FDD

Walid Phares Op Ed in al Muharrer on Somalia's Mahakem

In an an Op Ed published in the Pan Arab al Muharrer edition of July 1-7, 2006 Walid Phares, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies asserts that “The Islamic Tribunals of Somalia are linked to al Qaida.” The article explains how al Qaida Salafi supporters for over ten years have been able to penetrate Somali tribes, militias and former warlords groups and establish the “Mahakem.” These militias are linked via their ideological cadres to the international network of al Qaida.

Download the op-ed.

Interestingly, al Qaida web site is announcing that Bin laden will be issuing a video about Somalia to clarify his position towards the Mahakem.

Walid Phares quoted in al Muharrer: "Iran eyes Syria and Lebanon for future missiles deployment"

In an article titled “Iranian missiles in Syria and the Bekaa capable of reaching France, Great Britain and Germany,” al Muharrer weekly "wrote that “the analysis of Dr Walid Phares, Senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, demonstrate that the ultimate strategic aim of the Ahmedinijad regime is to deploy its missiles in Syria, and in some locations in Lebanon as a way to put a number of European countries and the Sixth Fleet under its reach.”

The article says it has confirmed this analysis with sources from Western defense in the US, Britain and within moderate Arab countries. Arabic -July 1-7, 2006. Regardless of the article's sources, the gist of it focus on the convergence of analysis between the US, Europe and a number of Arab Governments that Iran is strategically decided to expand its military influence in the region and it will use its strategic relations with Syria to perform future deployments.

North Korean radio [AV]

North Korea has one of the most repressive, brutal and savage regimes on the planet.

Andrei Lankov, writing in Asia Times Online, offers some very useful advice on what those who want to promote democracy in North Korea can do: support North Korean radio.

Previously, this would have been futile since all radios in North Korea were modified to block out foreign-based radio stations. However, because of the opening of the North Korea - China border, smugglers have imported many transistor radios which can access foreign radio. Now, there is a fledgling radio industry that broadcasts into North Korea, and these efforts should be enthusiastically supported.

Complete FBIS Tranlsation of Bin Laden Tape

• This is a 19-minute audio taped message that has a picture of UBL alongside footage of the last Zarqawi video where he is shooting in the desert.

• It was the fourth message purportedly put out this year by bin Laden. All have featured his voice in audiotapes. New video images of him have not appeared since October 2004.

Rivkin & Casey on the Supreme Court Decision

Just as it is symbolically important to prosecute juveniles in a special court system, it is important to treat  unlawful combatants as something other than ordinary criminal defendants. Such individuals have not merely  deviated from society's norms, they have openly and proudly rejected those norms -- in al Qaeda's case to a  truly savage level. Treating such men as common criminals trivializes the threat they pose, and the actions  they take. ...

[T]he administration should stick to its guns on the fundamental question whether the U.S. is fighting a war  with al Qaeda secure in the knowledge that the Supreme Court has, and continues, to validate the legal basis of  this conflict.

More here.

Freeh & Woolsey

Cliff May writes in from the road:

Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger quotes FDD Distinguished Advisors James Woolsey and Louis Freeh on the "never-ending tensions over civil liberty concerns on one hand and manifest national security threats on the other."

Woolsey notes that "the tough case is what to do with groups that have as their explicit objective, as much of the Muslim Brotherhood does, an Islamic state governing North America? It's hard because it involves raising [security] questions around people who purport that these are their religious beliefs. Our constitutional structure has real problems with that."

More here.

More on the Islamist Take-Over in Somalia

New FDD adjunct fellow Peter Pham testified yesterday at a joint oversight hearing on “Somalia: Expanding Crisis in the Horn of Africa” held by the United States House of Representatives Committee on International Relations’ Subcommittees on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations and International Terrorism and Nonproliferation.

The text of his remarks is here.

Hamdan v Rumsfeld [AV]

The Supreme Court just issued its opinion in Hamdan v Rumsfeld. We've blogged about the case here. FDD Senior Fellow Andy McCarthy has written extensively on it as well, most recently here.

Although the judgment isn't yet on the Supreme Court website, it should be up in the next few hours. Instant commentaries on the decision can be found on Scotusblog.

Claudia's U.N. Update

Claudia Rosett delves deeper into the scandals at the U.N. with her two latest articles:

In NRO Claudia discusses this week's opening of the first federal trial linked to the U.N.'s infamous Oil-for-Food program.

In the Wall Street Journal Claudia reviews Paul Kennedy, a Yale historian with high-level U.N. connections', new book: "The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations."

Muslim Perspectives (CM)

Daniel Pipes, analyzes a new Pew poll and concludes that Muslim alienation is strongest "in those countries where Muslims are either the most or the least accommodated, suggesting that a middle path is best - where Muslims do not win special privileges, as in the UK, nor are they in an advanced state of hostility, as in Nigeria."

His column is here.

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

The Gulag of Saud

J. Peter Pham and Michael I. Krauss explore the relationship between the U.S. and the House of Saud, and Saudi Arabia's abysmal record on human rights in today's FrontPageMagazine.com:

This ally and friend [Saudi Arabia] has become the breeding ground for so many enemies of America (including, of course, the majority of the 9/11 mass murderers). Why are we throwing Texas barbeques for these people?

Snow v. Times (CM)

From Treasury Secretary John Snow’s 6/26 letter to NY Times managing editor Bill Keller:

"You have defended your decision to compromise this program by asserting that "terror financiers know" our methods for tracking their funds and have already moved to other methods to send money.  The fact that your editors believe themselves to be qualified to assess how terrorists are moving money betrays a breathtaking arrogance and a deep misunderstanding of this program and how it works."

The rest of the letter is here.

Is Iraq the new Philippines? [AV]

History hardly ever repeats itself, it only appears like it does to those unfamiliar with its particulars. Which is why Ross Douthat's comparison of the Iraq war to the occupation of the Philippines is incorrect. Ross writes, at the American Scene:

[S]o far the military conflict that the Iraq War most resembles isn't Vietnam or World War II, but the TR-boosted Spanish-American War - a quick and painless military victory over a second-rate power, driven by a mix of idealism, jingoism, and power politics, that segued into a long and grueling counter-insurgency campaign [in the Philippines].

What gave the Filipino insurgency its popular appeal is notably absent from the Iraqi insurgency. The Filipino insurgents had a degree of popular support based on its claim that Filipinos should govern the Philippines.

The Filipino insurgents had Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipinio native, to lead them. Which Iraqi is a leader in the jihadist insurgency? The Iraqi insurgents were led by, before he was killed, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian. And now they are led by Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian. The most hardcore and violent members of the insurgency are foreign jihadists, with no legitimate claim to pan-Iraqi nationalism.

Meanwhile, the United States armed forces are in Iraq today with the consent of the democratically elected government. Furthermore, the goal of the jihadists isn't a return to Iraqi rule, but a continuation of sectarian violence and terror that would extend beyond any U.S. troop withdrawal.

The differences, in this case, are more important than the superficial similarities in Ross' historical analogy. The Iraq war is many things--a replay of the occupation of the Philippines it most assuredly is not.

Monday Morning Media Roundup

Andy McCarthy wonders if "any secrets more important than the New York Times’s sources?" in today's NRO.

Richard Chesnoff discusses last week's two-day Nobel Laureates' Conference in the desert city of Petra in the New York Daily News.

J. Peter Pham & Michael I. Krauss discuss links between Hamas and Saudi Arabia in NRO.

Danger Zone Available for Podcast

June 25th's episode is now available for download.

Lieberman defends mission in Iraq [AV]

With economy and restraint, Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) spoke before the Senate and defended the Iraq mission. He explained why attempts to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq before the mission is completed are foolish. Casting his vote against the Levin Amendment and the Kerry-Feingold Amendment, both of which would have forced an artificial withdrawal of U.S. troops, Lieberman reminds us of the United States' rich bipartisan tradition in foreign policy which, in the Democratic Party, is most closely associated with Henry "Scoop" Jackson and Hubert Humphrey.

The text of Senator Lieberman's remarks can be read before the fold:

Hizbut Tahrir gaining popularity in Central Asia, whilst posing a global threat [AV]

In spite of, or possibly because of, repressive policies in Central Asia, the Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir has been gaining popularity. This is alarming in and of itself, but it is the group's operations in Europe which highlight the global threat it poses.

Zeyno Baran has written the authoritative monograph on Hizbut Tahrir. Hizbut's response to Zeyno Baran's book manages to hold off for thirty words before comparing her to Joseph Goebbels.

Although it has a stronghold in Central Asia, Hizbut Tahrir has always been particularly active in Europe and the United Kingdom, where it is forced to operate in the shadows. As Baran explains in her monograph, one of the things that makes Hizbut Tahrir unique among Islamist groups is the ability of its members to come across as disarmingly suave and articulate.

Indeed, Hizbut Tahrir operates its own London-based glossy magazine, New Civilisation, whose editor Sajjad Khan, a regular on the London speaking circuit, sees the emergence of a global Islamic caliphate as unavoidable.

The Korean Dilemma (CM)

William Perry and Ashton Carter, who were, respectively, secretary and assistant secretary of Defense under President Clinton argue here that if North Korea persists in its missile launch preparations, the United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched.

Gabriel Schoenfeld argues here that “Perry and Carter are now recommending a preemptive U.S. strike while suggesting that a North Korean response will be relatively tame if it comes at all. But when they were in office, their calculations were reversed. They feared even tame U.S. actions would provoke a ferocious North Korean response. … the hawkish advice they today blithely proffer to the Bush administration suggests a measure of historical amnesia.”

But perhaps Perry and Carton have simly  changed their minds.  Perhaps they wish, in retrospect, that the Clinton administration had been more hawkish in response to such threats as that from North Korea (and from Iran, Iraq, the Taliban and al-Qaeda).

Saddam Hussein skips lunch, calls it a hunger strike [AV]

Protesting the murder of one of his attorneys, Saddam Hussein decided to begin a hunger-strike. It lasted - wait for it - an entire meal. He skipped lunch, but then ate dinner, according to Reuters.

As far as hilariously short and unsatisfying strikes go, Saddam Hussein's may in fact be a Guinness World Record.

The month of Ramadan begins in September. Will Saddam Hussein be able to resist surreptitiously eating a quick snack when the pangs of hunger hit?

Why Did the Clinton Admin Impede the Khobar Towers Investigation?

Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia -- an act of terrorism that took the lives of 19 servicemen stationed in the kingdom to enforce the no-fly zone in southern Iraq.

With orders from President Clinton to "leave no stone unturned," then FBI Director Louis Freeh (now an FDD Senior Advisor) led the investigation into the attack, promising the airmen's families that he would bring the perpetrators to justice. 

It soon became clear that all the evidence pointed in one direction: Iran.  But, as he writes in today's Wall Street Journal, the Clinton administration refused to face that reality -- and even impeded his investigation:

It soon became clear that Mr. Clinton and his national security adviser, Sandy Berger, had no interest in confronting the fact that Iran had blown up the Towers. This is astounding, considering that the Saudi Security Service had arrested six of the bombers after the attack. As FBI agents sifted through the remains of Building 131 in 115-degree heat, the bombers admitted they had been trained by the Iranian external security service (IRGC) in the Beka Valley, and received their passports at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, along with $250,000 cash for the operation from IRGC Gen. Ahmad Sharifi.

We later learned that senior members of the Iranian government, including Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), and the Spiritual Leader's office had selected Khobar as their target and commissioned the Saudi Hezbollah to carry out the operation. The Saudi police told us that FBI agents had to interview the bombers in custody in order to make our case. To make this happen, however, the U.S. president would need to personally make a request to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

So for 30 months, I wrote and rewrote the same set of simple talking points for the president, Mr. Berger, and others to press the FBI's request to go inside a Saudi prison and interview the Khobar bombers. And for 30 months nothing happened. The Saudis reported back to us that the president and Mr. Berger would either fail to raise the matter with the crown prince or raise it without making any request. On one such occasion, our commander in chief instead hit up Prince Abdullah for a contribution to his library. Mr. Berger never once, in the course of the five-year investigation which coincided with his tenure, even asked how the investigation was going.

Freeh's outrageous story -- and the lessons the Iranian Mullahs drew from it -- is here and is well worth considering as an emboldened Iranian regime seeks the power to kill not tens or hundreds, but millions.

Radical Islamist to Poised to Visit Toronto [AV]

Later this month, Islamist rabble-rouser and sometime theologian Sheik Riyadh ul Haq will visit Toronto to address 2,000 Canadians on issues facing Canadian youth. The event is being organized by the Islamic Organization of Toronto.

Sheik Riyadh ul Haq has been at the forefront of some of the most vicious attacks on Jews and other "unbelievers", as the Toronto Star explains.

Canadian Immigration Minister Monte Solberg has the power to deny this man entry to Canada. All eyes are on Solberg, waiting to see if he's willing to stand up to those who preach hate against others, which incitement is all the more dangerous in the wake of the arrest of 17 Canadians for plotting terror attacks.

Taliban Exposes Plans and Concerns (WP)

Al Qaida number two, Dr Ayman Zawahiri issued a new tape calling on the Afghans to "rise against the Infidels (Kuffars) and their agents (the Karzai Government)." Following are few points of analysis and evaluation:

1) Attacking the US for its "killing of innocent Afghans and torture of Muslims."

Zawahiri develops two lines of attacks. One against Karzai by exposing what he calls "the US role in killing Afghan civilians in Kabul, Khust, Urzogan, Helmind, Kunar and Kandahar." The accusation by Zawahiri of these killings comes at a time when Karzai himself is complaining (and has been for a while) about "civilian losses" in the ongoing battles with Taliban and al Qaida fighters. The design by Zawahiri is to corner Karzai with his own words. As shown clearly from al Jazeera’s panels, the strategy of the Jihadi propaganda and policy architects is to corner Karzai with accusations by Taliban and supporters that he is covering up for these losses. The Afghan Government would be walking on fine lines between responding to Zawahiri, as Karzai did, but also criticizing US and allies for their “faulty tactics.” In the mind of the Jihadi architects of politics, attacking Zawahiri won’t have additional effects on anyone, but criticizing one’s allies will have an effect on all parties: The US, Karzai and the Afghani public.

Zarqawi’s Heir (CM)

Fouad Ajami writes:

For the rulers in the saddle in Arab lands, jihadism has been a commodity for export. There has been a covert and subtle understanding with the perpetrators of terror: The order would avert its gaze from them so long as they took their furies beyond their homelands.

Jordan is not unique. The Saudi realm only awakened to the terror when its perpetrators struck within the peninsula itself. This happened in the spring of 2003. All that had transpired before was sanctioned and perhaps admired. Pamphleteers and preachers had praised the zeal of the jihadists, took their brutal deeds as evidence of youth's purity and faith. In the same vein, the Egyptian regime, merciless in the way it deals with challenges to its power at home, has never owned up to the darkness of Egyptian terrorists operating the world over. No one in Egypt has accepted responsibility for Mohammed Atta; nothing has been said in official life about the culture that shaped Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took out on other lands the wrath bred in him by the violent struggle between the Egyptian Islamists and the military autocracy.

It is fitting that the early intelligence has identified Zarqawi's successor as an Egyptian, one Abu Ayyub al-Masri (who goes by another nom de guerre, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer). From Jordan to Egypt: We are still in the darkness of regimes in the orbit of American power. With the torture and murder of two young American soldiers, Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker, who had been kidnapped at a checkpoint south of Baghdad, Zarqawi's successor has sent a grim, cruel reminder that the end of this terrible darkness in the Arab world is not yet at hand.

More here.

After Zarqawi

Cliff May's latest Scripps Howard column argues that: "The elimination of al-Qaeda commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi presents an opportunity that should not be missed: Now is the time to take a fresh look at America's goals in Iraq."

Lost and Found (CM)

"The United States has found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003, and more weapons of mass destruction are likely to be uncovered, two Republican lawmakers said Wednesday."

More here.

Global Terrorism Monitor

This week's Global Terrorism Monitor, now available, features stories including: Operational documents and computer files discovered following the strike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have led to a series of successful anti-terror raids in Iraq; Scores of Taliban fighters were killed as part of "Operation Mountain Thrust" in Afghanistan; A deadly landmine blast blamed on the Tamil Tigers killed 64 people on a crowded bus in Sri Lanka; and more.  Read the whole thing.

Claudia Rosett Testifies on U.N. Transparency

Claudia Rosett appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. She provided testimony on the lack of transparency in the U.N.

More information on the hearing and Claudia's testimony is here.

Geneva: Unconventional Wisdom (CM)

FDD Senior Fellow Andy McCarthy has a new piece clarifying something widely misunderstood: Under the Geneva convention, terrorists who violate the laws of war do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as do honorable soldiers who risk their lives to abide by the laws of war.

Also: Would it be too much to expect – or to demand – that the UN, human rights organizations and the media say unambiguously that no group that intentionally and habitually slaughters civilians can be considered a legitimate “resistance”? 

Andy’s piece is here.

Danger Zone is Available for Podcast

June 18th's episode of Danger Zone is now available for download.

The Difference (CM)

Kevin Ferris of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The allegations about Marines killing civilians in Haditha last year are bad enough. But what's worse is that one possible incident of abuse so easily overshadows the efforts of U.S. forces who struggle daily to prove we are not the Great Satan.

Certainly innocents are being killed in this war, and unlawful behavior should be punished, but recognize the difference:

Our highly disciplined troops are fighting under rules of engagement designed to protect and defend innocents, to minimize the loss of life. They regularly save lives.

The enemy has no rules. They kill as many innocents as possible, as horrifically as possible, every day. They murder outright, or attempt to spark revenge killings among rival factions, or launch attacks while among civilians, hoping that any return fire by U.S. or Iraqi forces will cause casualties.

More here.

For more notes & comments see this week's e-newsletter.

North Korea and the point-of-no-return [AV]

Following reports over the weekend that North Korea was considering test launching a long-range Taep'o-dong 2 missile, the Washington Post reports today that "North Korea appears to have completed fueling."

If it is true (and it's still a big 'if'), it is a very significant new development. The fuel, once loaded, has a very short shelf-life because it is highly corrosive and toxic (which causes the fuel canisters to deteriorate rapidly). Also, the fuel is very difficult to unload after it has been loaded, which indicates the seriousness of North Korea's missile testing gambit.

If North Korea does go ahead with the launch, and assuming that there are no technical glitches in the launch process itself, North Korea will have demonstrated that it possesses the technology to launch a missile capable of reaching U.S. territory (Alaska and California certainly; possibly deeper into the United States as well).

The New Taliban

FDD Academic Fellow Fellow J. Peter Pham discusses the rise of a Taliban-like regime in Somalia in today's WSJ.

Saddam's body [AV]

If and when Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death, what should be done with his corpse?

Victorino Matus' fascinating essay in Policy Review takes us through the precedents.

MEDIA ALERT: Cliff on C-SPAN

Cliff May will appear on C-SPAN this Sunday morning from 7:30-8:30amEST to discuss the latest political issues.

Al-Qaeda's Achilles Heel?

In his latest column for World Defense Review, FDD Academic Fellow J. Peter Pham looks at how global arms dealers can be useful in the war against Militant Islamic terrorists:

The networks that supply the terrorists are, in fact, the Achilles heel through which U.S. and allied intelligence and security services can potentially gain access to groups of interest by exploiting the latter's need to purchase the arms from international dealers like Bout and his kind.

Fortuitously, when it comes to shady financial deals, even the most ideologically driven terrorist discovers pragmatism. As Douglas Farah of the Washington Post has exposed, for example, al-Qaeda regularly traded with former Liberian president Charles Taylor; this is significant because the tyrant, as I point out in my own book on the conflict in the West African country, when he wasn't playing Baptist revival preacher was the self-proclaimed "supreme zo (witch doctor) of Liberia" – in either case, hardly a paragon of tawhīd, the rigorous Islamic concept of monotheism.

Terrorism in Thailand

More than 45 bombs detonated within 30 minutes across southern Thailand in an attack by a Militant Islamist terrorist group that killed two and injured more than 20.  A story is here.

Better known for its beaches and spicy food, Thailand has, as readers of our Global Terrorism Monitor know, been the victim of countless terrorist attacks that have killed more than 1,300 over the past two years.

Thai terrorists have been particularly brutal (beheading is common), but the country has not experienced a suicide attack, yet.

This article offers an in-depth look into the situation.

Wither, whither, the Bush Doctrine in Egypt? [AV]

How has the march toward democracy been faring in Egypt?

Writing in the Baltimore Sun, Jeffrey Azarva offers a cold, sobering update.

But just nine months after Mr. Mubarak won his fourth term, he ended the Egyptian government's experiment with democracy. When he arrested [opposition politician Ayman] Nour, the U.S. ambassador in Cairo, Francis J. Ricciardone, declined to comment. Mr. Mubarak saw a green light to accelerate his crackdown.

You can follow day-to-day updates in Egypt at the Egypt Monitor.

One of the better dailies in Egypt is the Arabic-language Al Masry Al Youm, published by Hesham Kasem, whose other hat is president of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.

Joshua Muravchik has recently written about the plight of Ayman Nour in the Wall Street Journal.

Guantanamo Bay [AV]

In his latest Scripps Howard column, Cliff May reminds us why the detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay are still necessary to the war on terrorism and rebuts some of the frequent errors propagated about Guantanamo Bay.

Cliff May's column comes at an important time because several newspapers have (again) called for the closure of the detention facility. Also, in the very near future, the Supreme Court will issue its ruling in Hamdan v Rumsfeld, challenging the military commission system designed to try Guantanamo detainees.

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSBlog comments on what the Bush Administration is hinting it will do if it loses before the Supreme Court.

At a recent event at the American Enterprise Institute, Neal Katyal, counsel for Salim Hamdan (of Hamdan v Rumsfeld fame) before the Supreme Court, explained why the Bush Administration, rather than relying on ad hoc military commissions, should instead try detainees under the courts-martial system.

Global Terrorism Monitor

The latest edition of the Global Terrorism Monitor is now available.  Stories include: A U.S. airstrike killed most-wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq; Hamas called off a self-declared ceasefire with Israel, launching numerous rockets into Israeli territory; Egypt alleged that the suicide bombers that attacked resorts in the Sinai last year were trained by Hamas; and much more.  Read the whole thing.

Zarqawi Killing and Intelligence

Scripps Howard columnist Jay Ambrose recently participated in FDD's Academic Fellowship, which included a visit to Israel to study how democracies can defend against terrorism.  He found some important parallels between Israel's experience and the hunt for Zarqawi in Iraq:

One of the most important things about the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is that the dropping of the bombs that shattered his lungs was made possible by intelligence operations that disclosed what Zarqawi and friends most wanted to be kept secret, his whereabouts.

That fact likely means U.S. and Iraqi military intelligence _ an absolutely crucial weapon in the fight against the terrorists _ is getting better and that the improved capacities will help in the killing or capture of still more terrorist leaders and their followers. The cause of a safe, sane, stable Iraq could thereby be furthered.

The vital role of intelligence in thwarting terrorist attacks was emphatically brought home to me during a 10-day visit to Israel as a fellow of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Lecture sessions and field trips underlined the obvious truth that traditional means of combat are largely useless against the sort of warfare summed up by suicide bombers in civilian dress whose chief targets are innocent men, women and children.

The rest of his column is here.

Should the U.S. Support a Peaceful Transition to Democracy in Iran?

Most  Members of Congress say yes.  But a bill to support pro-democracy dissidents is stalled in the Senate.

FDD's Alykhan Velshi explains why in his op-ed today in The Hill newspaper.

For more on the Iran Freedom and Support Act, his backgrounder is here.

UPDATE:  Senator Santorum announced that he would bypass the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and offer the Iran Freedom and Support Act, as well as other measures to pressure Iran, as a separate amendment to the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act.  His press release is here.

Going after Gitmo (CM)

The New York Times is campaigning to shut down Gitmo , the facility housing enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay.

Their primary talking point is that the prisoners there suffer “despair.” An editorial on Monday spoke of a “netherworld of despair.” Human Rights Watch has chimed in with “incredible despair”. And this morning the Times runs an op-ed headlined “Detainees in Despair” written by someone who has been released from Gitmo.

It contains this line: “I made the mistake of listening to my older brother and going to Afghanistan on what I thought was a dream vacation.” Somehow, he acknowledges, he ended up in an al-Qaeda training camp.

Don’t you hate when that happens? You consult your travel agent, you read your Fodor’s and the Times travel section and you think you’re on your way to Club Med Kandahar but instead of playing tennis and windsurfing you end up firing Kalashnikovs and assembling I.E.D.s. It could happen to anyone.

My Scripps Howard column later this week will tackle this issue.

Same Gitmo, Two Perspectives [AV]

With curious harmony, the New York Times runs an op/ed criticizing conditions in Guantanamo Bay, Le Monde publishes an editorial calling for the closure of the camp, and CNN airs an interview with Shafiq Rasul, of Rasul v Bush fame, alleging abuse in the prisons.

There is, of course, a flip-side: the so far under-reported story that an Afghan delegation that visited the camp was satisfied that conditions were humane.

Iraq Wants an Apology From Hamas (CM)

"The Iraqi government demands that the Palestinian government headed by Hamas gives a clarification regarding their earlier statement [defending Zarqawi and calling him a 'martyr'], if they fail to do so, the Iraqi government will thoroughly discuss a suitable reaction to the attitude of the Palestinian authority."

Iraq the Model has more here.

The Iranian connection [AV]

Forgotten amid last week's news about 17 men arrested for plotting terror attacks in Canada was a story about the Iranian regime's latest crackdown on those who hold dual Canadian-Iranian citizenship.

The New York Sun reports that Professor Ramin Jahanbegloo, a Canadian-Iranian national, has been charged with espionage in circumstances similar to the murder of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian journalist, at the hands of the Iranian regime.

It is slowly becoming clear that the same animus towards international rules that characterizes the Iranian regime's disdain for the Non-Proliferation Treaty also typifies its treatment of foreign nationals. Equally, the threat facing Canada from foreign- and Canadian-born Islamist terrorists is inextricably connected with the threat it faces from Islamist governments.

Syria Monitor [AV]

This week's Syria Monitor is now available. In it, Tony Badran, a Research Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, provides an update on the latest news affecting Syria's opposition and dissident movements.

This week's Syria Monitor reports on the fallout from the National Salvation Front conference, including reactions from the Secretariat and news of member defections, updates on two writers being targeted by the Syrian regime, as well as news of a resolution to be considered by the European Parliament that would cancel the EU Association Agreement with Syria because of the regime's human rights abuses.

You can sign up here to receive the Syria Monitor, which is sent out every Tuesday. You can track daily developments in Syria at the Syria Monitor blog. Previous Syria Monitors can be viewed here.

This week's Syria Monitor is now available. In it, Tony Badran, a Research Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, provides an update on the latest news affecting Syria's opposition and dissident movements.

This week's Syria Monitor reports on the fallout from the National Salvation Front conference, including reactions from the Secretariat and news of member defections, updates on two writers being targeted by the Syrian regime, as well as news of a resolution to be considered by the European Parliament that would cancel the EU Association Agreement with Syria because of the regime's human rights abuses.

You can sign up here to receive the Syria Monitor, which is sent out every Tuesday. You can track daily developments in Syria at the Syria Monitor blog. Previous Syria Monitors can be viewed here.

Cliff's Comments

ZARQAWI'S END: He liked to cut off the heads of his screaming victims while the video tape rolled. He sent suicide bombers out to murder Iraqi students applying for jobs and women shopping for their families' dinners.

He attempted to spark a civil war between Iraqi Muslims. He arranged for the murder of an American diplomat in Jordan -- before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when he was living in Iraq, under an arrangement with Saddam Hussein.

He was a foreigner in Iraq. Nevertheless, in much of the mainstream media he was respectfully described as "Iraq's most prominent insurgent leader."

For more notes & comments see this week's e-newsletter.

How About Trying Reform?

Claudia Rosett discusses the "Unreality of U.N. Reform" in NRO:

Not to be outdone by his own ruckus-raising deputy, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself is now instructing the U.S. on how to treat the corruption-plagued, unreformed and unrepentant U.N.

Writing in the June 12 Financial Times, Annan reminds us that the U.S. has been threatening to block U.N. spending unless the organization shows serious progress toward reform. So, declares Annan, “The U.N. faces a moment of truth.”

Fun time is over in Mogadishu [AV]

After assuring the world that they had no intention of introducing Sharia law, the new Islamist junta in Mogadishu banned Somalis from watching the World Cup.

Comparisons are already being made between the Islamists in Mogadishu and the Taliban in Afghanistan. At some point, the United States government will have to make an unsavoury decision about how to handle the jihadists in Mogadishu. It will almost certainly be necessary to have allies on the ground willing to offer the United States assistance, local information, access to territory, and so on.

Fortunately, such a solution presents itself in Somaliland, a breakaway statelet in Northern Somalia. Somaliland has a democratically-elected government and, in spite of the many obstacles it faces, has come to represent the best hopes for the country. And it is safe to assume that Somalilanders will generously reward whichever country makes the decision to recognize Somaliland's statehood.

If the United States is to confront the threat facing it from Mogadishu, the obvious solution is to ally itself with Somaliland. FDD Academic Fellow Peter Pham has written about the opportunity presented by Somaliland here.

Why Canada? (CM)

Leaders of Islamic terrorist groups, from Osama bin Laden to Shiekh Yassin (the “handicapped” and “elderly” founder of Hamas), universally agree that no government is legitimate unless it is Islamic.  Establishing an Islamic state is, in fact, what most unifies jihadists around the world.            

So why Canada?  Because it is not an Islamic state.

But the drive for an Islamic state is probably not enough of a salient motivator for foot soldiers, as it is still a somewhat intellectual ideal.  Hence the slanders.  Telling young Muslims that their non-Muslim neighbors are going halfway around the world to rape Muslim women strikes a raw nerve...

Joel Mowbray has more here.

Zarqawi Death is an Important U.S. Victory

Claudia Rosett argues that it is important for Americans to appreciate Zarqawi's death as an important battlefield victory in Knight Ridder.

Zarqawi: Killing the Future Chief of al Qaida? (WP)

he first question some skeptics asked in the early hours of June 8, 2006 was: Is the elimination of chief terrorist Abu Mus’ab al Zarqawi in Iraq a victory?

Of course it is.

The man who personally executed and ordered the savage assassination of so many Iraqis, Arabs, Europeans, and Americans was a representative of pure evil, in the philosophical and sociological senses of the word; despite his religious trappings, he abided by no human or divine laws. 

The taking of innocent hostages and their beheading in front of a camera, the footage of which was sent to al-Jazeera and posted on Salafi websites, is an act disconnected from humanity. In the 1940s, Hitlerian evil engaged in genocide, but its perpetrators did not air their diabolical acts in movie theatres. Zarqawi surpassed the Nazis qualitatively, but thankfully not quantitatively. Regardless of the geopolitical maze in Iraq and in the region at large, and regardless of the state of the terror war, the elimination of this Jihadi terrorist has put an end to an ongoing crime against humanity.

Academic Fellows in the News

FDD Academic Fellows J. Peter Pham and Michael Krauss discuss "Creating Palestine" in Tech Central Station.  Pham also discusses the effects of faith-based ideas on realpolitik in World Defense Review.

Hamas mourns death of Zarqawi [AV]

Underscoring the nexus of hate that unites terrorists worldwide, within hours of the announcement of Zarqawi's death, Hamas issued a statement to Reuters "commend[ing] brother-fighter Abu Musab...who was martyred at the hands of the savage crusade campaign which targets the Arab homeland, starting in Iraq."

Update (06/09): Hamas has denied issuing the statement linked to above but in their denial they praised Zarqawi as a "symbol[] in the face of American occupation."

A Crucial Moment

Andy McCarthy discusses how Zarqawi's demise is the U.S.' opportunity in today's NRO.

"Zarqawi has been killed" [AV]

MSNBC has the story here.

Flash from the past (May 1982): Here was the image splashed on the front-page of the Sun tabloid in London after the sinking of the Belgrano during the Falklands War. So far, the New York Times and Washington Post are running with more nuanced leads on the equally important Zarqawi death.

Global Terrorism Monitor

The latest Global Terrorism Monitor is now available.  This week's edition features various stories, including: Canadian police announcing the arrest of 17 individuals accused of plotting major terror attacks against Canada; Militant Islamists in Somalia claiming Monday to have taken control of the capital city; and British police raiding an East London home housing two men accused of terrorist ties. Read the whole thing.

A Kazakhstan-Iran Axis [AV]

Earlier this week, Kazakhstan's Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision denying party registration to the Alga (Forward) party. The next day, the foreign ministers of Iran and Kazakhstan pledged to deepen ties between the two countries. Iran, in addition to being an important player in the Middle East, is poised to become the dominant influence in central Asia.

The Syria Monitor

This week's Syria Monitor is now available. In it, Tony Badran, a Research Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, provides an update on the latest news affecting Syria's opposition and dissident movements.

This week's Syria Monitor includes reports of a hunger strike being planned by prisoners of conscience at Adra prison, state harassment of signatories of the Suwayda petition, as well as a recap of what happened at the National Salvation Front conference that was held in London over the weekend.

You can sign up here to receive the Syria Monitor, which is sent out every Tuesday. You can track daily developments in Syria at the Syria Monitor blog. Previous Syria Monitors can be viewed here.

This week's Syria Monitor is now available. In it, Tony Badran, a Research Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, provides an update on the latest news affecting Syria's opposition and dissident movements.

This week's Syria Monitor includes reports of a hunger strike being planned by prisoners of conscience at Adra prison, state harassment of signatories of the Suwayda petition, as well as a recap of what happened at the National Salvation Front conference that was held in London over the weekend.

You can sign up here to receive the Syria Monitor, which is sent out every Tuesday. You can track daily developments in Syria at the Syria Monitor blog. Previous Syria Monitors can be viewed here.

Arrested Canadians wanted to behead Prime Minister [AV]

Canadian Press reports that:

One of the men charged with plotting to stage a massive terrorist attack on Canadian soil also allegedly expressed a desire to behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Prime Minister Harper has been one of the most forceful defenders of Canada's continued involvement in the war on terrorism, and since being elected several months ago has been very popular in the polls.

The Canadian Press article notes that the attack on the Prime Minister was supposed to occur while he was in the House of Commons. Although there have been no serious breaches of security in the Canadian House of Commons in recent years, evidence from the UK suggests that Westminster-style parliaments are not impregnable.

Democracy Promotion in the Arab World (CM)

Ambassador Dennis Ross' prescription is here.

Among his key points:

• Elections are part of the process, but should not come first. Given the current environment, we should not be pushing for early elections; we should focus instead on helping secular, moderate alternatives to organize and emphasize fighting corruption and developing the rule of law and good governance in the near term.
• There should be eligibility requirements when elections are held. Militias and their members should not be allowed to run as parties or to field candidates. It is either ballots or bullets but not both, and potential candidates must make a choice.
• Reformers should help us frame our public message and posture in the area. On a country by country basis, we should identify credible reformers and let them advise us on how to address Arab publics; our goal is to help and not hurt them, and they are better arbiters of what will resonate locally.
• U.S. and donor aid should be geared toward helping reformers provide services and programs. We need to take a page from the Islamist play-book. They have used the social-services provision to build a following. Reformers should now do the same; we could help fund such programs. For example, reformer-led after-school programs that teach English and computer skills would be a magnet for many Arab parents and kids and put reformers in a position of responding to real needs and offering hope.
• Reformers must know they are not alone and we will work to protect them. Too often reformers have been pressured and arrested by regimes, including those that are friendly to the United States. We cannot be seen as advocating democracy toward our enemies but never against our friends. When Egypt arrests Ayman Nour who ran against President Mubarak, or the Saudis arrest leading reformers (as they have), there needs to be a public consequence. Both reformers and regimes must know that repression not yield silence.

Self-criticism (CM)

From this insightful editorial in the London Times:

Smugness is one of Europe’s great contemporary exports. We may all think that we know America, its music, its culture, its self-confident exceptionalism. We tend to forget that Americans fight only with extreme reluctance. We overlook their penchant for agonised self-criticism; everything bad we know about the US, we know because Americans inexhaustibly rehearse their society’s shortcomings. There has never been greater transparency, whether than on the battlefield or the boondocks, and there has never been more open debate about the country’s virtues and vices — the internet has transformed the quantity and, at times, the quality of the conversation.

Better than most, Muslims understand why Islamist terrorism is war at its unholiest, an existential threat to societies. Iraqis may resent occupation, but they fear a weakening of US resolve. Their fears should be ours. Were it to become politically impossible for a president to keep America’s forces engaged from its shores, then the backbone of international security would be broken. America-bashing may be a popular sport, but its adherents prefer not to contemplate its consequences.

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

Wars ergo war crimes [AV]

Matthew Yglesias, commenting on an article by Bill Kristol in the Weekly Standard, offers this wonderful bit of sophistry:

The best way to avoid war crimes and related abuses is to fight fewer wars.

To which one might add the following: As wars drag on, the probability of a war crime taking place increases, so we should cut-and-run.

Lawyers for hire [AV]

Two of the Canadians arrested over the weekend for planning a terrorist attack have hired Rocco Galati as their lawyer.

Galati has become the lawyer of choice for Canada's most notorious terrorists. In addition to harboring fantasies that Canadian and U.S. officials want to kill him, Galati has represented the Khadr family, which every year seems to produce another terrorist.

Galati also represented Delmart Vreeland, a petty fraudster who drew Galati's attention after he claimed the United States government had advanced knowledge of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Just as France has Jacques Verges, Britain has Gareth Peirce, and the United States has Ramsay Clark, Canada has Rocco Galati.

Reports that Islamists have taken Mogadishu [AV]

Worrying news today from East Africa, as Islamist rebels, many of whom have links with al-Qaeda, have overtaken the capital Mogadishu. The United States has been criticized in the past for waging a proxy war against the Somali Islamists.

A Somalia under the control of al-Qaeda would massively destabilize the region, especially landlocked Ethiopia, as well as acting as a hub for the growing Islamist population in Lamu, Kenya.

U.S. policy, to date, has been to support the creation of a unified government throughout Somalia. An alternative--if riskier--strategy would be for the United States to provide more support to the breakaway statelet of Somaliland in the North, which has a democratically elected government. Peter Pham, a fellow at FDD, has endorsed just such a policy, as the "triumph of realism over wishful thinking."

Connecting the dots [AV]

The Ottawa Sun has some sharp reporting on the many links between the men arrested in Canada over the weekend for planning terrorist attacks and one of Canada's most notorious terrorists.

The newspaper reports that Mohammed Abdelhaleen, the father of Shareef Abdelhaleen, one of the men arrested over the weekend, recently posted bail for Mohammed Mahjoub, who is currently being detained in Kingston, Ontario on a national security certificate.

Mohammed Mahjoub is a bit of a cause celebre for the far-left in Canada. Last year, he went on a 79-day hunger strike to protest his detention. The Canadian government has tried to deport him back to Egypt, but a federal judge stopped deportation proceedings because of fears Mahjoub would be tortured in Egypt.

Mahjoub made news again when he wrote an open letter to Iraqi jihadists pleading with them to release James Loney, an anti-war activist they kidnapped in Iraq. Loney was eventually released, and has since returned the favor, holding events calling for Mahjoub's release.

The State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism 2005 calls Mahjoub a "member of Vanguards of Conquest, a radical wing of Egyptian Islamic Jihad."

Terrorist Plot Foiled in Canada [AV]

Canadians awoke Saturday morning to news that law enforcement officials had foiled a terrorist plot. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 17 men, five of whom were younger than 18 years old.

One of those arrested, Zakaria Amara, lives in Mississauga, which is a suburb of Toronto. A quick Google-search of his name reveals that, in addition to being an alleged terrorist, Zakaria is a poet, though not a particularly good one.

The first of his vogon poems I discovered is The Tree and the second is A Little Muslim From Palestine. Although I was unable to determine which one was written first, I think they should be read in that order. The Tree begins, "Please someone find me / I want to find the light / but no one is there to guide me", and A Little Muslim From Palestine ends, "I guess it is my fate / And La Ilaha Illa Allah is my mate."

What Happened in Haditha? (CM)

Some thoughts from a former Marine here.

REM: Islamist Terrorist Regime in Khartoum

Academic Fellow J. Peter Pham's latest World Defense Review column is here.

Persecuted in Iran

Iranian President Ahmadinejad has made his genocidal ambitions against the "infidels" of the West well known.  Now, the New York Times reports, his regime may have found an outlet closer to home:

Members of the Bahai religious minority in Iran said this week that the government had recently intensified a campaign of arrests, raids and propaganda that was aimed at eradicating their religion in Iran, the country of its birth. ...

The developments have alarmed human rights monitors at the United Nations, who say that since December, the government newspaper in Tehran has published more than 30 articles denigrating the Bahai faith — even accusing Bahais of sacrificing Muslim children on holy days. ...

Asma Jahangir, the United Nations special rapporteur who monitors freedom of religion for the Commission on Human Rights, announced in March that she had just learned about a confidential letter from the chairman of the command headquarters of Iran's armed forces instructing government agencies to identify all Bahais and monitor their activities.

Ms. Jahangir said the letter was sent on Oct. 29, 2005, on the orders of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ms. Jahangir said in a statement in March that she was concerned that "information gained as a result of such monitoring will be used as a basis for the increased persecution of, and discrimination against, members of the Bahai faith, in violation of international standards."

More here.

Responding to the New Yorker on Libya

This New Yorker story on Libya, while accurate in many respects, was soft on Muammar Gaddafi's son, and heir apparent, Saif.

Momahed Eljahmi set the record straight with the following letter to the editor (published in the current edition):