24. mars 2004

Attempted Islamist assassination on German President Germany's President was subject to an assassination plot from Islamists during a planned visit in East Africa. Wonder if they will ever get it: appeasement does not work. Excuse my shouting. Via Tim Blair, who has (as I am sure you will believe) more on the subject. 10:25:48 PM    comment []  trackback []

Al-Qaeda's strategy for Spain I have mentioned earlier that Norwegian defense researchers found an Islamist strategy document explaining how they intended to use terrorism to sway the Spanish voters to replace Aznar with the socialists. Here is the report in English. I have written a lot about this topic. 9:39:42 PM    comment []  trackback []

Major scientific discovery Which wine King Tutankhamun drank has been one of the major scientific mysteries of our time. It has now been resolved by chemists. Tut drank red wine. The world will never be the same again. 6:58:23 PM    comment []  trackback []

UN version 2.0 One problem with the United Nations is that it isn't. The UN is really united governments, and from the start a large number of its member states have been dictatures where the people has had little say. Now a majority of UN member states are actually democracies (give or take), but they are split between different fractions, instead of cooperating to promote democracy and real human rights. Check out this fascinating article about a true bipartisan US initiative to unite democratic states in the United Nations. Since 1996, a handful of foreign-policy wonks have been kicking around the idea of a "democracy caucus" at the U.N. Two administrations, first Bill Clinton's and then George W. Bush's, took quiet but significant steps in that direction. Now, according to Bush administration officials, the concept will be test-flown at the six-week meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights that began on Monday in Geneva. Maybe if this project flies, the United Nations can be transformed into something more resembling its name and ambitions. Via InstaPundit. 4:54:15 PM    comment []  trackback []

Hamas: we will not attack US targets There is a vestige of sanity in the remaining leadership of Hamas. After the US State Department said Hamas had threatened revenge on American interests, Hamas' political leader Sayed Seyam has moved quickly to insist that the terrorists have no intention of attacking US interests. "It's not in our policy to target Americans or American interests," Hamas political leader Sayed Seyam told Reuters. Hamas had vowed revenge against Israel for the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. The United States is Israel's chief ally.  I really can't imagine Palestinian terrorists, with their long history of burning American flags and shouting anti-US slogans, would have moved so fast to reassure the US government a few years back. Obviously, there was real fear in this reaction, fear that some of Hamas' cells or allies would attack US interests and invite the mother of all retaliations, or that the US would accept even more brutal Israeli reactions if the country felt directly threatened. The war on terror, including the effective war in Iraw, has restored fear of America in the hearts of even the most brutal and vicious Middle East terrorists. 2:28:35 PM    comment []  trackback []

Clarke last year: Bush 'deeply committed' to stopping Bin Laden Now this is a quite astonishing revelation of Dick Clarke changing his tune. In an interview in The New Yorker in August 2003, Clarke emphasized that the C.I.A. director, George Tenet, President Bush, and, before him, President Clinton were all deeply committed to stopping bin Laden Then, Clarke wrote a book, and on 60 Minutes a few days ago, he says that Bush was not deeply committed at all, He [Bush] ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months So which one is it, Clarke? Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds. My doubts about Clarke's story is expressed below. 3:59:46 AM    comment []  trackback []

Top dog "An Australian dog who sings, dances and plays the piano has been voted the country's top trivia item. " (BBC News) Those Aussies! 2:45:36 AM    comment []  trackback []

Inside look at hell I finally got a chance to watch Olenka Frenkiel's shocking BBC documentary about North Korea tonight. Extreme povery, extreme control, massive imprisonment, arbitrary torture and experiments with chemical and biological weapons on prisoners. Towards the end of the documentary I was reminded, however, that the BBC must have some "say something anti-American" clause in their guidelines. After showing how anti-Americanism is the ideological fuel for the ruthless dictatorship of the Kims, and how North Korea holds the world hostage with a huge army and weapons of mass destruction, the programme actually blamed the US, and to some lesser degree South Korea, for not putting an end to the regime. "Regime change is so last year," Frenkiel said with some contempt towards the Bush administration. And, besides, North Korea doesn't have oil. Of couirse, no answer was forthcoming about how exactly the US or anyone else should accomplish regime change in North Korea. Thermonuclear war? That will really solve a lot of problems. North Korea's government is probably the world's most vicious and dangerous regime today. But the situation being what it is, it is hard to see how regime change could be accomplished without the cure being worse than the disease. 1:00:28 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.04.2004; 02:27:16.