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IRAQI LEADERS SNUBBED IN MEMPHIS

First, they meet this nutcase:

The Iraqi civic and community leaders are in the midst of a three-week American tour, sponsored by the State Department to learn more about the process of government. The trip also includes stops in Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The Iraqis were scheduled to meet with a city council member, but Joe Brown, the council chair, said he feared the group was dangerous.

“We don’t know exactly what’s going on. Who knows about the delegation, and has the FBI been informed?” Brown said. “We must secure and protect all the employees in that building.”

Elisabeth Silverman, the group’s host and head of the Memphis Council for International Visitors, said Brown told her he would “evacuate the building and bring in the bomb squads” if the group entered.

“They are in charge of setting up processes in their country. They have to educate themselves about how it works in this country,” Silverman said.

Then, they meet this one:

Memphis police report that two members of a visiting Iraqi Delegation are robbed as they stroll down a city street. The victims, Mr. Rwad Fanary and Ms. Liza Hido of the visiting Iraqi delegation were walking on Main Street when the suspect approached the couple, snatching the purse of Liza Hido, and pulling a gun on Rwad Fanary. The suspect demanded the wallet of Rwad Fanary, but he did not have one. Rwad Fanary motioned to an oncoming vehicle for assistance, and the suspect then fled on foot toward Front Street.

Welcome to America!

The Angry Arab links to this NYTimes story on the hysterical and mendacious Annie Jacobsen. For a breakdown post on the story with links to credulous warbloggers as well as the original Jacobsen panic-fest, go here. From the NYTimes’ Joe Sharkey:

Did, as a passenger reported, 7 of the 13 Syrian musicians whose behavior was terrifying some passengers stand up in unison and take strategic positions by the lavatories and the exit door during final approach to Los Angeles, an act that would have been a frighteningly overt and unambiguous provocation?

They did not, according to the Federal Air Marshal Service, which had previously left unchallenged assertions by Annie Jacobsen, a freelance writer on the flight, that they did.

“What happened was, they were already standing up in the aisle before the seat belt signs became illuminated,” said Dave Adams, a spokesman for the agency, which represents air marshals who travel undercover on airplanes.

“The flight attendants asked them to sit down and the men respected the orders and sat in their seats. Two gentlemen asked why they had to, and a flight attendant told them ‘Because, so please take your seats.’ And they obeyed,” he said.

The new information, he added, came from “subsequent interviews of flight attendants on this matter by our personnel.”

So there was absolutely no sudden move by the men on final approach?

“None,” Mr. Adams said.

As’ad AbuKhalil adds this comment:

And yet the US media keep whipping up the story. And Jacobsen could NOT find one passenger to come forward on the record and corroborate her story (she claims that two other passengers did so but they do not want to come forward). Do you know how bad that is for US relations with the ME? Do you know that Al-Hayat newspaper published a first page story a few days ago by its correspondent in Damascus (Ibrahim Humaydi whom I met in the recent visit–a great journalist who spent time in Syrian jails) in which he ridiculed that story because in Syria they all know this Syrian singing group.

Pathetic. Of course the Annie Jacobsen types don’t care what relations between the ME and the US are like. If you told them that foreign student enrollment, after declining steadily since 9/11 (the day everything changed) dipped dramatically – down 32% from a year ago – they would probably consider that a positive development, just as the diplomatic isolation of the US is shrugged off. Now, for As’ad – What US relations with the ME?

The latest survey results out of the Middle East show that America’s favorability rating is now, essentially, zero. That’s down from as high as 75 percent in some Muslim countries just four years ago.

And,

In the first poll, which surveyed six Arab nations and was commissioned by the Washington-based Arab American Institute (AAI), the overall approval ratings of the US ranged between an unprecedented low of two per cent in Egypt and a high of 20 per cent in Lebanon. Those holding a favourable view of the US in Saudi Arabia were four per cent, 11 per cent in Morocco, 14 per cent in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 15 per cent in Jordan. That marked a relatively sharp decline compared to a similar poll held by AAI two years ago, and indicated that the main reason behind the fall was the policies of the present US administration led by George W Bush.

Considering the information above, it is a wonder that the Syrian band that so frightened Jacobsen even agreed to perform in the US. Now that their experience with hyperventilating American twits like Jacobsen is being widely reported in the ME, likely other swarthy people are going to pass up the opportunity for such a delightful experience and all of us will be poorer, both economically and culturally, as a result.

Dr. Massouda Jalal’s quest to be Afghanistan’s president sounds even more improbable than Sean Connery’s in The Man Who Would Be King (a great movie). But her ideas are admirable, and she is an actual Afghani, not one remodeled in America. Imagine that: an Afghani who wants democracy and peace and who doesn’t need the US to guide her thinking along these lines; they are her own ideas. Sigh, her chances are clearly nil…but it’s a daring vision.

Last time we had a pledge drive at Antiwar.com, I somehow missed calling on my readers to contribute – but I think many did so nonetheless. This time, I’ll make it official: help Antiwar.com stay afloat, and you can count on more Balkan Express coming your way. So for all you Balkans news junkies out there who don’t hate my guts – and I know there’s plenty who do, but they don’t really read Antiwar.com anyway – what’s it worth to you?
Can you get this kind of analysis and commentary anywhere else? Continue reading “Support your Balkans analyst”

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — An Army investigator testified Tuesday that Pfc. Lynndie England and other members of her unit told him that photos of naked Iraqi prisoners piled in pyramids and other humiliating poses were taken “just for fun.”

As a military hearing started to determine if England should be court-martialed for her actions at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Paul D. Arthur testified that when he interviewed her, three months before the prison photos became public in April, she told him the shots were taken while “they were joking around, having some fun, working the night shift.”

Arthur said he believed the reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company, based on Cresaptown, Md., were responding to the stress of being in a war zone.

“It was just for fun, kind of venting their frustration,” Arthur testified.

UPDATE: See Arthur Silber’s post at his Light of Reason blog for a proper rant on the amoral callousness of the US Army being revealed at this hearing.

This chapter covers the various actors in al-Qaeda before 9/11. Much of the information, the report warns, comes from interrogations of captured terrorists. (page 146)

First, the report covers Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the “mastermind” behind the attacks on 9/11. Rather than hating America because it is capitalist democracy, KSM’s

“…animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel.” (page 147)

This theme repeatedly pops up throughout the report. KSM intended to use terrorism to influence American foreign policy by “targeting the country’s economy.” (page 153).

Named the “planes operation,” the 9/11 plot took years of planning and training. One of the first plans, later rejected, involved the hijacking of ten planes:

KSM himself was to land the tenth plane at a U.S. airport and, after killing all adult male passengers on board and alerting the media, deliver a speech excoriating U.S. support for Israel, the Phillippines, and repressive governments of the Arab world. (page 154)

The chapter continues to detail the growth of the group of 19 hijackers. Here we are introduced to the infamous “20th hijacker”, Mohammed Atta. He ends up a part of the “Hamburg contingent,” the core of the 19 hijackers.

Financing

The esimated cost of the 9/11 attacks range from $400,000 to $500,000. This money did not come from bin Ladin’s riches:

Instead, al Qaeda reled primarily on a fund-raising network developed over time. The CIA now estimates that it cost al Qaeda about $30 million per year to sustain activities before 9/11 and that this money was raised almost entirely through donations. (page 169)

Also, state sponsors were lacking:

It does not appear that any government other than the Taliban financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11, although some governments may have contained al Qaeda sympathizers who turned a blind eye to al Qaeda’s fundraising activities. Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.(page 171)

Finally, despite the federal government’s insistence, the drug trade does not support al Qaeda:

While the drug trade was a source of income for the Taliban, it did not serve the same purpose for al Qaeda, and there is no reliable evidence that Bin Ladin was involved in or made his money through drug trafficking. (page 171)