Iraq: Amnesty clarified, Task Force 145 continues the mission.

Counterterrorism Blog:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has provided clarity to the controversial provision of amnesty for insurgents who killed U.S. and Coalition soldiers. "Any amnesty for insurgents will exclude fighters who killed Iraqis or soldiers of the multinational forces because these troops came to Iraq according to international agreements and they are contributing in making the political process successful... Those who commit such crimes will stand trial because the aim of killing Iraqis or foreign soldiers is to frustrate democracy and the political process." said al-Maliki, according to the Associated Press. ...

Task Force 145 struck in Yusifiyah two days ago, and captured fourteen terrorists during multiple raids. Included in the catch were "known leaders of the Tawhid Wa'al Jihad and Jaysh al-Islamit" terrorist groups. Yusifiyah has been another al-Qaeda stronghold, and multiple raids have been carried out in this city. The full version of Zarqawi's last videotape was recovered in Yusifiyah, and Zarqawi was believed to have narrowly evaded capture during a Coalition assault on al-Qaeda safe houses in April. ...

Read the whole thing at the link.

Cinnamon Stillwell on Free Speech

There isn't much I can add to Cinnamon Stillwell's excellent column on free speech and "hate speech". Last year, I posted on an incident in South Windsor, Connecticut, where some high school students were sent home because of the political message on their T-shirts.

Go read Cinnamon's article.

Morning Report: June 28, 2006

Striking back. Israel raids Gaza with the double purpose of finding two hostages and breaking the terrorist machine; while Americans deal with a security threat on their own soil.

Israel: "Summer Rain" comes to Gaza. Debka: 'The rescue of Israeli hostage Gilead Shalit is the overriding mission of the Israeli ground thrust into Gaza, but the Qassam threat to southern Israel is also targeted for root treatment. Fourteen hours after the “Summer Rain” offensive was launched Tuesday night, OC Southern Command Maj-Gen Yoav Galant told reporters Wednesday that “many more unseen operations are in progress in addition to the overt push." He affirmed that the 19-year-old corporal kidnapped by Hamas on Sunday is in the Gaza Strip. Regarding negotiations for Shalit’s release, Galant stressed: “We don’t negotiate with terrorist groups,” adding that foreign elements are still trying their luck at getting him out. The general said the next stages of the Israeli offensive would be affected by Palestinian responses. As he spoke, a Qassam missile was fired at Mefalsim in the Negev, hurting no one. It followed an air bombardment of empty land in the North.' Also: 'Popular Resistance Committees hold press conference in Gaza, display identity card to prove they are holding Israeli civilian Eliahu Asheri, 18, from Itamar on the West Bank. PRC spokesman Muhammad al-Al displayed the ID against the background of his group’s emblems and flags, but posed no terms for any further information or the hostage’s release. DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources add that the display of the Israeli boy’s ID does not prove the PRC is holding him, any more than Corp. Gilead Shalit in Gaza. The kidnappers may be subcontracting the PRC as their front. Earlier, the Palestinian umbrella group threatened to execute Eliahu Asheri if Israel does not halt its Gaza air-and-ground offensive launched Tuesday night. Asheri, a student at the Neveh Tsuf pre-military academy was last seen Sunday at the French Hill intersection in northern Jerusalem after visiting a friend in Beitar Illit. Israeli special forces are on standby to rescue him as soon as leads are found to his whereabouts.' Current bulletin: 'Wednesday, June 28, Palestinian anti-tank rocket fire was directed at the IDF force seizing the disused airport of Dahaniya NW of Rafah where a forward command post was set up. Palestinian security forces pulled out of Dahaniya as the Israeli force entered. It is in this area that Israel believes Corp. Gilead Shalit is held by Hamas. Israeli troops have also recaptured the Philadelphi border strip.' IRIS has a news roundup, and photographs. The Intelligence Summit has a report:

ISN SECURITY WATCH (Wednesday, 28 June 2006: 13.43 CET) – Israeli forces entered the southern Gaza Strip before dawn on Wednesday morning in an operation designed to pressure the Palestinian government to work for the release of an Israeli soldier captured in a militant raid on Sunday.

Israel has deployed tanks and armored personnel carriers in open areas east of the border town of Rafah in the raid, dubbed "Summer Rain," penetrating one kilometer into the Gaza Strip in the first phase of a staged operation.

A second Israeli force is poised to enter the Gaza Strip from the north in response to Qassam rocket fire from militant groups.

CNN reports that there have been no clashes as yet between Palestinian gunmen, who patrolled the streets in cities and towns across the West Bank on Wednesday night, and the Israeli force.

The Israeli Air Force launched missile strikes against three bridges and a power station in central Gaza ahead of the ground force incursion in what military officials said was an effort to prevent militants from moving the kidnapped soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit.

According to Ha'aretz, Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert approved the ground force incursion on Tuesday night, after consultations with defense officials, in order to strike at the "terrorist infrastructure." ...

And in breaking news, Jerusalem Post reports a disturbing development that may be related to Eliyahu Asheri. (various)

Moroccan hackers strike Israeli sites. Lior Haner in Ha'Aretz: 'A group of Moroccan hackers attacked hundreds of Israeli websites on Wednesday. Some reports say that as many as 750 websites with the suffix co.il have come under attack. The website attacks started after Israel Defense Forces began preparing for the retaliatory "Summer Rain" operation in Gaza, in response to the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit on Sunday. The hacker group, which calls itself 'Team Evil', replaces the home page of the target websites with the following text: "Hacked By Team-Evil Arab hackers u KIll palestin people we Kill Israel servers" (sic).' (Ha'Aretz)

Russians hunt killers in Iraq. AP via Jerusalem Post: 'President Valdimir Putin has ordered Russian special services to hunt down the killers of four Russian hostages in Iraq, news agencies reported Wednesday.' (JPost)

Samarra bombers arrested. Iraq the Model: 'In a news conference currently being broadcast on TV, Iraq's national security advisor Muwaffak al-Rubaie says Iraqi security forces arrested Abu Qudama al-Tunisi in a raid in the suburb of al-Dhuloiya north of Baghdad. 15 other foreign terrorists were killed in the raid according to al-Rubaie. The terrorist of Tunisian origin confessed that he was responsible for the attack that destroyed the Askari Shrine in Samarra back in February 22 of this year. Muwaffak al-Rubaie said the security forces are still searching for Haitham al-Badri who is believed to be the field commander under whom Abu Qudama was operating.' The Belmont Club: 'If Rubaie has got the right perps then this is a tremendous intelligence victory for the Coalition. Whatever cell was in charge of investigating the Golden Mosque incident never let this trail go until it finally led to this Baghdadi safehouse. Again it shows that the primary weapon of the Coalition isn't what is visible to the eye but rather that which goes unremarked. Intelligence operations followed by targeted raids. For that reason the war against intel unremittingly waged by institutions like the New York Times has its price.' (ITM, Belmont Club)

Making the Times pay. Tammy Bruce: 'Certain Republican House members are moving to revoke the Congressional press credentials of the New York Times. This after the "newspaper" has revealed several secret government War on Terror programs, arguably compromising national security.' Tammy says this is a good start, but not nearly enough; she argues that the NYT's crimes against America may have even outstripped the Rosenbergs' betrayal in terms of the concrete damage done to America's security. Thomas Holsinger at Winds of Change suggests civil liability: 'ongress can deter news organizations, and others, from publishing classified documents by making them strictly liable for civil tort damages caused by foreign terrorists, i.e., the New York Times should pay for the next 9/11 because its repeated publications of classified information have aided terrorists and put all Americans at risk. This would put the Times out of business, and that is a good thing. Such legislation would pass Constitutional scrutiny because civil liability would not be subject to the strict protections applicable to criminal liability.' Read it all at the links. (Tammy Bruce, WoC)

Iran: State vs. White House. Or is it, "State vs. America"? Richard Perle writing in the Washington Post says that 'Condoleezza Rice has moved from the White House to Foggy Bottom, a mere mile or so away' but worlds apart ideologically. Yet 'Rice's influence on the president is undiminished', and that's the problem: rather than bringing bold White House reforms to the State Department, she has instead transmitted State's pernicious influence to the White House. None of this is good news for America or for the Iranian people. (WP)

Commentary. Today's entry is long - it's been a busy 24 hours - but one or two things do stand out. Wretchard's comment "the war against intel unremittingly waged by institutions like the New York Times has its price" seems a good place to begin. I'll put forth the following proposition: When citizens feel their government "belongs to them", they will see a common interest between themselves and their government. That is, while they may be wary of "big government" meddling in their lives, they nevertheless see their nation's government as fundamentally a friend and not an enemy because they have a personal stake in it.

The Times may have believed it could rally massive public support with its latest stunt; if so, it miscalculated. Even Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post admits that 'What we're seeing is a there-they-go-again reaction on the right that is the culmination of building frustrations against the MSM in general and the Times in particular over the disclosure of classified information' while he's seen 'very few liberal bloggers defending the Times'. (This Oregon blogger notes that even Murtha opposed the Times' move.) Instead, citizens are calling on their Government to punish the paper - one way or another.

Meanwhile, Israelis await the fate of two young men. Judith Apter Klinghoffer writes: 'The Israeli MSM, like the US one, is busy in self criticism. The Israeli MSM is to the left of the American one. So, they report that the Israeli right is praising the Gaza operation. In a democracy, politics is ever present. But the people, the people ignore the background noise and focus on the father who asked his son to try to survive.'

Citizens are beginning to realize they do not have to put up with the MSM's "background noise." There are more important things to be done. Like surviving.

Steve Duin of "The Oregonian" Gets an Earful on Iraq

Last week, Oregonian columnist Steve Duin published this piece, charmingly titled Mutilated Beyond Recognition:

Another lowered flag, another bale of yellow ribbon, another moment -- or two -- of silence. That just about covers it. Except for the lonely, angry prayer, that's the depth of our response to the deaths of two more local boys, Army Pfc. Tom Tucker of Madras and Spc. Robert Jones of Milwaukie, in Iraq.

The moments of silence tend to blend together, don't they? And almost three years -- and more than 2,300 U.S. military fatalities -- after President challenged insurgents and terrorists who might attack American troops by saying, "Bring them on," the silence is eerie.

Hush, now. Close your eyes. Be still. Never you mind. Move along.

Three days after Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston were overpowered and kidnapped at a remote checkpoint near Yusufiya, their bodies were discovered inside a circle of booby traps and bombs, scarred by torture, mutilated beyond recognition.

Mutilated beyond recognition: That sums up this country's ongoing mission in Iraq. ...

And on and on with more of this drivel. Steve Duin is obviously a big fan of John Murtha and devotes several paragraphs to the Pennsylvania Democrat.

One person on an e-mail list penned the following response:

Mr. Duin:

The title of your piece yesterday in the Oregonian [Mutilated Beyond
Recognition] could also be said to describe your powers of logic.

You dishonor these two fallen soldiers by using their demise as fodder for
your ridiculous idea of leaving an important job unfinished as its chances
for success continually increase. If within a couple of years, Iraq is a
reasonably functioning democratic society, and the other Arab/Muslim nations
that have started their march (yes, sometimes crawl) to democracy have
continued on that path (including Kuwait...or did you not notice they're
having first-ever elections that include women both on the ballot and in the
booth?), will you ever concede that the war and sacrifice were worth it? If
you don't think that the progress in the other non-democratic nations of the
region are due in large part to the aggressive approach taken by the U.S. in
Iraq, then I refer you, again to the first sentence above. Or invite you to
explain why not.

Perhaps you just think this whole Muslim extremist/terroist thing will go
away by a combination of appeasement and wishful thinking? Remember
Chamberlain. There is no peace to be made with this enemy; and you should
be thankful that someone at the helm had the guts to realize that and take
the fight to them.

Every killed soldier is a tragedy that permanently scars many lives, but if
in the end 4000 forces are lost, never in the history of warfare will have
so few been lost for the freedom of so many.

A fellow veteran of my old unit had this to say:

Mr. Duin,
I am writing to you and your editors to express my displeasure and offense to the premises espoused in your June 22, 2006, column.

Let’s begin with the constant promotion by the main stream media of how many Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Guardsmen have died in combat operations over the past three years. In the past three years of major and light combat in hostile theaters of operation we have only lost just over 2,500 service members. That may seem like a lot to the average Joe on the street, but that is an amazingly low number of casualties. Not bad considering that in the battles for the south Pacific in the early forties there are several battles where twice that number of Marines was lost in just a matter of hours.

The other issue overlooked by you media types is every one of the 2,500 plus KIA in both Afghanistan and Iraq are volunteers. Must of whom have either enlisted or reenlisted at some point in the past three years. What that really means is that they had a choice not to participate in any combat operations, but, chose to fight for your country as well as his or hers.

You bring up John Murtha and spew his political opinions as if they were written in the gospel. Yes, Rep. Murtha served in the Marine Corps, and I assume he was even Honorably Discharged. Today he is not speaking as a retired Marine officer, but as a politician seeking to keep his job. That very plainly means that he is going to do whatever it takes to cover his own “6” (Marine speak for your backside), and not his buddies.

You also attempt to discredit the opinions of Karl Rove because he never put on a uniform and John Murtha has. Well, what about guys like Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid? Does it mean that the country should not listen to these politicians because they never served in the military? Or is it more that you are going to take up the battle to promote their thoughts because they agree with your own?

Oh, and by the way, did you ever put on a uniform and spend any time in a fighting hole? If not why should your voice be heard? What gives you the right to criticize anything to with the military or the missions the undertake?

Most importantly, and more to the point, the media and those who lean politically to the left express more outrage, by the way a right protected by the military, toward our Commander-in-Chief than towards those who deserve it most, the terrorist we are fighting. You don’t see any protesting at the local Mosques, because of the way those two young, brave, honorable soldiers were tortured before they were killed. Where is the call to stamp out fanatic Islamist in our own country? Oh, wait we cannot paint Muslims with such a broad brush. We can however paint our military with one.

Steve Duin's follow-up column reveals that he got a strong response to his column:

The return fire on Thursday's column concerning the death of two Oregon soldiers and the war in Iraq was predictably intense. And before the next day had passed, intensely unpredictable.

Some of the feedback was wistful; much of it was partisan and bitter. I'd received numerous suggestions that Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., is a traitor and that I am conspiring with al-Qaida when this e-mail arrived:

I have a son in the Marines and I served in the Marines in Vietnam. So tell me, what do you really think?

You are no different than Kerry or Fonda of my day, and that probably makes you proud. ...

The author of the message, one Darrell Smith, eventually ended up in a 45-minute heart-to-heart phone conversation with Duin, and wrote passionately of his mixed feelings about his son's service:

As you can imagine, in my family saying I love you was a non-thing to do when I was growing up. You know, saying you love your son and knowing he may be going into harm's way is tearful. I tried not to miss a day without telling my children that I love them. It has made a remarkable difference in my life.

I wanted to be with him for one more summer before he left but it was not to be. . . . I wanted to go hiking, tubing and just sit and BS with him. He has taken a road that few have followed, and there will be this huge change, especially if he takes another person's life, be it in defense of his brethren or for other reasons. My son will never be the same. . . . My experience says that life will never be the same for him. It will either make him stronger or it will not. . . .

All I was hoping for was a little more time before he truly loses his innocence.

I appreciate Steve Duin's conciliatory attitude, and his willingness to speak openly with a military family member. And I am especially pleased that he took the time to let that father speak to Duin's readers in his own words.

But this doesn't fix the larger problem, which is that Steve Duin, like the overwhelming majority of the establishment, does not want to admit that our campaign in the Middle East may succeed, and for that reason does not want it to succeed. Here is my response to Duin's first column and its follow-up:

Steve, thank you for today's column.

I am 43 years old, a Portland resident since 2000, and a combat veteran of Desert Storm. I served with the 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion, 1st Marine Division, from 1989 to 1993. We were among the first to cross the border from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait, and we took the first combat casualties of the ground war. (It was a double fratricide incident near Khafji on the night of January 29, 1991; two of our vehicles were destroyed by friendly missiles. We lost seven men.)

Whatever the stereotype of the "typical Marine" may be, it's probably safe to say I'm not it. (In truth, very few Marines are.) I was raised in an intellectual, liberal, Democratic family, and to this day I consider myself a "liberal" although I vote Republican now. I was among the 52% who voted for President Bush in 2004, and I guess I am among the 29%, or whatever figure the polls are giving, who still support him now. I was poised to write a poison-pixel email in response to your last column, but instead followed my better instincts as a blogger and waited until some of the anger had subsided and I could write a little more calmly.

Your column from last Thursday, concerning the brutal killings of Tucker and Menchaca, at least implicitly acknowledges some value in the "military objective in toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein", which is more than can be said for many of your journalistic colleagues; this, however, is all that can be said in its defense.

First, there is the general premise of your column, summed up in your lurid conclusion that "the weight of the coffins and the gravestones and the dead flowers would crush the cynical and sentimental notion that this war will end well." By this logic, every war that ever brought with it coffins and gravestones and dead flowers, which is to say every war ever fought, must end badly. Do you really believe this? If so, then you must believe that the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Second World War all ended badly. Are you prepared to justify that conclusion? If you are a strict pacifist, that's your business, but please be plain about it.

Your emotional reasoning depends for its impact upon treating our soldiers as objects - objects of pity, objects of speculation, but in any event, objects. No serious attempt is made to understand why the soldiers do what they do, or why (as is so often the case) they truly believe in what they are doing. This is typical of the condescension that we servicemen and veterans often receive from the so-called "educated", so-called "liberal" parts of society. I myself have experienced this more times than I care to recall. And yet, suddenly there's this outpouring of respect for a "Vietnam vet and a career officer in the Marines" named John Murtha.

Notice, too, that the bereaved families are also treated as objects. Only when they express anti-war sentiments ("Wes Tucker wondered aloud Wednesday if his son's gruesome death was retaliation for the U.S. military's conduct at such places as Abu Ghraib and Haditha") are they worthy of being treated as individuals with thoughts of their own. Cindy Sheehan gets incessant coverage and adulation from the press.

But if (as you media folks are forever reminding us) there have been 2,500+ American deaths in Iraq, then where are all the other grieving mothers? Could it be that, even for all of their own personal anguish, they are not protesting the war because they understand that their sons and daughters died in the service of a noble cause? It could be - but we'll never hear that from the press. Nor will we get to hear from Stephen Vincent's widow, Lisa Ramaci-Vincent, who continues to champion the cause her husband gave his life for. (I had the honor of meeting Lisa at a bloggers' convention last November.)

My mother could easily have been among those who lost a child in a war with Iraq. Only fate spared me from being in the wrong place at the wrong time on the eve of my twenty-eighth birthday. Do you know what a TOW missile is? One of them will destroy a main battle tank. The Light Armored Vehicle is not a main battle tank, but basically a thick-skinned Winnebago. And one of them can carry fourteen TOW missiles. Can you guess what happens to the crew when one of these vehicles is hit by a missile? "Mutilated beyond recognition" doesn't even begin to describe it. There was nothing left of the bodies to recognize; the biggest piece of the vehicle they found was a strut from the undercarriage about the size of a man's forearm.

But Mom stood behind me. In the tortured cliché, she "supported" me. How? By respecting my ability to make my own choices and take my own risks; by taking the effort to understand the value of what we were doing in Kuwait; and most of all, by recognizing that my sacrifices - even the risk of my life - were for a worthwhile cause.

I knew enough about Iraq to know that Saddam was an evil sadist who had to be stopped, and, if possible, removed. As we all know, Saddam was not deposed, and the Iraqi people's uprising was cruelly betrayed in the spring of 1991. I won't dwell on it here, but the humiliating end of that war left a bad taste in my mouth for twelve years.

In the early weeks after 9/11, I was skeptical of the junior President Bush's motives in the Middle East. (I was involved in the Green Party at the time, so it wasn't like I was exactly being deluged with pro-Bush propaganda.) But it soon became clear that Bush was determined to succeed - strategically and morally - where his father had failed. When he declared that "we will not simply replace one dictatorship with another", I was won over.

George H. W. Bush must have believed, as you still do, that "shoving democracy down the throats of rival religious factions is a fool's errand." This odious statement sums up all that was wrong with American policy in the past, a cynical and degrading dogma that was rightly rejected by the Government only to be embraced by the left.

Some forty-two years ago, three pro-democracy activists named James Earl Chaney, Michael Schwermer, and Andrew Goodman were shot dead in Mississippi by a domestic terrorist group known as the Ku Klux Klan. If they met their deaths quickly, perhaps they were luckier than many activists who were lynched or otherwise tortured to death under the Jim Crow regime. Were they on a "fool's errand"? Was it madness to "shove democracy down the throats" of southern Blacks?

I don't believe democracy in Iraq is a "fool's errand". Nor do I believe America is losing the war in Iraq. I read Iraqi websites daily, and I read reports from the soldiers who are actually over there. I read analysis by people who actually know what is going on, and I find it both more credible and more informative than the media's propaganda.

We will not win this war quickly or easily, but we will win. I thank you for taking the time to get to know the real live military people who are fighting this war, and the real live families who are sharing its sacrifices - even the ones who aren't John Murthas or Cindy Sheehans. And yes, I believe you and I would probably find we share a lot in terms of basic beliefs.

If you are interested, you may read the short essay I wrote on Iraq.

Another commenter on the list was less forgiving:

Isn't it precious that Duin thinks that all this exchange with an emotional serviceman's parent exonerates him? That his cartoon was less hateful and less hurtful? It is at least disingenuous that he exploits this father's distress to find justification for what he did.

Steve Duin has lots of noble sentiments on Iraq. Too bad those sentiments don't include respect for the Iraqi people, or respect for the Americans who risk and sometimes sacrifice their lives to protect us and the freedom we hold dear.

Guadalcanal!

Regular readers of the Blogger site will already be familiar with my father's World War II memoir, which I am publishing online as Pacific Memories. Chapter 11 is now complete and we are entering Chapter 12 - and the fabled Guadalcanal:

Guadalcanal seemed the essence of jungle warfare as Americans at home and overseas came to know it. Its malevolent dense growth assailed one both physically and spiritually ...

Read the rest here.

Morning Report: June 27, 2006

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! Behind the media's smokescreen, Iraq makes progress as insurgent groups start to come around. New gestures between Baghdad and Tehran leave room for speculation, but there's no doubt that Israel means business on its western corner. And further south, a hideout becomes a last stand for three suspected terrorists.

A step in the right direction. The Belmont Club comments on Mohammed's post at Iraq the Model reporting that seven insurgent groups have expressed interest in joining the political process. ITM: 'So far, everybody in Iraq feels good about Maliki's plan and expressed their hopes for it to meet success and ease the suffering of the Iraqi people; everybody except for the Sadrists and the association of Muslim scholars who both criticized the plan and said it wasn't acceptable and expected it to fail. The question is do they are expecting it to fail only because they think it is not framed in a workable way or because they wish for it to fail? I'm afraid the latter is the likely answer.' They're not the only ones. The Belmont Club: 'The BBC will probably note that the initial intake will consist of groups peripheral to the real fighting, the weaker insurgent groups, the half-hearted Jihadis, and they will be right. However, Maliki is probably trying to get momentum going and the only way to do that is to work on the weakest links of the insurgency first.' (ITM, Belmont Club)

Iraq: The real world vs. the media's world. Strategy Page: 'One of the more interesting types of stories exchanged by Iraq veterans is how their embedded reporters get screwed by their editors. The basic problem is that reporters tend to get close to the troops they are embedded with, and the troops form a good sense of what kind of story is being written. But then, when the story appears, it often has no connection with what actually happened, other than the names of the reporter and the soldiers or marines. The troops get curious about how this can be. ... The answer to all these queries is simple. The reality of Iraq is too positive for the editors back home.' Full article at the link. (Strategy Page)

Ahmadinejad to visit Iraq. Marze Por Gohar: 'Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Iraq soon, the Tehran-based Fars news agency reported on Monday. The president will visit Baghdad in the coming weeks to meet Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, and then travel to Najaf where he will hold talks with Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Fars reports.' Meanwhile, Iran Focus reports that 'Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari arrived in Tehran on Monday to hold talks with Iranian officials, the government-run news agency Fars reported.' It's not clear what is behind these overtures. Could it have anything to do with an attempt by the IRI to intervene on behalf of Russians abducted in Iraq? Some items via Regime Change Iran. (MPG, Iran Focus, RIA Novosti)

Gaza: Rebuilding Israeli deterrence. Following a Hamas attack on an Israeli post that left two Israeli soldiers dead and a third captive, Israel is gearing up for a no-nonsense response. Debka: 'Steely lines of hundreds of tanks, thousands of armored infantry and commandos menaced the Gaza Strip as of Monday night, June 26, from three jumping-off points: the Nahal Oz base opposite Gaza City, Kissufim opposite Deir al Balah and Khan Younes in the south and Sufa opposite Rafah. Made up of the Golani and Givaty armored brigades and special operations units including the elite Sayeret Matkal, they presented a picture of armored might not seen for many years on the world’s television screens, even in US military sieges of Karbala and Falujja, in Iraq.' The Israeli site notes that the campaign is designed to rebuild the credibility of Israel's deterrent force in the Gaza area, while addressing numerous security concerns including the incursion of al-Qaeda into Gaza, the Palestinian takeover of the Philadelphi border crossing, and the continuing threat of Qassam attacks from the Gaza region. In assessing the likely course of the campaign, Debka concludes: 'A large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip must aim not only at rescuing Gilead Shalit but also replacing the bankrupt Sharon security strategy with a doctrine that arms Israel with the tools to repel and win the current round of the Palestinian war. This is a tall order for Israel’s top military tacticians. They must come up with a winning card when the Palestinians hold an ace, the hostage Gilead Shalit. ... DEBKAfile’s military experts do not expect the Palestinians to show massive resistance in the first stage of this operation, except for directing scattered Qassam, mortar and rocket fire against f the invading Israeli force. The real crunch will begin when Israeli troops strike into populated districts. But that will only happen if they fail to find the missing soldier in Rafah.' Go to the link for the full analysis. (Debka)

Three bombing suspects killed in Egypt. AP via Jerusalem Post: 'Security forces on Tuesday killed three people wanted for the bombings in a Sinai resort that killed 21 people two months ago, police said. The police shot dead Ibrahim Hameed Freg, his brother Sami and Ibrahim's wife Fawziya Musleh at a hide-out in a farm in the desert near El Arish, said the chief detective of North Sinai police, Gen. Adel Fawzi.' (JPost)

Who is Michael J. Totten? Fifty-one things you probably didn't know about Portland's citizen of the world here. (MJT)

Commentary. A month ago, an item on Marze Por Gohar headlined Iran-Iraq to Seal Border Against Insurgents attracted little attention. The report stated that

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki of Iran, on the second day of his visit to Iraq, said on Saturday that the two countries had agreed to form a joint commission to oversee border issues and that its primary task would be to "block saboteurs" crossing the 700-mile border.

"We plan to form a joint commission between Iran and Iraq to control our borders and block the way to saboteurs whose aim is to destabilize the security of the two countries," he said in Najaf after talks with Iraq's most powerful Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Mr. Mottaki, whose visit was only the second by an official Iranian government delegation since the downfall of Saddam Hussein, said improved border controls would be part of a wide effort to build close ties between the countries, including $1 billion in Iranian economic assistance to Shiite and Kurdish areas of Iraq.

It's hard to guess what is going on behind the scenes in the Washington/Baghdad/Tehran triangle, and Morning Report will refrain from speculating. But DebkaNet Weekly (subscription service) reports that Iraq's highest-ranking Kurdish leaders, President Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani, are not pleased with the possibility of a backing-down on Washington's part. Whether President Bush will hold the line against the Iranian mullahs remains to be seen.

Israel
Iraq
Iran

Interview with Ghazal Omid

Dreams Into Lightning exclusive: Interview with Iranian activist and author Ghazal Omid.

She is the author of "Living in Hell: A Young Woman's Life in Revolutionary Iran". You can read her columns here. I've previously posted on Ghazal Omid here and here. Now I'm pleased to be able to bring you an interview with her. I spoke with Ghazal by phone for about 45 minutes this evening. What follows is not a verbatim transcript, because I was taking notes by hand, but it does represent the essential points of our conversation.

(Please tell us your thoughts on the recent terrorist arrests in Canada.)
I've been telling the Canadian government about terrorism for a couple of years. Canadian laws are designed to protect everyone; the terrorists understand this and use it to their advantage. [Terror suspect Abdul] Kahar was from a family of terrorists - his father was an officer of Osama bin Laden, and was killed in Afghanistan. We could have had another 9/11 on our hands. Canada is a backdoor for terrorism because of lousy laws. We need to be more careful. When somebody is proven guilty, why are we keeping them in this country?

(On Muslim identity and government incompetence.)
I receive hate mail and phone calls every day, from Muslim fanatics. And yet, I was detained at the border for 45 minutes after I returned from Dubai. Another example: When I took [copies of threatning messages] to the police, they said, "you choose your actions, you receive your reactions." The police showed no enthusiasm and shrugged their shoulders. This is ludicrous. The government needs to know who the good guys and the bad guys are. I believe it's my Muslim duty, and my human duty, to stand up to terrorism. I'm with you - what are you going to do to protect me?

(Tell me about your upcoming three books.)
The first book is called "Poverty in Paradise". It's inspired by my trip to Dubai. In many countries like Dubai, they have a misrepresented image of the United States. It's a corrupted image. They think everyone is like Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson. When I asked male acquaintances in Arab countries what they thought about America, they thought of women running around in bikinis. The image that's presented abroad, via satellite programming, is even more distorted than the portrayals on domestic television. Working-class North Americans aren't portrayed. Yes, the United States holds a large share of the world's wealth, but most people in America work very hard, long hours. They're not rich. I want to make people in other countries feel we all belong to the same family. My second book is called "Islam 101" and it's an introduction to Islam. The religious section is separate from the political section, because I feel these things should be kept separate. The third book is about Iran's future. It's essential to educate women and children if you're going to stop terrorism. You don't want to get to them when they're 20; you want to get to them when they're 3. This book will be a message of humanity and education about Islam and other things.

(You've brought up the subject of wealth and poverty, and the fact that many people in other countries have a false - and harmful - belief that "all Americans are rich and decadent". As you were speaking, I was reminded of the section early in your book "Living in Hell" where you describe the paradox of growing up being rich and poor at the same time. Can you tell me a little more about how this experience influenced your thinking?)
When I was 12 years old, my father would bring home money in potato sacks. When I asked him why, he said, "People give me money so I can hide it." They trusted him more than they trusted the banks. My mother would have me count the money by hand. She wanted me to hold it in my hand so I would get used to the feel of it and not yearn for it. But although Father didn't take care of us - how many days did I live on bread and milk? - we never took his money. He could leave it in his coat pocket and we would never touch it. I have my pride - I'm not gonna beg! But I want to educate people about what they can say and what they can't [so that they can speak out on injustice in a productive way]. I need to respect me before I respect anybody else; I need to love me before I can love anybody else.

(Tell me why, as a religious Muslim, you feel it's important to end the Mullahs' dictatorship in Iran.)
The Mullahs are parasites - they're charlatans. They are distorting the image of Islam; they're no better than bin Laden.

Apart from getting rid of the regime, what changes do you think are necessary for Iranian society?
Education is critical, especially for women. And cultural education. The practice of marrying young girls has nothing to do with the current government, they only increased the problem that was already there. Educating a young girl is like painting a masterpiece - it takes time. We need to raise a generation of strong women.

Do you think you might seek political office in a future, democratic Iranian government?
Yes. I will change the pace of society and work for women's rights. There will be a new sheriff in town!

(Other comments.)

Shirin Ebadi is an opportunist; millions of dollars are funneled to her organization.

When you have a charity in Iran, you have to have someone in the government [who's getting paid off]. When you give money to that charity, your money goes to the government.

Voice of America is using its funding the wrong way; it's actually helping the regime. The Iranian government shows the same images of wealthy, decadent Americans and says to the people, "look, do you want to be like that?" There have been some positive changes at VOA, but it needs to change more.

The US Government is wasting a lot of its money for Iran. Many of the grantees are crooks. The Iranian people need to see tangible efforts, not just TV broadcasts.

A couple of years ago, I saw how people in Washington State took up a collection from their own money to help Iranians after the earthquake. The US needs to do a better job of publicizing efforts like this - sometimes it's OK to let people know when you're doing something good.

I would have loved to help the US Government, if they would listen. I would like to immigrate to the United States, but it could take 15 years unless I can find a way to speed up the process. They did it for Pamala Anderson. Look, Pamela Anderson got into the US because of her breasts ... I should be able to get in because of my brain.

We can help children understand that they are not different from one another because of nationality. We can touch the hearts of children with things they can relate to. Things that touched me as a child: bedtime stories, and listening to radio programs. We love our history. If people in Iran knew how much other people around the world care, they would throw this regime out. If Americans and Iranians really understood one another, they would fall in love with each other.

Tammy to Air on New, All-Woman WVIE Baltimore

Tammy Bruce:

Starting Monday, June 5 the Tammy Bruce Show welcomes a new East Coast flagship to the Tammy Radio family--WVIE AM 1370 in Baltimore. A 50,000 watt station, WVIE will carry the show live, 12p-3pm ET, and it will be heard throughout the entire region. It's uniqueness will be immediately obvious--all the hosts are women. The Baltimore Sun broke the story today.

Baltimore Sun: Women's Voices at WVIE

In the Land of the Living

My sister would have been 42 years old last Friday.

I try to imagine Stephanie at age 42. Would she still be writing? Would she still wear leather jackets? Would she still have that michievous smile? I try to imagine how she would look now, if she had lived.

She died in 1992, a couple of weeks after her 28th birthday, in her apartment in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. She had given up heroin about a year earlier, and despite some setbacks, she was struggling bravely with the agonies of withdrawal. But she was also drinking heavily to ease the pain, and was probably anorexic as well. She knew that the alcohol was harming her, and she resolved to give that up, too, after she had the narcotic addiction under control; but her time ran out. The coroner said she died of liver failure.

I remember her body on the steel table, how small it looked.

She did not want to die. She even wrote it in her diary:

I don't wanna die. I was thinking the other day that I should have that tattooed someplace on my person, somewhere in small letters, like

I dont
wanna
die

maybe in the middle of my chest or inside my arm or my ankle, inconspicuous and small. I was thinking about the undertaker who with my cold and white body laying stiff on his stainless steel table would find the small tattoo and read it. I don't wanna die. A message for the undertaker, for my lover, for God, for my aging skin. I would like to see his face, the undertaker's.

When we were growing up, we didn't have much exposure to death. I don't believe we ever went to a funeral as kids. As I grew older, I began to think - with all the sophistication of a young adult - that this kind of insulation was unhealthy and stultifying; and that, therefore, people who had had contact with death must be privy to some insights that were denied to me. Now I know that this was wrong and stupid; that you do not learn anything from death, you only learn from life.

You can read Stephanie's poetry here and her fiction and prose here.

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.

Ted Nugent's Liberalism

Ted Nugent:

I consider myself a true liberal. I am armed in order to stop good people being destroyed by bad people. Liberalism is assisting quality of life, whatever you may choose. I think that homosexuality is wrong. I think that people who drink, smoke and take drugs are doing wrong.

But I'll tell you how I judge people. The people that ran up those burning towers on September 11 were my heroes. And among those warriors who ran back to save their fellow human beings, you know what there were? Homosexuals. Smokers. Drinkers. People I wouldn't agree with on numerous conduct levels. I judge people on this: are they in the asset column, or the liability column?

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Coming to the US

Thanks to the invaluable Little Green Footballs for breaking the good news. LGF:

More than 20 people emailed this morning about the report that Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is resigning from Parliament and moving to the United States, to work at the American Enterprise Institute. Liberty and Justice has translations of the Dutch report: Ayaan Hirsi Ali Heading To The US.

That report:

According to De Volkskrant she will she will leave to the US September 1, 2006.

Exactly what I was afraid of. She will be welcomed into the US and she will get the respect she deserves there, but it is a crying shame that we force people like her to leave our country.
Do we, finally, have someone who defends our freedom of speech, even putting her life on the line, we force her to leave our country and move to the US. It is making me all sick.

Peaktalk:

Well, that didn't take long. Ayaan Hirsi Ali will in September leave The Netherlands and join the AEI. This outcome was expected and in a way I think it is very good news for her, but it is not all that good for the Dutch. Not only will they lose a talented, vocal and original thinker, they allowed - quite probably deliberately - her to fall in a very public manner and I don't think she deserved that. ...

Volksrant (in Dutch).
Follow the links to the original posts for updates.

Iran Report

Taheri: Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush. Amir Taheri, after a brief history of the art of letter-writing in the Persian/Islamic world, concludes:

Ahmadinejad believes that the Hidden Imam is about to return and that it is the duty of the Islamic Republic to provoke a "clash of civilizations" to hasten that return. As he asserts in his letter, Ahmadinejad also believes that the liberal democratic model of market-based capitalist societies has failed and is rejected even in its traditional homeland. Ahmadinejad has been impressed by the extent of recent riots in France in which the extreme Left provided the leadership while the Muslim sub-proletariat offered much of the muscle in the streets.

Rather than ignoring Ahmadinejad's letter, President Bush should reply to him by inviting him to abandon Khomeinism and convert to liberal democracy. For, when all is said and done, the fight over Iran today is not about real or imagined nuclear weapons; it is about the kind of Iran with which the Middle East, indeed the whole world, can feel comfortable. Ahmadinejad's letter shows that a majority of Iranians, let alone the world as a whole, cannot feel comfortable with the kind of Iran he represents.

Khomeinist regime faces "challenges". Writing in the Arab News, Taheri has this to say:

Talk to any "Iran specialist" about opposition to the present regime and you are likely to hear that it is marginal, exists largely in exile, and affects segments of the urban middle classes, especially students, mainly in Tehran.

The conclusion, therefore, is that the system now headed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is firmly entrenched with no credible challenge looming on the horizon.

However, that picture, largely accurate for much of the past two decades, may be about to change as the system created by the late Ayatollah Khomeini faces new challenges.

These new challenges come from several sources.

The first, and possibly the most important, is the urban working class that has just started to flex its muscles. ...

Workers' protests, unlike student protests, could have an impact on the economy. Ahmadinejad has responded with a "buy-in" program in which workers can buy stock in state-owned companies (most of which are operating at a loss); and by filling the workers' ranks with strikebreakers. Labor Minister Jaromi, believing the oil sector paramount to Iran's economy, goes the head chief one better and recruits only regime loyalists to the oil industry.

IRI: No talks with US over Iraq. The party's over. All hopes for a coridal dialog between the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran over the fate of Iraq have been dashed. We are shocked. Iran Focus reports: ' Iran announced on Sunday that it will not hold direct talks with the United States on the issue of Iraq. “The issue of negotiations between Iran and the U.S. regarding Iraq is no longer on the table”, Iran’s newly-appointed ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi told the official new agency. Qomi said that the issue of Iran-U.S. talks over Iraq had been raised for close to a year but had been repeatedly rejected by Tehran until it was formally proposed by Iraqi officials. “Following the establishment of a permanent government in Iraq, we have no issue to negotiate about”, he said.' A terrible shame; those talks showed such promise.

German embassy next? A subscription article at Debka suggests a seizure of Germany's embassy in Iran may be in the works, a nostalgic recollection of the "444 days" of 1979. An alleged American spy ring operating out of the German embassy is said to be the pretext. They are hoping that the stunt would bring German pressure on the US in Iran's favor and distract attention from the nuclear crisis, perhaps yielding secret back-channel negotiations between Tehran and Washington. Good luck with that.

Hadley: No direct talks with Iran. From Stratfor (subscription): 'Direct engagement between Iran and several other countries within the framework of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) is the best way to resolve the current standoff regarding Iran's nuclear program, U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said May 14. Hadley dismissed suggestions that the United States should engage in direct talks with Iran, calling the UNSC the preferred forum for talks at this time.'

Iran: That goes for us, too. Iran Focus: ' Iran announced on Sunday that it will not hold direct talks with the United States on the issue of Iraq. “The issue of negotiations between Iran and the U.S. regarding Iraq is no longer on the table”, Iran’s newly-appointed ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi told the official new agency.'

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning - TypePad.