DoS Attack

Just learned via Winds of Change and Little Green Footballs that some sites on Hosting Matters, including Michael Totten are down due to a Denial of Service (DoS) attack from Saudi Arabia. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Looks like Michael's up and running again.

Update: Posting Break

I'll be taking a short break from posting at Dreams Into Lightning, probably through the middle of next week. New developments on the personal front (good ones, but full of headaches) are currently occupying most of my time and energy.

Don't forget to visit Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad. It's still under construction, but you might want to bookmark it.

Tony Snow, Press Secretary

Marian at Eight Drunken Immortals:

I see that Tony Snow will be the White House's press secretary. What a great moment. Finally someone with some backbone to represent the White House and Republicans. I once did an online question and answer segment with Tony Snow on AOL before they got to be the overblown mess they are now. It was extremely interesting.

I have nothing but respect for him and I know he will do a great job in his new postion. I can't wait to see how he handles that old battleax Helen Thomas. It should make her head explode. ...

Tammy Bruce:

I think he'll be very good in the job, and I have a feeling he'll be much more in control of the press room than Scott McClellan ever was. ... Tony is our kind of guy.

Muslim Woman: Afghan Women's Maternal Care Shows Little Improvement Since Taliban Era

Himadree at The Muslim Woman:

Life is still the same for the Afghan Women and children just as the way it used to be during the Taliban regime.

After the US led army ended the Taliban rule, Laura Bush had said: ‘The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women’.

But in contrary to the statement even today the pregnant women doesn’t have the rights to the basic amenities of life. The nations maternal care is in its worst condition and the government is least bothered about it.

According to a study conducted by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR):

Not even 1% pregnant women are taken care of by a professional health care worker.

Out of 174 hospitals in the entire country, a handful of 17 can actually practice caesarean deliveries and only 5 offers indispensable obstetric care. ...

Read the rest at the link, and don't forget to bookmark The Muslim Woman.

Afghanistan

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.

Michael Totten in Israel

"Rich, powerful, and explicitly Jewish" wouldn't have been my first choice of words in describing Israel, but when it comes from Michael Totten we know what he means. Go read this terrific post to get the feel of how Palestinians and Israelis negotiate the borders of their world. I'm going to post a few thoughts of my own later.

Oh, and to be fair to Michael, here's the full quote in context:

Arab countries have a certain feel. They’re masculine, relaxed, worn around the edges, and slightly shady in a Sicilian mobster sort of way. Arabs are wonderfully and disarmingly charming. Israel felt brisk, modern, shiny, and confident. It looked rich, powerful, and explicitly Jewish. I knew I had been away from home a long time when being around Arabs and Muslims felt comfortably normal and Jews seemed exotic.

First impression are just that, though. They tend to be crazily out of whack and subject to almost instant revision. Israel, I would soon find out, is a lot more like the Arab and Muslim countries than it appears at first glance. It’s not at all a little fragment of the West that is somehow weirdly displaced and on the wrong continent. It’s Middle Eastern to the core ...

Go read the whole post here.

Avoiding the Charge of Rape

I've been looking for something more to say on the Duke lacrosse affair, but I cannot possibly improve on Bob Hayes at Creative Destruction so I'll just send you there.

DiL, v2.0

Some readers may have already noticed the following message appearing at the bottom of my recent posts:

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.

Yes, it's true: I've opened a TypePad account and Dreams Into Lightning has now entered a new incarnation.

The move was prompted by the recent meltdown at Blogger, but I'd been contemplating opening a new front for a while for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are complaints against Blogger and some are not:

- Blogger style buttons don't work with Safari. I don't know whether the blame rests with Blogger or with Apple for this (you can be sure each side will say it's the other's fault) but I am getting tired of the Blogger tech support people telling me to switch to Firefox. I have my gripes about Safari (and Apple in general), but the one feature of Safari I find absolutely indispensable is the built-in RSS feed in Tiger. It speeds and simplifies the blogging process beyond description, and it's the one feature, the proverbial "killer app", that outweighs the many shortcomings of Safari. These advantages are partially offset when I don't have formatting buttons and have to apply style tags manually by copying them from a template. With TypePad, the buttons work and that drawback is eliminated.
- I've said before that I see Dreams Into Lightning as mainly a text-based blog, but I like having the option of posting images if I need to.
- My current Blogger template has grown cluttered and cumbersome (obviously I'm responsible for that, not Blogger) and it's taking a long time to load. I kinda like the idea of starting out with a clean slate.
- More built-in features: category archiving (Blogger keeps promising but doesn't deliver), blogrolling, and a basic stat counter.
- I'm using one of the oldest Blogger templates, which apparently doesn't support newer features like auto-trackbacking. (I tried to add the code manually by following Blogger's directions, but the attempt was evidently a failure as the feature is still not working here.) Also Quick Editing doesn't work, and I really need it to, because I've got over 1,500 posts here and it's a real headache if I have to make a correction on an old post.
- I like the idea of having a backup. If one blogging tool is down (either TypePad or Blogger), I'll still be able to post on the other.

Posting will continue normally here at Blogger for the foreseeable future. But you might want to think about adding Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad to your bookmarks. I'm still exploring the features of TypePad, so the new site is still "under construction" but fully operational. Don't feel bad if I haven't added your blog to the sidebar yet, I probably just haven't gotten to it. Also, keep watching the new site because I may start posting extra material there.

One more time, that link: Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.

Morning Report: April 25, 2006

Analysis of Dahab bombing. Internet Haganah reports: 'The attack would appear to be part of an ongoing campaign against Egypt by the forces of the global jihad.' The site quotes a news source as saying that at least two suicide bombers were involved in the attacks, which killed at least 23 people in the Egyptian resort town of Dahab. It was the third attack on tourist resorts in the Sinai in the last 18 months, according to Egypt's Interior Ministry. Debka has this: 'Egypt now says two suicide bombers and a time bomb caused the three explosions that killed 22-30 people, injured 150, at two cafes and a supermarket of the Red Sea resort of Dahab in eastern Sinai Monday night, April 24. The casualties appear to be European tourists on their Easter break and Egyptians. There are no immediate reports of Israeli casualties. Few remained in Sinai after the Passover holiday ended last week. Overnight, Israel dismantled the situation room and recalled the ambulances set up at the Taba crossing. Cairo responding to Israel’s offer said no medical assistance was needed. The blasts occurred a day after Osama bin Laden released a new audiotape threatening the "Crusader Zionists." DEBKAfile notes that Israeli travelers had been assured by Egypt's government and their own that the Sinai was to be considered safe: 'Ten days earlier, Jordanian intelligence warned the Palestinian leader Abu Mazen that al Qaeda was holding a 10-man cell ready in N. Sinai or Gaza for a large-scale attack in Gaza. The cell was said to be under the orders of Abu Musab al Zarqawi in Iraq. The Egyptian authorities are now trying to find out if this is the same cell or that the Egyptian leader was fed a red herring. A year ago, 88 people, many of them tourists, were killed in a triple blast at Sharm el-Sheikh 100km south of Dahab. Two years ago, many Israelis died in multiple al Qaeda attacks in Sinai. This year, Israelis joined the stream of foreign tourists to Sinai after an Egyptian assurances that thousands of its security forces had finally cleared out the Qaeda strongholds in the central Sinai Hilal mountain range. A special operation had been conducted among their Bedouin collaborators. Peninsula resorts must now be considered safe. For the first time in three years, Jerusalem did not post a fresh warning to Israeli travelers to stay clear of their favorite Sinai haunts for the Passover holiday.' Freedom for Egyptians has more: 'Dr. Said Essa said he was headed to the scene of the blasts and that his casualty figures were for victims at the el-Khaleeg Hotel only. He said there were casualties from the other explosions but he had no details. Al-Jazeera television said one of the blasts hit a restaurant, and authorities said more than 20 ambulances and police cars were rushing to the el-Masbat section of the city.' Gateway Pundit has a roundup. Sandmonkey reports that the death toll has risen to 24, and carries eyewitness accounts; interestingly, he cites a news report that appears to contradict Debka's claim: 'Israel's ambassador in Cairo, Shalom Cohen, said the Israeli government had warned repeatedly against visiting the Sinai. "Unfortunately, the warnings came true," he told Israel's Channel 10 TV.' BREAKING: Police detain 10. (various)

Iran and Syria: a bleak outlook. Iran's economic rating has been downgraded by London's Fitch agency from BB- to B+: 'The agency said that while economic sanctions against Iran were still some way off, the risks were increasing, leaving the economy vulnerable, especially in case of an oil price fall as structural reforms in the country have also faltered. '"The downgrade reflects the escalating confrontation between Iran and the international community over Iran's nuclear programme," Richard Fox, Head of Middle East and Africa sovereign ratings at Fitch (UK) said in a statement.' Syria's economic picture isn't looking so good either, according to The Intelligence Summit: 'The consequences of the assassination in February of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, continue to overshadow Syria’s political outlook. A report mandated by the UN Security Council has appeared to confirm widespread international suspicion that Syria was responsible for the killing. If Syria refuses to co-operate with the continuing investigation it will almost certainly face international sanctions. Co-operating, however, may be even more hazardous, particularly as the inquiry is likely to lead to charges being levelled against very senior figures within the regime. Economic policymaking will gain little attention within this environment, and economic growth will be weak, slowed by declining oil output. The buoyant outlook for oil prices over the coming year will ensure that the government finances remain comfortable and the trade and current accounts stay in surplus next year. The position will weaken in 2007, however, as falling production compounds the impact of lower oil prices. ... The increasingly threatening political environment that Syria faces has led us to adjust our forecast for economic growth downward since our previous report.' (This unattributed report appears to come from The Economist.) Reuters via Iran Focus reports: ' Iran will cancel the 960 million euro ($1.19 billion) "Olefins 11" contract signed last year with German industrial gases firm Linde and South Korea's Hyundai, Iran's Oil Ministry Web site reported on Monday. Under the Olefins 11 contract, the two companies were to build two ethane crackers in the Gulf port of Assaluyeh. Conservative parliamentarians had argued that Iranian firms could carry out the project more cheaply.' (various)

JINSA: Iran's bid for hegemony. Jonathan Howland at JINSA: 'W While the international community focuses on Iran’s nuclear ambitions officials f the Islamic Republic have been busy exercising their rapidly increasing influence - fuel d by more than a decade of a lucrative petroleum sales and accelerated by the removal f Iraq as a regional counterweight - in the Persian Gulf and on the international stag . Complicating matters is Iran’s control of the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon a d increasing sway over the now ruling terrorist Hamas organization in the West Bank a d Gaza. The ability to frustrate Israeli-Palestinian peace making coupled with increasi g its political, economic and military influence, means that Iran is well on its way towa d dominating the wider region. ... Following the alarming mid-April announcement by Iranian President Ahmadinejad that Iran had mastered the enrichment process and entered the nuclear club, the Pentagon has announced a number of initiatives designed to defeat underground facilities like those increasingly in use around the world, including Iran. The Department of Defense has also been arming munitions with earth-penetrating warheads designed to burrow well beneath the surface of the earth before exploding, in order to collapse underground bunkers. On June 2, 2006, the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency will conduct an experiment, Divine Strake, at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nevada Test Site. It will consist of the detonation of 700 tons (TNT equivalent to 593 tons) of the explosive ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (ANFO) on the ground above an existing tunnel at the site constructed for other research efforts. ANFO is commonly used in mining and blasting operations, and the amount of explosive being used in the experiment was selected to cause various levels of damage to the tunnel. The experiment supports DoD’s Tunnel Target Defeat Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration, which is intended to improve the military’s confidence in its ability to plan to defeat hardened and deeply buried targets.' Full article at the link. (JINSA)

In from the Cold: Weekend roundup. Spook 86:

First, there was the announcement that Russia is selling the advanced S-300P air defense system to its neighbor, Belarus. On the surface, that doesn't seem surprising. Among its former republics, Belarus has maintained the closest military ties to Moscow. Last October, Russian officials announced that the two nations would essentially merge their air defense networks, giving Moscow more defensive depth along its western borders. Under that arrangement, using common missile systems, radars and C2 networks certainly makes sense. The sale of the S-300 was hardly unexpected; there had been talk of such a deal for more than six months.

But there may be more to this transaction than meets the eye. According to some reports, Belarus plans to acquire at least a full brigade of S-300s (NATO designator: SA-20). That's more than sufficient to cover the country's airspace, considering that Russian batterys cover portions of Belorussian territory as well. Then, there's the cost factor. A single S-300 battery costs upwards of $300 million, and the Belarus economy is essentially stagnant. In other words, buying a full brigade would seemingly be beyond Minsk's financial reach, unless the Russians have arranged highly favorable terms (such as an arms-for-debt swap), or someone else is helping to finance the purchase.

And who might that someone be? ...

Morning Report knows the suspense is killing you. Read the rest at the link. (IFTC)

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.

George W. Bush, Dissident

Natan Sharansky in Opinion Journal:

There are two distinct marks of a dissident. First, dissidents are fired by ideas and stay true to them no matter the consequences. Second, they generally believe that betraying those ideas would constitute the greatest of moral failures. Give up, they say to themselves, and evil will triumph. Stand firm, and they can give hope to others and help change the world.

Political leaders make the rarest of dissidents. In a democracy, a leader's lifeline is the electorate's pulse. Failure to be in tune with public sentiment can cripple any administration and undermine any political agenda. Moreover, democratic leaders, for whom compromise is critical to effective governance, hardly ever see any issue in Manichaean terms. In their world, nearly everything is colored in shades of gray.

That is why President George W. Bush is such an exception. He is a man fired by a deep belief in the universal appeal of freedom, its transformative power, and its critical connection to international peace and stability. Even the fiercest critics of these ideas would surely admit that Mr. Bush has championed them both before and after his re-election, both when he was riding high in the polls and now that his popularity has plummeted, when criticism has come from longstanding opponents and from erstwhile supporters.

With a dogged determination that any dissident can appreciate, Mr. Bush, faced with overwhelming opposition, stands his ideological ground, motivated in large measure by what appears to be a refusal to countenance moral failure.

I myself have not been uncritical of Mr. Bush. Like my teacher, Andrei Sakharov, I agree with the president that promoting democracy is critical for international security. But I believe that too much focus has been placed on holding quick elections, while too little attention has been paid to help build free societies by protecting those freedoms--of conscience, speech, press, religion, etc.--that lie at democracy's core. ...

Yet despite these criticisms, I recognize that I have the luxury of criticizing Mr. Bush's democracy agenda only because there is a democracy agenda in the first place. A policy that for years had been nothing more than the esoteric subject of occasional academic debate is now the focal point of American statecraft.

For decades, a "realism" based on a myopic perception of international stability prevailed in the policy-making debate. For a brief period during the Cold War, the realist policy of accommodating Soviet tyranny was replaced with a policy that confronted that tyranny and made democracy and human rights inside the Soviet Union a litmus test for superpower relations.

The enormous success of such a policy in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end did not stop most policy makers from continuing to advocate an approach to international stability that was based on coddling "friendly" dictators and refusing to support the aspirations of oppressed peoples to be free.

Then came Sept. 11, 2001. ...

Please read the whole thing at the link.

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.

Elham Mane'a: Against the Veil

Yemeni reformist Dr. Elham Mane'a, quoted in MEMRI:

Take Off the Veil, Sister

"I call on you, my Muslim sister, to take off the veil. This is an honest call... Its intention is not to defile you, nor to encourage you to [moral] lassitude. I call on you to exercise [free] thought and to use your own mind.

"You and your mind are sufficient. There is no need to search in books and in history, and there is no need to consult the opinions of the commentators... I request that you listen to my words and judge them without suspecting my intentions. After that, you are free. Free to choose [for yourself], to [shape] your own fate, and to do as you wish. You are your own master. You alone. No one but you has custody over you. After [you consider my words], don the veil or take it off - I will respect your decision. Ultimately, the decision must be yours...

"The wearing of the hijab in the Islamic world actually began with the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which made the veil obligatory for women - after the clerics succeeded in turning the tables on the middle class and the leftist groups, who paid with their blood to end the rule of the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Since this revolution was the first true awakening in the region, it was considered by many to be an example worthy of imitation - both [the revolution itself] and the garb that the women began to wear...

"Another well-known factor is the increase in oil [sales], which enabled Saudi Arabia and wealthy Saudis to provide financial aid for the dissemination of Wahhabi Islamic religious propaganda, and to set up a gigantic media network which emphasized daily that the veil was obligatory. This religious Islamic propaganda meshed with the thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood and with the [thinking] of the Arab and Islamic parties that grew out of it. As a result, a new and strange kind of thinking spread through Muslim society, changing many [previous] behaviors and perceptions."


The Veil is a Political Issue

"The veil is, therefore, a political issue. In two countries [Iran and Saudi Arabia], the political elite rules in the name of religion, and strives to propagate its own model [of Islam] - while at the same time [using religion] to guarantee the legitimacy [of its rule]. Both these countries imposed the wearing of the veil on women, presenting it as a sign of piety, whether the women wanted to [wear it] or not. ...

Read the rest at the link.

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.

An-Naqed: Goose-Stepping Iranians

Alan Caruba at Wafa Sultan's "An-Naqed" website:

Most who lived during the 1930s rise of the Nazi’s Third Reich are dead and all that’s left are the images on the History Channel. That’s why the sight of goose-stepping Iranian soldiers is eerily redolent of goose-stepping German storm troopers.

In an even more bizarre reflection of the German regime that emerged in the 1930s is the obsessive rhetoric blaming the Jews for the troubles of the Middle East and the threats to wipe Israel off the map. In the midst of WWII, the Nazis diverted important resources to round up and kill six million European Jews, along with five million Christians, Gypsies, homosexuals, and others they deemed “sub-human” or political enemies.

We know that in America, Spain and England, being an “infidel” is sufficient to get you killed as you commute to work or prepare for another day in the office.

We know that Europe hesitated to confront Adolf Hitler and paid a terrible price for it. We know, too, that those Jews who fled Europe were the fortunate few survivors and those who immigrated to Israel after the war had no place else to go. Would you want to go “home” to live next door to a neighbor who betrayed you to the death camps?

Barely one percent of the entire landmass of the Middle East and surrounded by twenty-two nations that still daily deplore its existence, Israel remains the victim of terrorist bombings of its civilian population, along with the rockets and mortars of the Palestinians to the north and south of its borders.

Rather than invading Gaza, Israel has withdrawn from it. Rather than remaining in southern Lebanon, it has withdrawn from it. Rather than retain sections of the West Bank, it plans to withdraw from parts of it.

This is not the picture of a militant, occupying force intent on retaining its gains in the 1967 war waged against it. This is a people who have opted to build a long, high wall to fence itself off from a totally toxic population on the other side. ...

Read the rest at the link.

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.

Night Flashes

Bashar bashing is in full force tonight, as Lebanese Political Journal proclaims Assad's future "bleak": taking issue (once again) with the erstwhile Josh Landis, LPJ writes: 'Even if we are to take Landis' rosy forecast at face value, given the history of the area, it is highly unlikely that Syria, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and (given Syria and Iran's historic relations with it) Armenia will become a bastion of peace and cooperation.' And lots more - go to the link ... meanwhile, Amarji is up to all kinds of no good with his case for regime change in Syria: 'By falling back on the Iranian option again (for let’s not forget here that this regime had sided once already with Iranian mullas during their long confrontation with the Saddam regime), and embracing the confrontational policies of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, the Assads of Syria have chosen a path that leaves no room for diplomatic maneuvers. The die has indeed been cast, and compromise is no longer possible. It’s all about victory or defeat now, and the US cannot afford to be defeated by the likes of Bashar, regardless of considerations of guilt and innocence, regardless of who should be assigned a greater share in the blame for bringing this situation about. This regime’s days are numbered.' And: 'The Syrian regime holds no cards of its own anymore, in fact, it itself has become a card in the hands of the Iranian mullahs.' Go to the link to find out what happens when the mullahs are deprived of that card ... and while you're at it, read about some Syrian political prisoners ...

Kofi Annan (yawn) condemns the terrorist murder in the Sinai peninsula ... so does (gag) Hamas ... and of course (bronx cheer) Mahmoud Abbas ...

Meanwhile, Kesher Talk congratulates Professor Pondscum on his possible accession to the hallowed halls of Yale: 'Kesher Talk has been following the bloggish career of Juan Cole, since one of our specialities is academic antisemitism. Now that Cole is being considered for appointment by Yale University, let's review: Cole uses guilt by association to accuse the brothers who write Iraq the Model being CIA agents, because they are supported by Americans who support the war. As the Fadhil brothers, sponsored by Spirit of America, travel around the US to meet their supporters, Cole and his blogosphere buddies stir up conspiracy theories about their motives, to the extent that Spirit of America feels it necessary to issue a disclaimer. These smears are then uncritically used as part of a story by a NYTimes reporter to further cast doubts on the Fadhils. Cole accuses MEMRI of getting under-the-table financing. Steven I Weiss challenges Cole's numbers, demonstrating that Cole has no idea how the real world works. Cole speculates on the personal life of reporter Steven Vincent not a week after his death, earning him a stinging email rebuke by Vincent's widow.' ... what a classy guy ... go to the link for the whole scoop ...

And finally, returning to the scene of the crime: 'Coordinated triple blast killed at least 30 people, injured 170, at Dahab, the Red Sea resort on eastern Sinai coast Monday night' ... Jane has a roundup and reports that Big Pharaoh is OK ... while Donald Sensing at Winds of Change writes about al-Qaeda's war against Muslims ...

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.