FDD

Winning the War – An Islamic Approach to Fighting Militant Islamism

Abdurrahman Wahid, former president of Indonesia writes in today’s Wall Street Journal:

“Muslims themselves can and must propagate an understanding of the "right" Islam, and thereby discredit extremist ideology. Yet to accomplish this task requires the understanding and support of like-minded individuals, organizations and governments throughout the world. Our goal must be to illuminate the hearts and minds of humanity, and offer a compelling alternate vision of Islam, one that banishes the fanatical ideology of hatred to the darkness from which it emerged.”

The rest of the op-ed is here (WSJ subscription required).

CATM Removes Hezbollah's Al-Manar Television from Satellite Broadcasting into North and South America

Washington, D.C. (December 29, 2005) – The Coalition Against Terrorist Media (CATM) today praised satellite company Hispamar for removing the terrorist group Hezbollah's al-Manar television station from broadcast into North and South America.  This marks the second time that CATM has taken al-Manar off the airwaves in the United States and throughout the Americas.  [Read Full Press Release]

Hamas Rules

They include a “dhimmi” tax on non-Muslims in the Palestinian territories. 

And already, a “new style can already be seen in the municipalities where Hamas is installed: Christian women employed there, who are accustomed to shaking everybody’s hand, are held at a distance by the newly elected, for whom physical contact violates Islamic principles.”

More here.

Congratulations Mithal (CM)

Mithal Alusi, an Iraqi politician (and friend of FDD) may win a seat in Parliament. His Nation Party earned more than 30,000 in elections in Iraq’s recent elections -- roughly the same number as Ahmed Chalabi's party.

You may recall that last year, Alusi attended a conference on terrorism in Israel. As a result, he was attacked with both words and weapons. Terrorists opened fire on his car, murdering two of his sons along with a body guard.

A Washington Post story on Alusi’s comeback is here.

Islamic Jihad to Abbas: You’re Not the Boss of Us (CM)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked Islamic Jihad to stop shooting rockets from its Gaza bases into Israel. IJ told Abbas to take a hike. 

In response, CNN’s Jim Clancy interviewed Hanan Ashwari and both blamed it all on the Israelis. Even Ashwari seemed astonished – though pleasantly so – by Clancy’s solicitousness and spin.

AP on the Abbas – IJ chat is here.

Dispatches from the Danger Zone: Sheehan Speaks, Again (RWC)

Left-wing activist Cindy Sheehan was paid $11,000 for a one hour talk at the State University at Oneonta, NY the other night.  Sheehan has demanded an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

The money to pay her came from student activity fees required of undergraduates.

As “balance” to Sheehan, as they described it, the college booked retired U.S. Army Colonel Scott Rutter to speak.  He was paid $600.

Listen to Danger Zone radio every Sunday at 9pm EST.  This week's lineup is here and the program's archives are here.

Mr. Sevan, I Presume

Claudia Rosett's latest piece in the Opinion Journal asks the question: "What has become of the former head of the U.N. Oil for Food program, Benon Sevan?"

Goodbye Hi! (CM)

The State Department suspends publication of a government-funded publication – the inanely named “Hi!” magazine -- for young people in the Arab world. Last year it ran an astonishing article on “metrosexuals” – just what we want Arab teenagers to grasp about American culture.

More here. And Daniel Pipes comments here.

For more Notes & Comments please see FDD's weekly e-newsletter.

Germany Frees a Hijacker and Murderer (CM)

FDD Senior Fellow Andy McCarthy discusses Germany's release of the hijacker of TWA Flight 847.

Dispatches from the Danger Zone: Germans Give the U.S. the Finger

You saw, did you not, that the German government gave the finger to the U.S. this week—once again?

They let terrorist Mohammad Ali Hammadi go and gave him a free flight to Lebanon, back into the arms of Hezbollah from whence he came.

Hammadi is the Islamist killer who tortured and murdered the young US Navy diver Robbie Stethem, of Waldorf, Maryland, after hijacking a TWA flight in the Mideast in 1985.   

Robbie Stethem was beaten terribly by Hammadi and two other Pro-Palestinians and then shot in the head and thrown onto the tarmac at Beirut airport.  If you were reading the newspapers or watching TV twenty years ago you likely remember it.

Other Americans aboard the plane were beaten and abused, all simply because they were American.

The other two hijackers are still at large with big US rewards on their heads. 

The Germans once had them but they let them go after acquitting one on a technicality and convicting the other of a much lesser charge than kidnapping or murder.

Both are long free from Germany, although both still have US warrants for their arrest.  But our government hasn't done anything about them in all these years and there is little reason to believe they are ever going to. We don't seem to have the will necessary.

Not WMD -- But Not Chopped Liver Either (CM)

American soldiers have found more than a thousand aging rockets and missiles "some of which had been buried as recently as two weeks ago." 

"In our eyes, every one of these rockets represents one less IED," said 2nd Lt. Patrick Vardaro, 23, of Norwood, Massachusetts, a platoon leader in the division's 187th Infantry Regiment.

Also significant:  "Commanders in the 101st said knowing that an Iraqi tipped them off to the buried weapons could mean that residents in this largely Sunni Arab region about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Baghdad are beginning to warm up to coalition forces.

"The tide is turning," Vardaro said. "It's better to work with Americans than against us."

More here.

Rubin on Iraqi Elections, U.N. Irresponsibility (CM)

Our friend, Michael Rubin, formerly of the Department of Defense, now at the American Enterprise Institute notes:

- On December 15, Iraq held successful elections.

     -  Election day was peaceful
     -  Turnout was near 70 percent

- There are, however, credible allegations of fraud.

- Lack of independent election observation has compounded dispute adjudication.

- While the Bush administration has, in recent weeks responded to critics and defended its policies, it remains silent on U.N. subterfuge.

- The U.N. should be criticized for abdicating its election observation responsibilities.

     -  Each Iraqi poll has demonstrated that Iraqi elections are peaceful and orderly.
     -  It is important for future U.S. policy to highlight how Turtle Bay plays politics with Iraq, and the consequences.

-  U.S. embassy-Baghdad junior officers say they travel to the "red zone" more frequently, but Turtle Bay restricts their UN Iraq mission colleagues from holding many meetings with Iraqis so as not to acknowledge improving security.

- The U.N. is not a passive player.  If we do not hold them accountable for their behavior and put them on the defensive, the SG's office will continue to erode confidence in US policy in Iraq and elsewhere.

RECOMMENDATION: The Bush administration should chastise U.N. for:

1. Its failure to observe peaceful elections;
2. Creating an observation vacuum into which fraud ballooned.

Powerline on the NSA Brouhaha (CM)

If you're following this story, this exchange is worth reading.

“Inherent Authority” (CM)

John Schmidt, who served under President Clinton from 1994 to 1997 as the associate attorney general of the United States, writes in the Chicago Tribune:

“President Bush's post- Sept. 11, 2001, authorization to the National Security Agency to carry out electronic surveillance into private phone calls and e-mails is consistent with court decisions and with the positions of the Justice Department under prior presidents …

In the Supreme Court's 1972 Keith decision holding that the president does not have inherent authority to order wiretapping without warrants to combat domestic threats, the court said explicitly that it was not questioning the president's authority to take such action in response to threats from abroad.

Four federal courts of appeal subsequently faced the issue squarely and held that the president has inherent authority to authorize wiretapping for foreign intelligence purposes without judicial warrant.

In the most recent judicial statement on the issue, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, composed of three federal appellate court judges, said in 2002 that ‘All the ... courts to have decided the issue held that the president did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence ... We take for granted that the president does have that authority.’…

[A]s the 2002 Court of Review noted, if the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches, ‘FISA could not encroach on the president's constitutional power.’ …

I do not believe the Constitution allows Congress to take away from the president the inherent authority to act in response to a foreign attack.

Read the whole oped here.

With Allies Like This... (CM)

Germany has released a terrorist who was serving a life sentence for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a U.S. Navy diver.

"Mohammed Ali Hamadi was released from prison and has left Germany, said Doris Moeller-Scheu, spokeswoman for the Frankfurt prosecutor's office. She said she did not know his destination. ...

"TWA flight 847 from Athens, Greece, to Rome was hijacked to Beirut, Lebanon, where the hijackers shot U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Md., and dumped his body on the tarmac."

Stethem was "beaten and shot on June 15, 1985, while the plane was in Beirut. He was the only casualty during the hijacking ordeal, in which 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days. He received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart decorations, and a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer is named in his honor."

U.S. authorities had requested his extradition so he could stand trial in the United States. The Germans refused.

FDD Fellow Victoria Toensing suspects ali Hamadi's release may be connected to the freeing of German hostages in Iraq earlier this week.

More from Victoria here.

Hat tip: Kathryn Lopez.

Clinton Claimed Authority to Order No-Warrant Searches (CM)

"The Clinton administration argued that the president has 'inherent authority' to order physical searches — including break-ins at the homes of U.S. citizens — for foreign intelligence purposes without any warrant or permission from any outside body. Even after the administration ultimately agreed with Congress's decision to place the authority to pre-approve such searches in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, President Clinton still maintained that he had sufficient authority to order such searches on his own."

Byron York has more here.

If He Only Banned Eminem I Wouldn't Be Too Critical (CM)

"Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned Western music from Iran's radio and TV stations."

Dispatches from the Danger Zone: Across the Border (RWC)

A new detailed study gives the lie to the stereotype of the illegal immigrant from Mexico coming to the US to find work –because there are no jobs at home.

The Pew Foundation surveyed nearly 5,000 Mexican immigrants, almost all of them illegal, and found they were invariably employed back in Mexico.

They were drawn to the U.S. by higher wages, social services and a better lifestyle. 

The migrants come "not from the poorest fringes” of Mexican society, which has been the stereotype, but from the "heart of Mexico's labor force."

Median earnings for the illegals in the US are about $300 a week, much, much higher than in Mexico-and in Atlanta and Dallas illegal workers averaged much more than the median wage.

Not surprisingly the lowest paid employees were women who spoke little or no English and those without any identification.

So maybe the U.S.’s putative friend Mr. Vincente Fox might do more to shore up life for his own folks at home rather than tolerating the lousy conditions that propel them north.

The Mexican economy has always been top-heavy with rich and corrupt political figures squatting like bloated toads on a society that functions on slave wages, puny pensions and few social safety nets.  What a place.  We ought to demand Fox get his own chicken house in order or cut off the flow of U.S. aid.

Conservative vs. Conservative on Spy vs. Spy (CM)

The Wall Street Journal says the president has the power – and responsibility – to assign the NSA to listen in on al-Qaeda phone calls.

George Will says the president has the authority – but should not have exercised it without first seeking legislative and judicial cooperation.

Bill Kristol and Gary Schmidt weigh in, too.

The Moose, a Democrat in the Scoop Jackson/Joe Lieberman mold, provides this view.

Who Opposes This? (CM)

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

"The authorization by the President is only to engage in surveillance of communications where one party is outside the United States, and where we have a reasonable basis to conclude that one of the parties of the communication is either a member of al Qaeda or affiliated with al Qaeda."

Read the rest of his statement here.

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

Dispatches from the Danger Zone: MWL Leader Deported (RWC)

A prominent Washington DC area Muslim leader has been deported and is on his way back to Saudi Arabia.

Abdullah Alnoshan of Falls Church was director of the Muslim World League in Northern Virginia. 

He had been arrested this summer by FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task after a raid on Muslim World League Headquarters - one of several Northern Virginia Muslim charities suspected of aiding terrorism.

The MWL is purported to have provided money to al Qaeda and Osma Bin Laden.  They have denied that and the charity has not been charged.

Alnoshan, who is 44, has been in and out of the Washington area for years, and in and out of the U.S. and the Mideast – although his in and outing has come to an end.

The government says he was traveling on forged documents. 

The U.S. made him quite comfortable for a long time.  By now, he has arrived in Saudi Arabia, a little less "comfortable" venue, one suspects.

WALID PHARES: "CATCH THEM BUT DON'T WATCH THEM"..!

                                      Spying on al Qaida in America

"Use their systems, passports, citizenship, laws, traditions, books and media, create internal divisions among them, and inflict defeat on the kuffars [infidels], for in the current balance of power, all we need to do is to use their weaknesses as our strength." – Abul ala’, comment posted in the Al-Ansar chat room, September 2005.

Opening the first salvo in the newly launched "battle of the terrorist surveillance," the Associated Press wrote: "President Bush said Saturday he personally has authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. more than 30 times since the Sept. 11 attacks and he lashed out at those involved in publicly revealing the program." When I read this far in the report, I thought the article was about finding who in America is helping al-Qaeda

Bush Speaks Out (CM)

In a rare, live radio address the President defends the Patriot Act and his use of the NSA. It's worth reading.

As President, I took an oath to defend the Constitution, and I have no greater responsibility than to protect our people, our freedom, and our way of life.  On September the 11th, 2001, our freedom and way of life came under attack by brutal enemies who killed nearly 3,000 innocent Americans.  We're fighting these enemies across the world.  Yet in this first war of the 21st century, one of the most critical battlefronts is the home front.  And since September the 11th, we've been on the offensive against the terrorists plotting within our borders.

One of the first actions we took to protect America after our nation was attacked was to ask Congress to pass the Patriot Act.  The Patriot Act tore down the legal and bureaucratic wall that kept law enforcement and intelligence authorities from sharing vital information about terrorist threats.  And the Patriot Act allowed federal investigators to pursue terrorists with tools they already used against other criminals.  Congress passed this law with a large, bipartisan majority, including a vote of 98-1 in the United States Senate.   

Since then, America's law enforcement personnel have used this critical law to prosecute terrorist operatives and supporters, and to break up terrorist cells in New York, Oregon, Virginia, California, Texas and Ohio.  The Patriot Act has accomplished exactly what it was designed to do:  it has protected American liberty and saved American lives.

Yet key provisions of this law are set to expire in two weeks.  The terrorist treat to our country will not expire in two weeks.  The terrorists want to attack America again, and inflict even greater damage than they did on September the 11th.  Congress has a responsibility to ensure that law enforcement and intelligence officials have the tools they need to protect the American people.   

Purple Fingers Fly to Iraq (CM)

This just in:

My name is [withheld]. I work at a Morale, Welfare and Recreation Center in an undisclosed location near Baghdad International Airport.  Becuase I work with Iraqis as well as Coaltion forces, I can't take pictures of our fingers for safety's sake.

However, I do want to tell you that the grins on the faces of the Iraqi soldiers have looked like they fell in love, won the lotto, got married,  and had a baby all in one day.  They have been so touched by Americans dyeing their fingers that they have just been beside themselves.

I thank God for giving you such a simple and yet powerful gesture to strike with love the hearts of the brave Iraqi people who have defied death three times in one year to vote.

Blessings upon all of you.

Also see this and this and this one too.

The Rise of Radical Islam in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a country with the world's fourth largest Muslim population: almost 144 million in 2005.  Bangladesh experienced much early turbulence after its founding in 1971, including military coups, but more recently has had a solid record of democratic elections.

Bangladeshi migrants in both the Middle East and the West have become well established communities with economic importance for their host countries as well as their homeland. So far, they have not been vulnerable to radical Islamist recruitment, but there are indications that many who have retuned to Bangladesh after working as migrant laborers in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East have been inculcated with a more radical version of Islam that makes them more open to terrorist recruitment.  Read more.

For more information on Bangladesh see here and here.

Purple Fingers for Freedom (CM)

Check out these photos from freedom-loving – and freedom supporting – Americans around the country.

Live Blogging From Iraq (CM)

Right here at Pajamas Media and here at Iraq the Model.

Claudia Rosett Receives the Center for Security Policy's "Mightier Pen" Award

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies congratulates Claudia Rosett for receiving the Center for Security Policy's “Mightier Pen” award for her tireless work exposing the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal and for her writing on issues of human rights and freedom.  Read the full press release.

Unserious Syriana

Cliff May's latest Scripps Howard column discusses Hollywood's portrayal of the war on terrorism in the new movie Syriana.

Also: FDD Distinguished Advisor James Woolsey discusses the dangers posed by Islamofascism and Wahhabism in his latest NRO piece and Cliff May and Andy McCarthy examine the debate over torture in this USA Today column.

The WMD Mystery (CM)

Peggy Noonan in the WSJ: “[T]here seems to me a thing that is blindingly obvious, and yet I've never seen it remarked upon. It is that an administration that would coldly lie us into Iraq is an administration that would lie about what was found there. And yet the soldiers, searchers and investigators who looked high and low throughout Iraq made it clear they had found nothing, an outcome the administration did not dispute and came to admit. But an administration that would lie about reasons would lie about results, wouldn't it? Or try to? Yet they were candid.

“Wouldn't it be good if our serious journalists and historians looked into what happened to weapons that Saddam once used and once had? He abused weapons inspectors who came looking, acting like a man who had a great deal to hide. And wouldn't it be good for our serious journalists and historians to look into exactly how it is that faulty intelligence, of such a crucial nature and at such a crucial moment, came to America and Britain? It is still amazing. Oh, for journalists and historians who would look only for truth and not merely for data that justify their politics and ideology.”

The rest is here.

Ahmadinejad Calls the Holocaust a Myth (CM)

More here.

One Response:

“A man who refuses to believe the historic truth is capable of anything. This is not an Arabic cable TV station or an obscure Egyptian newspaper. This is a head of government, the leader of a nation of 70 million - a country that aspires to lead the Muslim world. And, lest we forget, Iran has nuclear ambitions. So now it's not paranoid to worry about a president with annihilationist dreams - it's smart. …

“It's hardly a surprise. TV stations across the Muslim world have been running this garbage for ages, along with lurid anti-semitism. Jordanian TV's Ramadan special this year was Al-Shatat, a Syrian-produced series that speaks of a ‘global Jewish government’ and depicts the ancient blood libel: the accusation that Jews use the blood of Christian children in preparing food for Passover. That was a follow-up to Egyptian television's Ramadan treat in 2002: Horseman without a Horse, whose central theme was the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the century-old forgery concocted by the Tsarist secret police which alleged a Jewish plot to take over the world.”

The whole column is here.

Dispatches from the Danger Zone: Bloodlust (RWC)

Fareed Zakaria made one good point, for a refreshing change, in his Time Magazine ruminations.

The rising clamor in Washington to run from Iraq might be the right or wrong thing, Zakaria says, but its timing has zero to do with events in Iraq.  The country is no worse off than it was three months ago.

The fact is that Iraq is much better off and the noise from the democratic left in the US and Western Europe, and their friends in the media, has a great deal to do with political bloodlust, blind hatred for George Bush, and the elections of 2006 and 2008.   

The fact is that the US has been creaming the foreign fighters in Iraq.  There are significantly fewer on the battlefields because they have been killed or captured—and a much better job is being done to secure the enormous border with Syria.

This trend is one reason, according to Rowan Scarborough in the Washington Times, that the Bush administration seems more confident about reducing the American troop presence next year to less than 138,000. (It is now about 160,000).

Another positive fact: Condi Rice seems to have a handle on shaping the war’s administration.

FDD Media Roundup

Claudia Rosett discusses the assasination of Gebran Tueni, who was Lebanon's leading newspaperman in the struggle for a free and democratic society in today's Opinion Journal.

Also, Andy McCarthy continues to explore the national and international debate on 'coercive interrogation' in his latest NRO pieces here and here.

Motivated Only By An Admirable Commitment to Higher Education, No Doubt (CM)

According to the Associated Press a Saudi prince has donated $40 million for Harvard and Georgetown to expand their Islamic studies programs.

You think the gift, from Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, will have any strings attached? Nah! Why would such an idea even occur to me?

The Boston Globe notes:  “After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, in which 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis, Alwaleed tried to donate $10 million to the Twin Towers Fund for victims. Former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani rejected the gift because of an accompanying press release in which Alwaleed urged the United States to reexamine its Middle East policies."

Dispatches from the Danger Zone: NorthCom (RWC)

The Pentagon has been pushing legislation that would allow the FBI to share information about US citizens with the military, the CIA and other intelligence agencies, so long as that information is connected to foreign intelligence.   

The White House wants this to strengthen investigations into terrorism or the threat against America of weapons of mass destruction.

The Pentagon is already busy in the intelligence field in the US. 

They established “Northcom”- out in Colorado Springs -right after 9/11 to react to terrorist threats in the US.   

NorthCom (or Northern Command) has intelligence centers in Colorado and Texas with almost 300 intelligence analysts employed, about 200 more than currently work at the State Departments intelligence office,and some few more than the entire Department of Homeland Security.

Each of the military services has quietly begun its own post-9/11 collection of domestic intelligence, that is, within the US-all aimed at gathering information on potential threats to military bases and people in the US and abroad.

Cliff May's Weekly Notes & Comments

THE LONG WAR: An officer briefing FDD's Eleana Gordon and me at CENTCOM (Central Command) in Tampa the other day said: "It's important to understand: The Jihadis take a one-hundred year view. If it takes them a century to win this war, they are prepared for that. Very few people in the West think in such terms."

What he did not say but might have: Most politicians can't think or plan beyond the next election.

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

Bungling Saddam's Trial (CM)

“There hasn't been such judicial incompetence since Judge Ito and the O.J. trial.  We can excuse the Iraqis, who are new to all this and justifiably terrified of retribution. But there is no excusing the Bush administration, which had Hussein in custody for two years and had even longer to think about putting on a trial that would not become a star turn for a defeated enemy.”

Read what else Charles Krauthammer has to say. 

Purple Fingers of Freedom

Cliff May's latest Scripps-Howard column discusses the Purple Finger for Freedom campaign and the importance of showing solidarity with free Iraqis as they go to the polls next week.

Also new: Andy McCarthy discusses the 9/11 Commission and Able Danger in his latest NRO piece.

Political Evoluntion in Iraq (JS)

The Washington Post's Jonathan Finer has an interesting piece highlighting the political evolution taking place in Iraq.  While there are still clearly problems, this article makes plain that the political trends in Iraq are going in a positive direction (even if the political trends related to Iraq in the U.S. might not always seem to be...)

Dispatches for the Danger Zone: CIFA (RWC)

The Pentagon is expanding its intelligence capabilities within the United States. 

The White House is talking about giving broader powers to a little known Pentagon agency "The Counterintelligence Field Activity" office, called CIFA.

CIFA was created three years ago to coordinate Pentagon security efforts including protecting US military bases from attack.

Under new powers it would have the authority to investigate crimes within the US, such as treason or terrorism, even economic espionage.

CIFA is no small potatoes outfit.  Its budget is classified and so is the size of its work force. CIFA is believed to have more than 1,000 people working fulltime.

FDD Needs Your Support to Keep Delivering Results! (Cliff May)

As a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit policy institute accountable to our supporters, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is committed to delivering meaningful results.  To do the work that needs to get done, we rely on the financial support of Americans concerned about the defense of democratic societies under assault by terrorism and Militant Islamism.

Your support will help FDD continue to deliver significant results like exposing the UN Oil-for-Food scandal, shutting down terrorist media, training American professors and students as anti-terrorism advocates, helping Arab and Muslim reformers push back against Iranian and Wahhabi extremists, expanding our programs into Europe and doing battle in the media seven times a day every day.

Thanks to such support, FDD has delivered significant results:  Click here to read more. 

Click  to here donate.  FDD is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible.  For donations of $150 or more, you will receive a signed hardcover copy of Future Jihad, Terrorist Strategies Against America by FDD Senior Fellow and terrorism expert Dr. Walid Phares.

Raise a Purple Finger for Freedom

On December 15, the people of Iraq will do what no American should ever have to contemplate. They will risk their lives to vote. For the third time this year, the brave people of Iraq will go to the polls to determine their future. Join Bill Bennett and other radio hosts who are encouraging Americans to ink their right index finger purple from Dec. 12-15 to show support for the freedom loving people of Iraq as they prepare to vote.

For more information click here or visit http://www.purplefingerforfreedom.org/.

Dispatches from the Danger Zone: Spain Arms Chavez

Spain is moving ahead with its plan to sell military aircraft and patrol boats to Hugo Chavez’ government in Venezuela.   

The deal is for 12 planes and 8 boats, the biggest defense sale Spain has ever made – and one the U.S. has been trying to block.

The U.S. has is threatening to halt the transfer of U.S. parts and U.S. technology in the planes and boats.

The Venezuelans scoffed at the threat. They say they can easily replace American parts with others from France, Italy or Germany.

Hugo Chavez harbors enormous hostility to the U.S. and has turned over some of the operations of his government to agents of Fidel Castro’s DGI- Cuban intelligence.

Palestinian Authority Continues to Reward Terrorism (CM)

There was a bombing in Netanya today and the PA denounced it -- in words.

But the PA still refers to suicide bombers in official documents as Shahids, i.e., "martyrs." More importantly, the PA still rewards terrorism.

"Each family will get $250 a month from the PA. Married ones get an extra $50 and children $25 per child. All in all, $11,000,000 will be paid by these official terror paymasters to the families of men they supposedly condemn. Of course, these families receive additional sums from 'charities.'"

More here.

Hat tip: Jonah Goldberg.

Rumsfeld at Johns Hopkins Monday (CM)

Some notable quotes from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s remarks:

“[O]ne needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks.  As Senator Joe Lieberman recently suggested, a better measure of success might be that a vast majority of Iraqis -- tens of millions   --  are on the side of the democratic government, while a comparatively small number are opposed.  This gives the Iraqi people an enormous advantage over time.”

“Imagine the world our children would face if we allowed Zawahiri, Zarqawi, bin Laden, and others of their ilk to seize power or operate with impunity out of Iraq.  They would turn Iraq into what Afghanistan was before 9-11  --  a haven for terrorist recruitment and training and a launching pad for attacks against U.S. interests and our fellow citizens.  … This is their plan.  They have said so.  We should listen and learn.”

“Quitting is not a strategy.   Quitting is an invitation to more attacks and more terrorist violence here at home.  This is not just a hypothesis.  The U.S. withdrawal from Somalia emboldened Osama bin Laden in the 1990’s.  We know this.  He has said so."

“The message retreat in Iraq would send to the free people of Iraq and to moderate Muslim reformers throughout the region would be that they can’t count on America.  The message it would send to our enemies would be:  that if America will not defend itself against terrorists in Iraq, it will not defend itself against terrorists anywhere.”

The Nature of the Enemy (CM)

General Peter Pace made the following remarks yesterday at the National Defense University:

I say to those now who say, If we just stop fighting in Iraq, if we just stop fighting in Afghanistan, if we just stopped worrying about and chasing the terrorists that this would go away, I say, You need to get out and read what our enemies have said. …

Now our enemies have said publicly, on film, on the Internet, their goal is to destroy our way of life. No equivocation on their part. They're not saying, If you stay home, we will not come after you.

They are saying their goal is to rid the Middle East of all foreigners; then overthrow all governments that are not friendly to them, which means every single one of those governments; then to use that base as a way to spread their terrorism and their oppression across the globe, to include a map that shows 100 years from now that the entire globe would be under their domination.

But to talk about how we are going to proceed, we need to understand the nature of the enemy. And clearly, the nature of this enemy is different than any we have faced in the past.

A question that I get frequently is: Wouldn't we all just be better off if we just left them alone? The answer that I give is: That would be nice if it would work. But that's not the world we live in.

On September 11th, 2001, we were leaving them alone. That was the day we realized in the United States that we were at war. Our enemies had declared war on us years before, but the attacks in New York, in the skies over Pennsylvania and here in Washington, D.C., brought home very clearly to us that we were at war. 

So I say to those now who say, If we just stop fighting in Iraq, if we just stop fighting in Afghanistan, if we just stopped worrying about and chasing the terrorists that this would go away, I say, You need to get out and read what our enemies have said. …

Atlas Shrugs on What May be Oriana Fallaci’s Final Public Appearance (CM)

"Smart determined, and intent on getting the message out there that we are underestimating the enemy. Playing nice guy, playing PC, killing all signs of religion (ie Christmas) will be the end of us.

"‘I do not believe the West will win.’ Her fatalism is pure and unashamed."

There’s more here.

We Have Ways To Make You Talk

Cliff May's latest Scripps Howard article discusses the McCain Ammendment to ban "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of any prisoner by any agent of the United States.

Andy McCarthy also elaborates on the Ammendment's implications to national security here.

Claudia on the UN and the Future of the Internet

FDD Journalist-in-Residence Claudia Rosett writes an enlightening piece over at the new Pajamas Media site discussing the threat to the future of the Internet coming from the UN.  Given Claudia's excellent work highlighting UN corruption, she is uniquely qualified to encourage debate on this issue.

For more of Claudia's work, click here.

Dispatches from the Danger Zone: France's Weakness (RWC)

Columnist Mark Steyn, editor of the Spectator in London, had an interesting take on the riots in France:   

He said, “for a half decade French Arabs have called for a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, and Jewish schools.

“The concern of the political class has been to prevent these attacks from spreading to targets of more, ah, general interest.

“Unlike America’s Europhiles, France’s ‘Arab Street’ correctly identified Jacques Chirac’s opposition to the Iraq War for what it was: A sign of weakness.”

And of course, Chirac’s response to the rioting was slow and very late.

Steyn has been predicting street rioting and assassinations in Europe for some time. 

He once said he was more optimistic about the future of Iraq and Pakistan than he is about, say, Holland or Denmark.

Seemed too dark and off-kilter at the time, but maybe not.

This Sunday's Danger Zone lineup is here.

Lieberman on IMUS (CM)

If you didn’t hear it, you can read it here or listen to the episode here.