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Posting will be light Real pressure at work these past days has left me with no time to post. Pretty exciting stuff is happening in Lebanon though. Go to the Syria Comment site for additional info. Across the Bay is another excellent site.

Betrayals The Denver Channel reports that 200 University of Colorado faculty members have published a petition in a local newspaper asking that the investigation against Ward Churchill be dropped. The faculty members paid for the ad to run Monday in The Boulder Daily Camera . The ad says the review of the professor, expected to complete by the middle of March, should be stopped immediately. The ad says the inquiry is the result of political pressure and not based on "any prior formal complaint of specific professional or academic misconduct on his part." ... CU's Arts and Sciences Council passed a resolution Feb. 10 protesting the investigation, and said administrators should know that faculty members are serious about their opposition to what some consider a witch hunt. Margaret LeCompte, an education professor, said, "It is going to be extremely difficult, if academic freedom is on the block, for us to hire and keep good faculty members....

A Teaching Moment University of Colorado officials are considering offering Ward Churchill an early retirement package that could end an increasingly uncomfortable standoff with the controversial professor. ... David Lane, Churchill's attorney, said he has not been contacted about a buyout offer. But, he said, while his primary focus is on protecting Churchill's constitutional right to speak out, he would be willing to listen to a university proposal. "If they offer $10 million, I would think about it. If they offer him $10, I wouldn't," Lane said. Freedom of speech is not priceless . It's worth ten million dollars and not a penny less. This, according to the Denver Post , is preferred way to get Professor Churchill off the campus. The alternative, it sources suggest, is far worse. Typically such dismissals - even if done by the book - result in years of expensive lawsuits that Hoffman told legislators last week the university would like ...

The World Turned Upside Down Don't that beat all. When the blog Dutch Report reported that two parliamentary representatives, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders had been kept in prison cells to protect them against Islamic death threats, I refused at first to believe it. The Dutch Report is in English and since I could not read the source documents directly, the report seemed too unlikely to be true. But the more I read, even in translation, the less it seemed like a parody. For example : Parliamentary chairman Weisglas now says he is “shocked by the disinterested reactions” in parliament after the protest of representatives Hirsi Ali and Wilders. ”I think the parliamentary members accept it way to easy that a colleague, has to sleep for months in a prison cell”. He describes it as a “disgrace” and “a pathetic show” that Wilders is in prison to protect him against terrorism. Weisglas says he has this weekend made it “very clear” to the government that the two represe...

The Cancer Ward Hat tip to Michelle Malkin for linking to an Inside Denver article on Ward Churchill which catalogues the lengthy history of his denunciation by bona-fide Indians before Colorado University. His accusers include his ex-inlaws. Some excerpts: David Bradley, a Santa Fe-area American Indian artist whose feud with Churchill has endured more than a decade, says he told CU a long time ago that Churchill should be fired. ... Vernon Bellecourt, an American Indian Movement activist, says he first approached the university with questions about the veracity of Churchill's claim to American Indian heritage in 1986. "We went out there with a stack of documents to tell them about him," Bellecourt said. "I made a special trip to Colorado and went to the university. "We told the university he wasn't Indian and was disruptive in the community," said Carole Standing Elk, a California Indian activist. "We said, 'He doesn...

Ward Churchill's Art This fascinating thread from the Freerepublic convincingly shows that Ward Churchill has been selling plagiarized art from Thomas Mails as original work on Ebay. The item up for auction now is a very striking and impressive serigraph/lithograph by renowned Native American author and artist, Ward Churchill ( Keetoowah Band Cherokee). Churchill is Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, and is the Coordinator of American Indian Studies at the same institution. He is also Associate Director of the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America and Co-Director of the Colorado Chapter of the American Indian Movement. Additionally he is a member of the American Indian Anti-Defamation Council and the author of many books and scholarly publications It is the same plagiarized work described in Little Green Footballs and further described by Colorado News4 . The News4 man, Raj Chohan, confronted Churchill with a copy o...

Short of War The peculiar problem facing US counterterrorism efforts in Southeast Asia, according to the Congressional Research Service paper Terrorism in Southeast Asia is that it cannot do so directly without offending regional political sensitivities. Thus the US has been forced to work through host governments even when the hosts are corrupt and inefficient. In the Philippines, for example, a constitutional provision prohibiting the presence of foreign combat troops has severely limited US ability to provide support for the Philippine military. In consideration of the Filipino Constitution’s ban on foreign combat troops operating inside the country, Washington and Manila negotiated special rules of engagement ... U.S. Special Forces personnel took direction from Filipino commanders and could use force only to defend themselves. The main focus of counterterrorism efforts has been the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group. But not only were US efforts to attack them directly hamstrung...

Wrong But Right You've heard of accurate but fake, Indian but White Man. But have you heard of right but wrong?  Hat tip to a great blog, The American Future , which is following events in Europe. They've spotted this gem of sophisticated thinking from the Guardian describing President Bush's recent European trip. The transatlantic reconvergence, in other words, is for real. The problem is that its purpose remains both unstated and, even to those closest to the process, somewhat unclear. Much of this is summed up in the current transitional fluidity over the politics of Iraq. The war was a reckless, provocative, dangerous, lawless piece of unilateral arrogance. But it has nevertheless brought forth a desirable outcome which would not have been achieved at all, or so quickly, by the means that the critics advocated, right though they were in most respects. Historians remarked that the European upper classes never recovered their prestige after the blunders...

Second Front (Naval) Austin Bay sends a link to an article he did for the Weekly Standard which describes some of the goals of Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia. Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia lie first and foremost in JI's geo-strategic kill zone. JI (Jemaah Islamiyah) has large plans for the whole of Southeast Asia, plans dating from well before 9/11. Drawing on cadres schooled in past radical political movements that used Islam as both a wedge issue and a rallying cause, JI seeks to establish a grand "Islamic state" stretching from southern Thailand through Malaysia, the Philippine and Indonesian archipelagoes, and Australia. Indeed, JI produced a "green map" where the reach of sharia, as interpreted by JI leadership, extends into the Australian continent and New Guinea. Fanciful? Megalomaniacal? After 9/11 only the willfully blind can dismiss the motivating power of such an imperial eschatology. At the time Bay was visiting Singapore, the...

The Second Front While the main focus of public attention has been on Iraq, the Congressional Research Service's Terrorism in Southeast (its an older version of the newest report a copy of which I can't find on the Web) reminds us the second front against terrorism is in Southeast Asia particularly "the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore". Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States has considered Southeast Asia to be a “second front” in its global campaign against Islamist terrorism. ... Since the early-to-mid 1990s the Al Qaeda terrorist network has made significant inroads into the region. Al Qaeda’s Southeast Asian operatives -- who have been primarily of Middle Eastern origin — appear to have performed three primary tasks. First, they set up local cells, predominantly headed by Arab members of Al Qaeda, that served as regional offices supporting the network’s global operations. ... Second, over time,...

target="_blank">Oxblog reports news that should be surprising, but isn't. After all, consistency is an easier policy than rampant exceptionalism. Not long ago, I criticized the US government for its silent response to an anti-democratic href="http://www.oxblog.blogspot.com/2005_02_06_oxblog_archive.html#110807441900309619" target="_blank">coup d'etat in Togo . Thus, I am indebted to JT for pointing out that the US has now cut off all military assistance to Togo and endorsed the tough sanctions imposed by the regional organization known as ECOWAS. After my initial criticism of the administration, one liberal realist chided me for assuming that this President literally intended to promote democracy across the globe. ... Yet it seemed that the White House has surprised all of us.

What do these signals indicate? (Hat tip: The Freerepublic ) href="http://news.channels.aol.ca/news/article.adp?id=20050218152709990019"> Paul Martin to announce that Canada sending 30 soldiers to train Iraqis Canada will contribute up to 30 soldiers to a NATO-led force that will help train the new Iraqi army, senior federal officials confirmed Friday. The formal announcement will be made when Prime Minister Paul Martin gathers with other leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting Tuesday in Brussels. EU to Open Baghdad Training Office; Officials Hail Unprecedented Unity Over Iraq The European Union agreed Monday to open an office in Baghdad to coordinate the training of Iraqi judges, prosecutors and prison guards in a step hailed as a sign of unprecedented unity over Iraq within the 25-nation bloc. ... "We are for the first time really united on Iraq," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "That without any doubt is ...

Put these together. Hillary Clinton judges that the Insurgency in Iraq is Failing (hat tip: href="http://austinbay.net/blog/index.php?p=79">Austin Bay ) Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said that much of Iraq was "functioning quite well" and that the rash of suicide attacks was a sign that the insurgency was failing. ... Clinton said the last time she visited Iraq in late 2003, she traveled to the Green Zone by road from the international airport. Today, security is so bad that none of the senators dared drive through Baghdad's streets, even in armored cars. Aside from the Green Zone, their only glimpse of the capital came from the relative safety of U.S. military helicopters that ferried them from the airport. "It's regrettable that the security needs have increased so much. On the other hand, I think you can look at the country as a whole and see that there are many parts of Iraq that are functioning quite well," Clinton said...

Franco Aleman at href="http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com/2005/02/today-is-referendum-day-in-spain-so.html"> Barcepundit is blogging the referendum on the European Constitution. The biggest fear by Zapatero's government is in case the voter turnout is really low, since the whole thing would be a real slap in the face of the Prime Minister utopian pro-European stance. A "yes" vote is virtually asssured, after the propaganda campaign (and I mean, propaganda) and since the main party in opposition, the right-of-center Popular Party is also for a yes vote. I guess they won't cry much much if the turnout is low, though. According to Barcepundit's latest update, the initial exit poll stats are as follows: Turnout -- 41% Yes-- 77/80% No-- 15/17% Blank-- 5/6%

Martin Peretz in href="http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050228&s=peretz022805" target="_blank">Not Much Left says what many have been saying for a while: that Liberalism is out of ideas. The curious thing about his intelligent and literate essay is that he never manages to explain why this condition has taken place. I think it was John Kenneth Galbraith, speaking in the early 1960s, the high point of post-New Deal liberalism, who pronounced conservatism dead. Conservatism, he said, was "bookless," ... At this point in history, it is liberalism upon which such judgments are rendered. And understandably so. It is liberalism that is now bookless and dying. ... Liberalism now needs to be liberated from many of its own illusions and delusions. Let's hope we still have the strength.  Liberalism has lost its books because it has burned them. The campaign to dismiss Harvard President Larry Summers for remarking that women may have less a...

Note to readers: I cannot find collateral confirmation of this incident described in href="http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2005/02/explosive-ambulance.html" target="_blank">The Explosive Ambulance reported in either Al Jazeera or Reuters. Moreover, there are no reports in DOD News Releases of casualties involved in an incident fitting the description of an attack by explosive ambulance. The New Sisyphus says it will post a link soon. Until then, the ambulance report is unconfirmed.

Reader Cardozo asked in href="http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2005/02/oh-lord-wont-you-buy-me-mercedes-benz.html" target="_blank">Oh Lord Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz , a post which dealt in part with growing car-bomb making capability of terrorists in Southeast Asia, how to say a strange thing. W: How do you say "Ich bin ein Israeli" in Tagalog? I hope they never have to learn that phrase, but should they have to, I hope they do. Cardozo, I guess the sonorous way to say 'ich bin ein Israeli' in Tagalog is 'hindi kayo nag-iisa' , which literally means 'you are not alone'. Of the course proper setting in which to say it is to imagine yourself in a low dive called the 'Boteng Umiilaw' , a tin shack with packed dirt floors under a decrepit bridge by an open sewer in Vitas, Tondo. It would be lit by a 15-watt red-colored incandescent bulb. A really cheap sound system will be thumping out the gui...

The diploblog href="http://newsisyphus.blogspot.com/2005/02/iraq-suicide-bomber-uses-ambulance.html" target="_blank"> New Sisyphus asks why the sighted are blind. We've just received word that Al-Jazeera ... has aired a videotape showing a suicide bomber ... driving a bomb-laden ambulance into a U.S. checkpoint in Iraq. Reuters is also reporting: "The videotape shows the person ... while preparing the booby trapped vehicle camouflaged as an ambulance with a number of explosive devices ... before ramming into a US checkpoint near the Iraqi-Syrian border ."  The 47-second video can be viewed at Al-Jazeera's website. So many on the Left seem to think that the enemy is a figment of a crazed-right-wing-maniac's authoritarian imagination. But, perhaps--just perhaps--the real problem lies in the Left's inability to see an enemy even when the enemy appears on television, explains that he wants to kill us and then proceed...

I am trying to resolve some technical problems with Blogger that appear to be associated with the template. I've fixed things temporarily by dumping the old template. The new models are more concise, but whatever is parsing them didn't like my old legacy stuff. I think Blogger is having a hard time handling the archives now and republishing after adding to the Blogroll is killing. It may be time to move to another site.

But aside from being the time of Ashoura, recent days in Iraq were filled with negotiation to form a government after the elections held on January 30. Although the Sunni party finished the election with only 5 seats it held the trump card of intransigence. The desirability of creating an 'inclusive' Iraq led Prime Minister Iyad Allawie to href="http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_2576534" target="_blank">suggest that the Sunnis be mollified in part through concessions. This is a code word for spoils in exchange for desisting from violence. Allawi told The Associated Press that the alliance must change its platform of purging Sunnis who were members of Saddam's Baath Party from government positions if it wants national unity. ''The alliance talks about de-Baathification. I hope if they get control and they're chosen to be the ones running the country, I sincerely hope that they revisit these issues in their program and re-disc...

They knew it was coming. The href="http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4148257" target="_blank"> Scotsman reports: Iraq partially sealed its land borders today as part of stepped up security on the eve of the holiest day of the Shiite Muslim calendar as violence persisted unabated around the country. Iraq's fledgling government is hoping to avert the bloodshed that marred Ashoura last year, when twin blasts ripped through crowds of worshippers at Shiite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and Karbala, killing at least 181 people. The precautions weren't good enough. According to the href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1489953,00.html" target="_blank"> UK Times , "As many as 30 people are believed to have died in an suicide bombing during Friday prayers at a Shia mosque in Baghdad today. A further 22 people have been wounded, although that total is expected to rise." target="_blank"> Ireland On...

Reader DL sends a link to a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110860948586057420,00.html"> Fouad Ajami article describing the effect of the Hariri assasination in the context of the history of Lebanon. Read the whole thing. But here are some excerpts. A great, pitiless hoax was played on Lebanon. A country that had known the crosscurrents of the world, a place of culture -- French culture in east Beirut and the mountains, American culture on the western seaboard -- was to pass into the control of the conquering army of a brutal, backward regime. The Syrians had usages for Lebanon: There was money there for the Syrian kleptocracy, opportunities for drug dealings and contraband, a border from which the Syrians could wage intermittent little wars and deeds of terror against Israel, while maintaining the most quiet of borders on the Syrian-Israeli front. Truth be known, this steady encroachment on Lebanon was aided and abetted by the silence of th...

A car bomb attack on the Marina Hotel in southern Thailand target suggests a new level of capability for Jihadis operating in that area. According to href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=atx1B_JW.lHI&refer=asia"> Bloomberg News : The explosion occurred today at about 7 p.m. Bangkok time in the Sungai Kolok district of Narathiwat province, 1,150 kilometers (719 miles) south of Bangkok, Pracha Tayrat, the province's governor, said in an interview with Bangkok-based 96- Megaherz radio. The bomb was placed in a pickup truck in front of the Marina Hotel, he said. "The situation is worsening and becoming more violent with the use of a car bomb," Pracha said. "It's the first time that a car bomb was used in an attack, compared with motorcycles earlier. That will be hard to prevent." The Thais had formerly feared only motorcycle-borne IEDs. According to the href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/ar...

The testimony of various counterterrorism executives before Congress eloquently described the vast scope and comprehensiveness of the War on Terror. The testimony was distinguished by the emergence of a common nomenclature for the ideological enemy,'Sunni Jihadhism '; an appreciation that some form of WMD attack against the United States was being planned by the Sunni Jihadism (we are replacing the variable word "enemy" with a value now) and the appreciation that the nature of the struggle was total , especially in the ideological realm. And that struggle, far from slowing down, was still expanding. target="_blank"> Secretary Donald Rumsfeld provided the broadest description of the nature of the conflict and laid out what it took to defeat the enemy. After more than three years of conflict, two central realities of this war are clear. The first is that this struggle cannot be won by military means alone. The Defense Department must continue to wo...

Testimony Before Congress The Counterterrorism blog links to the testimony of intelligence , finance , defense and military officials before Congress on the status of the War on Terror. The intelligence testimony unanimously identifies the key threat to America as Al Qaeda and the 'Sunni Jihadist movement', referring to both in the same phrase as essentially comprising the same set; their choice of weapons a Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear (CBRN) attack on America. Operationally, they are adapting to the heightened  Homeland Security defenses using covert methods or under the guise of charities, religious organizations, academe and the like. The intelligence community unanimously believed that 'Al Qaeda' -- shorthand for the Sunni jihadist movement -- was successfully using US operations in Iraq to create a favorable political environment for their cause not only in the Middle East, but in Muslim communities and in the Left of center political spectrum. G...