Paris suburb last night filled with hundreds of bottles and stockpiles of gasoline. The French are now learning first hand what Israel has had to contend with for years while various French politicians berated it.

In Europe and the United States media coverage about the insurrection continues to be so politically correct as to border on the bizarre. Much was made a few days ago about a tear gas canister being fired into a mosque, but I had to search online today for quite a while before I found the information on French churches being firebombed and synagogues threatened.

RICHARD CARLSON: Dispatches from the Danger Zone

A Federal Judge in Northern Virginia has refused to throw out a confession by a terrorism suspect who claims he was tortured in a Saudi prison, that the statements were false.   

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali will go on trial on charges of plotting to kill President Bush.   

Abu Ali's statements to his Saudi jailers, in which he admitted being part of an al-Qaeda plot, are central to the government's case.

Claudia Rosett

FDD Journalist-in-Residence Claudia Rosett is the latest editorial board member to be profiled over at the new Pajamas Media site (http://pajamasmedia.com/).  Pajamas Media is the new blog-media project being put together by some top bloggers.  It certainly looks promising thus far...

CLIFF MAY: When Someone Tells You He Wants to Kill You - Take Him Seriously

From Scripps Howard News Service:

Call it Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Mein Kampf moment. Eighty years ago, Adolf Hitler published an autobiography-cum-manifesto. Its title translates as “My Struggle.” In it, Hitler talked of his desire for revenge against France, the German nation's need to control more land, and the means by which his National Socialist Party could gain power. It also included, of course, a clear indication of his genocidal intentions against the Jews. Last week, Iran's president echoed those themes. Read More.

RICHARD CARLSON: Dispatches from the Danger Zone

Good newspaper column by Debbie Schlussel, a friend of ours who is syndicated from Detroit.

Debbie attacks a new movie called "The War Within" produced by the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban.   

Debbie calls Mr.. Cuban “the Worlds Most Annoying Sports Fan.” 

I don’t know about that, but he does appear to have a moronic streak.

Mr.. Cuban’s movie is about a Pakistani immigrant, a suicide bomber, who blows up New York's Grand Central Station.

The producers want us to sympathize with him –sort of your Nice Islamist Boy Next Door - as he labors to kill as many men, women and children in New York as he can.

Mr.. Cuban’s movie wants you to feel his inner pain.

The director is quoted as saying: "How are we ever going to understand what's going on right now if we don't see these people (he is referring to terrorists) as human beings?"

“I am a firm believer in empathy” says the director, “of coming into awareness of the experience of another.”

Can you imagine during WW2 if we prattled in movies or other media about the humanity of Hitler?

CLIFF MAY: Weekly Notes & Comments

IRAN'S THREAT: Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to wipe Israel "off the map." So now, there can be no doubt: The Islamist-Fascist dictators of Iran are intent on genocide.

Scholar Michael Ledeen notes that while this may be frightening it is hardly new. The father of the Iranian Revolution, the Ayatollah Khomeini, made the same promise back in 1979 after he left France (where his hosts did their best to make him comfortable) and took power in Tehran. I was reporting from Iran at the time. I remember.

Read more Notes & Comments in this week's e-newsletter.

Read more on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of the democratic state of Israel here.