March 31, 2005

Gay Patriot Goes Silent

Gay Patriot - one of the most generous, if not the most generous, advertisers on this blog - has gone silent. The repellent story of intimidation behind this is here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:32 AM
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Thought Control at Columbia?

When one of our major educational institutions is accused of racism, is it proper for one newspaper to control the news? Columbia University has been been undergoing its own internal investigation (yes, another!) about complaints of strong anti-Israel bias by its professors. According to the NY Sun:

In an effort to manage favorable coverage of its investigation into the complaints, the university disclosed a summary of the committee's report only to the Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and the New York Times. Those newspapers, sources indicated to The New York Sun last night, made an agreement with the central administration that they would not speak to the students who made the complaints against the professors.

No comment necessary, I suppose... although some Columbia students apparently have a mind of their own. Go figure. (hat tip: Dave Sobel)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:02 AM
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If You Build It, They Will Come - Oil-for-Food Division

The Washington Times concludes its editorial on the Volcker Committee report this morning:

We hope that Mr. Annan does not join [his shredder-friendly Chef de Cabinet] Mr. Riza in retirement and stays in his post as secretary-general. So long as Mr. Annan remains at the helm, his very presence will remind people of the serious need to reform the United Nations.

Well, maybe, but ultimately I cannot agree with this conclusion, attractive as it may be. It's too cynical for me. Ironically, however, the New York Times and the Washington Post seem to. At least they act that way. They do everything they can to mollify the controversy, thus keeping Mr. Annan in place. You would think that with all their investigative powers they would have considerable original reporting about this scandal, but, arguably, they have less even than this blog.

And, please, I am not bragging here. Here's the secret about investigative reporting: it's no big deal. For the most part all you need is email and a phone. Once you are known to be interested in a subject, people will come to you with their stories. Deep Throat - assuming there was one such person - contacted Woodward and Bernstein, not the other way around. So investigative reporting (often - and certainly in my case) is simply an example of the old saw "If you build it, they will come." Those national newspapers simply didn't want them to come.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:13 AM
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TigerHawk Attends a Lecture

TigerHawk has a must read post on a lecture he attended by Michael Doran, Princeton's embattled Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies. Subject: Al Qaeda's grand strategy.

Al Qaeda's thinkers have reinterpreted Islam all the way back to the time of the Crusades (or even the time of the Prophet). They argue, for example, that Muslim victories in the Crusades were not attributable to Saladin, but to small bands of Muslim insurgents that laid the foundation for Saladin's victories. Their argument is that, in effect, al Qaeda-like organizations were at the source of Muslim triumphs a thousand years ago. These victories did not derive from the state, but from little bands of determined men. This reinterpretation of history shapes how they think about the war al Qaeda fights today.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:59 AM
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Most Reactionary Lede of the Day

Reuters' Jonathan Wright puts "freedom" in scare quotes:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has alarmed many reformist Arabs with comments suggesting a new U.S. approach that promotes rapid political change without regard for internal stability. Rice said in an interview with the Washington Post last week the Middle East status quo was not stable and she doubted it would be stable soon. Washington would speak out for "freedom" without offering a model or knowing what the outcome would be.

Then Wright goes on to quote several "liberal" Arab "academics" but blithely ignores the Lebanese street. Nevertheless, I'm sure Wright's views are "accurate". (via Reasonable Prudence)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:27 AM
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March 30, 2005

SPECIAL REPORT #2 - THE CASE OF THE "MAIN MENTOR"

Most reports written by members of internal investigations, it is fair to say, are to an extent political documents with considerable jockeying among its authors about what is or is not included. Everything has implications.

The second Volcker Committee Interim Report is no exception in this regard. A rather large portion of it was taken up with the testimony of Kojo Annan's business partner Pierre Mouselli, first revealed here. Most of the Franco-Lebanese businessman's statements were presented as credible - indeed they were corroborated - yet at the same time Mouselli was characterized in the report as "unstable."

Now I doubt that Mouselli is a saint or anything near it. Saints survive in the business climate of modern Nigeria for about ten minutes. But the sources of the businessman's characterization cited in the report are indeed curious - two former Iraqi ambassadors to Nigeria under Saddam. In other words, Baathists! That's kind of like Nuremburg investigators taking Himmler's testimony at face value without cross examination.

But then this entire investigation appears to have been curious in the extreme.

What follows is information that comes from only one source - Mouselli's attorney Adrian Gonzales-Maltes. So bear that in mind when you evaluate it, though I have no reason so far to disbelieve Mr. Gonzales-Maltes. Indeed, several things he has told me have already been validated by the report itself. (Also worth noting is the irony that the lawyer, like all parts of this investigation, is being paid out of the Iraqi Oil-for-Food fund.)

The committee took the better part of a year to locate Pierre Mouselli, although Kojo's former business partner was not in hiding and well-known in Lagos where his brother is known as the Nigerian Donald Trump. He apparently readily agreed to talk with them, once they provided him with a lawyer. The interviews ensued in Paris where Mouselli now resides. He is not likely to return to Nigeria. The reasons for that will be clear in the next paragraphs.

The committee properly asked for documentation for his statements, but the "unstable" Mouselli could only provide a few (notably the visa to Iraq that I referred to in my earlier post). Many of his other documents, including his all-important contract with Cotecna, were with Mouselli's lawyer in Lagos. And, according to Mouselli, the lawyer would not part with them.

The committee investigators were perplexed and immediately a phone call was put through to the lawyer in Nigeria. But that lawyer still refused to give up the relevant documents. In front of the three attorneys from the Volcker committee, Gonzalez-Maltes and Mouselli, the Nigerian lawyer explained his reluctance, or should I say fear, about producing Mouselli's file this way over the phone: "I would be, as you Americans say, collateral damage."

To this day, the documents remain with the lawyer in Lagos.

I know this sounds like a detective story and I am a detective story writer. But this is the way the discussion was reported to me. But it should be clear that in Nigeria people do not want to get involved in a situation that may run afoul of the Secretary General. Although a Ghanaian by birth, he is a national hero there as well. And for good... and perhaps now sad... reasons.

To my knowledge the committee has never gone to Nigeria, or anywhere in the developing world, to pursue its investigation. They have restricted themselves to the more comfortable venues of New York, Paris, London and Geneva. But the heart of Africa and the Middle East is where the information on Oil-for-Food can be found.

So coming around to my introductory paragraph, there is also some reason to believe that there was a degree of dissension within the committee. Although several memos were discussed in its interim report - including the controversial one about mysterious "machinery" being put in place - omitted from the report, despite discussion of it between lawyers on both sides, was an even more mysterious memo. That memo asks if, during Kojo's business dealings, his "main mentor" had been contacted. The identity of the "main mentor" is not specified. I have not seen this memo. But I would like to.

I would conclude by writing that, despite the foregoing, I do not believe that Kofi Annan is necessarily an evil man, or even a bad one. He is just the product of a system that overwhelmed him, one that he is particularly poorly placed to reform.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:01 PM
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If You Can't Lick 'Em, Join 'Em!

Tina Brown, who recently called the blogosphere the "new Stasi," has decided to blog herself. Scroll down in the article to see who some of her cohorts will be.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:18 AM
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The Wolf is in the Bank

According to Xinhua:

The governments of the European Union (EU) on Wednesday gave their endorsement to World Bank president nominee Paul Wolfowitz, currently US deputy defense secretary, whose nomination has stirred controversy following his key role in the Iraq war and his lack of experience.

At a press conference here, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, referred to Wolfowitz as "the incoming president of the World Bank."

Good news. This blog has made no secret of its admiration for the idealistic Wolfowitz. If this man succeeds in making international aid more transparent and freer of corruption, his place in history will be quite remarkable. Of course the growing freedom movements across the Middle East are in some small way (perhaps not even small) attributable to him.

UPDATE: From the Financial Times... Mr Wolfowitz said: "I understand that I am, to put it mildly, a controversial figure, but I hope, as people get to know me better, they will understand that I really do believe deeply in the mission of the bank." Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, the German development minister, said: "It is clear that this is for him a new beginning."

How about one from the Germans? [Not likely.-ed.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:35 AM
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The Daily Star Stars

The Lebanon Daily Star has several interesting articles this morning. I commend to your attention their report of Islamic Jihad for the first time attending a high-level meeting of the PLO, also two reports of continued trouble for pro-Syrian forces in their country.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:20 AM
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The Gray Lady Meets the UN Scandal

The NYT has a superficially stern but also superficially naive editorial on the Volcker Committee interim report this morning. They assert that the panel "largely exonerated Mr. Annan of personal corruption in the awarding of a contract to a company that employed his son." But that's not quite true. They must realize the committee found no evidence of such corruption so far. Quite a different thing. And the Times' writers (you can be sure this was a thoroughly vetted editorial) were also aware (it is briefly alluded to near the bottom of the editorial) that three years' worth of Oil-for-Food documents were shredded by Annan's deputy. You don't have to be Woodward and Bernstein to smell a rat here.

That they do not call for Kofi's resignation is also interesting. The Times itself moved quickly to change executive editors when it was found that a reporter, Jayson Blair, had fabricated stories. Yet Oil-for-Food, even at the level that it is currently understood, is far worse than a few made up tales. It concerns mass thievery, the starvation of children and the very nature of Security Council decision-making leading up to war. If this isn't a firing-offense, what is?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:23 AM
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March 29, 2005

Jury Duty

Because of my gall bladder problem, I missed my jury duty service with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. I have been called again for April 21, 2005. But I am a little sad that it might not be as dramatic as I had hoped. No one will be saying, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!"

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:38 PM
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Hell, No, He Won't Go!

From the CBC News:

An embattled Kofi Annan said Tuesday he has no intention of resigning as secretary general of the United Nations, despite a critical report about the UN's oil-for-food program.

But the report did not completely clear Annan. It found that his subsequent internal investigation into Cotecna was inadequate to reveal the true nature of the relationship between the company and his son.

As the song goes, "It's only just begun."

Seriously, this is a very sad development for the United Nations. Too bad many of its supporters are not smart (or honest) enough to see that.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:39 PM
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A Fantastic Post from a Syrian Blog

Syrian blogger and author Ammar Abdulhamid recounts his interrogation by Syrian intelligence. The blogging community must support this man. I would imagine he is in danger. How could it be otherwise? (He has a later post about moving to Lebanon for safety.)

(ht: Freedom's friend)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:09 AM
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SECOND Interim Report

The Second Interim report of the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme is now available on line here. I'm getting more coffee and starting to read.

UPDATE: I have been reading the report. So far I can say this much -- anyone who thinks Kofi Annan is the man to reform the United Nations has the intelligence of a gnat or the morals of Saddam Hussein.

MORE: Reading the report, you come to the conclusion that in a normal (non-UN) situation many of the people involved would quite simply go to jail, but here there is no apparent jurisdiction. An example is the former UN Chef de Cabinet S. Iqbal Riza who directed his assistant to shred many documents concerning Oil-for-Food. His assistant wondered if she should be doing this with so many documents but Mr. Riza told her to go ahead and scrawled his gratitude on the memorandum: "Fine. Thanks. (A heavy task!)" Besides being hugely corrupt, Mr. Riza is evidently something of a nitwit for leaving a paper trail. Riza destroyed three years' worth of documents!

MORE: Those who will still defend Kofi will have explain why the Sec'y General lied or "misspoke" to the committee when he said he had never met Elie Massey, the head of Cotecna, before that rather ethically-challenged company got the Oil-for-Food contract. According to the interim report,(p. 45 and thereabouts) Kofi's own personal computer recorded two such meetings. The Sec'y General is evidently a forgetful man. He forgot he had lunch with his own son and Mouselli in Durban (also documented). Is this a case of like son like father or the other way around. Or is just the son really corrupt? Perhaps we will never know. But does it matter? What matters is change at the UN. Immediate change. I don't care if Kofi Annan is depressed. He doesn't get my sympathy. The innocent people of Darfur get my sympathy. Those Iraqi children who didn't get the Oil-for-Food money that was skimmed get my sympathy.

BTW: The report indicates that Kojo Annan is no longer cooperating with the committee. According to my sources... and you know who they are if you have been following the posts below... this has been true since November.

UPDATE: Special praise must go to the London Daily Telegraph whose reporting seems to have driven many inspects of this investigation.

OBVIOUSLY: The report will doubtless be spun in a number of ways. But there is sufficient meat here for any enterprising investigative reporter to go much further. It will be interesting to see what our major publications do. Many of them seem to think that to write too much about this would tarnish the image of the UN, but in actuality the reverse is true. The UN is already tarnished. Only reform will save it. And reform will only come from a full airing. I can already see a few things that were left out from my small knowledge. You can be sure they will appear in the days to come.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:00 AM
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Grokking Grokster

I'm not sure how I'd vote in the current Supreme Court confrontation between MGM and Grokster... although as someone who has made his living through books and film, I have a more than sentimental attachment to copyright protection. But we are living in the shadow of technological breakthroughs that are changing the rules of everybody's game who writes, directs, paints, makes music and so on at warp speed... not the least of which is the arrival of the Sony HDR-FX1, which produces a theatrical quality image for less than $4000. Couple that with a little high-def editing software and you're on your way. All you need is a script. [Oh, that.-ed.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:38 AM
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Waiting for Volcker

Today's Wall Street Journal has a piece Kojo's Iraq Connections with more on Kojo Annan and Pierre Mouselli reported here earlier.

UPDATE: For those interested, the Volcker Committee report will be posted here at noon.

MORE: There is a post now up on Instapundit, linking to TigerHawk, about the Wall Street Journal not crediting this blog on the above story. TH wonders (politely) whether I might have had the Journal's help in the story. To the contrary. This information came to me first and I brought Claudia Rosett into the loop because of her great knowledge and credibility on Oil-for-Food. The WSJ article this morning was not by Claudia who was in transit from Beirut while it was being written. Whoever wrote that story (it is unsigned) contacted Mouselli after reading my report and decided, for whatever reasons, not to credit this blog.

MORE: Some early report info from the AP:

Investigators of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq said Tuesday there was not enough evidence to show that Secretary-General Kofi Annan knew of a contract bid by his son's employer.

The conclusion in the investigators' report was not the clear vindication that the secretary-general had wanted.

MEANWHILE: You will be relieved to know "France backs Annan ahead of crucial report".

MORE: I have been informed that Mouselli has been interviewed by Fox News and should be appearing in the next hours.

CORRECTION OR AMPLFICATION: I have email from Bret Stephens at the WSJ that their Mouselli opinion piece came from Mouselli's attorney, Adrian Gonzalez, calling them, and was not inspired by this blog. Frankly, I am pleased to hear that since the WSJ has been one of the few major dailies that are not normally threatened by blogs and acknowledge them.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:39 AM
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March 28, 2005

Housekeeping

I have been away all day in Palo Alto on business (stopping by at their CNBC outlet for my five minutes on Kudlow) and did not know until then that there have been difficulties posting coments throughout the day. Thanks to Maestro Charles for stepping in to regulate this. (This problem has happened several times now and I am going to try to put an end to it.) Thanks too to the Secretary General of the United Nations for providing this blog with its first 50,000+ visitor day.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:34 PM
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Oil-For-Food: Simon on Kudlow

Roger will be interviewed on CNBC’s Kudlow & Company show today, between 2:30 and 3 pm (Pacific), on the new information about the United Nations Oil-for-Food program.

Posted by Charles Johnson at 2:30 PM
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March 27, 2005

SPECIAL REPORT #1 - OIL-FOR-FOOD INVESTIGATION

This blog has new information from sources close to the investigation of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Scandal by Paul Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee. After some delay, the committee is releasing its preliminary results at noon Tuesday. This report may reveal, among other things, startling information tending to indicate Secretary General Kofi Annan had more knowledge of, or was closer to, his son Kojo's activities with Cotecna - the company whose role in the scandal seems so pervasive - than previously thought.

The committee has been interviewing Pierre Mouselli, a businessman in Paris who was Kojo's business partner. Their relationship started in 1998 when then 45-year old Mouselli met young Kojo (then 23) at a Bastille Day Party in the French Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. Mouselli, who has been a cooperative witness and is not under investigation himself, has told the committee numerous interesting things, which deserved to be followed up, They include:

1. Previously unrevealed private meetings between Kojo and two separate Iraqi Ambassadors to Nigeria, arranged by Mouselli in or about August 1998. At these meetings Kojo presented the business card of Cotecna, which subsequently won the lucrative oil inspection contract for Oil-for-Food. Cotecna had previously been blacklisted from doing business in Nigeria for alleged arms trafficking.

2. A trip in September 1998 by Mouselli and Kojo to the Non-Aligned Nations Movement Conference in Durban, South Africa during which they traveled with the Secretary General's entourage and later had a private lunch with Kofi Annan. In Mouselli's view, the purpose of the lunch was to make the Secretary General aware of the various business dealings in which he and Kojo were engaged, in order to get the Secretary General's "blessing". It was Mouselli's understanding at the time that Kojo had previously discussed the Iraqi Embassy visits with his father, though he does not recall specific statements regarding the UN inspection contracts.

3. Early Autumn 2002. The Iraqi Ambassador to Nigeria makes a surprise call to Mouselli inquiring of the whereabouts of Kojo (at this point Mouselli and Kojo were not in close contact). Mouselli goes to the Iraqi Embassy where he is informed by the Ambassador that we (the Iraqis) have done favors for Kojo in the past and now need to see him. The Iraqis do not specify what these favors were or what they needed from Kojo, but offer Mouselli a visa to come to Baghdad for further discussion. Mouselli picks up the visa in Paris but does not go to Iraq because of the increasingly violent situation.

Mouselli appears to be reliable. I have spoken to him briefly on the phone in Paris and at some length with his attorney Adrian Gonzalez-Maltes. (Interestingly, witnesses and their lawyers seem not to be under confidentiality agreements in this investigation, possibly because there is no governing body to enforce them.)

Mouselli's testimony contains considerably more interesting material, which I will detail in subsequent reports or in tandem with Claudia Rosett with whom I have been in contact on this story. The issues his testimony raises are obviously troubling and I look forward to reading the committee report on Tuesday, which will probably flesh them out from other directions.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:57 PM
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Oil-for-Food Alert!

Before 10PM Pacific this evening, I will be posting some extraordinary new information regarding the Volcker Committee's Oil-for-Food investigation that will be from sources special to this blog.

MEANWHILE, as a warm-up, Austin Bay has a question for you.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:06 PM
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Unter Den Linden in Baghdad - Desperation at the Associated Press

Arthur Chrenkoff has the story of the continued decline of this desiccated news organization. Next up, the AP will be doing nostalgic stories of Berlin circa 1937. It's getting almost comical.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:01 AM
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Idiot Savant?

Here's an example of someone who is technologically advanced (well, at least as much as your cable guy), but philosophically retarded. [This is new?-ed.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:52 AM
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HAPPY EASTER ALL!

To us Jews this is an excellent opportunity to express our ecumenical spirit by... eating! [Didn't you just have a gall bladder operation?-ed. I thought you were my literary editor, not my health czar.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:45 AM
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March 26, 2005

Bravo, Taiwan!

In another display that democracy is viral, hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese have taken to the streets to protest a new law from mainland China:

Hundreds of thousands of people chanting "Oppose war, Love Taiwan" joined President Chen Shui-bian Saturday to protest against China's anti-secession law that sanctions the use of force against the island.

"I am here to protest against a barbaric China which looks down upon the Taiwanese people," said 70-year-old businessman Fan Wen-yi, adding he was not affiliated to any political party and had never participated in a protest before. "The anti-secession law, simply put, is a law that authorizes war."

No one ever knows the accuracy of the stats in these things, but these are Beirut-like numbers. No doubt these demonstrators are getting the attention of the "Communist" rulers in Beijing, not to mention the citizens of Hong Kong. Who knows where this will lead? Is it possible that in its own way Taiwan will conquer the mainland through people power? I guess I'm a dreamer, but I remember Tienanmen. I wonder what the response to a democracy movement in China would be now. As we have learned in the last few years, anything is possible.

UPDATE: Great photos here and here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:11 AM
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Why This Sad Story?

Every family has its share of sad stories, at least every family I know well enough to be aware of its history. People get sick and die. Some of them go into comas. My father did. We had to pull the plug. Human life is tragic and, you may have noticed, finite.

Yet in our society one particular family drama-Terri Schiavo's-has been dragged into the public domain as almost none have before, dominating our airwaves to the exclusion of everything else and even bringing the US Congress into an emergency session lasting past midnight. In the process we have learned very little as people have screamed at each other, bragging (of all things) that they are more compassionate than others. The important issues involved have been obscured in a hailstorm of political posturing. And that is no surprise, because if there is anything that should be decided in calm reflection, it is the relationship between the private world of the family and the public world of the state (and/or the states). Here it is being made into a carnival show out of a Fellini movie, with none of the maestro's forgiving humor.

I suppose this is all to be expected in our culture where the line between news media and entertainment is all but invisible. Nevertheless the inadvertent result of this national obsession is to direct our attention away from matters where our government should be more actively involved. One of those is Darfur where tens of thousands of people, many of them children, are dying by starvation and violence. Our ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell called it "genocide" yet we have done very little. This is more than one sad story.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:50 AM
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The Big Pharaoh may be suing Great Britain

He wants you to tell him what you think.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:02 AM
Comments (1)

March 25, 2005

Let This Prediction Be True!

Buried several paragraphs down in an interesting World Peace Herald analysis of blog influence on the 2004 election is the following prediction by Scott Anthony:

...20 years from now, there will be an entirely new industry based on blogs. Just a few years ago, he noted, when eBay was launched, it was selling novelty items, such as Pez candy dispensers. Today, it is a major retail force that even sells automobiles.

Who's Scott Anthony, you ask? (I did.) He is the co-author of "Seeing What's Next" (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), and a partner in Innosight LLC in Watertown, Mass. Let's hope he does - see what's next, I mean.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:06 PM
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Iran Alert - A Real Threat to the Mullahs?

Who knows, but the invaluable website Regime Change Iran is reporting:

There are reports of massive demonstrations in Iran following the Iranian win over Japan in an important soccer match in Tehran.

Pro-democracy forces have used such events in the past to demonstrate their hatred of the regime. Massive security forces have been mobilized around the country to keep the demonstrations from getting out of control.

Gary Metz, aka Doctor Zin, of RCI telephoned me that he is monitoring events inside Iran, which are fluid. I suggest checking back into his site during the day. I will be following this too. Here's a report on the activities from the Iranian student movement. These events have been exaggerated in the past, but some day they won't be.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:37 AM
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The Real Fear of Lebanese Fascists

I concluded that Lebanese president Emile Lahoud probably doesn't sleep very well these days, after I read this Financial Times report that Lahoud has finally acquiesced to a UN independent investigation into the Rafiq Hariri murder that has caused so much unrest.

[So far] the inquiry revealed that Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, had threatened Mr Hariri "with physical harm" if he opposed an extension of Mr Lahoud's term in office a move proposed by Syria and which angered anti-Syrian opposition groups. The inquiry also said the Syrian government bore "primary responsibility" for the political tension that preceded the 14 February killing, although it did not say who was actually responsible for the bombing.

These boys play rough. It's hard to believe Lahoud isn't terrified about what will happen if democratic forces prevail. As we used to say in the Nixon era, "Jail to the Chief!" [In the ME, that would be getting off lightly.-ed. No kidding.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:17 AM
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Mail This Book!

If the late Abbie Hoffman were writing today, he might have chosen that title for his famous screed. From PCWorld:

Recording industry lawsuits against file swappers and P-to-P (peer-to-peer) software companies may be forcing Internet users onto informal networks to exchange songs and videos, according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

They mean email. Of course, mere books are so low on the piracy pecking order they apparently don't even merit a mention with songs and videos, but they're there (one or two of them anyway). But speaking of dead trees (future ones), the book I am currently writing will include details of my secret encounter with Abbie on the Universal lot in 1979 when he was underground and on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List. He was at the studio primarily to flog the screen rights to Steal this Book! (for which he wanted to be paid, of course) but secondarily to excoriate the author of The Big Fix for allegedly betraying the left (especially him), a tradition which continues to this day on Amazon. (No, they didn't remove the troll critics.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:31 AM
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What Happens When You Win...

.... Other guys want to join your team. It's a simple message, although it may have been lost on Shaquille ONeal and (alas) Kobe Bryant. It hasn't been lost on the Turks, however, as Austin Bay points out. Maybe they've been reading this report by TigerHawk on how Al Qaeda may be in worse shape than we thought.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:45 AM
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Denying the Denier (at C-SPAN)

According to the Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, the number of signatories to their petition to C-SPAN (reported here earlier) continues to grow:

More than 500 prominent historians and other scholars have now signed the petition protesting C-SPAN's plan to broadcast a lecture by Holocaust-denier David Irving on its program "Book TV."

The latest signatories include such prominent scholars as New Republic editor-in-chief Dr. Martin Peretz, Harvard Law School Prof. Alan Dershowitz, and Dr. Michael Walzer; Eric Foner, Simon Schama, and Istvan Deak, of Columbia; David Brion Davis, Harold Bloom, and Paul Kennedy of Yale; Charles Maier and Richard Pipes of Harvard; and Robert Dallek of Boston University.

Many more are at the link. It will be interesting to see how C-SPAN responds.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:13 AM
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March 24, 2005

Google Ads Are Back...

... in case you haven't noticed. I still completely disagree with their policy of not revealing to bloggers on what percentage basis they are sharing revenues with them on ads. I think this is a deceptive business practice, so they are on probation here and may disappear soon. But Google News responded to criticism and removed a racist website from their list of news sources. So I felt honor bound to reinstate their advertising here, paltry as it is.

BTW, with BlogAds I know exactly what I am being paid for them and exactly what percentage Henry Copeland's company is taking - all in advance.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:18 PM
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He Looks Ready!

As a one-time mediocre chess player whose brains are now too fried to even begin to compete with my twenty-year old self, I have always been fascinated and repelled by one of the great (perhaps the great) whacko chess geniuses of all time - Bobby Fischer, of course. Fischer, still eluding US authorities who didn't like him playing a rematch with Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, is now headed for refuge in Iceland.

"Okay. Great, great," a tired-looking Fischer told Reuters when asked how he felt about travelling to his new home country.

Sporting a thick white beard and dressed in a striped sweater and jeans, Fischer declined further comment, setting off on an airport shopping tour with his companion, Miyoko Watai, a four-time Japan women's chess champion.

The Watai-Fischer love story, if you can call it that, is quite a tale in its own right. This interview with Watai is worth a look.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:45 PM
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Whither Kyrgzystan?

Freedom is in the air for Kyrgzystan, but it may be even more difficult to parse that country's politics than to spell its name. [I know you did a copy and paste.-ed. Thanks for the vote of confidence.] Even the country's rabbis are confused.

But then, things are changing all over... well, not a lot, but some.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:45 PM
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Reform Movement at Google News

I have no idea if this blog had even a small influence on Google News, but the mega-news aggregator is apparently removing the hate site National Vanguard from its service. Good.

UPDATE: From privateradio.org a useful listing of Google News' current sources. By far the most cited, ABC News.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:21 AM
Comments (8)

Bring Back "Traktoristy" ("The Tractor Drivers")

With a "secret film" about Putin's love life about to be released, Russia, like Mercury, continues to be in retrograde, heading back to the glory days of Socialist Realism, when actresses like Lyubov Orlova ruled the screen. Should be good for a laugh anyway, though somehow I suspect it won't be making it to our local theatres any time soon.

MEANWHILE: Guess who is getting nervous about Kyrgyzstan.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:51 AM
Comments (6)

Fight Junk Food Addiction!

Well, I'll be staying away from "Wendy's" for a while. (ht: Sheryl)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:52 AM
Comments (19)

"Famous All Over Town"

The old saw that there's no such thing as bad publicity is being proven once again by law professor/Dem-o-pundit Susan Estrich who -- after having questioned LA Times opinion editor Michael Kinsley's mental capacity because of Kinsley's Parkinson's Disease -- now seems to be appearing on television more than ever... and on the subject of Terri Schiavo, of all things! Whoever said tastelessness and vulgarity don't pay?

Cathy Seipp, who has made La Estrich her own special province, has an interesting article on the...[Don't you dare call it a kerfuffle!-ed.]... controversy this morning on NRO. While I remain agnostic on the issue of the ubiquity... or lack thereof... of female opinion writers (although I recommend this essay on the larger debate; it's brilliant), I was amused by Cathy's description of the LATimes as a local paper. "Unlike the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times isn't really a national paper; you can't get it delivered to your door outside the regional circulation base, so its influence with the chattering classes is limited."

Indeed, as the Professor would say. But it's worse. And I'm not complaining about the paper's liberal bias, as some have done with considerable accuracy. I expect bias in a newspaper, as I do in most human endeavors, especially where the written word is concerned. The LAT's problem is that it is deadly dull and hemmorhaging readers because of it. What the LATimes misses, more than anything, is another daily newspaper to compete with -- some juice and action. It misses the old Herald Examiner desperately. (Face it, Angelenos; didn't you prefer to read the HerEx, no matter what your politics? I was way left and I did.) Now with the Internet beckoning, most mornings my copy of the LAT sits on my doorstep, only to be taken in as an afterthought, if at all.

So if Estrich and her gang of Brentwood lunch ladies are determined to get on the opinion page of the LAT, that's okay with me. I probably won't know they were there anyway. But I will be keeping up with Cathy Seipp -- and many others -- on line. It's much more convenient... and it's global. If I want to know movie times, I can always go to Rotten Tomatoes.

As for title of this post, I just put it there as joke about Estrich. "Famous All Over Town" was reputed to be the first "important" Chicano novel about East LA written by someone named Danny Santiago. It was actually authored pseudonymously by Dan James, an Anglo screenwriter who collaborated on "The Great Dictator."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:44 AM
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Will Emile Lahoud Be Next?

Embattled Kyrgyzstan's President Askar Akayev and his family have left Kyrgyzstan's capital by helicopter, heading toward Kazakhstan, the Interfax news agency reported today.

Interfax said Akayev had flown to Russia.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:18 AM
Comments (4)

March 23, 2005

You Can Take it to the Bank

Was it a kerfuffle or a brouhaha? Whatever it was, it wasn't much - Paul Wolfowitz appears on his way to an easier than expected confirmation as President of the World Bank, according to the WaPo and Reuters.

UPDATE: Joe Katzman summarizes.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:33 PM
Comments (6)

"Mr Brown, you have a lovely daughter..."

Well, I don't know if new UN Chief of Staff Mark Malloch Brown even has a daughter (in the original Herman's Hermits version or this one) but I do know he thinks his boss Kofi Annan has a lousy son (Kojo). At least it looks as if the soon-to-be-released Volcker Commission Report will be calling it that way--and Brown should know if anybody does:

"At the moment we have story of a son who is being investigated for his actions, and they will have to be judged on their own rights as to whether they were appropriate or not," said Mr. Brown. "The second phase of the story is, are they in any way linked to wrongdoings by the secretary-general, and we stand by it that we believe on Tuesday the secretary-general will be exonerated of any wrongdoing."

Mr. Malloch Brown pointed out that Kojo Annan had previously admitted misleading his father about his relationship with Cotecna. The staff chief suggested that the Volcker Commission would judge the younger Annan's activities harshly.

There's something creepy in that, isn't there? The Secretary General of the United Nations' son left, in the immortal Watergate coinage, to twist slowly in the wind, while the father tells the international body how to reform itself.

UPDATE: The Canada Free Press reports Kojo profiteering in Mugabe's Zimbabwe as well. (hat tip: Julian)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:03 PM
Comments (18)

Testifyin' Howard

I don't know what to make of Howard Dean's new Holy Roller persona as the recently-anointed Democratic Party Chairman barnstorms through the South, preachin' values and fearin' the Lord. But as least he's not calling Republicans "evil" or "brain-dead" anymore. In fact, he's beginning to sound dawnright reason'ble:

''It's not about Republicans and Democrats, but about democracy that works,'' [Dean] said. ''I'd rather see someone go to work for a Republican campaign than sit on their butt.''

Well said, Howard. Unfortunately, amidst all his Scripture quoting, the Democratic Party Chairman may have revealed, consciously or unconsciously, the real reason for his party's demise last November. As The Tennessean put it:

In the first [Dean] said Jesus' directive to ''love thy neighbor'' didn't mean one could choose which ones to love. He then remarked that Republicans never brought up the scriptural verse saying it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.

That couldn't have been John Kerry, could it?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:53 PM
Comments (29)

Appalling DePaul

I had not realized - when writing only a few days ago about the bizarre mistreatment of a faculty member at DePaul University - that this same "university" is the employer (of last resort, apparently) of Holocaust-denier/minimizer Norman Finkelstein. It's time for the major media of Chicago, like the Chicago Tribune, to do a serious investigation of this "institution of higher learning". The citizens of Chicago (and elsewhere) have a right to know where their tuition money is going. (via Marathonpundit, who is paying special attention to this case.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:01 AM
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By the Numbers

(Inspired by the Harper's Index)

Palestinian Authority Ministers to receive gratis $76,000 Audi - 26

Palestinian Authority Legislators to receive gratis $45,000 car - 86

American nominees for President of World Bank reluctantly received by Europeans - 1

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:34 AM
Comments (8)

North Korea Watch

TigerHawk thinks Condi played hardball in Beijing, resulting in new Chinese pressure on the NORKS.

Since North Korea can't feed its people or make electricity or power its military without China, Hu Jintao has it within his means to make something happen here. Having dithered for months and blown off the last "six party" talks, why did Hu Jintao summon the North Koreans now? Because of Bush unilateralism!

Intriguing.

UPDATE: Here's more evidence of interesting back-channel negotiations. Well, not quite "evidence" but still worth a look.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:54 AM
Comments (4)

Claudia Counters Kofi

Claudia Rosett, Kofi Annan's worst nightmare, continues her two-year- long (or roughly) deconstruction of Secretary-General-Speak in today's WSJ. Here she takes on Kofi's curiously-timed reform package:

From there, Mr. Annan forges on to propose nothing less than reforming the entire known universe, via the U.N., while he bangs the drum for a budget to match. He wants to expand his own staff, change the world's climate, end organized crime, eliminate all private weapons, and double U.N.-directed development aid to the tune of at least $100 billion a year, "front-loaded," for his detailed plan to end world poverty. This comes from a U.N. that only three months ago was finally strong-armed by Congress into coughing up the secret internal Oil for Food audits confirming that under Mr. Annan's stewardship the U.N. was not even adequately auditing its own staff operations.

After a year in which scandals have been erupting from every vent in the U.N.'s traditionally cloistered corridors, assorted members of Congress have been wondering whether Mr. Annan deserves even the budget he's got already. Some, such as Sen. Norm Coleman, have called for Mr. Annan to resign. Now, in much the same way that despots faced with popular unrest like to announce giant patriotic dam-building projects involving the pouring of huge amounts of cement, Mr. Annan is presenting his new improved save-the-world reform plan, conveniently timed to serve as a distraction from the oil-for-fraud, sex-for-food, theft, waste, abuse and incompetence stories that for the past two years have bubbling up around the same U.N. he already reformed for us back in 1997.

Some people think Ms. Rosett's the UN's worst enemy, but actually I think she's its best friend.

UPDATE: According to the NY Sun, the UN--which had previously denied doing it--is paying for kleptocratic Oil-for-Food director Benan Sevan's legal expenses. (Did the US Gov't pay for, say, Spiro Agnew's legal defense?) Of course, this isn't new for the international organization. They are using Oil-for-Food money to pay for the investigation into, yes, Oil-for-Food -- hence stealing from the Iraqi people twice. Does anyone really want to listen to reforms from Kofi Annan?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:31 AM
Comments (15)

March 22, 2005

Oil-for-Food - Here We Go Again

It's no secret that this blog has been especially interested in the UN Oil-for-Food Scandal. Today, the Financial Times has a story (via LGF) that corroborates some information this blog is not yet at liberty to disclose. More, I hope, will be coming from here soon--from "sources close to the investigation," as the saying goes. Meanwhile, here's the crux of the FT story:

Kojo Annan, son of Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, received at least $300,000 from Cotecna, a Swiss inspection company awarded a contract ultimately worth about $60m under the Iraqi oil-for-food contract.

The amount was almost double the sum previously disclosed, but payments were arranged in ways that obscured where the money came from or whom it went to.

Oops... Meanwhile...

[The Volcker Commission] findings, expected next Tuesday, will address allegations that Kojo's family connections may have helped Cotecna obtain the UN contract.

In November Kofi Annan said he was "very disappointed and surprised" after it emerged that Kojo had received monthly "non-compete" payments from Cotecna four years after the relationship was believed to have ended.

How "disappointed" and how "surprised" remain to be seen. As I pointed out earlier today, it's no accident Kofi promulgated his "UN reform package" in advance of the Volcker findings. Afterwards, I wonder if anyone will be listening.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:56 PM
Comments (16)

Is Google Progressive or Reactionary?

Reacting to posts on LGF and Instapundit, Jeff Jarvis has demanded transparency from Google in its "news" selection policies (evidently racist websites are news, but blogs are not - unless they're Blogspot blogs, owned by Google).

I will throw something else into the mix. Google is sleazy in its advertising practices. I have Google Ads on my site (I'm sure most have noticed) and wrote to them the other day to inquire what percentage I was being paid of their revenues. I found out that it is against their policy to disclose this. I have had agents all my life for all kinds of things (from real estate to movie scripts) and always I have known what percentage they are making -- but not Google!

Shame on them and shame on me for having them. [Are you taking off the Google ads?-ed. As soon as I can figure out how to do it.] So good-bye, Google ads. It's a pleasure to get rid of a company that countenances Nazi websites as news.

UPDATE: Google Ads are now gone.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:52 AM
Comments (41)

On the Kofi Table

Wretchard, as usual, has a first-rate critique of Kofi Annan's proposals for UN reform. Perhaps because I have made it into such a hobby-horse, Wretchard doesn't emphasize what I consider the over-riding issue -- complete economic transparency by the UN. Without dealing with this in a thorough way, Annan is arguing for vastly increased aid by the developed world to the developing nations. Considering the ongoing Oil-for-Food scandal (in which his own son has been implicated with possibly more to come) this is a rather extraordinary act of chutzpah. Before the UN can ask us taxpayers for more money, it must show us absolutely that the cash is not going to end up in the pockets of despots. So far they haven't done that -- and under Kofi I have my doubts that they will.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:21 AM
Comments (8)

Dead Men Walking

The BBC's Roger Hardy looks at the Arab Summit in Algiers:

At least as striking as what the Arab leaders will talk about is what they will not talk about.

It's scarcely surprising that ordinary Arabs have grown cynical about their leaders' tendency either to be constantly at one another's throats - or to utter long-winded platitudes about their common purpose.

Hardy concludes:

What unites Arabs now is something fuzzier - they tend to support the Palestinians, to dislike America, to watch al-Jazeera.

I wonder if even that is true anymore - or just a truism.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:06 AM
Comments (5)

Soderberg's Strange Concoction

Writing political books is difficult these days. Events move so swiftly your work can seem irrelevant before it even gets to the copy-editing phase. [Aren't you writing a political book?-ed. No, it's a memoir with political overtones. Get that straight. You're the editor -- or one of them!] But the new work by Nancy Soderberg -- The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse American Might -- might take the cake for "dead on arrival." Talk about the ghost of Jacques Derrida... this book seems almost an unconscious effort to drive people away from the Democratic Party.

Bret Stephens has a deconstuction in the WSJ (alas behind the usual firewall). Jonah Goldberg has an excerpt from the review here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:33 AM
Comments (4)

Separated at Birth?

It's hard to explain how these two could be leading our two major parties in the House of Representatives. Maybe they're "stealth operatives" for a third party.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:07 AM
Comments (32)

Something's Happening Here...

More good news from the neighborhood formerly-known-as-the-Holy-Land. According to Haaretz:

The Palestinian Authority security forces are foiling just as many terror attacks as Israel, the head of the research division of Israel Defense Forces intelligence, Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday.

Last week, the Palestinian Authority assumed security control in Jericho. Talks on the handover of a third West Bank city, presumably Qalqilyah, are expected to begin in the coming days.

Everything could blow up on a moment's notice, as we know, but I can't remember such a long run of good news from this part of the world for some time.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:35 AM
Comments (5)

Message to Bashar, etc.

An article in India Daily is confirming what has been reported earlier -- three US carrier groups appear headed for the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. I'm sure this is getting the attention of Bashar and the Mullahs and, at the very least, emphasizes that the US is serious about Syria vacating Lebanon.

Is that all? Do we know more than we are saying about the Iranian nuclear arsenal? What was Bush actually telling the Europeans in private on his recent trip? I have no answers. Do you?

Meanwhile, I find James Rubins' pro-Wolfowitz oped in the NYT this morning (linked by Instapundit) a hopeful sign of sanity, especially the last paragraph:

Democrats struggling with the appointment of Mr. Wolfowitz may want to keep in mind that spreading democracy is a bipartisan mission. As they say, in politics sometimes you have to let the other guy have your way.

The great British Victorian William Morris had a considerably more sophisticated version of a similar idea: "Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes out not to be what they meant, other men have to fight for what they meant under another name."

Yes, I know I've quoted that on here before, but it's one of my favorites. Humor me.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:57 AM
Comments (14)

March 21, 2005

Distressing News on Sex Offenders

According to ABC News,

There are more than 400,000 registered sex offenders in the United States — convicted criminals whose fingerprints, names, and addresses have been recorded on official lists. But victims' advocates say almost 25 percent of them have slipped through the cracks, and authorities no longer know where they live.

If there could be any fitting memorial for the hideous abduction and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford, it would be to do something about this. In a society as open as ours with a fluid population, this would seem to be one area where federal law should trump state law.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:33 PM
Comments (27)

Old Reactionaries Die Hard...

... at the Arab League, not surprisingly. According to the AP, their latest meeting in Algeria ended up more or less status quo ante:

During preparatory talks, Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani al-Mulqi complained about the failure of Arab nations to adapt with changing times, delegates said. Al-Mulqi tried in vain to persuade fellow ministers to accept his country's peace proposal, arguing that doing so amounted not to making concessions to Israel but to "reality," the delegates said. Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen led the fight to reject the Jordanian proposal.

I wonder how long Lebanon will be voting with the thugopoly of Syria, Yemen and the Sudan. Not very, I hope. Of course, this whole event was basically irrelevant to the events on the ground. Those seem to be progressing faster than the troglodyte leaders of the Arab League can grasp. The Israelis just returned Tul Karm to the Palestinians. More surprisingly, from the same Haaretz article, comes the following encouraging news:

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Interior Ministry has begun placing restrictions on the use of weapons by Palestinian militants, Palestinian security officials said Monday, a step toward fulfilling a long-standing Israeli demand that the armed groups be dismantled.

Israel welcomed the Palestinian move.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:57 PM
Comments (4)

I said I was an agnostic...

...in the previous post, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating religious people. In fact, there is an argument that it makes me especially interested in what I can learn from them. Here is an intriguing new blog I just discovered by a Hasidic rabbi in Ashdod, Israel. (ht: old gray)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:50 AM
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The Schiavo Case - For the Record

I see that some commenters have misconstrued my views about this case even though I never posted them. For the record, I happen to think the US Congress should not have involved itself in the Schiavo affair; such matters are better resolved within the family. If questions of law that go beyond the Schiavo family need to be decided, that should be done in the normal manner and not by midnight sessions of Congress. But then, as I have posted on numerous occasions, I am an agnostic, so my views are predictable. If you care to comment on this, I invite you do so on the thread below. As I wrote earlier, this is not a case that interests me particularly and I intend to go on to other matters.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:47 AM

Kofi's Corrections

Kofe Annan will address the General Assembly shortly with ideas for reforming the United Nations. Above all, we should be looking for one thing - economic transparency. Without that, reform will be a charade.

Moreover, the breakdown of the proposed reforms already outlined by Der Spiegel is not encouraging, especially where transparency is concerned. What Annan appears to be recommending is more internal oversight. What is needed is public oversight, by the people of the world. Allegations have been filtering in (to this blog among other venues ) about serious weaknesses in UN internal oversight already put in place by Annan - specifically the Volcker Commission. This does not augur well for internal oversight in general. More to come on that if these allegations prove accurate.

UPDATE: Some of Annan's improvements, like changes in the Human Rights Commission, clearly seem worth making. Also, the presence of countries like India and Japan on the Security Council may prove helpful.

MORE: From Austin Bay - "What does it do about oversight? Not much– at the moment the UN’s only oversight is the US Congress and Claudia Rosett." [Hey, what about this blog?-ed. Small potatoes.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:16 AM
Comments (13)

March 20, 2005

Terri Schiavo - A Guest Blog

The following is a post by frequent commenter on this blog Catherine Johnson. The thoughts expressed are entirely Catherine's:

I've been heartsick over Terri Schiavo and her family since Friday, so I'm grateful to Roger for offering me a guest spot to talk about it.

Terri Schiavo is being killed because she has brain damage.

She is not dying-or wasn't until yesterday, when a Florida judge ordered her doctors to withhold food and water-and she is not on life support. Nor did she write a living will.

I can barely stand to think of Terri Schiavo's family, what they are going through. Like me, they are the parents of a child with special needs. Also like me, at times in my own life, they are seen by the experts as delusional. It is obvious to our elites-to the usual suspects-that the Schiavo's don't understand their child's condition.

They are not realistic.

We spend a lot of time on this blog protesting foreign policy realism.

But I don't think I've ever mentioned that my own aversion to foreign policy realism grew naturally out of my experience with the Terri Schiavo kind of realism. My husband and I have been battling that particular brand of realism for a long time now, and my proudest moment as a parent was & remains the day I told a school administrator, who had just said he 'had to be realistic,' that in our household we don't believe in realism.

That shut his water off.

As it turns out, every time I've been optimistic while others were being realistic, I've been right and they've been wrong. So I stay away from the realists. I work with the doctors and teachers who will take a chance on a child.

Terri Schiavo's parents have hope that their daughter's functioning can be improved or perhaps one day cured with treatment, therapy, and emerging knowledge.

They may be right, they may be wrong. Or they may be ahead of their time, because one day brain damage will be repairable. That's my bet.

In the meantime they choose to love and care for their daughter.

Her legal husband chooses to starve her to death.

If he starved his dog, he'd be arrested.

I wasn't going to complain about the media or the Democrats, because there can't be too many people in favor of deliberately starving a brain-damaged woman to death.

But then I read this New York Times article - Experts Say Ending Feeding Can Lead to a Gentle Death

Why is it I feel that if Terri Schiavo were a brain-damaged Iraqi prisoner whose food and water had been ordered withheld, the TIMES would not be hastening to tell us that death by dehydration is gentle and dignified, not a horrific thing at all?

Catherine Johnson

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:05 PM
Comments (207)

Howard Dean Oxymoron Watch

Can you be both "brain-dead" and "evil"? Howard Dean evidently thinks Republicans are, the legendary "craftiness" of the Devil nothwithstanding. As a registered Democrat, I might have to recuse myself on this one. But I would recommend Mr. Dean reread this classic. He could use a little help.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:13 PM
Comments (20)

More important than the entire Antiwar Movement...

... or any editorial I have ever read in the New York Times or the Washington Post.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:40 AM
Comments (11)

What Do We Do About These Guys?

Several people have written to ask me to comment about the Terry Schiavo situation, which is so dominating the news at the moment, but undoubtedly because I am the father of a 6 1/2 year old girl, my attention has been more focused on the the death of 9-year old Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa, Florida (ironically, as I saw on the map, not very far from Disney World).

John Evander Couey, the man who has confessed to this murder, is a previously convicted sex offender, among numerous other crimes. While I oppose the death penalty (with the exception of political mass murderers like Saddam whose very existence pose a threat because they have so many supporters) and am skeptical of "three strikes and you're out" legislation, I think sex offenders of this nature (those who force themselves upon juveniles) must be placed in a more stringent category. This kind of mental illness is not easily cured and poses tremendous risk to innocent children. It may be time to entertain penalties for this crime that may seem Draconian, including lifetime incarceration or technological monitoring systems. I, of course, recognize the danger of the misapplication of justice here, but that is why we have our adversarial system.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:14 AM
Comments (42)

March 19, 2005

Ill Wind from the Windy City

John Ruberry of Marathon Pundit disrupted my Saturday night.... I was just heading for the DVD collection... when he emailed me a link to the cover story in the Chicago Jewish News. Thomas Klocek, a teacher at DePaul University, got into a dispute with some Palestinian students that may be costing the teacher his job of fifteen years as well as his health insurance. (Klocek, who is 58, has a serious kidney condition. He is also Catholic, not Jewish, although he defended Israel against accusations of - what else? - Nazism by the students.)

If even half of what the CNJ article says is true, we have another case of la vie à l'envers in the American academy. The Depaul dean, a woman named Dumbleton, seems a particularly terrified and pathetic character, another victim of now-reactionary political correctness run amuck.

Of course, I have only read what is essentially Klocek's viewpoint in the CNJ story and on Ruberry's blog, so there could be more here than meets the eye, but I am skeptical. We have heard too many similar tales in this "Ward Churchill" academic world. I suspect too there is something else at play besides PC and that is the university's economic fear. DePaul is not exactly Princeton on the academic pecking order, although I would imagine it still charges tuition fees rivaling more renowned institutions. Places like DePaul always must cater to students who can take their business elsewere. That of course includes a growing number of militant Muslim students who insist that only their views be expressed. Where do we go from here? It's becoming like the Middle Ages when, as I recall, the students bought their professors.

In any case, Klocek's lawyer says he will be suing DePaul. This blog will be watching for further developments.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:52 PM
Comments (24)

The Big (Antiwar) Snooze

The "Antiwar Movement" is in pretty drastic decline if we are to believe the figures (and we can assume they're inflated) given out by the mainstream media today for European demonstrations in opposition to the Iraq War. Some news services, like king fuddy-duddy Reuters, report "tens of thousands" in their lead, but further inspection reveals that London, a city of roughly nine million with millions more in their outlying districts, could muster up a scant ten thousand in Hyde Park. [Maybe it conflicted with the whippet races.-ed.] Similar figures are reported for Rome and Turkey. Pretty pathetic. As we all know, over a million demonstrated in Beirut alone last week in favor of democracy and against Syrian occupation of Lebanon - in a country of three and a half million.

MSNBC quotes one of the antiwar demonstrators this way: "We got the Iraqis into this mess, we need to help them out of it," said Kit MacLean, 29, waiting near Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner for the start of a planned march to the U.S. Embassy and Trafalgar Square.

I guess Mr. MacLean hasn't read the latest poll in which the Iraqis themselves say they are now better off by a margin approaching forty percent. But that's okay. At least Mr. MacLean got some fresh air.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:38 AM
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Dumbwaiter Broken

Norm disses Pinter - and pretty damn well! (via Glenn)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:50 AM
Comments (7)

Qu'est-ce que c'est...?

The French... of all people... seem to be rebelling against the EU, at least un petit peu:

France's political elite was stunned on Friday by an opinion poll that showed for the first time a majority of voters opposed the European Union constitutional treaty.

However, Mr Delors predicted that the Yes campaign, which has only just been launched, would ultimately prevail. "I believe in the good sense of the people. They will not confuse this vote with questions of internal politics," Mr Delors said in a newspaper interview.

I can't believe that Delors is wrong because, without a strong EU, France's waning power would virtually evaporate. And their elites couldn't be more aware of that. But who knows?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:25 AM
Comments (23)

March 18, 2005

Which Side Are You On - The Truth

Many people have linked today's piece by Charles Krauthammer -- arguably the greatest columnist in any of the major American dailies, certainly the keenest mind. Even so I thought it worth linking in case anyone had missed or it or cared to comment. Excellent bit among many:

The international left's concern for human rights turns out to be nothing more than a useful weapon for its anti-Americanism. Jeane Kirkpatrick pointed out this selective concern for the victims of U.S. allies (such as Chile) 25 years ago. After the Cold War, the hypocrisy continues. For which Arab people do European hearts burn? The Palestinians. Why? Because that permits the vilification of Israel -- an outpost of Western democracy and, even worse, a staunch U.S. ally. Championing suffering Iraqis, Syrians and Lebanese offers no such satisfaction. Hence, silence.

UPDATE: Writing somewhat less coherently in the same paper, a certain aging gossip monger says that bloggers are "the new Stasi." I would just like to state for the record that in my case she has the wrong intelligence agency.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:19 PM
Comments (62)

Has Castro been romancing Suha Arafat?

If not, why did he go up from a 150 millionaire to a 550 millionaire in the latest Forbes listing of rich despots... scratch that... world leaders in one year? Maybe it's an accounting error or maybe he's taking his cues from John Kerry.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:28 AM
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Whistle-Blowing at the UN?

Not a very good prospect according to this National Journal article:

But the United Nations isn't an American bureaucracy, and it has its own ways of dealing with whistle-blowers. Mostly, it fires them. Almost all U.N. staff members work under contracts of two years or less, and they carry no legal assurance of renewal. An angry supervisor need only wait for the rebellious staff member's contract to lapse, and then not renew it. And although a supervisor's retaliation for whistle-blowing is officially prohibited under U.N. rules, enforcement comes only in the form of penalties against the offending supervisor -- not job reinstatement forthe whistle-blower.

The article has some interesting sad stories about the Kofi-ocracy. [Are you going to talk about transparency again?-ed. No, I promise, I promise.]

(hat tip: Catherine Johnson - I hope you bought her book already. It's terrific.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:10 AM
Comments (3)

Dept. of Uh-oh!

From Haaretz,

Ukraine has acknowledged exporting to Iran 12 cruise missiles capable of reaching Israel amid mounting pressure from other countries to explain how the sales occurred, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Ukraine also exported six missiles to China.

It quoted Ukraine's prosecutor general Svyatoslav Piskun as saying 18 X-55 cruise missiles, also known as Kh-55s or AS-15s, were exported in 2001, although none was exported with the nuclear warheads they were designed to carry.

That's a relief.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:50 AM
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March 17, 2005

Wolfowitz Derangement Syndrome

It's hard to believe that the Europeans could be so reactionary and, well, racist as to give importance to this new objection to the Wolfowitz nomination reported in the WaPo's most recent carp festival - "Europeans Resist Wolfowitz for World Bank":

Adding fuel to the controversy is concern within the bank staff over Wolfowitz's reported romantic relationship with Shaha Riza, an Arab feminist who works as a communications adviser in the bank's Middle East and North Africa department.

Both divorced, Wolfowitz and Riza have steadfastly declined to talk publicly about their relationship, but they have been regularly spotted at private functions and one source said the two have been dating for about two years. Riza, an Oxford-educated British citizen who was born in Tunisia and grew up in Saudi Arabia, shares Wolfowitz's passion for democratizing the Middle East, according to people who know her.

You would think a Jewish and an Arab intellectual (both quite adult) being romantically involved would be applauded by "progressive" Europe, but I guess not. So what is the reason for their WDS -- Wolfowitz Derangement Syndrome -- other than the usual envy expressed by the ever-bilious British pol Clare Short who is quoted in the same article as saying on their TV: "America is going to do what it likes or hard cheese."

Another article in the Financial Times reports that some Europeans and "development economists" were concerned that Wolfowitz was "ill-suited" for the post, apparently because he wasn't properly educated in their specialty, as if development economics were particle physics or open-heart surgery. It's hard to take that seriously, considering the deputy defense secretary is easily one of the brainiest government officials on either side of the pond.

So it must be his well-known role in the instigation of the Iraq War, but according to the latest poll, 61.5% of post-war Iraqis now feel their country is headed in the right direction as opposed to 23.2 thinking negatively, a stunning differential of nearly 40% which dwarfs any similar polls I have ever seen about America and Europe. The only conclusion we can draw from this is perhaps we should have invaded Europe. It would have cheered them up.

In sum, what is the cause of this Wolfowitz Derangement Syndrome that is creating such a brouhaha in Europe? Well, let's hope it's not a fear that Wolfowitz, as World Bank president, might want to make all aid dealings of the bank transparent. That wouldn't reflect well on our European friends, would it?

UPDATE: But not to worry. As Soccerdad reports, Europe's own anti-fraud organization OLAF says "that it found no conclusive evidence that European aid was used to fund terror."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:34 PM
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Make that Eight!

Hugh Hewitt says Claudia Rosett deserves six Pulitzers.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:56 AM
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"Fairness" at C-SPAN

I am a great C-SPAN admirer and supporter of free speech, but the network's BOOKS division's choice of notorious Holocaust denier David Irving as a "counter-balance" to Deborah Lipstadt, who was appearing in conjunction with her new book "History on Trial," is on the edge of mind-boggling. Okay, it is mind-boggling, because Irving, as the WaPo's Richard Cohen pointed out the other day, has already been proven a liar in a court of law - specifically about Ms. Lipstadt (among many other things):

To Lipstadt's statements about the Holocaust, there was Irving's rebuttal that it never happened -- no systematic killing of Jews, no Final Solution and, while many people died at Auschwitz of disease and the occasional act of brutality, there were no gas chambers there. "More women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz," Irving once said.

For obvious reasons, Lipstadt cited Irving in her 1993 book, "Denying the Holocaust," which was also published in Britain. Irving sued her for libel. Under Britain's libel laws, Lipstadt had to prove the truth of what she wrote, which, after a lengthy trial, she did in spades. Her lawyer's opening statement -- "My Lord, Mr. Irving calls himself a historian. The truth is, however, that he is not a historian at all, but a falsifier of history. To put it bluntly, he is a liar." -- ultimately became the judgment of the court itself. In matters of intellectual integrity, Irving is an underachiever.

It seems that C-SPAN has lying confused with opinion. How pathetic and shameful. This is no joke, like having a flying saucers looney talk about a body snatchers invasion of Earth. Millions died in the Holocaust and it has been documented many times over. Holocaust denial is illegal in Germany - and for good reason. Apparently, Ms. Lipstadt has refused to go on the show with the psychotic Irving. I don't blame her. She already had to appear with him in a British court of law. Irving doesn't deserve a retrial, though C-SPAN seems to want to give him one. (ht: Catherine)

UPDATE: Friday's NYT is covering a protest of C-SPAN's invitation to Irving by professional historians. The David S. Wyman Institute of Holocaust Stuides has more.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:21 AM
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Patterico is asking...

...bloggers to make the following pledge:

If the FEC makes rules that limit my First Amendment right to express my opinion on core political issues, I will not obey those rules.

Count me in. [Big deal. You wouldn't know how to shut up anyway.-ed. You're right about that.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:05 AM
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Coup in Damascus? (It's been denied, but...)

The Lebanese Foundation for Peace is reporting something very much like it, by Syrian military leaders opposed to their forces pulling out of Lebanon.

No newspapers are getting in or out of Syria, the media is controlled very tight, and the Syrian scene witnessed a dramatic, security deterioration the last 24 hours.

Precise Intelligence reports coming from Syria indicated massive army troops deployment around the capital Damascus. Most of the military Barracks of the Syrian Army around Damascus gave allegiance to the dissidents: Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan and General Ali Safi. These people in the Syrian Army were against the withdrawal from Lebanon.

It is known that President Bashar Assad is in the city of Alleppo, assessing the internal situation within Syria and trying to organize a "forced" return to Damascus. (hat tip: Richard McEnroe)

The coup has been denied here. I am sure, however, that forces within Syria are at each other's throats. More to come undoubtedly.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:23 AM
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The Manolo The Interview

It had to the happen. The Manolo is interviewed in the Philadelphia Inquirer. (Warning: The registration is THE ANNOYING). For those wondering about the identity:

Q: One thinks you may be a man of Latin descent and breathtaking handsomeness. Is this correct? How old is the Manolo? How tall? How tan?

Although the Manolo he would like to reply that he is handsome, he is by the objective standards sadly not. Indeed, the lamentable fact it is that the Manolo was not blessed with the elegant frame, and is not as tall as he would like to be, nor certainly as thin. Happily, however, the Manolo does have the most handsome feet, with the high arches and the pleasing proportions.

The Manolo, of course, comments himself here. (No registraton required... yet.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:13 AM
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Positive Holy Land Developments

Most readers know I'm an optimist--hey, it works; try it--but there's some good cause for my world view coming from the Holy Land this morning. Haaretz tells us the "Palestinian militant groups agreed Thursday to extend the "calm" in place since February, in exchange for a halt to Israeli attacks and the release of prisoners, according to a statement issued by the groups at the end of three days of talks in Egypt."

Israeli officials are reacting with caution, as well they might. But it's hard not to see this in the light of the Iraqi election and a million people in the streets of Beirut demonstrating for democracy. Meanwhile the same newspaper's always useful ticker has this report from Reuters: "Hamas: Conditional truce will expire at end of 2005 if Israel does not meet demands, among them prisoner releases."

The end of 2005? Normally Hamas gives deadlines like... yesterday. Something's up. Maybe it's time to review our clichés - "Trust but verify." "If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies." [Hey, that last one's from Mother Teresa. Didn't you read Christopher Hitchens about that fake?-ed. Yes, but it's a good quote.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:31 AM
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After Wolfowitz finishes with the World Bank...

... maybe he should clean up NPR. Can you believe those salaries? [Well, they're certainly not marxists.-ed. I know what you mean. "To each according to his need"???]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:23 AM
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March 16, 2005

Europeans, Wolfie and the WaPo

Reading the quotes from Europeans about the Paul Wolfowitz World Bank nomination in the Washington Post, you might wonder if democracy promotion means anything to them at all. Here's the first one:

"We were led to believe that the neo-conservatives were losing ground," said Michael Cox, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. "But clearly the revolution is alive and well." He added that despite recent efforts from Washington to mend relations, "Europeans are still inclined deep down to suspect the worst, and this appointment won't go down too well."

Worst of what? More scenes of a million people marching for democracy in the streets of Beirut, next time in Teheran maybe. Yes, Mr. Wolfowitz has a lot to be ashamed of Mr. Cox, doesn't he? You need not be Sigmund Freud or his daughter to realize Euro academics of this stripe see Wolfowitz et al through a prism so distorted and contorted by envy they end up looking up their own nostrils. What will they say if five years from now the whole Middle East is democratic?

Well, who cares really? At least they're angry and jealous, not dumb like the peabrain from Greenpeace who was quoted as follows: [It is] "a disaster to put the World Bank, which should be delivering sustainable development, into the hands of a man who clearly will put U.S. and oil industry interests first." What are the odds this bozo has any idea what Wolfowitz's ecological views are? A hundred to one? A thousand to one? A million to one? I'll go with the latter but maybe the real motivation behind this inane comment is organizational fund-raising. [You're being charitable.-ed. That's what my mother taught me.]

More ominously, French Foreign Minister Michael Barnier responded this way to a reporter's question: "It's a proposal. We shall examine it in the context of the personality of the person you mention and perhaps in view of other candidates."

No surprise there. Monsieur Barnier may actually have something to fear. He represents the country often regarded as one of the most corrupt in the developed world. I'd gamble on Wolfowitz being harder on kleptocrats than, say, Volcker will be at the UN. Not great news for the Chiracoisie. Of course, they may be on their way out anyway.

Giving the WaPo its due, they do end with what seems to be a pro-Wolfowitz quote:

Francois Heisbourg, a leading French defense analyst who knows Wolfowitz, said the first reaction of many is "fear and loathing," but added, "Paul is a man who has intellectual depth. He's not a one-agenda, single-point man." He said that as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, Wolfowitz helped steer the country toward democracy.

"He does have the breadth of experience and range of interests that could serve him well in this kind of soft-power job," Heisbourg said. "He's probably more suited to this soft power position than his hard-power position at the Pentagon."

Er... wait a minute. Wasn't it that "hard-power position" that helped give Iraq a democracy which seems to be spreading all over the place? Shhh... Don't tell the Washington Post. It might wake somebody up.

UPDATE: Austin Bay's take on the Wolfowitz nomination here. As usual, I agree with him. [You guys do think alike on this stuff.-ed. Yes, but he has militar experience. I'm a chickenhawk.]

MORE: Normblog discusses the Guardian reaction.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:47 PM
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Has Affirmative Action Become Reactionary?

I'm not sure, but an argument obviously can be made. This post by PowerLine's Deacon reminded me of that possibility, although I make an effort to link to women and people of color when I think about it. But unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I don't think about it much. I'm almost always focused on the interest of the post itself, its subject matter, viewpoint and style. But then when I discover it is by a woman or a minority I think good. It's an ex post facto thing, except where foreign blogs are concerned, because I deliberately seek out and link foreign blogs for their unique access to information. Is that affirmative action? I guess, of a sort.

Apropos: Gerard Van Der Leun linked to Mark Bowen aka "Cobb" yesterday and for the first time I discovered that Cobb was black. My reaction: shrug. My reaction to his writing: not bad - I'll be back.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:05 PM
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Pinochet's Millions

While not in the "dictator economic pantheon" like the late Yasir A., Chile's Gustavo Pinochet seems to have distributed a fair amount of hidden cash around the world, including (embarrassingly, according to a new Senate report) fifteen million in about 125 US accounts, much of it at our own Citigroup. The not-so-secret secret of tyrannies is that they are as much as anything about stolen money, robbed for the most part from the people of the countries involved. Bringing democracy and freedom means bringing economic transparency. I would imagine Wolfowitz, as a known "freedom fighter," would want to address this if he gets the job at the World Bank. No wonder people are lining up to oppose him.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:13 AM
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Iraqi Assembly Meets Amid Blasts

That's old news by now to the news junkies who read this blog. ["News junkies"? Is that meant as an insult?-ed. Only to you.] TigerHawk has some even older news of a similar event you may find amusing.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:39 AM
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No more Ambien!

CNN corners sleeping pill market.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:30 AM
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"The UN Gang"

I am just starting a very early bound galley of The UN Gang: A Memoir of Incompetence, Corruption, Espionage, Anti-Semitism, and Islamic Extremism at the UN Secretariat by Pedro A. Sanjuan to be published by Doubleday in September. In 1984, Mr. Sanjuan was appointed by then Vice President Bush to a position in the Secretariat. His mission: keep an eye on Soviet agents inside the UN bureaucracy. What he saw: according to the galley's back cover, things that make the oil-for-food scandal "just the tip of the iceberg." I'll report more on this book after I've read it. [Why, sir, do you read books through?-ed. Enough already with your Dr. Johnson!]

And speaking of oil-for-food, this blog has been paying special attention to the Volcker investigation (or lack thereof). Stay tuned.

APROPOS: The UN has eviden