Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.30
Contributed by Bill Faith
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Destitute Dog -- Please read this and help if you can.
Bill's Bites -- 2006.10.01
The Case Against Kofi Annan
John Hinderaker
From tomorrow's London Sunday Times Magazine, the case against Kofi Annan: Srebrenica is rarely mentioned nowadays in Annan’s offices on the 38th floor of the UN secretariat building in New York. He steps down in December after a decade as secretary-general. His retirement will be marked by plaudits. But behind the honorifics and the accolades lies a darker story: of incompetence, mismanagement and worse. Annan was the head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) between March 1993 and December 1996. The Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 men and boys and the slaughter of 800,000 people in Rwanda happened on his watch. In Bosnia and Rwanda, UN officials directed peacekeepers to stand back from the killing, their concern apparently to guard the UN’s status as a neutral observer. This was a shock to those who believed the UN was there to help them.
Annan’s term has also been marked by scandal: ...
Hastert Knew While Foley Flew
Ed Morrissey
Well, well, well. It appears the Republicans actually can make the Foley controversy worse. As if it wasn't bad enough that John Boehner knew about Foley's track record of sexual harassment of his underage pages, now it turns out that Speaker Denny Hastert lied about what he knew and when he knew it. Roll Call reports that Thomas Reynolds (R-NY), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Hastert about Foley's predatory actions in late winter or early spring of this year:
[...]
Republicans have to act swiftly to remove the stench of Foleygate from the party. They need to demand the resignation of Hastert as Speaker, as well as Boehner as Majority Leader if he lied to protect Hastert. Allowing Foley off the hook was a mistake in judgment, but this is a betrayal of those who trusted Hastert to lead the House with dignity, honesty, and integrity. ...
*** 2006.10.01.00:24 Did Hastert know last year that Foley was a pervert?
Allahpundit
I hate having to defend Hastert, partly because he’s a jackass and partly because it’s bad form to defend anyone in any way associated with a child molestation scandal, no matter how much the facts are in their favor. But I think he’s getting a raw deal here, at least based on what we know thus far.
Let’s back up. Two strands of Foley e-mail messages have emerged in the past two days. ...
Hello, Sweet Thing! 
Miss Vivianne Allison Aho
Viv, if anyone ever tries to tell you your mama isn't really an Angel you send them to see me, OK? (H/T: Greyhawk)
Something's up in Louisiana
Reader D. H. sends an interesting news item from WWLTW-TV in New Orleans: The FBI temporarily shut down and raided a handful of local convenience stores Thursday, leading Arab store owners to decry the search-and-seizure operations as racial profiling.
Breaking:
Times of London obtains Mohammed Atta martyrdom video
I’ve always hoped we wouldn’t have to suffer an Atta video. I can stand videos of any of the other 18 — they’re all basically fungible — but to be taunted from the grave by the hijacker everyone recognizes is intolerable. I’m not sure we should even post it when it comes out.
We will, though, of course. ...
Report: Mohammed Atta martydom video
Michelle Malkin
The London Times reports it has possession of an unseen Mohammed Atta video (hat tip - reader Bill): A previously unseen video made by Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has been obtained by a Britain's The Sunday Times, the newspaper reported Saturday.
In editions available late Saturday, the paper said it had been handed the so-called martyrdom video, but did not reveal the source of the tape.
Has Pakistan Changed Sides?
Ed Morrissey
Yesterday I noted the increase in cross-border attacks in Afghanistan in the three weeks since Pervez Musharraf signed a peace deal with the tribal chiefs in Waziristan and released thousands of captured Islamists. Today, the government of India now says that the train bombings in Mumbai this past July had the support of Pakistan's ISI: Mumbai police Commissioner A.N. Roy said an intensive investigation that included using truth serum on suspects revealed that Pakistan's top spy agency had ''masterminded'' the bombings.
Roy said Pakistan's Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, began planning the attacks in March and later provided training to those who carried out the bombings in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. ...
Video: “No Excuses For Terror”
Allahpundit
I haven’t watched yet, but various e-mailers who have are raving about it and asking us to link. It’s a documentary produced by British journalist David Aaronovitch that aired earlier this week on Britain’s Channel Five. Like our friend KP, Aaronovitch has become alarmed by the willingness of some of his colleagues on the left to apologize for Islamist savagery. They would have you believe, he says, that there are excuses for terrorism.
Which brings us to part one. Parts two, three, and four follow. ...
Senate approves House bill to build 700-mile border fence
Here’s the roll. Only one Republican crossed the aisle. Guess who. ...
Get Off Our Side!
John Hinderaker
That must be the Democrats' reaction to the new videotape by al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri. Much as Osama bin Laden's video, released just before the 2004 election, embarrassed Democrats' by its close tracking with their talking points as articulated in Fahrenheit 9/11, down to My Pet Goat, Zawahiri's latest shows a keen awareness of the Democrats' election themes. I haven't been able to find a full transcript, but this site has a little more information than most: To U.S. President George W. Bush, Zawahiri brands him a "deceitful charlatan" and liar, and questions: “why don't you tell them how many million citizens of America and it's allies you intend to kill in search of the imaginary victory and in breathless pursuit of the mirage towards which you are driving your people’s sons in order to increase your profits?”
No blood for oil! ...
How Unpopular Is the Iraq War?
John Hinderaker
Leaders of the Democratic Party apparently think that attacking the Iraq war is the ticket to electoral success; over recent weeks, they have coordinated a series of attacks on the war, including the selective leak of misleading portions of the National Intelligence Estimate and Bob Woodward's just-released rehash of anti-war arguments. But how unpopular, in fact, is the war?
Michael Barone takes a look at recent poll numbers from belwether Ohio, and concludes: not as unpopular as the Democrats seem to think. ...
... As only Barone can, he shifts effortlessly from an analysis of this week's poll numbers to a delightful contemplation of the ways in which Bill Clinton and George W. Bush resemble Charles II and William III, respectively. ...
Of course things are worse, our side isn't in charge
Paul Mirengoff
Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, both of whom served as staff members on President Clinton's National Security Council while al Qaeda emerged and our government did essentially nothing to stop it, have a piece in the Washington Post called, "Of Course Iraq Made It Worse." The title reflects the ipse dixit nature of column -- the authors' certitude that the threat of terrorism has become worse due to our action in Iraq substitutes for evidence of that proposition.
Benjamin and Simon brush off the absence of "metrics" supporting the proposition that there are more live terrorists prepared to attack U.S. civilians than there would have been had we backed down in our confrontation with Saddam and allowed him to remain in power. Such evidence is impossible to produce, they say. Fair enough. But evidence about the number of times we and our friends have been attacked at home is readily available. And the fact is that terrorists have not successfully attacked our homeland since 9/11, and that successful attacks against any western homeland have been few and far between. ...
Virginia, on my mind
Bruce Kesler, in The Augusta Free Press
Even though I'm across the country, in San Diego, the Senate race in Virginia has been on my mind. I'm disappointed that the news of the race has been about which candidate allegedly spoke which slurs decades ago, rather than discussion of the literally life and death issues at stake in whether and how to successfully complete stabilizing a less threatening key MidEast player, Iraq.
Both candidates seem to have lost sight of this issue. Perhaps it's the dynamic of their supporters and opponents having at each other. But, either candidate can and should disown such distracters, and neither has. So, it seems more likely that both candidates don't see much to gain from engaging much on Iraq, as most minds are settled, and vote-affecting events there are really entirely out of their hands.
So, since the candidates have, in effect, chosen to engage on the field of slurs, either directly or through their surrogates, that is what we're left with to judge them by. Although one or the other may be more correct or less egregious in their campaign's behavior, the point here is not to judge which but rather to say that neither has risen to the challenge of stature one would hope for from a candidate. ...
Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.29
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