Reuters is on the ball

You know how important it is to frame people in the proper perspective right?

Insurgent vs. Terrorist?
Academic vs. Racist?

Iran opens conference questioning the Holocaust

Among the participants was U.S. academic David Duke, a former Louisiana Republican Representative. He praised Iran for hosting the event.

Four hours later, the same "reporter" "published" an updated "article", with a new title, Iran meeting questions Holocaust and gas chambers. The paragraph I cite above is, strangely, missing.

Ya'think there might be some shortcomings in the "process" over there at Reuters?

Apparently, there's also something behind the charaterization of the Jewish Rabbis in attendance. Although I admit to having no first-hand knowledge on the subject. Reuters: David Duke a "US Academic" (LGF)

These so-called "Jewish rabbis" that Reuters casually drops into the article are in actuality members of Neturei Karta—an insane sect with a tiny membership that makes a practice of supporting evil around the world. Sort of the Jewish equivalent of Fred Phelps and his sick bunch. But to Reuters they’re just like any other "Jewish rabbis."

Interestingly, this paragraph is also missing from the second "article" "authored" by the esteemed "journalist".

Resisting Israeli Occupation?

This is what you get when you legitimize armed religous zealots with moral equivelance and pandering.

Children of Islamic Hamas opponent killed (TimesOnline)

But the Times puts a funny slant on it.

In a disturbing sign of wider regional tensions leaking into the Palestinian arena Fatah sought to portray the Iranian-funded Hamas as stooges of Shia Tehran, killing their fellow Sunni Palestinians.

They ignore the 1400 year old divide within Islam. Dismiss the possibility that Iran uses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as political cover for a policy seeking hegemony over the greater Middle East. Instead adopt the recently-made-trendy stance of attributing the violence, in part, to Iraq.

Wait, I thought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the cause of all violence in the Middle East...now it's the other way around?? (hat tip: ISG) hmm...

Turns out, the BBC may have more of the real story.

Mr Balousheh [the children's father] is considered a leading enemy of Hamas. He was the main interrogator of Hamas members during the 1990s crackdown on the Islamist movement.

And there's the ongoing evolution of "democracy":

Mr Abbas has been considering a request by his allies to hold early elections to resolve an impasse in efforts to form a unity government.
Hamas denounced the proposal to hold another election as a "coup against democracy".

In any event, I doubt this was a botched assassination attempt. More likely, revenge.

Now, how has the international community reacted? The UN? Kofi Annan? Well, he was busy (Annan chides U.S. in farewell speech).

EDIT: Gates of Vienna has a similar view:

The initial news reports claimed that Mr. Balousheh was the supposed target of the killing. However, Carl in Jerusalem puts it in even starker terms: “I believe that they were trying to get the kids as a warning to the father and to other Fatah members.”

In other words, they knew the father wasn’t in the car; instead, the targeting of the children was a message to him. And the fact that the message was delivered in a font called Overkill, in a street full of other children, didn’t matter at all. What was important was to deliver the message.

In addition to that, a tidbit, if you could call it that, on politicians from a certain party meeting with HAMAS members. sigh.

Cartoons and Conferences

In a partial response to the Danish Muhammad cartoons Iran hosted a gallery of cartoons from around the world back in August. (BBC)

Organiser Masoud Shojai said: "You see they allow the Prophet to be insulted. But when we talk about the Holocaust, they consider it so holy that they punish people for questioning it."

No mention of the lack of violent protests and out-right murder in response to the anti-semitic cartoons.

So, that wasn't good enough. Didn't provoke enough of a reaction among the infidels. Thus, Iran is hosting a two-day conference which is likely to question whether the Holocaust actually happened. (BBC)

"The first question to be posed is: did the Holocaust actually happen or not? And the second one is: if it did happen, what was the scale of it?"

"The allegation that six million Jews were killed or burnt in this event, is it true or not?"

You know, so what if it didn't. How does that affect anything? Oh, nevermind, I get it, "6 million of you didn't die 60 years ago so, we're going to kill 7 million of you now."

Here's to negotiating with genocidal maniacs.

Mark Steyn on the ISG

The Iraq Study Group report has certainly caused a lot of controversy of late. I actually think it's a faily decent way of airing policy debate in public. Sadly, it's by so shamelessly over-hyped by the media and mischaracterized that it's essentially a wash.

You've heard the press say it's a damning critique of the president's policy. But, have you heard this?

We agree with the goal of U.S. policy in Iraq, as stated by the
President: an Iraq that can "govern itself, sustain itself, and defend
itself."

ISG, Pg 40

I'm a fan of Mark Steyn's writing. I recently read this latest book America Alone. I don't always agree with everything he says. But often I find something that seems a bit too far out there...something that seems like pure hyperbole...only to find out later that he was, in fact, using someone elses words or, entirely correct or, indeed sometimes, wrong.

Nevertheless, you have to admire his writing:

Well, it seems Iraq is to come under something called the "Iraq International Support Group." If only Neville Chamberlain had thought to propose a "support group" for Czechoslovakia, he might still be in office. Or guest-hosting for Oprah.

Read it all.

more dead horses

I lied earlier, I really do love beating dead horses, muwahaha...

Cherry-Picking Campaign Promises (NYT)

...Democrats eagerly made a campaign vow to promptly enact all of the [9/11] panel’s recommendations...Now that they can taste power again, however, the victors seem to be having second thoughts...Surely, the leaders of the new Congress know they will be risking the nation’s security, far more than their credibility, if they retreat from the vow to do a stronger job of oversight.

Emphasis Mine. And rightly so.

Buried in the Rubble

During the summer (of 2006) we all witnessed the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. There were many aspects of events which were covered by news media and, among the most prominent was the plight of Lebanese civilians. Qana being the epitome.

In my opinion, one side of the argument sought to appeal to emotion. Citing pictures of dead children as proof of Israeli imcompetence or even malice. Indeed the pictures represented tragic events.

Months later, after extensive research, we can see, clearly, the acts which resulted in Qana and countless other tragic events.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/world/middleeast/05mideast.html

I stand by my position on this. All conflict is to be avoided. All conflict is terrible. Nevertheless, there is a meaningful difference between people who, during conflict, act to prevent and minimize civilian casualties, and those who intentionally expose civilians to harm. Even the authors of the Geneva Conventions recognized this...in spirit and letter.

Of course, there are other opinions. Those who adhere to that opinion often cite Qana as a specific case of a systemic failure of that logic. To them, I say, there is an alter-narrative which you should consider: The Corruption of the Media

How Little We All Know Cont'd

Given that it's Sunday, the day of seemingly endless talking heads and expert analysis in all forms of media...and in keeping with the theme of a few previous posts:

Say no to AP’s shoddy work

Curt at Floppingaces, www.floppingaces2.blogspot.com, led the charge. He thought there was something strange about an AP report, and took a second look at it, then a third look. He and others blew the lid off it. The AP is making up war crimes.

And further still:

The AP has another Iraqi stringer problem. Photographer Bilal Hussein is in U.S. custody, and the AP has been clamoring indignantly for his release. AP reports have buried the U.S. explanation that Hussein is being held without charge because - quite aside from producing photos that showed him to be overly intimate with terrorists in Fallujah - he was in an al-Qaeda bomb factory, with an al-Qaeda bombmaker, with traces of explosives on his person when he was arrested.

Stunningly, some in academia are alerted to certain trends as well. Communication professor examines media bias in president's speeches:

Convincingly and without resorting to partisan politics, Kuypers strongly illustrates in eight chapters "how the press failed America in its coverage on the War on Terror."

...

Kuypers, of Christiansburg, Va., received his Ph.D from Louisiana State University and both his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Florida State. He joined Virginia Tech's Department of Communication last year after having taught political communication for tens years at Dartmouth College.

How can the population understand the tactics, strategy, and even the existance of an ideological opponent in this environment?

Previous Posts:
More Evidence of how Little We All Know
Do any of us really know the truth (Pt II)?
Do any of us really know the truth?

Rebirth: A Constructive Idea

On August 15, 2006 in a post titled A Constructive Idea I cited the Dayton Accords as an example of ethnic conflict, resulting from the downfall of a dictatorial regime, being solved with reasonable success.

Today, the NYT released a memo from Donald Rumsfeld, dated November 6, 2006, outlining potential changes to current policy in Iraq. (article, text of memo)

The memo contains a number of options which, under any circumstances, we must adopt. For example,

Retain high-end SOF capability and necessary support structure to target Al Qaeda, death squads, and Iranians in Iraq...

Position substantial U.S. forces near the Iranian and Syrian borders to reduce infiltration and, importantly, reduce Iranian influence on the Iraqi Government.

Last, and considered 'below the line' or, less attractive, he says "Try a Dayton-like process".

I would note that President Bush met with the Iraqi Prime Minister and Jordanian King this week. Next week, Pres. Bush is meeting with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite leader. In that piece, it's reported that:

Next month, President Bush is scheduled to meet with Tariq al-Hashemi, the Sunni Arab vice president and leader of the most powerful Sunni Arab party, a senior administration official said.

The last piece, the Kurds, are not directly involved in the sectarian violence in Iraq. Their part of the country has been and continues to be relatively peaceful. One would presume they would attend any conference with a simple request. However, we should not presume. We should treat them as an equal party in any talks.

Are we building up to a conference of Iraqi leaders? Dayton like? Or, is the President trying to do it 'on the fly'...shuttling messages back and forth between parties? Time will tell. Surely it would be a good step to get Sunni and Shiite leaders in the same room. With a common goal.

Irony of Tolerance

Isn't it ironic that after hundreds of years of struggling against various forms of prejudice under the banners of human rights, civil rights, tolerance, desegregation, women's suffrage, etc, etc multi-culturalism brings us full circle: The end of one law for all? (BBC)

Of course, in new age speak it's called, legal pluralism, not segregation. And true, it has differences. It's not a case of a group of people having "box" drawn around them by others based on the color of their skin. It's a case of a group of people drawing a box around everyone else due to their lack of proper religious values.

Supporters of the extra-judicial systems insist their courts will not delve into criminal mattes. But, precedent is clear. Islam and Sharia must govern all forms of life: domestic, financial, commercial, international, criminal, etc...to comprimise would be to stray from the path. Apostate.

What will be the effect on a society that allows multiple judicial systems to "coexsist"?

Moderate Majority

The Moderate Majority, silenced by the radical minority.

In late October Jamal Miftah wrote:

Because of lack of knowledge of Islam, Muslim youth are misguided into believing by the so-called champions of the cause of Islam that the current spate of killings and barbarism, which has no equal in the recent civilized history, is jihad in the name of Islam. They are incited, in the name of Islam, to commit heinous crimes not pardonable by any religion and strictly forbidden in Islam....
Even mosques and Islamic institutions in the U.S. and around the world have become tools in [Al-Qaeda's] hands and are used for collecting funds for their criminal acts. Half of the funds collected go into the pockets of their local agents and the rest are sent to these thugs.

They are the reason for branding the peaceful religion of Islam as terrorism. The result, therefore, is in the form of Danish cartoons and remarks/reference by the Pope.

I appeal to the Muslim youth in particular and Muslims of the world in general to rise up and start jihad against the killers of humanity and help the civilized world to bring these culprits to justice and prove that Islam is not a religion of hatred and aggression.

I appeal to the Muslim clerics around the world that, rather than issuing empty fatwas condemning suicide bombing, they should issue a fatwa for the death of such scoundrels and barbarians who have taken more than 4,267 lives of innocent people in the name of Islam and have carried out more than 24 terrorist attacks on civilian installations throughout the world. This does not include the chilling number of deaths because of such activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is well over 250,000.

I appeal to al-Zawahri and his band of thugs to hand themselves over to justice and stop spreading evil and killing innocent humans around the world in the name of Islam. Their time is limited and Muslims of the world will soon rise against them to apprehend them and bring them to justice

He was then banned from his mosque.

Some 80% of mosques in the US are Wahhabi. http://www.pbs.org...wahhabism.html

A strict, conservative form of Islam that came to power in Saudi Arabia after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (The Caliphate) at the end of WWI. It has grown in influence since then through the use of petro-dollars to fund schools and mosques around the world. It traces its origins to the times of the crusades...a theological rationalization for the military defeats suffered at the hands of the infidel crusaders the wahhabis reasoned that they weren't good enough Muslims...that's why Allah had denied them victory over the invading infidels.

As of today, he has been allowed to return to the mosque. If I were him, I'm not sure I'd go.