AND ..... just before Midnight of 5 November!

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot."

Taught to me many years ago by English Will.

Barely got that one in on time.

I know. The story of my life.

The Minotaur program and accountability

Continuing the mythological meme of that last post (can you find the minotaur on the diagram?) here is a pitch perfect newscast from the Onion on the recently revealed Minotaur program for handling detainees in our war on terror (now officially known as the 'war on whatever'). It manages to skewer both sides of the argument at the same time.

Bubonic Plague: Not just for Medievalists anymore

Seems the Black Death is back. Via Andrew Sullivan and Chris Bodenner:

As practitioners of the Dark Ages, what goes around comes around:

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with [bubonic plague, which], swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. ... Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. One security source said: "This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease. It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda."

However, after noting a "total blackout from the Algerian media," Olivier Guitta says that Western nations should also be worried:

[I]magine if one of the infected individuals board a flight to Paris, London or New York, this person could be the means of "delivering" the weapon. The damage could be enormous.

While modern antibiotics can easily knock out the disease, it must be administered quickly, and still carries a 5% mortality rate.

Kind of a mixed curse, so to speak. But it is no laughing matter.

Mumbai shootout

Andrew Sullivan highlights some extraordinary footage of a shoot out between police armed with one old rifle and terrorists armed with AK-47s.

Update on Anthrax

Jack raises some interesting points. From memory, I recall the reason for thinking it had to come from the US was the spores were identified as the Ames strain which was developed in an American lab. Now the FBI claims to have technology that can link the strain used in the killings directly to Ivins office, to his very desk in fact. But like all new technology, this can probably be contested.

But I see that all the newspapers have new info so we will see. But for the moment we both agree that this is strange, very, very strange.

The kind of weirdness conspiracy nuts love, unfortunately.

Irony and WSJ

The Wall Street Journal. I have never credited it with having quite the fine sense of irony that it displays in publishing this opinion piece. No comment. You either get it or you don't. But I do believe that Turkey is waging a genuine War on Terror.


Once I wrote it I realized that I love the headline for this post.

.

Anthrax

The news yesterday that Bruce Ivins, a top researcher at a government lab, was about to be indicted as the post-9/11 anthrax killer and had forestalled this by committing suicide is very disturbing on several levels. Not that it was a researcher in a government lab. That has been almost a certainty since a few months after the last death from anthrax. But consider: there could not have been in the whole world more than 50 people with access to that particular strain of anthrax with the knowledge to use it. In fact, I would guess that it couldn't be much more than 30. And it took the FBI SEVEN YEARS to build a case? After publicly naming someone else at the same lab as a "person of interest." And having to pay nearly $6 million to the poor guy as a result. Taxpayers' money, as they say (thanks, John Ashcroft).

And are we even sure that they have the right guy? Not by a long sight yet.

And there is the curious case of ABC's reporting of the incident back when it helped build up support for the invasion of Iraq. Supposedly four separate sources told them that government laboratory tests (the same lab Ivins worked at) had proven that the anthrax came from Iraq. The only problem is, it wasn't true. Now only folks at ABC know who those four 'sources' were. ABC though is keeping very quiet about who these four people were.

Despite the fact they broke security in a time of national emergency, lied, and, oh well, helped start a war we didn't need to fight.

And then there is the question: if the reports of Ivins "homicidal threats" going back to grad school, which admittedly aren't backed up at the moment by much at all, prove to be true, how did Ivins receive the top security clearance he would have needed to do the work we know he did? Wouldn't this have been handled by the FBI too?

Glenn Greenwald on Salon.com has the most disturbing take on the story yet. He seems to be hinting at a government conspiracy of the type so often imagined implausibly by Hollywood.

I wish I disbelieved it a little harder than I do.

Big Brother OWNS you!

Or at least your content. It isn't always the government you need to watch out for in this Internet day and age. Just check out this clause in Adobe's terms of use document for their new Photoshop Express:

Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed. [emphasis added-apparently]

Once users started to complain Adobe admitted that yes, on second thought, that is a bit extreme. They promise new, revised, improved, and slightly less frightening terms shortly.

An Open Letter to Osama bin Laden

Andrew Sullivan, addressing the leader of al-Qaeda as "your Mullahship," offers some much needed advice to the Prince of Darkness incarnate on dying his beard. He calls the letter "Queer Eye for the Jihadist Guy." Not sure it is either seemly or appropriate, but I've always had the belief that nothing is so serious that you can't poke fun at it.

Though, Lord knows, not everyone shares my sense of humor.


For what it's worth, Sullivan offers a serious take on OBL's latest video here.

A Pakistani's view of Jihad ... and the West

It is easy to see Pakistan as a dysfunctional society overrun with the craziest of Islamist extremist who are on the verge of taking over ... and getting their thumbs on the nuclear button. This is too simplistic. Reading the English language Pakistani paper Dawn gives some idea of how secular, democratic, and international important segments of the society are.

A good example of this is a recent column by Irfan Husain, a regular contributor to the paper. He give a caustic overview of religious fanaticism and jihad, as well as an interesting view of the West's reactions. Here is a sample:

The theological underpinning of this [jihadist] logic requires a significant departure from orthodox Islamic teachings. For instance, standard commentaries prepared after decades of study by all the major schools of jurisprudence argue that only Islamic states can declare jihad. This is not something individuals can go around doing according to their whim.

However, radical Islamists following the teachings of Syed Qutb and Maudoodi argue that in the absence of a genuine Islamic state and a caliphate, true believers have a duty to bring Islamic rule to the whole world, by the sword if necessary. This line has appealed to two generations of Muslims, and there has been a steady hardening of these beliefs over the last 50 years.

After discussing the negative side of the jihadist movement, he concludes in what is clearly meant as a warning to Muslims in general and Pakistani's in particular:

But as incidents like the ones in London and Glasgow increase the uncertainty and fear in the host community, people are increasingly questioning why Muslims who hate their ways are allowed to enter and work in Britain. Several of those allegedly involved in these latest attempted attacks are doctors. This has horrified westerners who are more used to seeing doctors as peaceful professionals than as suicide bombers.

The question being asked privately in the UK is: “If these people hate us and our way of life so much, why don’t they just go back to where they came from?”

China, the Siege of the Red Mosque, and a brothel

Sounds like a Johnny Carson routine, but what do they have in common? An interesting story, told here on National Review Online. Here is the key to it:

This is all to do with Musharraf having finally authorized an assault on the "Red Mosque" seminary in Pakistan's capital. It's a nest of radical jihadis, who have been making a nuisance of themselves going round the city imposing Islamic virtue, Taliban-style. One of those impositions somehow led to them kidnapping the madam of a Chinese-staffed brothel much frequented by Pakistan's movers and shakers (if you'll pardon the expression).

So the denizens of the Red Mosque made two mistakes. One, they threatened to deprive the decision makers of their 'recreation.'

Two, they angered the Chinese, who unlike the Americans actually CAN tell Pakistan's President Musharaf what to do and when to do it. For one thing, they share a 300 mile long border with Pakistan and the world's largest army is on the Chinese side of it. For another, they are a lot meaner than we are. I forebear to say that they are also more competent then we are, though I am certain the Pakistanis sure think so.

Point taken, at least as far as Musharaf was concerned. The Islamists he has been telling us he simply didn't dare take on, are now being taken on.

I am still mystified, btw, with why Dan Simmons in his little 'Century War' fantasy discounted the Chinese completely. No one in that part of the world does.

Update on British bomb suspects

Sententiae is nothing if not timely and up to the minute (though admittedly some people do say that it is the former), so here are the latest charges filed against the foreign doctors involved in the London/Glasgow bombing attempts from a genuine Scottish e-magazine, so you know it is true, mostly.

The Glasgow attack and Scotish humor

No, that is not an oxymoron, though it can be a little dry. Here is a report from The Daily Mash with all the details on the charges being brought against the men accused of trying to blow up the airport.

(I had to explain to Murty the other day that the Scots were originally from Ireland and replaced the Picts - there's a lot of confusion on that last point)

And it seems that the Scots are still upset about that unfortunate Olympics logo.

Middle East, Oil and Common Sense

Finally. Some common sense over on NRO regarding the connection between the gasoline you use, the price of crude, and the coffers of our enemies. Not surprisingly it comes from Victor Davis Hanson.

If the United States could curb its voracious purchases of foreign oil by using conservation, additional petroleum production, nuclear power, alternate fuels, coal gasification and new technologies, the world price might return to below $40 a barrel.

That decline would dry up the oil profits of those in the Middle East who now so desperately use them to ensure that their own problems must also be the world’s.

I say that it is mere common sense because for the last five years at least I have been making the same point. Usually to the complete derision of my more conservative friends for being so PC and green. No - this is Econ 101 for protecting ourselves in the 21st century.

So - just exactly what I have been doing to support my theory? I've shortened my daily commute by about a mile, have forced myself with gritted teeth to drive no faster than the speed limit, have a car that gets up to 30 mpg, and take the bus to work whenever I can.

Not much, but if enough of us did it, enough.

D'Souza once again.

Another review of Dinesh D'Souza's The Enemy at Home, this one by Scott Johnson in the New Criterion. Worth a read, especially if you are not going to read the entire book itself (and I probably won't). It is easy to mischaracterize a book with some selective quotes, but the sentence “The cultural left in this country is responsible for causing 9/11," is about as clear a thesis statement as I have ever seen.

The French language and a hero for our times

Now that I am trying to improve my French, and have already written a lot on this blog about Muslims in this age of terror, here is my idea of a contemporary hero.

Pilot Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine, a 20-year-veteran of Air Mauritania.

Lemine's Boeing 747 was hijacked by a lone gunman waving two pistols when it took off from the capital of Mauritania bound for the Canary Islands. While talking to the hijackers the pilot realized that he could not understand French.

So he got on the intercom and told the passengers and crew in French of the ploy he was going to try: brake hard upon landing, then speed up abruptly. The idea was to catch the hijacker off balance, and have crew members and men sitting in the front rows of the plane jump him.

It worked perfectly. When the hijacker was caught off guard he fell and dropped his pistols. The flight attendants then threw boiling water from a coffee machine in his face and at his chest, and some 10 people jumped on the man and beat him.

Not quite United 93, but still, A for courage, A for cleverness, A for passenger participation and A+ for using French to do it!

More on D'Souza's "The Enemy at Home"

As I said, Dinesh D'Souza's The Enemy at Home is getting roundly trashed almost wherever it is reviewed. Now Stanley Kurtz at National Review Online gives his take. It is by far the most sympathetic and nuanced review of the work, and the more damning for all that. The review is worth a read, though, because Kurtz uses D'Souza to spin off some interesting ideas about Islam, Muslim society, and the roots of the violence that he promises to develop in more depth.

Dinesh D'Souza's latest book gets a hot reception

Dinesh D'Souza, whose first book or two I rather liked, has now come out with The Enemy at Home. In it he concludes that the main reason the jihadists hate America and want to attack it, or rather 'us', is because we have become so disgustingly immoral. I could say a lot about that general premise, but it has been said a lot better by Bruce Bawer, who I am told, is a conservative.

At any rate, check out his review. Here's a sample about the reaction to 9-11:

Leftists railed that America had gotten its payback for imperialism; Jerry Falwell insisted that pagans, abortionists, gays, and others of that ilk had “helped this happen.” This claim was elaborated in an unpublished text later sent to me by a retired member of the Norwegian Parliament who blamed 9/11 on the stateside degenerates—principally “homosexual heroes and anal addicts” (yes, “anal addicts”)—who offend Muslim family values. Now right-wing hack Dinesh D’Souza makes this same accusation in a jaw-droppingly repulsive screed, The Enemy at Home. Charging that “the cultural left in this country is responsible for causing 9/11,” he wants good Christians to recognize that Islamic values resemble their own—and that the real enemy is those fags next door. If only they’d retarget their rage, thereby showing their respect for “traditional values,” Muslims would stop hating the USA.

I guess he didn't like it.

Notice that D'Souza's basic take is that we were attacked for something wrong in our society and that we should change immediately. It's hard to interpret this as anything other than saying the terrorists have a point and we should follow their commands. Lots of people have hated this book, but conservative magazines and journals. while defending D'Souza, have not reviewed it. Which is a little odd.