197 articles
Though hardly mentioned by the media nowadays, al Qaeda had set-up a global network long before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Richard Clarke told PBS' Frontline that by the end of 2000 al Qaeda had a presence "in probably between 50-60 countries [and] that they had trained thousands, perhaps…
During a speech today accusing President Bush of being weak on defense, Dean stated that, under no circumstances will a Democratic Administration ever allow Iran to become a nuclear power. What is Dean exactly saying here? Why use the phrase "nuclear power"? Is this a "no tolerance" policy that…
Here is what the governor had to say on Fox News Sunday: WALLACE: All right. Let's do a lightning round on specific issues -- quick questions, brief answers. You say that there are places that you differ with President Bush on Iraq. Such as? ROMNEY: Well, I don't think we did an adequate job…
If Iran strikes a nuclear agreement with Russia, it won't be a shock to learn that Moscow also agreed (perhaps in a Gore-like secret side deal) to block any substantial Security Council action against Tehran. Beijing may also be in on the deal given China's huge energy interests in Iran. Such a…
DUMB, DUMBER, DUMBEST. Dumb: Democrats who think voters will ignore all of their votes against tighter security if they oppose the transfer of the management of some operations in six ports to state-owned Dubai Ports World. Dumber: Republicans who immediately hopped on the anti-deal bandwagon for…
Cabo San Lucas
Frequent Weekly Standard contributor Tom Joscelyn has some interesting material here on pre-war Iraq-al Qaeda contacts.
(Update II: Uribe supporters won big in yesterday's congressional elections, paving the way for passage of the U.S-Colombia free trade deal. With strong support in Congress and probable reelection in May, Uribe's offensive against the FARC will likely intensify. All of this is pretty remarkable…
"What the alternative to promoting freedom in the Middle East?" ask the editors of the Wall Street Journal today. They also point out that the years before September 11 coincided with the rise of al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah, the first World Trade Center bombing, the bombings of U.S. embassies in…
Coral Gables
Albert of Arabia
IF YOU GO TO THE cinema to acquaint yourself with interesting and novel methods of torture and humiliation, then have I got a movie for you--especially if, for an added bonus, you enjoy the thought that the person being tortured and humiliated is a law-enforcement officer employed by the government…
I GOT A CHECK FOR $78.23 in the mail today, a reprint fee for an article I did twelve years ago on the way Charles Dickens uses names in David Copperfield. I'm sure you all saw it when it came out--even in those days, who missed an issue of the journal Nineteenth-Century Literature? But I didn't…
DESPITE FREQUENT DECLARATIONS OF REFORM, it seems that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has learned nothing from the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food scandal, in which Saddam Hussein's billions corrupted the U.N.'s entire Iraq embargo bureaucracy. Earlier this month, Annan accepted from the ruler of…
CLIMATE CHANGE IS HEATING UP again in American politics, the result of an orchestrated campaign to push the issue to the forefront. Al Gore is hitting the road with his animated computer slide show and has a documentary movie coming out. Climate action advocates skillfully exploited the Bush…
IT IS TRAGIC HOW MANY dead American composers are buried again through neglect by American orchestras (which is not to say that most living ones fare that much better).
Sacramento
"IRAN CONTINUES TO HOST senior al Qaeda leaders who are wanted for murdering Americans and other victims in the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings. We have called repeatedly for these terrorists to be handed over to states that will prosecute them and bring them to justice. We believe that some al…
Be-Weare of EmDo
"WHERE WAS THE NUCLEAR material transported to?" asks an aide to Saddam Hussein, in a taped conversation released last week. He answers his own question: "A number of them were transported out of Iraq." This provocative snippet is part of 12 hours of taped exchanges between Saddam Hussein and his…
Kremlin Rising
DON'T LET DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE Robert Zoellick's fondness for pandas mislead you. The Bush administration's China policy has been undergoing a quiet metamorphosis, and now has a new steeliness to it.
THE SHOCKWAVES OF HAMAS'S ELECTORAL victory were felt keenly by everyone in the Middle East, not just the Israelis. In fact, few people watched the Palestinian election returns with more hope, trepidation, or calculation than the Egyptians.
The Mind of Gladstone
Paris
Seattle
Dog Days
Down Mexico Way
State Department officials in Iraq produce a daily summary of overnight pan-Arabic and regional Iraqi TV news reports. Regarding the coverage of the mosque bombing, they note: The Iraqi media continues to be focused on pushing national unity and the idea that the government is in control and taking…
From Sunday's Chattanooga Times Free Press: Friday afternoon, McCain attended a crowded Latin Builders Association lunch [in Miami]. "As for torture, we know what's going on as we speak in Castro's prisons," said McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "The real answer is the…
Lawrence Kaplan is back from Iraq and reports in the current New Republic on what he found, including this strange encounter with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafiri. As a television in the corner of the room conveys images of the carnage outside, Jafari admits to being partial to the works of Noam…
Some politicians and others have argued that allowing the U.A.E.'s DP World to manage six major US ports would inject an additional layer of security risk that we don't need. The White House disagrees. But for argument's sake, let's assume the deal will be scuttled on "security grounds." Opponents…
IN 1917, Charles Schenck was convicted of encouraging American draftees bound for Europe's trenches to disobey their orders. He appealed all the way to the Supreme Court on the grounds that our constitutional right of free speech is inviolate. And he lost unanimously.
"Night of shame stuns England," read the headline in London's Daily Telegraph. It was November 18, 2004. The previous evening, at Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium, England's national soccer team had lost a friendly to Spain, 1-0. But the "shame" had precious little to do with what transpired on…
William Bennett and Alan Dershowitz write in today's Washington Post on the hypocrisy of the major media on the cartoon issue. The Vatican also weighs in on the controversy today.
"Port security has been totally neglected," said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer during a press conference with his fellow Democrats in July 2004. But as with so many other federal programs -- from the Army Corps to education, transportation and health care -- Congress, on a bipartisan basis, is also…
Iran's talks with Moscow and now Beijing appear to be moving forward with Tehran "sounding more receptive to an enrichment joint venture with Russia...." But is any deal better than no deal? Back in 1994, Sen. McCain was a vocal opponent of the deal President Clinton struck with North Korea. He…
IT IS NO SECRET that the Bush administration and the old guard at the CIA have not, in many instances, seen eye to eye over the last several years. Leaks and anonymously-sourced complaints from agency officials have dominated above-the-fold news stories. The rancorous bureaucrats at the agency have…
A GREAT DEAL of public and political controversy has arisen in recent days over the proposed deal to allow the United Arab Emirates (UAE) state-owned company Dubai World manage several major U.S. ports, with critics arguing that doing so will leave the United States more open to a terrorist attack.…
THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE has given millions of dollars to a company you've never heard of in order to fund something called Project M, whose aim is "The Use of Modern Sensing and Actuation Technologies Coupled With High Speed Processing to Control Complex Dynamic Systems." In English, this means…
UN Ambassador John Bolton remains focused on reform in the face of the usual obstructionism that pervades Turtle Bay.
I haven't made up my mind on whether the Dubai deal harms U.S. national security. I'll wait to hear what Bush officials have to say tomorrow before the Senate Armed Services Committee. But many others, who have obviously studied the pending deal with a fine toothcomb, have. Hotline reports that Ol'…
North Carolina Republican Sue Myrick sent, and released to the press, the following "letter" to President Bush: February 22, 2006 The Honorable George W. Bush 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President: In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just…
EVEN GANGSTERS ARE MORE SUBTLE. In Mario Puzo's The Godfather, consigliore Tom Hagen says, "You've got some labor trouble coming up."
IT WOULD BE A GRAND UNDERSTATEMENT to call Lawrence H. Summers's stewardship of Harvard tumultuous. In his five year tenure, Summers careened from one controversy to another. Oft-times Summers cut a sympathetic figure as he upended the sacred cows of political correctness that have become fixtures…
(Austin Bay has more here related to my post from last week) The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has posted on its web site several al Qaeda-related documents that have been "captured in the course of operations supporting the GWOT." Two letters, dated September 30, 1993 and May 24, 1994,…
Sen. McCain released the following statement on the Dubai port controversy: "We all need to take a moment and not rush to judgment on this matter without knowing all the facts. The President's leadership has earned our trust in the war on terror, and surely his administration deserves the…
According to Time magazine, Pentagon officials have been saying for some time that Iraqis must take more responsibility for securing their country. But can these local forces protect its critical infrastructure without U.S. help? Top American officials disagree, and that has caused friction between…
From the BBC: A curfew has been imposed in Bauchi in northern Nigerian after at least 13 people were killed in a sectarian riot. It began as an argument between a teacher and a pupil over the confiscation of a Koran in school. But rumours swept the city that the book had been desecrated and that…
A few disgruntled folks at the State Department have again run to the Washington Post to air their grievances -- anonymously, of course. This time they're not happy with Secretary Rice's reorganization plan that reportedly doesn't include rogue operators walking the halls of Foggy Bottom. Rice and…
LAST WEEK'S VALENTINE'S DAY may be the last on which lovers of low interest rates will find their love requited. It is increasingly likely that short-term interest rates will be above 5 percent when sweethearts next exchange vows of undying devotion.
Newt Gingrich pulled no punches late today when asked about the pending port deal by radio host Sean Hannity. Gingrich was a vocal critic of the Panama Canal Treaty in his younger days. And the architect of that treaty, Jimmy Carter, has endorsed the port deal.
It was odd that one of the biggest barriers to lifting nations out of chronic poverty -- rampant government and business corruption -- didn't appear on the radar screen at the World Economic Forum at Davos a few weeks back. There wasn't a single panel discussion on a problem that some say costs…
Since the early 1990s, radical Islamists have targeted Somalia. Back then, American forces and U.N peacekeepers were the target. Today, as in other regions of the world, they are also increasingly aiming their gun sights on moderate Muslims. From the BBC: The fighting pits a new group, the Alliance…
"Aid to Iran..." "... And Cuts for Russia"
THE PENTAGON RELEASED ITS QUADRENNIAL Defense Review on February 6. The latest installment of the congressionally mandated report on the state of the military declares, "manifestly, this document is not a 'new beginning.'" Indeed it is not. The new QDR reflects a concerted effort by the Pentagon to…
ON MARCH 1, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case involving the Texas congressional redistricting plan engineered in 2003 by former House majority leader Tom DeLay. Appellants charge both that the Texas map was partisan districting run amok and that it violated the right of minority…
IN LATE APRIL 2003, some two weeks after the world watched jubilant Iraqis and U.S. Marines topple the tall statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square, a small group of American officials began the thankless and dangerous task of recreating the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The team,…
Bobby, Martin, and John
RICHARD GEPHARDT WAS FUMING. It was January 19, 2002, and the House minority leader was addressing the annual meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. The day before, Bush adviser Karl Rove, addressing the Republicans' annual meeting in Austin, Texas, had said that American…
WHERE FREE TRADE IS THE word, hypocrisy is never far behind. Rich countries preach the virtues of open markets, while enforcing tariffs to protect industries (agriculture usually) at home. And poor countries call on richer ones to change their protectionist ways while constructing their own, even…
No True Glory
BACK IN NOVEMBER 1999, I wrote a column for the San Francisco Examiner in which I basically guaranteed that Hillary Clinton would not run for the Senate in New York. I laid out a very clever rationale for why she would not enter the race, the main thrust being that her candidacy was really just a…
The Narnian
I AM JUST NOW CHOPPING up my Danish modern coffee table and throwing the pieces into the fireplace. I want to show my support for Muslims outraged by publication of Prophet Muhammad caricatures in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper. All over the Muslim world there are riots and boycotts of Danish…
THE UPROAR IN EUROPE AND some Muslim countries over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper last September has once again dramatized several dismal aspects of the conflict between radical Islam and the culture of the West. One is that the so-called Arab or Muslim street…
[img caption="The original illustrations, September 30, 2005." float="right" width="480" height="722" render="<%photoRenderType%>"]1230[/img] "U.N., E.U. and Muslims link in call to curb protests," read the Financial Times headline last week. A "U.N.-brokered statement," the paper reported, was…
Dems Shun GOP Greens
The American Era
ON A MISTY APRIL MORNING in 1607, three tall, square-rigged English ships glide up the wide, luminous estuary of what is now called the James River. Instead of discovering the land from the ships, we discover the ships from the land, as a band of Powhatan Indians trot along a ridge, marveling at…
THE DANISH CARTOONS of the Prophet Muhammad, like Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1989 fatwa against the British author Salman Rushdie and those who helped publish his Satanic Verses, have revealed more disturbing things about the West than they have about Muslims in Europe and the Middle East. With…
IT IS NOW ABUNDANTLY CLEAR that the recent murderous protests over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper last September were anything but spontaneous. The actions of Islamist agitators and financiers have deliberately drummed up rage among far-flung extremists otherwise…
Wordsworth
THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM ON THE 2006 midterm elections is that Republicans will take a bath. Because of the Abramoff scandal, an unpopular president, and low morale, Republicans have the political stars aligned perfectly against them--or so it seems. The polls often cited as pointing toward a…
I AM CLOSE TO LIVING OUT a fantasy I've nursed since maybe the second week of my first year of college. I am returning to my alma mater, not, mind you, to hang around the old campus bar like some aging cad talking up the coeds with their fake IDs (though maybe I'll do that too). No, the political…
BOOKS IN BRIEF
COCA-COLA is banned in Syria. The country's ruling Baath party justifies this prohibition on the grounds that the Coca-Cola Company markets its beverages in Israel. Hence, when I toured all of Syria's 14 provinces recently, I found all sorts of cola, but no Coke--that is until I stopped at the…
"Iran's hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its enemies," reports the Telegraph. In yet another sign of Teheran's stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, influential Muslim clerics have for the first time…
Britain's Sunday Telegram reports on the results of a recent poll of British Muslims here.
Everyone has his price, the saying goes, and Eleanor Holmes Norton is coming pretty close to discovering mine. Norton is the District of Columbia's representative in Congress. She has proposed to save the District from its desperate economic and fiscal trouble by granting it a remarkable privilege:…
Bill Clinton and his flacks have jumped all over Bob Dole's statement that not all people who light a butt get hooked (which is certainly true; especially if you don't inhale) and that each state "ought" to be responsible for enacting "tougher smoking laws," not the federal Food and Drug…
The Reading List salutes two university presses for rising above the muck of multicultural, postmodernist, and transgender studies and publishing impeccable and useful scholarly editions of important works. Fun ones, too.
With the arrival of Olympic revelers, the 65 nude dancing clubs of Atlanta are girding their loins for an onrush of business, according to a recent story in the New York Times. But some of the strip-persons themselves still pine for earlier revels in Atlanta. "I don't know how many men will go to…
We'll stipulate at the outset that the conventions governing received political opinion in Washington are unfair to congressional Republicans.
They met in a shack last month deep in the Mexican jungle -- Danielle Mitterrand and the Marxist guerrilla Subcomandante Marcos -- and an erotic fascination was born. The pipe-smoking rebel wore his mask throughout his meeting with the former French first lady. But as Mrs. Mitterrand recounts in…
Everyone has his price, the saying goes, and Eleanor Holmes Norton is coming pretty close to discovering mine. Norton is the District of Columbia's representative in Congress. She has proposed to save the District from its desperate economic and fiscal trouble by granting it a remarkable privilege:…
Bill Clinton and his flacks have jumped all over Bob Dole's statement that not all people who light a butt get hooked (which is certainly true; especially if you don't inhale) and that each state "ought" to be responsible for enacting "tougher smoking laws," not the federal Food and Drug…
The Reading List salutes two university presses for rising above the muck of multicultural, postmodernist, and transgender studies and publishing impeccable and useful scholarly editions of important works. Fun ones, too.
With the arrival of Olympic revelers, the 65 nude dancing clubs of Atlanta are girding their loins for an onrush of business, according to a recent story in the New York Times. But some of the strip-persons themselves still pine for earlier revels in Atlanta. "I don't know how many men will go to…
We'll stipulate at the outset that the conventions governing received political opinion in Washington are unfair to congressional Republicans.
They met in a shack last month deep in the Mexican jungle -- Danielle Mitterrand and the Marxist guerrilla Subcomandante Marcos -- and an erotic fascination was born. The pipe-smoking rebel wore his mask throughout his meeting with the former French first lady. But as Mrs. Mitterrand recounts in…
The Republican party is tolerant of pro-choice views within its ranks, as the pro-life Bob Dole, among others, tirelessly points out these days.
And these are the kind of people the University of Washington "wants to produce" nowadays? I hope not. From the Wall Street Journal's John Fund: 'Pappy' Shot Down by Campus Ignoramuses It's well known that college students today aren't as educated in our nation's history as they should be, but it's…
The BBC reports on the anti-corruption campaigns being launched by many African nations. Corruption costs African countries an estimated 25% of its combined national income, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said - some $148bn a year.
Newly-elected members of Hamas have been officially sworn in and now control the Palestinian parliament. But spokesman Sami abu-Zuhri says Hamas isn't interested in peace initiatives. From the BBC: "Hamas rejects negotiations with the occupation under the current circumstances, while occupation and…
From Reuters: The United Nations on Tuesday asked Lebanon to explain reports of arms shipments crossing the Syrian border destined for the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah. Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a foe of Syria, said over the weekend that truckloads of arms and missiles had crossed…
(Update II: Today's Wall Street Journal has a piece by a former CIA intelligence officer on the "dodgy disclosures" of Paul Pillar and how his actions "will end up making the CIA even less relevant than it is today--if that is possible.") (Update I: Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat…
ROBERT BRESSON, the French movie director, once said that a movie goes through three births: when it is written, when it is shot, and when it is constructed in the editing room. He was not talking about television shows, but his truism was borne out in the making of Significant Others, the…
IN 1992, historian David McCullough published Truman, a landmark biography of Harry S. Truman. The book became something of a phenomenon; in spite of its imposing bulk (it went on for more than 1,000 pages), it raced to the top of the best seller charts. So great was the Truman-mania spawned by…
Not that facts matter anyone more in the Iraq debate, but Nightline's report last night on Saddam's tape-recorded meetings, specifically the April/May 1995 one, is key to understanding the 2003 decision to invade. On the tape, Saddam's son-in-law, Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamal, briefs Saddam on his…
Tom Ricks of the Washington Post reports on the achievements of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq under the command of Col. H.R. McMaster. It's an encouraging read until the concluding paragraphs. Even now, McMaster said, he understands that his success is "fragile." The city's mayor, Najim…
IN THE COURSE of the campaign against international terrorism, the United States and its allies have uncovered hundreds of documents authored by both leaders and members of al Qaeda and allied terrorist networks. These documents, which currently reside in a classified database known as HARMONY,…
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has posted on its web site several al Qaeda-related documents that have been "captured in the course of operations supporting the GWOT." Two letters, dated September 30, 1993 and May 24, 1994, relate directly to al Qaeda operations in Somalia. The…
FOR MORE than a year, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has sought the release of documents captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have pressured Pentagon officials, cajoled intelligence analysts, listened to would-be whistleblowers, interviewed Iraqis and filed numerous Freedom of Information Act requests with…
First, Al Gore's pandering and now the EU's citadel of strength, Javier Solana, does the same in that paragon of religious tolerance otherwise known as Saudi Arabia. From Australia's The Age: EU chief tries to calm cartoons dispute February 14, 2006 The European Union and a major group of Islamic…
THE ANCIENTS were good at resisting seduction. Odysseus fought the seductive song of the Sirens by having his men tie him to the mast of his ship as it sailed past the Siren's Isle. Socrates was so intent on protecting citizens from the seductive opinions of artists and writers, that he outlawed…
Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations weighs in, and Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute does the same here.
Vice President Gore is probably collecting lots of cash nowadays in speaking fees. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. But it would be interesting to know who paid Gore to travel to Saudi Arabia, the breeding ground of Islamic extremism, to accuse America of committing "terrible abuses"…
Many of the so-called cartoon protests have drawn perhaps a few thousand radical Islamists at best. Their protest tools include organized acts violence and threats to kill those who publish material they don't like. But in Lebanon, the contrast between violent and non-violent protest could not be…
ECONOMIC THEORY is clear about one thing: increase the supply of a good and, other things being equal, its price will fall. So the U.S. government massively increased the supply of its bonds in order to finance its deficits, and their price . . . rose. (When bond prices rise, their yields, or…
HORACE GREELEY, the founder and editor of the 19th century New York Tribune, made a career of championing New York's down-trodden. Cutting a distinctive figure with his trademark white duster and rakishly long white hair, Greeley appeared both rugged and erudite. From the moment he founded the…
Most Americans haven't heard of the International Republican Institute, but for over 20 years IRI has helped advance democracy in the world. IRI has monitored elections in over 160 nations with little or no history in democracy -- and supports democracy efforts in many others. But the New York…
Does Hillary Clinton agree with the remarks made by Vice President Gore at the Jiddah Economic Forum? Does she believe it was appropriate that Al Gore told "mainly Saudi audience ... that the U.S. government committed 'terrible abuses' against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks"? Does she…
Outside of its current shareholders, no one is exactly sure. RosUkrEnergo is a Swiss-registered company, formed in the aftermath of the Kremlin's cut off of the Ukrainian gas supply in January, that is now supposed to be the guarantor of Ukraine's gas supply -- and make billions and billions doing…
The Gift of Valor
BACK IN THE STONE AGE, before the vast right-wing conspiracy and even the Reagan Revolution, there was a conservative Washington (just barely), and one of its fixtures was a handsome, smiling, slightly angular blonde woman named Anne Brunsdale.
Weare, New Hampshire
Phyllis Schlafly and the Rise of Grassroots Conservatism
Dallas
Friedrich Nietzsche
Caught Padding Their Wikis
IT'S DIFFICULT to decide which is more depressing: the goal the president has set to cure us of our "addiction" to oil, or the prescription he has written to help us kick the habit. In his State of the Union address President Bush set as his goal the replacement of some 75 percent of the oil we…
WITH HAMAS'S SMASHING VICTORY IN free and fair elections in Palestine, the case for democracy-promotion that George W. Bush outlined a year ago in his second inaugural address has been taking on water. Do we really want a political process that results in victory and legitimacy for terrorists? As…
Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance
Long Branch, New Jersey
IF PRESIDENT BUSH GETS TO make a third appointment to the Supreme Court this year, odds are he'll be filling a seat occupied by one of the court's five liberals. Their average age is 72, while the average age of the court's four conservatives is 58.
AS MOST OF THE WORLD now knows, on September 30, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Subsequent disputes have drawn in the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the World Trade…
PRESIDENT BUSH TOLD AN OLD joke at the National Prayer Breakfast last week. A preacher delivers a powerful sermon, prompting a parishioner to leap to his feet and yell, "Use me, Lord, use me!" The same thing happens the next week, so the preacher buttonholes the man after church and says he'd like…
LINCOLN CHAFEE, easily the Senate's most liberal Republican, didn't vote for George W. Bush in 2004. Instead, he lodged a "symbolic protest" by casting a write-in ballot for former president George H.W. Bush. Chafee's beef with the younger Bush? Iraq ("a very, very costly quagmire"), tax cuts, the…
IT IS FITTING THAT a picaresque 18th-century masterpiece as defiantly singular as Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy should serve as the wellspring of a singular 21st century cinematic wonder called Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.
Exodus
Doha
TO ACCOMPANY the editorial in the new issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, we have reproduced the page with the Mohammed cartoons from the September 30 Jyllands-Posten. Readers should be able to see what this controversy is about. More important, in light of recent instances of capitulation to the threats…
The Sunday Times in Britain reports that the onetime counterterrorism czar and Kerry '04 supporter, Richard Clarke, has been coaching former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner on national security affairs. For his part, Warner has learnt not to question the decision to invade Iraq. As a former governor,…
On CBS News radio this morning, I listened to an interview with someone from the ABA who cited the results of a recent poll the group commissioned on the NSA surveillance program. You won't be surprised to learn that the ABA poll, unlike other polls, found that a majority of Americans oppose the…
(Update: Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) told Tim Russert on Sunday's Meet the Press that Paul Pillar said nothing about subtle political pressure on analysts when he was interviewed as part of the committee's investigation of pre-war intelligence. "Now we interviewed over…
IN A BREATHLESS front-page, above-the-fold article in today's Washington Post, Walter Pincus reports that a former senior CIA official named Paul Pillar accuses the Bush administration of "misusing" intelligence to take the country to war in Iraq. According to the Post account, Pillar uses a…
Jim VandeHei reports in today's Washington Post that Vice President Cheney suggested last night that the debate over spying on overseas communications to or from terrorism suspects should be a political issue in this year's congressional elections.... VandeHei continued: His comments reflected the…
IT IS STRANGE for an obscure branch of the U.S. Treasury Department to unite embargo critics, sports fans, Major League Baseball, Puerto Rico's amateur baseball federation, the International Baseball Federation, and the International Olympic Committee in a strident public denunciation of America's…
THERE'S A WONDERFUL SCENE in the movie Traffic in which a captured drug kingpin, played by Miguel Ferrer, is being interrogated by two federal agents. Ferrer says to them disdainfully: "You people are like those Japanese soldiers left behind on deserted islands who think that World War II is still…
Andrew Sullivan has the story here.
So while others in America are worried about an Iranian nuclear weapon, the nation's top Democrat has other anxieties about Iran that keep him up at night. Forget about the Iranian president's desire to "wipe" Israel off the map and threat to choke off oil supplies to the West, Chairman Dean is…
From his gimmicky "Home from Iraq by the Holidays" troop withdrawal plan to his filibuster yodel from the Swiss Alps, Sen. John Kerry's free fall continues. In today's Washington Post, Kerry now trots out this gem concerning the violent assault directed at a newspaper published in a free society.…
ROBERT WOODSON is the founder and head of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE). A former civil rights activist and community organizer, he is one of the many 1960s-era liberals who was mugged by reality. In Woodson's case, it was the reality that the civil rights movement had…
THE MUSLIM WORLD has erupted in anger and indignation over the publication of a series of editorial cartoons in Denmark that criticize Islam and its prophet Mohammed. Protestors have burnt three consulates, two in Syria and one in Lebanon and many Muslims have gone into the streets demanding…
In an interview yesterday with Neil Cavuto of Fox News, the Secretary of State under the first President Bush didn't pull any punches. CAVUTO: What do you make of the ferocity of the response to this cartoon? EAGLEBURGER: Well, first of all, I should tell you, I hope, devoutly, that this tends to…
In his latest piece on Iraq's WMDs, the New York Sun's Eli Lake reports on the work of David Gaubatz, a former member of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations. He writes: A former special investigator for the Pentagon during the Iraq war said he found four sealed underground bunkers in…
A former advisor to Vice President Al Gore offers a Pattonesque battle cry for Democrats: If Democrats get sucked into a debate over tactics in the war on terror, they will lose. But it's hard to see how they lose if they wage the debate over the rule of law and if they show their willingness to…
IT WAS REFRESHING to read that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra still holds out hope that the conventional wisdom about Saddam's WMD programs is wrong. Given the tremendous reservoir of data on such programs that is still largely untapped we should only consider closing the book…
RODNEY DANGERFIELD'S famous line accurately diagnoses Congress's popularity problem--based on recent polling, lawmakers collectively get little respect from the public. But if 80 percent of success really is just showing up, then Woody Allen may have their solution.
this campaign advice and make RNC chair Ken Mehlman a very happy man.
Somehow I doubt Director Negroponte actually believes this. From The Washington Times: A new Pentagon strategy report and recent congressional testimony by the director of national intelligence show the Bush administration remains divided on the threat posed by China's rise. The Quadrennial Defense…
A piece (sub. req'd) in today's Wall Street Journal, "How Muslim Clerics Stirred Arab World Against Denmark," isn't good news for European governments seeking to avoid future problems by groveling as the European Union's justice minister recently did in suggesting a tighter code of media conduct.…
MUSLIMS all over the world are so angry about a series of cartoons poking fun at the Messenger of God that by now pretty much every Danish and Norwegian flag in the Muslim world has met its fiery end. And yet only in Damascus and Beirut have institutions--embassies or consulates--representing…
HE CAME, he saw, he spoke. His was the sound, Democrats, sullenly refusing to applaud at many points, provided the fury, and sober reflection reveals the significance to be nothing at all.
Sean Naylor has an interesting piece in the latest Armed Forces Journal. Will U.S. forces leave Afghanistan too soon? He writes: The Taliban forces are playing a clever waiting game. According to U.S. Special Forces (SF) officers, whenever possible, the insurgents are lying low, avoiding…
From the Washington Post's "In the Loop" column: "U.N. Ambassador John Bolton , who's president of the Security Council this month, is making some headway in imposing law and order at the notoriously fractious council -- but it's not been easy. At his first session last week, Bolton tried to impose…
SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER and other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have informed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that when he appears before them today to defend NSA wiretaps, they will have some pointed questions for him. Indeed, the questions will need to be sharp if the Senators hope to…
From today's Beirut Daily Star: "The secretary general is alarmed by the threats and violence, including the attacks on embassies, that have occurred in Syria and Lebanon and other countries over the past few days," a statement attributed to Annan, issued by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, said.…
The Thames
Wisconsin Hurricanes and Other FEMA News
IF ALL IT TOOK TO make a great comic movie was a great comic idea, the writer-director-actor Albert Brooks would be Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Frank Capra rolled into one. No one has ever come up with catchier and more enticing comic concepts than Brooks.
I JUST WANT TO MAKE clear that I am not a Straussian. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Some of my closest friends are Straussians, and I have long admired the work of Allan Bloom, Harry Jaffa, Harvey Mansfield, and Thomas Pangle--though not, I must say, Leo Strauss himself, since I have…
EVENTS ARE CONVERGING TO ELEVATE the nuclear crisis with Iran into the central crisis of the Bush presidency. War presidents are graded not by circumstances they inherit, including those that lead to war. They are judged by how they react to those circumstances.
Tel Aviv
The Man Everybody Knew
ON JANUARY 12, THE renowned journal Science retracted two articles written by South Korean scientist Woo-Suk Hwang, one published in February 2004 and a related piece--this one with an American "senior author"--published in May 2005. Both papers detailed an astonishing breakthrough in cloning…
May I See Some ID?
Jewish Life in Small-Town America: A History
ASK BROOKE G. ABOUT her job, and she enthuses about her salary, health benefits, and her office with a view. There's only one catch: She hates the work. She'd like to quit, but she worries about getting health insurance. "It's very expensive in New York," she explains. Brooke, a self-described…
STEPHEN F. HAYES has written extensively in these pages about a large cache of documents and digital media captured in the course of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. As a former intelligence officer who dealt with digital media exploitation and analysis issues at the Defense…
Are Men Necessary?
REVOLUTIONS NOTORIOUSLY IMPRISON THEIR MOST committed supporters. Intellectually, influential elements within our military are locked inside the cells of the Revolution in Military Affairs--the doctrinal cult of the past decade that preaches that technological leaps will transcend millennia-old…
THERE IS NOTHING SADDER--for me anyway--than watching a newspaper or magazine go under, as has just happened to the New Leader, for which I used to write.
DURING THE NEW YORK CITY transit strike in December I fielded a lot of calls from out of town family and friends wanting to know how I was surviving. Easy, I told them. I'm telecommuting. And I'm ready to sit around in my bathrobe all day drinking herbal tea for as long as it takes.
WITH SAMUEL ALITO ABOUT to be confirmed, it's time to take stock of this particular episode in the making of a justice, the nation's 110th. Bear in mind that Alito was not President Bush's first choice to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor. The estimable John Roberts was, but when Chief Justice William…
BOOKS IN BRIEF
IN MY YOUNGER AND MORE impressionable days I used occasionally to daydream about ending my career in journalism with a little finishing canter of public service.
This 24-page brief on the president's constitutional authority to conduct the NSA surveillance provides a strong and detailed legal defense of the president's actions. Its author is a former career national security official who served during the Clinton administration, as well as the current…
This piece, "Iraq, Niger, and the CIA," from the current National Journal is linked to by Rep. John Conyers on his blog. Rest assured, Rep. Conyers, who spends lots of time pushing the president's impeachment, wouldn't link to any piece if he believed it flattered the White House. But apart from…
Today's New York Sun has an interesting quote from Wayne White, the former deputy director in the Office of Analysis for Near East and South Asia in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Mr. Feith's view that questions remain about Iraq's weapons program is also held by the…
In September, Roll Call reported that the House Minority Whip, Rep. Steny Hoyer (MD), had cobbled together a dozen or so of his colleagues "to shape the Democratic strategy on national security issues and battle perceptions that the party is weak on defense." The No. 2 House Democrat, a moderate…
Here's what Senate Intelligence committee chairman Pat Roberts had to say at yesterday's hearing on "Current and Projected National Security Threats to the United States." I am concerned that some of my Democrat colleagues used this unique public forum to make clear that they believe the gravest…
DISCUSSION about rogue regimes is usually bifurcated. On the one hand are weapons of mass destruction. On the other hand are human-rights abuses. But make no mistake: These issues are inseparable. We care whether or not a country has WMD capabilities only because of its record on human rights. This…
TECHNOLOGY IN ITS MANY GUISES was a central theme of President Bush's State of the Union address--from Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons to the production of revolutionary energy technologies to the need to ban the creation of human-animal hybrids. In other words: Technology as mortal threat.…
Where are all the Democrats demanding an investigation to catch the person who did "very severe" damage to U.S. national security? Realclearpolitics.com notes this item from CBS News: U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Thursday that disclosure of once-secret projects like President George W.…
From BBC Worldwide Monitoring: Iran is massively rearming its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons arsenal. This is the result of the first situation report by the Federal Office of Criminal Investigations and the Customs Office of Criminal Investigations (BKA, ZKA) about illegal arms transfers…
Music to the ears of Hamas and exactly the WRONG policy approach -- see here. "Hamas deserves to be recognized by the international community, and despite the group's militant history, there is a chance the soon-to-be Palestinian leaders could turn away from violence, former President Jimmy Carter…
IT WAS TO HAVE BEEN the perfect crime. A recon of the target had already been accomplished, and a staging area selected, where a hole had been dug to later bury the evidence. All was ready: timer, dark clothing, two-way radios and police scanner, masks and gloves, a drill, and the acid. Night was…
THE SENATE SELECT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE meets at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday for an open hearing on worldwide threats. Among the attendees will be director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and DIA director Michael Maples.
While interviewing Mayor Giuliani last night on MSNBC, Matthews stated: ...let me just make this historic point, which is factual. Osama bin Laden offered the Saudi Arabian government his strength, his powers, to the extent he had them, to defend them if there was an attack by Iraq, by Saddam…
Two weeks ago, I wrote: With Congressional hearings set and as today's front-page New York Times story indicates, the NSA spying controversy isn't going to fade away. Opponents of the program claim the president broke the law, while supporters say the president has the constitutional and statutory…
It certainly appears so. From today's New York Times: The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has evidence that suggests links between Iran's ostensibly peaceful nuclear program and its military work on high explosives and missiles, according to a report from the agency that was released to…
WHEN HE MET with TV anchors over lunch at the White House yesterday, President Bush was feisty, blunt, salty, assertive, and brimming with self-confidence. He was passionate on the topic of national security, saying the first thought on his mind when he wakes up every morning is how to protect…
LAST YEAR was a rough one for the GOP and the Bush administration, and from what we've seen so far, 2006 promises no fewer obstacles and controversies. One of the biggest--indeed, the centerpiece of Congressional Democrats' electoral strategy--will be scandal.
LET US FIRST praise Hilary Clinton. Whatever her other faults may be, she always shows up to the State of the Union dressed like a professional. She's wearing a stylish gray suit tonight. Most of our devoted congresswomen look like they got lost on the way to a Texas Tech rally. On to the list:
Given the president's remarks, here is an interesting note on the NSA/FISA controversy sent in by a Worldwide Standard reader: President Bush's wiretaps were absolutely -- without any doubt -- NOT in violation of FISA, but you have to read between the lines of [Attorney General] Gonzales' 42-page…