"The concept of self-help is prevalent in conservative thought."

LaShawn Barber has an excellent post on black conservatives. Well worth your reading time.

Chris Hedges, Alleged Khafji Correspondent, Gets a History Lesson

The anti-American New York Times journalist Chris Hedges, who claimed to have been present at the battle of Khafji during Operation Desert Storm, is the subject of this open letter by Benjamin Blatt:

Having just finished War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning; I must say that Chris Hedges provides a good read, if you enjoy fiction. In particular Chris, I found your tale of the Battle of Khafji during Desert Storm on page 23 of your book to be particularly entertaining, seeing as how it is spun of whole cloth. Sadly, although your version of events in 2002 has you standing “on rooftops with young Marine radio operators who called in air strikes” watching the Marines who “were called in to push the Iraqis (out of Khafji),” your story just does not pan out. You see, in 2004 a book that may very well become known as the definitive study of Khafji was published. The author of Storm on the Horizon, David J. Morris, researched the battle extensively and interviewed the Marines (all thirteen of them) who had called in the air strikes. And yet, none of those Marines remembered you, the French photographers who were with you, or circumstances in which the presence of Journalists by their positions wouldn’t have gotten them killed. Did you really think that the story would never come out? That carrying on the grand tradition of those who covered Vietnam from the Caravelle’s bar would drown out the voices of the Marines whose story you have dishonored with your lies? But please, don’t take my word alone, let the evidence speak for itself.

In the past Mr. Hedges, you have crowed loudly about having fled the Pentagon’s Gulf War press pool, choosing instead to cover a shooting war on your own. But even though in Morris’s book there is a brief mention of the presence of “Unilateral” or “Pool breaker” journalists being around the area of Khafji during the battle, these journalists are mentioned as being British and French, and no mention is made of them having interacted with the two trapped and hidden Marine recon teams in Khafji. But I’m sure the presence of these journalists provided you excellent cover when you started to make your claims years later. ...

Read the whole thing at the link. Hat tip: Little Green Footballs.

Credit Where Overdue

Or, "A Day Late and a Dollar Short." The following brief mentions will be much shorter than the respective parties deserve, only because they're already so late that I don't want to delay any longer in getting them posted. So, here goes ...

Stefania turns 23. Stefania LaPenna, the brain behind Free Thoughts, celebrated her twenty-third birthday yesterday, March 7. Happy birthday, Stefania! Readers, be sure to check Free Thoughts regularly for updates on Giuliana Sgrena and other Italian hostages - as well as info on freedom movements in Iran, Syria, Cuba, and elsewhere.

Michael J. Totten has returned from Puerto Rico (and before you ask, no, his visa didn't expire) with lots of photos. Back home in sunny Portland, he writes on Syria and disovers a great new Syrian blog by Ammar Abdulhamid (Amarji).

Bear Left is back and blogging again, after a nasty bout of carpal tunnel. Even with those wrist supports, though, he's maintaining a healthy caution about overdosing on the electronic media.

The Redhunter is a frequent visitor and commenter here. Tom has posted on United Nations scandals and Iraqi atrocities. He also has an impressive series on "Just War" theory - the latest installment is here.

Condolences go out to Husayn and to the family of his cousin, who was killed in a recent terrorist attack. Take a moment to hit Husayn's tip jar to help out the family.

Sgrena's car, riddled with 300 to 400 bullets.

Photos at Little Green Footballs.

Sex, Gender, and Restrooms

It gives me no pleasure to take issue with Ann Althouse, who is one of the most intelligent voices in the blogosphere. But I've got to say something in response to her post (and its follow-up) on the issue of public restrooms.

The issue is: What changes in public accommodations should be made to protect transgendered people from violence and harrassment in public lavatories? Ann's answer, so far as I can tell, is: none.

The original post starts off reasonably enough. "I understand the problem transgendered persons sometimes have in finding an acceptable public bathroom," she begins, "but I consider the solution of abolishing separate mens' and womens' restrooms quite intolerable." And so do I, and I think most people feel the same way. Women have every right to be concerned about "safety and privacy issues" in a public, multi-user restroom. And I'll even add that some women may not be comfortable sharing a restroom with a transgendered person. This concern deserves to be taken into account.

What's the solution? "I have no problem with the sort of bathrooms that accommodate only one person at a time being made available to anyone," she says, but then reverses herself: "Well, now that you mention it, maybe I should take back my statement that I have "no problem" with the single-user unisex bathroom. The truth is I do. ... The simple reason is that a bathroom used by men is dirtier." So the single-seater is out. Not for reasons of safety or of privacy, but because "a bathroom used by men is dirtier." A reader who's cleaned public restrooms writes in to dispute this finding. And from there on, the post digresses into the details of bathroom dirt, the original issue long forgotten. Althouse concludes with the revelation: "Oh, my friends: there is a divide between men and women!"

Well, no kidding. Ann Althouse defiantly refuses to use the word "gender" - no silly political correctness for her. You know, if Ann woke up tomorrow morning with a beard and a bass voice, and people expected her to start using the men's room, I'm betting the word "gender" would enter her vocabulary pretty quick.

So, no all-gender single-seaters either. How about separate private stalls designated for men and women? I've seen those. Perhaps that would be to Ann's liking? Oh no, that won't do either: it's the one and only point on which she can agree with Ian Ayres, in her follow-up post: "Like Ayres, however, I do think there isn't so much point to limiting single-user bathrooms to one sex or the other."

It seems there is no solution that will satisfy Ann Althouse - nor does she appear particularly eager to find one, as neither of her posts on the subject expresses any real concern for the safety of transgendered people who need to go.

I wrote of my early experience with public (school) restrooms in this post, one of my first at Dreams Into Lightning. I've also written about the confusion about gender and sexuality to which both feminists and social conservatives have contributed. I've blogged on transsexuals in the Middle East here and here. Right now I will simply say this: Nobody wants men to stop being men or women to stop being women; nobody, at least, outside of a few fringe radicals. But there are a great many transsexual, transgendered, and differently-gendered persons out there who ask nothing of the world except the opportunity to live with some measure of safety and dignity.

In recent years, there have been enormous strides towards better understanding of transgendered and transsexual people, both in the general population and among the formerly hostile lesbian/feminist community. Flims like "The Crying Game" and "Boys Don't Cry" presented a nuanced and sympathetic (if tragic) picture of trans people. The popular lesbian magazines Curve and Girlfriends have reflected a progressive understanding of gender; and the popular Showtime series "The L Word" included a female cross-dresser named "Ivan" (and, for a few episodes, even a male lesbian) in its debut season.

Ann Althouse proudly proclaims herself "pro-gay rights". That's great! I look forward to learning what she plans to do to protect transgendered people like Riki Dennis.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse has a very good post on a restroom discrimination case (Hispanic Aids Forum v. Estate of Joseph Bruno) here: Is This Sex Discrimination?

Recognition

Two of my favorite bloggers got some long-overdue recogntion this past week:

Jane at Armies of Liberation got a write-up in Day By Day. Great work, Jane!

Sherri Reese at Straight Up With Sherri was interviewed on radio on the Andrea Shea-King Show last Sunday night, March 6. Sherri has been doing tremendous work to raise public awareness on the fight to save Terri Schiavo. Go visit Sherri's site and learn about the Terri Schiavo case.

Morning Report: March 8, 2005

Bush stands firm on democracy. President Bush reiterated his support for democracy at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, saying "We are confident that the desire for freedom, even when repressed for generations, is present in every human heart, and that desire can emerge with sudden power to change the course of history." A full transcript of the President's speech may be found here. Bush specifically mentioned the regimes in Iran and Syria. (CNN)

Pakistani women demonstrate against tribal rape. 'Thousands of women rallied in eastern Pakistan on Monday to demand justice and protection for a woman who said she was gang-raped at the direction of a village council, after a court ordered the release of her alleged attackers. The victim, Mukhtar Mai, also attended the rally in Multan, a major city in the eastern province of Punjab,' according to this AP story by Khalid Tanveer. 'In June 2002, Mai said she was raped by four men on the orders of a village council that wanted to punish her family. Mai's brother was accused of having sex with a woman from a more prominent family, though Mai's family says the allegations were fabricated to cover up a sexual assault against the boy by several men. Mai, a 33-year-old school teacher, went public about her ordeal, drawing international media attention to widespread crimes against women in ultraconservative Pakistan. The government also pledged to track down her attackers. A court later sentenced six men to death for Mai's rape. An appeals court overturned the convictions of five of the men last week, citing lack of evidence, and reduced the other man's sentence to life in prison.' Read the full story at the link. (AP/Yahoo via LGF)

Questions surround McCain, Cablevision. CNN reports: 'A senator promotes a government policy sought by a corporation while a tax-exempt group closely tied to him solicits and gets $200,000 from the same company. Campaign finance watchdogs say that creates the appearance of a conflict of interest. To their surprise, the senator is Arizona Republican John McCain, whom they usually praise for advocating campaign finance restrictions. McCain's help to Cablevision Systems Corp. included letting its CEO testify before his Senate committee, writing a letter of support to the Federal Communication Commission and asking other cable companies to support so-called a la carte pricing.' Kent Cooper of Political Money Line said: "Senator McCain derives a clear benefit by using The Reform Institute to help the debate on campaign finance reform. His McCain-Feingold bill helped break the connection between members of Congress and large contributions. Here is an example of a large contribution going to the foundation connected with a member of Congress. I don't see a difference." (CNN)

Giuliana Sgrena

I don't have anything to contribute yet on the Italian hostage who was injured, with one of her bodyguards killed, by US gunfire while crossing a checkpoint. Suffice it to say I have a healthy amount of skepticism for this woman's story; but I'll wait till a few more facts are in before weighing in with an opinion of my own.

An Italian blogger who does have something to say - and who's always worth listening to - is Stefania Lapenna of Free Thoughts. If you're reading this as a current post, go to her main page at the link and scroll through her blog for coverage of the Sgrena story; in any event, don't miss this post on Sgrena.

Armanious - Garas Killings: Suspects Caught

Two men have been arrested and charged in connection with the murders of Hossam Armanious, Amal Garas, and their daughters; the motive appears to have been robbery. The Star-Ledger reports:

In the days after an Egyptian immigrant couple and their two daughters were stabbed to death in their Jersey City home, the two ex-convicts now charged with their murders went on with the routine of their lives.

Edward McDonald, 25, along with his wife and two young daughters, spent three nights sleeping in the apartment directly upstairs from the rooms where the four bodies lay. Over the next seven weeks, he dutifully showed up at his job paving parking lots.

Hamilton Sanchez, 30, continued commuting between the Newark halfway house where he was finishing a federal sentence and his job cutting hair at Sweets barbershop, a hangout for artists and rappers in downtown Jersey City.

But there was one difference.

Once a day or so, starting on Jan. 12, prosecutors say one of the suspects or someone connected with them would visit a Bank of America branch and withdraw a few hundred dollars -- using an ATM card belonging to Hossam Armanious, who had been stabbed to death along with his wife and children on Jan. 11. ...

Read the full article at the link. There are just a couple of things I want to comment on:

"There were so many different theories put on the table early on, some by law enforcement and some by the public," said Joseph Billy, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Newark office. "There was hate written all over this crime, in terms of violence and magnitude. But at the same time, there was nothing coming on to the investigators' table that suggested this was done by any kind of extremism, beyond the violence of it."

The violence of it -- the fact that Armanious, 47, his wife Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, all had been bound, gagged and stabbed to death -- led the victims' relatives and friends to believe simple robbery could not have been the motive.

But prosecutors say the killings were committed to cover up a robbery after Monica recognized one of the masked intruders as McDonald, the tenant from the apartment upstairs.

As Special Agent Joseph Billy's word suggest, it was reasonable for law officers - and the public - to consider that this might have been a hate crime. But it now seems clear that the killing was not, in fact, a hate crime, but rather an egregiously horrific robbery without any religious motivation.

DeFazio said his investigators were looking into financial motives from the start. But he also said rumors that Armanious, a devout Coptic Christian, had received death threats from Muslims in a religious chat room proved a "hindrance" to the investigation.

"It had to be looked into, we had no choice," he said. "But certainly there were resources dedicated to that which maybe could have been used for other purposes."

Read the whole article at the link.

Meanwhile, Maria Sliwa at Chronwatch has an interesting update on the New Jersey Coptic Christian murders, which includes an interview with Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio. Apparently written shortly before the arrest of McDonald and Sanchez, Sliwa's article portrays a defensive prosecutor who refuses to discuss a possible religious motive in the killings. Sliwa confronts DeFazio with the allegation that Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.org, provided DeFazio's office with detailed information on possible suspects, which the Prosecutor ignored:

Spencer says he obtained information, from sources close to the murders, that the Halal butcher [whose daughter Sylvia Armanious had encouraged to convert to Christianity] had planned the killings for months and that several of his accomplices are still in the country. Spencer says police are investigating.  But when DeFazio was asked about the information his office was provided, he said: “None of that was given any credence by any law enforcement agencies. Our office has not received any names.”   But Spencer gave the Hudson County Prosecutor’s office very detailed information, (names, locations and phone numbers) of the alleged murderers and their accomplices.  When reminded of this, DeFazio then said that he did receive this information, but he appeared uncertain if all those named were questioned before this avenue of investigation was closed. 

DeFazio is certain about one thing. All talk of religious extremism is off limits. “This case has nothing to do with religious extremism,” he said.  “And if you keep asking these questions, I won’t continue with the interview.” 

Sliwa's article may also be found at FrontPage.

More on this as it develops.

Fred Durst, Paris Hilton, Jeff Gannon

Romanian folk dance artist Gary Brolsma, a fifteen-year-old female student at the Milton Academy in Massachusetts, Martha Stewart, Oliver Willis, Wonkette and Washingtonienne, beheadings of various farm animals, the sex life of the fruit fly, and anything related to thongs cannot be found at this link.

Have a great weekend!

Guardian Columnist Gets the Picture

Jonathan Freedland, writing in today's Guardian, shows courage and clear thinking on the Middle East:

Tony Blair is not gloating. He could - but he prefers to appear magnanimous in what he hopes is victory. In our Guardian interview yesterday, he was handed a perfect opportunity to crow. He was talking about what he called "the ripple of change" now spreading through the Middle East, the slow, but noticeable movement towards democracy in a region where that commodity has long been in short supply. I asked him whether the stone in the water that had caused this ripple was the regime change in Iraq.

He could have said yes, insisting that events had therefore proved him right and the opponents of the 2003 war badly wrong. But he did not. ...

Freedland understands that "it cannot be escaped: the US-led invasion of Iraq has changed the calculus in the region," and that "this leaves opponents of the Iraq war in a tricky position". He offers some sobering advice for the Left, and warns against "opposing democracy in the Middle East simply because Bush and Blair are calling for it." Read the whole thing at the link. Hat tip: The Corner.

Sudan Report

US Senators call for action. AllAfrica.com reports that a group of US Senators has called on the Bush administration to take immediate action on Sudan, introducing the Darfur Accountability Act: 'A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is calling for immediate action by the administration of President George W. Bush and the U.N. Security Council to stop the violence in Darfur. Senators Jon Corzine and Sam Brownback, who led the successful effort last summer to enact a resolution finding that Khartoum and Arab militias, called Janjaweed, in Darfur were committing "genocide" against the African population in the region, introduced the Darfur Acountability Act (DAA) Wednesday, along with six other Republican and Democratic senators. The Act, which is non-binding, calls for a new U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions against the Sudanese government; the extension of an arms embargo against unofficial groups in Darfur to Khartoum itself; a freeze of assets and the denial of visas to those responsible for the killings; enhanced support for an African Union observer mission in the region; the appointment of a presidential envoy for Sudan; and the imposition of a no-fly zone over Darfur.' The article goes on to cite differences over the proper venue for future human-rights trials (the International Criminal Court or an African court). The article also notes criticism of the Bush administration, which 'has not yet applied all of the bilateral sanctions against the government that Congress authorised last fall. In particular, it has failed so far to publish a list of individuals in the government and the Janjaweed whose assets Congress asked to be frozen. In addition, the administration has not asked the Security Council to modify the AU force's mandate to include protection of civilians.' Read the full article at the link. (AllAfrica.com)

Kristof: Eyewitness to genocide. Nick Kristof writes this harrowing account in the International Herald Tribune: 'American soldiers are trained to shoot at the enemy. They're prepared to be shot at. But what young men like Brian Steidle are not equipped for is witnessing a genocide but being unable to protect the civilians pleading for help. If President George W. Bush wants to figure out whether the United States should stand more firmly against the genocide in Darfur, I suggest that he invite Steidle to the White House to give a briefing. Steidle, 28, a former Marine captain, was one of just three U.S. military advisers for the African Union monitoring team in Darfur - and he is bursting with frustration. "Every single day you go out to see another burned village, and more dead bodies," he said. "And the children - you see 6-month-old babies that have been shot, and 3-year-old kids with their faces smashed in with rifle butts. And you just have to stand there and write your reports." ... ' (IHT)

Janjaweed leader: Sudan regime ordered killings. Meera Selva of The Independent (UK) quotes warlord Musa Hilal as saying that the Sudanese regime in Khartoum asked him to provide killers: 'A powerful Sudanese sheikh, widely regarded as a senior leader of the Janjaweed militia, has said that the Sudanese government in Khartoum asked him to supply fighters to attack civilians in Darfur. Musa Hilal, described the by the US State Department as a Janjaweed co-ordinator, said the government had asked him to mobilise the 300,000 tribesmen he claims to be responsible for. In an interview with Human Rights Watch, he said: "The government has told us to mobilise people. We've gone to the people to tell them to join the PDF [militia] and defend your country, defend the land, defend the country's most important things, and that you have to fight for your survival and the country's stability." The Sudanese government has always said the violence in Darfur was caused by ancient tribal rivalries, and that it had never encouraged or supported one side over the other. It has also promised repeatedly to disarm the militias in Darfur and blamed the continuing violence in the region on its inability to bring the groups under control. But Mr Hilal said the government had the ability to disarm the PDF - a paramilitary group that is part of the Janjaweed - if it chose to do so. He said: "They [The government] are the ones that gave the PDF guns. They're the ones that recruited the PDF; they're the ones that pay their salaries; they give them their ID cards. They can disarm them or they can leave them alone ... ' (The Independent)