By Charles Johnson

In the ongoing saga of Charlie Rangel’s tortured rationale for a draft, he came out today with one of those offhanded slurs that show how the left really feels about military service: Video: Rangel says men join the army only if they can’t have “a decent career”.

I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment. If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq.  Sunday, November 26, 2006

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog

*

DEMOCRATS FIGHT

By Daryle Cagle

-MSNBC.com

www.caglecartoons.com

*

TURKISH ISLAMISTS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST POPE BENEDICT

By Charles Johnson

Tens of thousands of Islamic supremacists turned out in Istanbul to tell the Pope he’s not welcome in Turkey.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog

TRIANGLE OFFENSE RETURNS IN RECORD TIME

By Ed Morrissey

Last night, I noticed that the Israelis had once again agreed to a cease-fire and withdrawal from Gaza, reaching the accord with Hamas and Fatah. The Guardian reported the "hopes for peace" late last night, and I intended on writing a cautionary post about it this morning. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas had told Ehud Olmert that all factions had agreed to the deal:

Palestinian militants have agreed to stop firing rockets into Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a halt to targetted killings, it emerged last night.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, telephoned Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, and told him that all Palestinian factions had agreed to a ceasefire from 6am this morning.

Olmert replied that if there was no rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli forces could stop their operations and begin to withdraw from Gaza. The ceasefire could bring an end to a spate of violence which has seen the death of more than 100 Palestinians in Israeli operations and two Israeli civilians killed by Palestinian rockets within the past month.

I figured I'd wait until the morning to remind everyone that the modus operandi of the Palestinians in the past had two of the three major factions agreeing to cease-fires while one continued to attack Israel. In this way, the Palestinians could be both peacemakers and provocateurs, and let the Israelis suffer the attacks for as long as it took to get them to finally act to end them. At that point, the Palestinians could run to their Western apologists and sob about the mean Israelis who keep violating cease-fire agreements.

Unfortunately for me, the Palestinians couldn't wait for even a day to put their triangle offense into action:

Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip as a last-minute cease-fire deal took hold Sunday morning, but two major Palestinian militant groups, saying they had no intention of stopping their attacks, fired volleys of homemade rockets into Israel.

The ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad tempered hopes for a lasting truce, which was meant to end five months of deadly clashes. The rockets landed in open fields and caused no injuries.

The USA Today headline mirrors the fecklessness of the entire enterprise. It reads, "Gaza cease-fire takes hold, attacks continue," a headline that practically defines oxymoron for all practical purposes. A cease-fire takes hold when all sides cease firing. If one side keeps firing, then there is no cease fire. One would think that journalists, headline writers, and diplomats would have at one time looked in their Websters for the definitions of cease and fire and have this figured out.

In this case, we have two out of the three major factions violating the agreement before the ink dried on paper. Both factions acknowledge their continuing attacks, Hamas says they'll keep firing rockets at Israeli civilians until the IDF leaves Gaza, and Islamic Jihad says they'll keep going until the IDF leaves the West Bank as well. In other words, there will be no cease fire at all, ever, until the Palestinians agree to the two-state solution or the Palestinians annihilate the Israelis.

Abbas could have his cease-fire in a heartbeat if the former came to pass, but no one will have peace until the Palestinians give up their morbid fantasies of the latter. Israel should quit listening to their fair-weather friends in the West and resolve to give the Palestinians the war they want until they get sick enough of it to negotiate in good faith for a solution of co-existence. Cease fires with one-sided attacks make a mockery of any diplomatic efforts with a group of people who can't keep their word for even an hour.  Sunday, November 26, 2006

*

GUESS WHO FINANCED THE INSURGENCIES?

By Ed Morrissey

The New York Times reports on the financial underpinnings of the insurgencies in Iraq, showing that they have developed well-oiled mechanisms for generating millions in funding for their operations. A significant portion of those funds come from their abduction industry, and the major donors to that program have been France and Italy:

The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, connivance by corrupt Islamic charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons have been largely unable to prevent, a classified United States government report has concluded.

The report, obtained by The New York Times, estimates that groups responsible for many insurgent and terrorist attacks are raising $70 million to $200 million a year from illegal activities. It says $25 million to $100 million of that comes from oil smuggling and other criminal activity involving the state-owned oil industry, aided by “corrupt and complicit” Iraqi officials.

As much as $36 million a year comes from ransoms paid for hundreds of kidnap victims, the report says. It estimates that unnamed foreign governments — previously identified by American officials as including France and Italy — paid $30 million in ransom last year.

First, let's acknowledge that the Times has managed to blow more classified data into the open. This time, they manage to refrain from directly exposing a clandestine operation, but this data had to come from somewhere, and the US will find it harder to get this information again if this report uncovers any of their sources. Data gets classified for very good reasons, and no one elected the Gray Lady to make declassification decisions.

Moving beyond that for now, the report shows that whether we like it or not, we have to focus more effort on Iraq as a part of the war on terror. Terrorists have become so adept at raising money that they now run surpluses that go outside of Iraq for other terrorist groups. Iraq's insurgencies have begun to spread through the region, a major reason that the Bush administration insisted that we remain engaged in Iraq until we stamped out the terrorist networks.

If we are to succeed, we need to get a cleaner set of leaders in Iraq. Part of the financing comes from Iraq's rebuilding oil industry, perhaps the extorted payments to stop terrorist attacks on the pipelines. Enough of the production gets hijacked to put tens of millions of dollars into terrorist pockets, and that will increase as Iraqi oil production improves. That access comes via corrupt or intimidated officials at the Iraqi oil ministry. If the Iraqis want to stop the violence from the insurgencies, they will have to start with themselves.

One other interesting point gets made by John Burns and Kirk Semple in their report. The Ba'athists have mostly left the field in Iraq, convinced that they will not return to power. Their assets have been successfully frozen, and the remainder of their liquid funds now support them in comfortable lifestyles rather than paramilitary attempts to restore the Ba'athist regime. The insurgencies operating in Iraq now mostly consist of radical Islamists or sectarian militias, the kind of terrorists we want to face and beat in their territory rather than ours.

Oddly and out of character for the NYT, Burns and Semple try to pour cold water on this report. They note that unnamed intelligence experts call the report -- which the Times publishes -- guesswork intended on supporting Bush's efforts in Iraq. They call the NSC-generated report "political cover", but that doesn't make a lot of sense. If the Bush administration wanted this for that purpose, they could have simply declassified an executive summary from the report, rather than leak it through the NYT, as Burns and Semple imply. The paper didn't seem nearly as incredulous with other leaks it published on its front page in the past.

We're seeing the beginnings of a terror-exporting state in Iraq. We need to stop it now, rather than engaging in a retreat that will only force us to return later at greater loss of life. We also need to get our erstwhile buddies in Europe to quit financing it by ending ransom payments for abductions by terrorists.  Sunday, November 26, 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

LOYALISTS OF AL-SADR SEIZE IRAQI TV STATION

By Robert Spencer

Do not adjust your tv set... Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update from McClatchy Newspapers:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Followers of the militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took over state-run television Saturday to denounce the Iraqi government, label Sunnis "terrorists" and issue what appeared to many viewers as a call to arms.

The two-hour broadcast from a community gathering in the heart of the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City included three members of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, who took questions from outraged residents demanding revenge for a series of car bombings that killed some 200 people Thursday.

With Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki relegated to the sidelines, brazen Sunni-Shiite attacks continue unchecked despite a 24-hour curfew in Baghdad. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia now controls wide swaths of the capital, his politicians are the backbone of the Cabinet and his followers deeply entrenched in the Iraqi security forces. Sectarian violence has spun so rapidly out of control since the Sadr City blasts, however, that it's not clear whether even al-Sadr has the authority — or the will — to stop the cycle of bloodshed.

"This is live and, God willing, everyone will hear me: We are not interested in sidewalks, water services or anything else. We want safety," an unidentified Sadr City resident said as the televised crowd cheered. "We want the officials. They say there is no sectarian war. No, it is sectarian war, and that's the truth."

Militia leaders told supporters Saturday to prepare for a fresh wave of incursions into Sunni neighborhoods that would begin as soon as the curfew ends Monday, according to Sadr City residents. Several members of the Mahdi Army boasted they were distributing police uniforms throughout Shiite neighborhoods to allow greater freedom of movement. The government announced it would partially lift the curfew today to allow for pedestrian traffic.

[...]

Al-Maliki's administration acknowledged it was powerless to interrupt the pro-Sadr program on the official Iraqiya channel, during which Sadr City residents shouted, "There is no government! There is no state!" Several speakers described neighborhoods and well-known Sunni politicians as "terrorists" and threatened them with reprisal.

"We'll obviously try to control them as much as we can, but when they [lose] more than 150 people in bombings, they have the right to speak," said Bassam al-Husseini, one of al-Maliki's top advisers. "What are we going to do? We can't stop this. It's too hot right now."

POLITICALLY CORRECT RULES OF ENGAGEMENT WIN NO "HEARTS AND MINDS" IN FALLUJAH

By Robert Spencer

No pursuit into mosques without Iraqi troops. Loudspeakers in mosques permitted to broadcast prayers for the defeat of America. And the US is spending $200 million on reconstruction projects in Fallujah. And for what? None of this dents the jihad ideology. Clearly, they still hate us -- no surprise there. And when chaos fully erupts again in Fallujah, the US-funded reconstruction projects will probably be the first to be looted and set ablaze.

"Under fire, US marines hand off battered Fallujah," by Scott Peterson for the Christian Science Monitor:

FALLUJAH, IRAQ - From Observation Post Blazer, marines view Fallujah through a thick sheet of bullet-proof glass - already tested with numerous impacts. Or they stare through night-vision goggles or a thermal imaging scope that can pick up the heat of a dog hundreds of yards away.

The marines still patrol key roads. The US military, which still travels boldly through town despite a surge in deadly sniper attacks and roadside bombs, is spending $200 million on 60-plus projects to rebuild the city, heavily damaged in fighting two years ago.

But with just 300 marines, the US military footprint is smaller in this Sunni stronghold of more than 300,000 than it has been in two years. As the marine presence shrinks and Iraqis take more control, Fallujah - once a template for counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq, where US forces have controlled all the variables - is likely again to set a standard for the rest of the country.

"A lot of us feel like we have our hands tied behind our back," says Cpl. Peter Mattice, of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment. "In Fallujah, [insurgents] know our [rules of engagement] - they know when to stop, just before we engage."

[...]

"They say we are here to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, but I just don't see that happening," says Corporal Mattice, of Gladwin, Mich. OP Blazer is perched on the northern edge of the city, looking due south down a main street known to the marines as Ethan, site of numerous roadside bombs.

[...]

Each precinct in Chicago or Detroit, makes 100 to 150 arrests per night per 300,000 people," says Major Kolomjec, a lawyer who notes that Fallujah's population is similar. "Here you take 12 to 40 people per day, and people are up in arms. You can't expect stability, when you are not even doing the same level of policing as Detroit."

Another source of frustration: Pursuit in mosques is forbidden without the presence of Iraqi Army units. Marines say some of Fallujah's 76 mosques are used to hide weaponry. Some broadcast messages such as, "God help us defeat the Americans."

"Many would ask: What other war would we allow the enemy to broadcast calls for our defeat, for the sake of cultural sensitivity?" says O'Neill.  Sunday, November 26, 2006 

http://jihadwatch.org

AUSTRALIA FINDS US PRESSURE ON IRAN HAVING AN IMPACT

By Jonathan Winer

On November 20, Australia's Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC), found that "de facto sanctions" were having an impact on investment in Iran and Iranian financial access to international payments systems.

In its latest Market Watch newsletter, EFIC cited its chief economist, Roger Donnelly, as finding that banks and insurers involved in the trade and project finance markets have been taking steps to limit Iranian risk, despite the fact that Iran has been a "lucrative" market.

The newsletter (here) quoted Donnelly as stating that “Cover is still available, but banks and insurers are reportedly cutting their limits and raising prices energetically. This includes letter of credit (LC) confirmation . . political risk insurance and project finance.”

The Australian economist found that Iran's ability to obtain goods and services had likely not yet been hindered, as it could finance its needs through purchases made through cash generated by oil revenues. But the sanctions are creating what he termed "friction," to transactions involving Iran, and impair the ability of foreigners to do business with Iran.

From here, the question is whether the U.S. will secure agreement from other countries to initiate broader limitations on their financial institutions handling of Iranian related transactions, given its proliferation program and utter lack of any form of controls on its funds-at-origin.  Sunday, November 26, 2006 

REPORT: IRAQ-BASED JIHADISTS SEEK TO EXPAND WAR TO NORTH AFRICA

By Evan Kohlmann

According to reports in Arab media, personnel from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) visited the Moroccan city of Rabat last week to investigate an apparent increase in the number of Moroccan mujahideen volunteers traveling to Iraq in order to join Al-Qaida. CIA officials allegedly scheduled the visit after Moroccan intelligence services presented them with the names of two young men from the northern Moroccan town of Tetouan who had recently executed suicide bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Reportedly, the men were accompanied on their journey to Iraq by at least seven other would-be jihadist companions from their neighborhood in Tetouan (who remain at large).

The Moroccan government has grave concerns that elements from the nascent Moroccan Tawhid wal-Jihad Movement and the Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC) are intent upon using the cauldron in Iraq to mobilize a new armed front for Al-Qaida in North Africa. Local media also reports that Moroccan authorities have recently intercepted a telephone conversation between a militant inside Morocco and another Moroccan national hiding in Syria. The two men discussed a plan to travel to Algeria in order to receive advanced training from veteran GSPC instructors and to establish an official joint Al-Qaida branch covering all of North Africa.  November 23, 2006

http://counterterrorismblog.org

*

By Melanie Phillips

Michel Gurfinkiel ruminates on the organised and synchronised violence that is taking place in the ongoing French intifada, on the unholy alliance between murderous Islamism and the left and on the ominous historical parallels with previous generations of fifth columnists and self-destroying useful idiots:

Still, it would be wise not to write off entirely the possibility of a green-red alliance. There is a historical precedent in the spread of Islam itself, in the 7th century. It is well known that the newly founded religious empire from Arabia overran in less than two decades the two mightiest powers of the time, the Christian Byzantine Empire and the Mazdean Persian Empire. What is less well known is that the Arab expansion coincided, in both places, with a deep ethnic, religious, and social crisis. In fact, the Arabs didn’t outright conquer Palestine, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, North Africa, Iraq, and the Iranian plateau. They struck alliances with the local rebels: the Copts and the Syriacs, the Nestorians and the Donatists, the Jews and the Mardakites, with those who spoke neither Greek nor Persian and shared neither the beliefs of the basileus nor those of the shah. Even the green flag of Islam was borrowed from non-Arabs: It was originally the symbol of rebellion in Byzantium, the equivalent in its day of the red flag in ours.

Can history repeat itself, and fundamentalist Islam subdue Europe in the 21st century with the help of European extremists? Will the green flag and the red flag wave side by side? Buses are burning in France and nobody, so far, seems to know how to stop that.  Monday, November 27, 2006

www.melaniephillips.com/diary

*

AUSSIE RADICALS GETTING EVEN MORE SO

By Charles Johnson

Australian radical Sheikh Mohammed Omran is making a move, appealing to the ones who think Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hialy is too moderate: Muslim leaders warn radical splinters. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

MAINSTREAM Muslim leaders are warning that splinter groups of dissatisfied members of the national fundamentalist Wahhabi leadership, who claim their spiritual guides have become too Westernised, are being formed in Melbourne and Sydney.

The split is said to be headed by controversial cleric Mohammed Omran, The Australian newspaper reports today, and has been made worse by leaders calling for followers to improve relationships with police and to integrate into Australian society.

Muslim leader Fadi Rahman said some members have abandoned prayer halls and formed their own groups to preach a more fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran.

“Within the Wahhabi and Salafi groups there’s been groups which have divided into more extreme groups who don’t believe that what these people (their leaders) are preaching is pure anymore,” he said.

“In fact, it is the students of those leaders who are now saying, “This is not what you taught me, this is not what you preached to me.”

SOMALIA JIHADIS MASS NEAR GOVERNMENT TOWN

By Charles Johnson

The Council on American Islamic Relations called the takeover of Somalia by Islamic militants “a positive change.” But Ethiopia has a different opinion, as the jihadis prepare to push into the Somali government’s last stronghold: Somalia braces for war as residents flee.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Hundreds of Ethiopian troops arrived to protect Somalia’s government Friday as witnesses said a powerful Islamic militia massed nearby, raising concerns of clashes between the two forces.

More than 130 trucks carried the Ethiopians into Baidoa, the only town controlled by the government, residents said. “They parked their trucks around the town,” Nunay Selah said by telephone. “They are digging trenches.”

The standoff is between the transitional federal government, which has U.N. recognition but little authority on the ground, and the Council of Islamic Courts, which controls most of southern Somalia.

Residents as far away as Bur Hakaba — 40 miles east of Baidoa — were evacuating. “We are seeing strong military movements from both sides,” said Mohamud Ahmed, a father of six. “We don’t believe we will be able to continue living in our town peacefully.”

Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation, fears the emergence of neighboring Islamic state and has acknowledged sending military advisers to help Somalia’s government. But Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has repeatedly denied sending a fighting force.

RELIGION OF PEACE KILLING TEACHERS IN THAILAND

By Charles Johnson

Despite the appointment (by military coup) of a Muslim prime minister, and his obsequious apology to Muslims for the previous government’s policies, the killing in Thailand is getting worse: Teacher slayings shut Thai schools. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Hundreds of schools in Thailand’s restive south will shut their doors in response to increasingly vicious attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents against teachers and schools, an official said Saturday.

The closure, which begins Monday, affects all 336 primary and secondary schools in the province of Pattani, where two teachers were fatally shot by suspected insurgents in the past two days.

In one of the killings, attackers shot a school principal Friday, and then set his body on fire. The principal became the 59th teacher or school official killed in three years of violence, said Bunsom Thongsriprai, president of the Teachers’ Association in Pattani.

“Teachers can’t bear what has happened,” Bunsom said. “They are paranoid, worried and afraid.” He said the province’s schools, which teach about 100,000 students, will reopen when teachers feel safe.  Saturday, November 25, 3006

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog