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9. mars 2006
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It has long been unclear how close the al-Qaeda branch of Islamist terrorism and Iran ever became. Obviously there are serious ideological differences - for one they hate each other - but on the other hand we know from history that the enemy of my enemy is often my ally (like, WWII). Evidence from the interrogation of a former Taliban official at Gitmo suggests Iran aided the Taliban (or tried to) in the run-up to the Afghan war.
Iran secretly agreed to assist the Taliban in its war against U.S. forces in October 2001, according to the transcript of a high-level Taliban official's tribunal session at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba. The seven-page transcript, as well as thousands of pages of similar documents, was released by the Pentagon on March 3 in response to litigation brought by the Associated Press.[...]
In response to this allegation, the former governor of Herat admitted:
Yes, I participated in that meeting with the Iranians. There was a committee that came from Kandahar and I joined them and was just sitting there. They were conducting the meeting. My job was for the security of this committee. I was not the sole representative of this committee to talk with the Iranians. They were responsible; my job was to provide security and safety for the committee. If I were [sic] responsible for the meeting, conducting the meeting, and I was the representative then why would the committee come from Kandahar. The security was needed because they were not in a safe building. It was not a highway where everything would be safe. The meeting took place in an area off the main road where safety and security was necessary. That's the reason I went to the meeting.
There was, however, no information about which Iranian officials were present, and what exactly the Iranians were supposed to do.
11:17:25 PM 
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The storm over the Emirates port deal that has threaten to hand president Bush a serious defeat in a showdown with a bipartisan Congress appears to be averted, as Dubai Ports World announces it will hand over the interests to a US entity.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) announced on the Senate floor shortly before 2 p.m. that Dubai Ports World would "transfer fully the operations of U.S. ports to a U.S. entity." Warner, who had been trying to broker a compromise on the issue, said DP World would divest itself of U.S. interests "in an orderly fashion" so as not to suffer "economic loss."
It was not immediately clear how the divesture would be handled or what U.S. company would take over the operation.
Joe Gandelman has some more thoughts on the matter.
I personally have no strong opinions on this topic, and neither have I studied the details to learn whether the security concerns had serious merit.
But one thing is certain: the Bush administration demonstrated it was remarkably tone-deaf in pushing this deal in face of such strong opposition. In the long term, a government is no better than its opposition, and the GOP has evolved a remarkable arrogance while holding both houses and the White House. That is not very unlike Tony Blair's Labour in Britain, which has managed the amusing feat of being both the government and the only effective opposition at the same time.
11:07:11 PM
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More negative spin of polls:
The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence.
Muslims were "often" targeted for violence? I don't recall a significant number of incidents at all.
At any rate, the poll actually found 46% unfavourable to 43% favorable opinions of Islam among Americans. Now, I have a mostly unfavourable view of Islam, and also of Christianity and darned well every other religion, too, so I wouldn't read too much into that.
Fully 54 % says Islam is a religion of peace, which I find quite amazing to be honest. And 33 % did not agree there are more violent extremists in Islam than other religions, while 58% thought it in fact did. I'd say that it doesn't take much observation to agree with the majority on that issue.
6:10:46 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2006; 13:21:31.
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