Television Appearance

Your humble blogger recently had the honor of being interviewed for Portland Cable Access television by Ann Kasper. The first airing was last night, but if you live in the Portland area you still have two more chances to catch the show:

Iraq: Languages and Politics

A 50-minutes television program featuring intreviews with Hama Mohammed, a Fullbright Scholar from Suleimanyia, Northern Iraq who studies Linguistics at the University of Oregon and Asher Abrams, blogger and verteran of the first Gulf conflict.

on Portland Cable Access
Sunday, 2/26 at 11pm on Channel 22
Wednesday, 3/1 at 7:30pm on Channel 23
Friday, 3/3 at 8:00pm on Channel 23

The schedule is available at PCMTV programming. The program is titled "Iraq: Languages & Politics". I'm featured in the second half of the program.


Iraq

Afternoon Roundup

Michael Totten: Kirkuk not good. Michael J. Totten wanted to go to Suleimaniya after visiting Erbil. But his driver had other ideas.

KURDISTAN, IRAQ – I liked almost everyone I met in Iraqi Kurdistan. But no culture is without its annoying bastards, and the idiot who drove me from Erbil to Suleimaniya was one of them.

A torrential storm blew into Erbil on my last morning in the city. Streets flooded, in some places with feet of water. The power was out everywhere except in my fake “Sheraton” hotel. A journalist friend who was staying in another hotel packed his bags and moved into the “Sheraton” while I was on my way out. His hotel was wet as well as dark.

“You might not want to drive to Suli today,” he said. “You’ll have to go over some steep mountain passes.”

“I’m from Oregon,” I said. “It rains eight months out of the year there. I’m not worried.”

I would have to find a new driver and translator in Suleimaniya unless I wanted to pay hotel accommodations for my guys in Erbil. So I asked Birzo, my translator, to find me a driver who would just drop me off at my hotel in Suli, then turn around and head back to Erbil. He took me downtown and set me up with a company that had a good reputation.

“This man will take you to the Suli Palace Hotel,” Birzo said as he introduced me to a fat grinning 20 year-old. “Normally it would cost 50 dollars, but it’s raining so he wants 60. He doesn’t speak English, but you should be fine. He knows where the hotel is.”

“Okay, Birzo,” I said. “Thanks for all your help.”

“If you have any problems,” he said, “just call me and I will translate for you over the phone.”

I loaded my luggage into the car and we were off.

As we were leaving the city, my driver said “We go Kirkuk.”

“No!” I said, more sharply than I probably should have.

“Kirkuk good, Kirkuk good,” he said.

“No,” I said. “Suleimaniya. We are going to Suleimaniya.”

“Erbil. Kirkuk. Suleimaniya.” he said. The fastest road went through Kirkuk. “Kirkuk good.” ...

Go read Michael's post at the link to find out what happened after that.

ITM on the shrine crisis. Mohammed at Iraq the Model has some thoughts on the recent bombing of the Shi'a shrine in Samarra:

It's not a secret who was behind the attack on the shrine and I am sure that who did it were the Salafi/Wahabis whether Iraqi or foreigners and with external support from parties planning to disrupt the political process in Iraq.
The reason I believe it's the Salafis who did it comes from their own ideology which considers all mosques built upon tombs as places of polytheism and infidelity and thus must be destroyed. This also applies to Sunni shrines like Abu Haneefa and al-Gailani; Salafis consider the Shia and the Sufis their worst enemies and they commonly refer to them in their speech with the term "tomb worshippers" or Mushrikoon Quborioon in Arabic.

It's worth reminding that this is not the first time Salafis try to destroy the shrines in Iraq; their armies invaded Iraq back in the 19th century and burned the shrines in Kerbala and Najaf before the Ottoman empire repelled them and stopped them from reaching Baghdad where they were planning to destroy the shrines of al-Kazum, Abu Haneefa and al-Gailani (Shia, Sunni and Sufi respectively).

Followers of other sects would not dare do something like this because they fear the wrath of the imams; our culture has many stories about the supernatural powers possessed by the deceased imams. These stories planted fear in our hearts from even talking badly about them, let alone blowing up their tombs!

This leaves only one faction that justifies and pushes for destroying these tombs and this is the Salafi ideology.
Of course there are some who invest this ideology for political causes and here we come to the second beneficiary who stands behind the first beneficiary who carried out the attack for ideological reasons.

This second beneficiary is the parties who would like to see the new Iraqi state fall apart and who are scared of the idea of a democratic, stable Iraq next door as such a neighbor would transmit the democratic infection to their peoples. This includes more than one neighboring country; one provides logistics and training, the other provides media support while another one endorses the remnants of the Ba'ath regime who lost a lot of their privileges when Saddam was toppled.

Now that we have outlined the identity of the perpetrators depending on motives, interests and ideology we can move on to talk a little about the reactions to the atrocity which has a lot in common with the reactions to the Danish cartoons (I'm comparing the reactions here, not the actions that triggered them). The two reactions are similar in two aspects a) Overreaction and b) Exploiting the atrocity to serve political causes.

As a person who lives in Baghdad I've been following the situation from the early hours after the attack; on Wednesday morning I was on my way to work when I heard the news on the radio and I began watching closely to probe the feelings of the common people. People were at work as they always are, clerks behind their desks, grocers looking after their goods and municipal workers picking trash from the streets and I haven't noticed any unusual feelings among the people I came in contact with. In general life was normal until noon in the Shia majority district of Baghdad and there were absolutely no signs of a crisis of any sort. But on my way home I saw the men in black take to the streets after Ayatollah Sistani issued his fatwa (I wish my Shia brothers bear with me and read to the end).

Ayatollah Sistani issued a fatwa on Wednesday that sounded peaceful and normal from the first look but if you look closer at each word you will find that the "safety valve" became the igniter this time.

Two years ago the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf was attacked and although this is the holiest shrine for Shia Muslims the incident wasn't met with that much angry reactions instead we heard soothing statements like "these are mere stones and we can rebuild them and make them even better than before".

This time things were different because the political situation is different; the Ayatollah called for nationwide protests (and not to attack Sunni mosques) and a week of mourning. Now let's examine the part that said "do not attack Sunni mosques"…the sentence openly accuses the Sunni of being behind the attack or why would their mosques be mentioned in the first place? ...

However, it seems there are also some positive outcomes from this incident and its aftermath; the first one in my opinion was the performance of the Iraqi army which had a good role in restoring order in many places. Actually the past few days showed that our new army is more competent than we were thinking.
But the latest events have also showed the brittle structure of the interior ministry and its forces that retreated before the march of the angry mobs (if not joined them in some cases) and I think the statements that came from the meetings of our politicians pointed this out so clearly when Sunni politicians said they wanted the army to replace the police and police commandos in their regions and this indicates growing trust between the people and the army.

The other positive side is represented by the line we've seen drawn between clerics and politicians.
In spite of the attempts of clerics to look like as if they were the defenders of national unity with all their meetings, joint prayers and hugs, the political leaderships got a sense of their growing danger and the meeting at Jafari's home (which al-Hakeem didn't attend) showed that the government is keen to keep the country intact and the government systems as functional as possible to contain the crisis. This meeting indicates that politicians have realized that those clerics whether Sunni or Shia are the origin of the problem and are ready to coup on even their political allies which made the politicians more aware of the danger imposed by clerics on the project of building a state ruled by the law.

Clerics will not stop and they will carry on with their plans and I suspect they will launch the next phase of their plan soon after they received instructions from Syria (the Muslim scholars) and from Iran (the Sadrists).
The objective of the second phase will to move the conflict from one on the streets to a conflict with America. ...

Mohammed calls on the Iraqi government to disband the religious militias.

Iran Focus: Terrorist training camps in Iran. In an exclusive report, Iran Focus identifies 20 terrorist training camps inside Iran:

London, Feb. 27 – Iran Focus has obtained a list of 20 terrorist camps and centres run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The names and details of the training centres were provided by a defector from the IRGC, who has recently left Iran and now lives in hiding in a neighbouring country. Iran Focus agreed to keep his identity secret for obvious security reasons.

The former IRGC officer said the camps and the training centres were under the control of the IRGC’s elite Qods ["Jerusalem"] Force, the extra-territorial arm of the Revolutionary Guards.

“The Qods Force has an extensive network that uses the facilities of Iranian embassies or cultural and economic missions or a number of religious institutions such as the Islamic Communications and Culture Organisation to recruit radical Islamists in Muslim countries or among the Muslims living in the West. After going through preliminary training and security checks in those countries, the recruits are then sent to Iran via third countries and end up in one of the Qods Force training camps”, the officer said. ..

Full analysis and list at the link.

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Iraq
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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Considers Rice's $85M Iran Democracy Request

... and I've just called the Foreign Relations Committee's office to express support.

Majority Phone: (202) 224-4651
Minority Phone: (202) 224-3953

You can also contact your senator to show your support. I've just called Senator Smith's and Senatory Wyden's offices; I don't have to look up their numbers 'cuz they're on my speed dial!

Iran

Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler has died, reports fellow SF novelist Steven Barnes. (Hat tip: heyiya.)


This is an awful tragedy. Octavia Butler's passing is a great loss to the world. I enjoyed her ingenious and often chilling stories in "Bloodchild", as well as "Mind of my Mind" and "Parable of the Sower". I really don't know what else to say now; I'm just stunned.

Octavia Butler info page.

Cross-posted to Translinear Light.

Who to Blame

Is it just me, or has there been an uptick in a certain, er, variety of social-conservative thought (and I am using the word "thought" somewhat broadly) that seeks to lay all the blame for America's ills on feminists and gays? Oh, and for those awkward moments when bashing homosexuals isn't socially acceptable, there's always some other group of queers you can pick on.

Listen, I don't mind sitting through all the sexist, homophobic drivel about "feminized society" and "feminized men" and all this crap, but don't expect me to get on the program with you.

Best. Cox & Forkum. EVER.

Here.

Hamas: Nuke Israel.

From JPost:

JP: Details released by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) on Tuesday revealed that graphics appearing on the Hamas website call for the destruction of Israel in a nuclear holocaust.

On the website, a red Star of David is encased in a black rectangle which is then obliterated in a nuclear explosion. ...

Manuel Quezon on Philippines Coup Rumors

Via Pajamas Media, here's Manuel L. Quezon III on those rumors of an impending coup in the Philippines (reported in yesterday's Morning Report):

I’d ask, not only what, but why, and add, further, it would be wrong that the country has reached its present, crucial, juncture, simply due to the egotism of the soldiery and the ambitions of some within the citizenry.

First and foremost, the President has brought it upon herself. ...

The opposition doesn't get of easy either. Full article at the link.

Philippines

Highlander: From the Rock

Don't forget to visit Libyan blogger Highlander at From the Rock. Her news and gossip will make you smile. And photos! Go to her homepage for the photopage link.

And while you're at it, check out Libyan bloggers.


Highlander
Libya bloggers

Plus Ultra: 'Toon Rage Toll

Plus + Ultra / Dragon Key Press has a few thoughts on the cartoon violence:

Over thirty people died this weekend, bringing the total death toll for toon rage to an estimated 45 so far, although I suspect that is slightly low.

Has anyone heard the US government condemn the arson attack on the US embassy in Indonesia this weekend? No? That’s not unusual. Jacques Chirac did not condemn the attack on the French embassy in Iran over a week ago. I guess whatever they do to any Western person or interest is justified now because of what Jyllands-Posten did six months ago.

And don't forget to bookmark the homepage ... you'll want to keep track of what all those CIA agents are up to!

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Chinese Communists vs. the Internet: China Youth Daily Editor Faces the Music

Via Just Some Poor Schmuck, here's a Washington Post article on the battle against censorship in China:

The top editors of the China Youth Daily were meeting in a conference room last August when their cell phones started buzzing quietly with text messages. One after another, they discreetly read the notes. Then they traded nervous glances.

Colleagues were informing them that a senior editor in the room, Li Datong, had done something astonishing. Just before the meeting, Li had posted a blistering letter on the newspaper's computer system attacking the Communist Party's propaganda czars ...

Read the rest at the link.

The PRC's goons aren't going to go away gracefully, though, and Sean LaFreniere links this disturbing story about Chinese government harrassment within America's borders:

Peter Yuan Li was beaten, tied up, blindfolded with duct tape and robbed of two laptop computers last week by three Asian men who burst into his suburban Atlanta home with a gun and knife.

He and other Chinese-Americans suspect it was no ordinary robbery.

Li, who works for a newspaper and Web site critical of the Chinese Communist Party, is one of several people tied to China's banned Falun Gong spiritual movement who say they have been harassed and hit with break-ins in the United States by Chinese agents.

They say China has carried its crackdown on dissidents to this country.

FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett said the bureau is looking into the attack on Li for potential civil rights violations and refused to comment on whether the Chinese government was behind it. ...

Sean calls it an "act of war", and I agree. Here's more from the Epoch Times:

At noon on February 8th, two armed men forced themselves into the home in Atlanta of Epoch Times Chief Technical Officer Mr. Yuan P. Li, beating him and stealing two of his laptops. After Mr. Li managed to free himself from the extension cord used to bind him, he was taken to an area hospital for treatment. His statement describing this attack is published below.

This crime, occurring in a very safe area in Atlanta and done without concern for the taking of valuables, breaks new ground in the Chinese Communist regime's campaign against The Epoch Times.

That campaign has previously taken the form of arresting Epoch Times staff inside mainland China, and, outside mainland China, systematically stealing newspapers, attempting to intimidate advertisers, applying pressure to deny Epoch Times staff the opportunity to cover events at which Chinese government officials appear, and threatening the family members inside mainland China of Epoch Times staff living outside China. ...

Go to the link for the rest, and for pictures of the poor guy. Here's Li's statement:

My name is Yuan Li. I am forty-one years old and am an Epoch Times IT staff member. Today (Feb. 8) I was beaten up by thugs and my computers were taken away.

Around noon, someone rang the doorbell. I looked through the peephole and saw an Asian man in his 30s, and I opened the door. The man told me that he was there to deliver water. I said I did not order any water and asked if he made a mistake.

While I was talking, another man appeared from around the corner. The two forced themselves into the apartment. One of them pulled out a dagger, the other, a gun. And they ordered me not to move. I started crying for help and wanted to run away. They covered me with a bed quilt until I was almost suffocated. Then they took off the bed quilt and started beating me, especially in the temple area; they probably beat me with the gun handle, and I bled profusely. Finally they used the tape they brought with them to tape my mouth, my eyes and my ears; my arms were tied behind my back and my legs were also tied up. I couldn't move at all; I could neither see nor scream.

The first two men spoke Korean, which I don't understand. From what I could tell, another two men came in [later], one of them knows Mandarin, as he asked me in Chinese, "where is your safe?" He probably doesn't speak English. They searched upstairs and downstairs several times and left about half an hour later. ...

Epoch Times: Yuan Li beaten in his own home.

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Yuan Li

The Political Machine

I haven't blogged on this issue before because I confess to being somewhat biased. You see, I grew up on the East Coast.

East Coast voting is a ritual. You walk into a "voting machine" surrounded by a curtain that draws shut when you pull the lever. The aura of power and mystery is palpable: at that moment, you are quite literally "the man/woman behind the curtain". As you face the seductively-shaped switches labeled with the candidates' names, you become aware that you are at the control panel of the world's mightiest democracy. You move a switch and it gives a satisfying click; your votes will not be made final, however, until you open the curtain and emerge from this "kodesh kodashim" of American politics.

Somehow this business of ballot cards, cardboard cubicles, or (heaven forbid) mail-in ballots never quite did it for me. So you can already imagine how I feel about electronic voting machines.

Feelings aren't at issue, though, for Armed Liberal at Winds of Change, who joins citizens from across the political spectrum in protesting the advent of electronic voting. Without further ado:

Right now is a four-month window before the June elections when many states are trying to decide how they will comply with the federal HAVA act. Here in California, we are about to be locked in a battle to decide if our votes will be processed - I won't say counted - by poorly designed voting machines and systems.

Friday, the California Secretary of State conditionally approved (pdf) the use of the fatally-flawed Diebold voting machines, subject to some rather sketchy conditions. Take a look at the attached report (pdf) for the testing he commissioned.

This independent testing that the SoS commissioned found still more flaws - but suggests that it's OK to use these machines anyway while we cross our fingers and hope.

I don't think so, and I'll be working hard to get as much attention paid to this as possible. Over the next few days, I'll post some specific suggestions about what can be done.

Among AL's previous posts on the issue is this one:

There are election-day issues in most elections (as we all can remember from 2000, right?) But e-voting machines are a particular problem, as presently constituted, because without a permanent paper trail, the votes - stored as records in a database - must be taken on faith.

In Florida, we could at least go back and try and figure out what happened. With paperless e-voting machines, there's just no way.

There are a lot of things that can make e-voting work; open-source software and ISO9000 audits are two of the ones that I support.

Now to to the link for full details - and take a gander at the testing that was done for California's e-voting machines (PDF link at the Winds post).