The Watcher's Council Takes Another Turn

The Watcher’s kaleidoscope changes again: Done with Mirrors is replacing Eric’s Grumbles Before the Grave. I always liked Eric’s choice of blog name: his very own memento mori. At any rate, he moves on our blog from the Council to the other links. If you haven’t done so, check him out.

This week’s winners are The Glittering Eye and Strata-sphere, for first and second places respectively (when a second place winner places so closely to first, I feature both).

“Options on Iran II,” by the GE, provides a most valuable link:

In order to come up to speed on the history of Iran’s nuclear development program you should check out NTI (Nuclear Threat Initiative). NTI is headed by former Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia (whom I much admire) and at the link you’ll find an impeccably sourced chronology of Iran’s nuclear development program from the 1950’s to the present. For a sketch of the developments of the last two years see here . It’s too long to include and impossible to excerpt.

In a long list of possible outcomes for the “burgeoning crisis” that is Iran, G.E. sums them up this way:

Over the Christmas holidays I had a conversation on the subject of Iran with my very bright brother-in-law in which I was reminded that lots of people make little distinction among things that are physically impossible (things we can’t do), things that are politically impossible (things that are hard to do), things we shouldn’t do, and things we don’t want to do. They are different and there are quite a few things we can do about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, it’s not completely clear (at least to me) that we should do any of them, and not one of them is particularly palatable.

Brilliant analysis. Depressing, too.

I want to personally thank Strata-Sphere for his exposition of the NSA mess. I’ve avoided reading about it because it seemed too Byzantine for my ADD brain to ever successfully untangle. But his second place post did the trick. He clarified this thing right down to the ground so even I could understand it, and he made it look easy.

In “NY Times Confesses Truth About NSA Leak” he hits two birds with one stone: he explains succinctly what happened and he clears the way for an excision which might serve to create a new orifice on the Old Grey Doxy:

	[George Bush] opened the flow of leads from NSA monitoring regarding communications between people overseas and people here in the US. The NSA mission probably did not change, but their target list grew as we got intel from the battlefield and arrests. But what probably changed is how easily it flowed now to domestic law enforcement.
	[…]
	Seeing the obvious results of the Bush order, as clearly described by the NY Times, it seems clear the only change was that leads could now easily be passed from NSA to the FBI. Many of us assumed this was always the case. Now I believe that was one of the systemic problems we had pre 9-11 and was the essence of the Bush order.

When reading this post, you get the definite feeling that the FBI doesn’t want to work too hard (that “Gorelick Wall” must have suited them just fine) and that The Times will do any amount of work in order to bring Bush down:

	Finally, the mea culpa. The NY Times is trying to get itself out of hot water. It is trying to make it appear like this was all some innocent mistake and they were caught up in an internal feud. Well they weren’t caught up in an internal feud. They were duped because they wanted Bush so bad the believed anything these media addicted malcontents would say. Without question.
	Several of the law enforcement officials acknowledged that they might not know of arrests or intelligence activities overseas that grew out of the domestic spying program. And because the program was a closely guarded secret, its role in specific cases may have been disguised or hidden even from key investigators.
	All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the program is classified.
	Translation: their sources are equivocating.

Read the whole discussion. It’s enlightening.

First place in the Non-Council nominations was The Anchoress for her assessment of the traitorous perfidy of that yellow journalism rag emanating from New York City. In “NY Times tipped terrorists? (UPDATED)” she recalls the horror of 9/11 — both hers personally — and the stories of others. She ends her moving remembrances with this observation:

	I remember knowing, four years ago, that terrorists were evil and that terrorism needed defeating. I thought we all knew it.
	[…]
	I will wonder how Harry Reid and the NY Times and the leakers and “anonymous sources” they have lionized can live with all the blood on their hands, even as they (predictably) immediately blame the White House for not “connecting the dots.”
	If it happens anywhere in America, (or, really, anywhere else) I will look toward the NY Times and the rest of the “pure, patriotically motivated” press and leftists, because they will have, by their actions and their rhetoric, enabled terrorists to move forward where they had perhaps formerly been stalled. By making the job of surveillance and information-sharing more difficult (drop the Patriot Act and Jamie Gorelick’s wall snaps back in place) and the terrorist’s job easier, they will have participated in something deadly - all because they wanted to “get” the president and keep him from succeeding - which means keep America from succeeding - which means keep the world from progressing away from the scourge of terrorism.

And here, her clincher about those traitors on43rd Street:

It’s funny, in a way…the NY Times and the rest have damaged their own playing field. Had we been attacked - and they not leaked the NSA information - many in the country (those not convinced that a second attack is inevitable) would reflexively blame the White House for slacking off. Now, thanks to the leaks, and all the pontificating about them…well, if there is another attack, people will look not at Washington, but at West 43rd Street, and similar addresses.

Where your heart is, there will your treasure be as well. It must take dark, dark hearts to be able to consciously decide that a “get” is more important than the safety of your fellow citizens, that helping terrorists is more noble than helping your government to defeat them.

The Anchoress sure can craft a sentence.

Second place went to Liberty and Culture for a post I’ve thought of writing myself, but never did. In “Bloggers: The Pamphleteers of Today,” Mr. Pappas quotes George Orwell:

The spontaneous uprising of Internet bloggers shows a discontent with the orthodoxy of the leftward-leaning mainstream media (MSM.) Blogging today has its precedent in yesteryear’s pamphleteering and often driven by a similar dissatisfaction. George Orwell’s, in an introduction to the British Pamphleteer, was motivated “by his belief that in Twentieth-century society the press does not adequately represent all shades of opinion.”

He ends his post with a most interesting prediction:

With the advent of radio and television, particularly the days where networks dominated, the professional writer was separated from the man in the street. With the rise of the Internet the writer-citizen has re-established a healthy balance not seen since great days when our republic was founded. Perhaps two hundred years from now, some graduate student will be writing a dissertation on The Role of Blogs on the Restoration of the Principles of the American Revolution.

May it be less than two centuries, sir. How about sixty years? That’s as long as it took us to get from the Constitution to the Civil War. And since change happens more rapidly now, how about thirty years or so?

All this and more is over at the Watcher’s. Give it a look-see.

Hitler's Spiritual Heir Dons His Hat

Commenter Wally Ballou sends a link to a picture of a Palestinian voter. As he says:

Check out the fascist eagle P.A. logo on this guy's hat.

Ah, well, dreams of Hitler never die, they just transmogrify into images of Little Hitlers. At the moment it would seem his spiritual heirs seem to be in possession of the Palestinians.

Don't you wonder where he got the hat? An inheritance from Arafat, perhaps?

Pandering While White: Hillary's Speech

Opinion Journal's Shelby Steele agrees with Gates of Vienna: nobody panders like a Clinton panders:

Hillary Clinton's recent claim that Republicans run the House of Representatives like a "plantation" was old-fashioned political and racial pandering:

In fact, her stance was so blatantly racial that one was embarrassed for her — you wanted to look away from such obvious politicizing and condescension. As Shelby Steele points out, better than my post did, Mrs. Clinton sings off key:

she uttered this remark at what certainly would have been a prime venue for her husband: a largely black audience on Martin Luther King Day. So, clearly, she was looking to connect with this most loyal Democratic constituency. But Mrs. Clinton is possessed of a tin ear precisely where her husband is all deftness and charm. Black audiences are beyond her. The room of black faces that brings her husband alive, freezes her in overbearing rectitude.

Who knows, maybe ex-President Clinton’s playing-it-by-ear came from his Southern background, while his wife’s inability originates in her lily-white childhood? Whatever other constraints there may be in the South, there is certainly less physical segregation here. Or maybe Bill is just constitutionally inclined to love everyone while Mrs. C. is more attuned to making them do the right thing. Think of Charlie Brown and Lucy.

Again, Steele points out the difference:

pandering of the sort she exhibited on MLK Day requires a convincing human identification in order to work. The political panderer always identifies with the suffering of those pandered to--always "feels their pain." And this is where a tin ear can be disastrous: In giving witness to a group's suffering, one can seem to be shaming the group. Must blacks have their slave past rubbed in their face simply for Hillary Clinton to make a little hay against modern-day Republicans?

That was a truly awful speech. You kept waiting to hear a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton to present her apology for Pandering While White, but none was forthcoming:

When political pandering goes awry, it calls you a name. On an emotional level, many blacks will hear Hillary's remark as follows: "I say Republicans run the House like a plantation because I am speaking to Negroes--the wretched of the earth, a slave people--who will surely know all about plantations." Is this a tin ear or a Freudian slip, blacks will wonder? Does she really see us as she projects us--as a people so backward that our support can be won with a simple plantation reference, and the implication that Republicans are racist? Quite possibly so, since no apology has been forthcoming.

Lately it seems, many Democrats are possessed of this same tin ear. The affliction seems endemic to the Left in general. Is this deficit part of the reason for their rage against those who disagree with them? Is it that they cannot hear how bizarre and anachronistic they sound?
Personal identity is a complex thing. Woven of all the experiences in a particular life, the strands create a complex tapestry that others may see and understand better than the individual herself. Thus, while Hillary continues to sing off-key, she is beset on all sides by those who would prefer that she not be part of the choir. Thus, comparing her to Condoleeza Rice, does great damage to Mrs. Clinton’s persona:

No one on the current political scene better embodies this Republican advantage than the current secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. The archetype that Ms. Rice represents is "overcoming" rather than grievance. Despite a childhood in the segregated South that might entitle her to a grievance identity, she has clearly chosen that older black American tradition in which blacks neither deny injustice nor allow themselves to be defined by it...because Ms. Rice is grounded in this tradition, she is of absolutely no value to modern liberalism or the Democratic Party despite her many talents and achievements. Quite the reverse, she is their worst nightmare. If blacks were to take her example and embrace overcoming rather than grievance, the wound to liberalism would be mortal. It is impossible to imagine Hillary Clinton's "plantation" pandering in a room full of Condi Rices.

Imagine Dr. Rice using “the plantation” metaphor in a speech. Won’t compute, will it? No grievances, just accomplishments. Thus, if Dr. Rice wanted to serve her party, but didn’t want to run for office, all she would need to do is dog Hillary on the campaign trail. She is the anti-Hillary, and there is no worse fate for a politician than to have his or her antithesis following along behind her.

Mrs. Clinton’s tin ear is going to cost her what she most dearly desires: control of everything.


Look at the photograph of Dr. Rice and Mrs. Clinton. Dr. Rice is perfectly still, her arms hang straight and are held quite closely to her body. It is as though she is in a picture by herself. Interesting body language.

Islamic Asylum-Seekers in Germany

 
The Global War on You Know Who has done a fascinating first-hand investigative report on Islamic asylum-seekers in Germany. The intrepid blogger ST ventured into the “camps” the German government provides for Muslim immigrants awaiting decision on their status. It may be called a “camp”, but it looks like a slum:

But this is a misnomer. Not only will Germans never again build anything one could call a “camp,” the term implies controlled access, which is entirely absent. The Lebach facility is best described as projects. Located in a residential area of a quiet town, it consists of perhaps twenty two-story apartment buildings with courtyards, a school, and sports fields, covering an area of about four square blocks. Nearby are two Bundeswehr (German army) installations. We spotted a police cruiser doing a quick patrol as we arrived, and noticed that local Germans, out for their traditional Sunday afternoon walk, did not stray into the neighborhood.

ST wandered around taking photos and arousing the ire of the residents until the situation became alarming.

The situation described seems tailor-made for importing terrorists into the heart of Europe:

	The German government (actually, the 16 state governments) maintain 31 more such ghettoes throughout the country. One might be tempted to criticize officials for housing people in such crapulence, or the people who live there for creating it. However, the critical issue is egress. Residents are not yet legal immigrants, but random people who showed up at a German airport and asked for asylum. From there, while their applications are processed (and their rent and food provided by taxpayers) they can melt away into the population at any time. And thanks to Europe’s open borders, they can disappear not just in Germany, but to anywhere in the EU. Like Madrid.
	Thus, Europe is only as secure as its weakest link. This is not to say that a uniform EU policy would solve the problem, as the Eurocrats would be likely to impose something resembling Germany’s system on all of Europe.
	The upshot is, citizens of First World countries must follow immigration rules and face consequences for breaking them, while Middle Eastern terrorists are exempt, provided they recite a politically correct sob story. This is compassion taken to its illogical extreme, and sadly, the generosity extended to criminals and terrorists is exactly what generates public antipathy towards all asylum-seekers, including those who are genuinely persecuted and want only to live peacefully. Lebach is the symbol of an asylum system that wrongs decent people while rewarding the bad guys, and of a Europe eager to cooperate in its own destruction.

Go on over to GWOYKW and read the rest, and look at the photos. It’s a great job of first-hand reporting.

Hidden Assets

 
According to Fox News,

On Friday, Iran’s Students News Agency reported Friday that Central Bank governor Ebrahim Sheibani said Iran had begun moving its foreign currency reserves from European banks and transferring them to an undisclosed location as protection against possible U.N. sanctions.

Does this mean that Dick Cheney is sitting on a pile of money?

The Need to Share the Dream

 
Do you know why you never hear the Martin Luther King speech all the way through — just a sentence here and there?

Read the answer at The Neighborhood of God.

Off to Sweden

 
A couple of weeks ago a young man named Patrick emailed us wanting information about the town of Lund in Sweden, since he was considering attending the University there. I sought the advice of Scandinavian bloggers, and made a post out of it, The Color of Swedish Grass.

The issue was the proximity of Lund to Malmö, where there is a large Muslim population, and (according to some sources) a high incidence of rape and other crimes. There ensued a long argument in the comments, primarily between Anders, a Swede who lives in Malmö, and NoDhimmitude, who lived there for an extended period. NoDhimmitude is, however, Norwegian, and was at pains to emphasize that fact.

Each made an offer of help to Patrick in the comments, which I drew together into a follow-up post presenting their conflicting points of view.

As promised, I also emailed the same information to Patrick. Here is his reply:

	Hi, thanks for your reply. The two sides presented in the blog definitely were conflicting. What I didn’t like about the blog is that there were only 2 or 3 arguers, and there were almost no outside comments.
	People that I have spoken to here that regularly go to Sweden tell me it’s safe. Besides, I live next to Compton. I’m sure LA’s much worse than Malmo. I’m not concerned so much about my personal safety. I just have this naive plan to leave the United States because I don’t like the direction that it’s going in, especially after Bush came into office. I have always idealized Europe, but I guess no place is perfect. I thought that Sweden would be a Utopia where one could life carefree, but that was just a fantasy.
	Thanks, Patrick

We can be thankful that he was at least disabused of his notion of Sweden as a Utopia. And I’m certain that Scandinavia will be a relief to him, a calm haven after the stress of living here under the increasingly fascistic Bush regime.

But there’s one thing I don’t understand — how did Patrick ever conclude that Gates of Vienna, of all places, would provide a reliable answer to his question?

Life is full of mysteries.

Blogging the Jihad in Trinidad and Tobago

 
Longtime Gates of Vienna commenter Uncle Pavian has started his own blog, Eleven North, and will be covering events in Trinidad and Tobago.

His most recent post concerns sheikh Yasin Abu Bakr:

Islamist leader Yasin Abu Bakr spent the night behind bars after a judge denied him bail and bound him over for trial on charges of terrorism, sedition, inciting larceny and breaching the peace. Mr. Bakr is the leader of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, a group best known for a failed coup attempt on July 27, 1990, in which 24 people were killed.

You didn’t know the jihad was active in Trindad? Well, neither did I, until recently.

Go over to Uncle Pavian’s place to read the rest.

Jawa Hits the Jackpot!

Boy, what a way to celebrate a blogoversary:The Jawa Report helped catch a terrorist. Some people have all the luck!

Dr. Shackleford begins:

Two years ago today I started blogging by warning in my very first post, If you think this is offensive, just wait til I really get going! What a way to celebrate my blogoversary!!!

The long awaited moment has arrived that I can reveal some of the details of The Jawa Report's involvement in the capture of a would-be terrorist. Some of you already know some of the details as I have talked about them from time to time in a cryptic manner. I don't want to overemphasize our role in the wannabe terrorists capture, nor do I wish to claim that the man now in custody would have been able to accomplish his stated goal of building and detonating a nuclear bomb in the United States--clearly he did not have that capacity--but this website did play a role in his capture.

Okay, he’s set the standard for the rest of us. Go have a cry in your beer 'cause it wasn't your catch, pull up your socks, and get on the Jawa Wagon.

Read the rest here.

Update on Chetanand “Ashley” Sewraz

 
In my post on Wednesday I talked about a young man in the southern suburbs of Richmond, Chetanand “Ashley” Sewraz, who is facing bombing and fraud charges. His activities do not seem to be jihad-related, but it is still a peculiar case.

Late last night my post must have been indexed by Google. Since then no fewer than twenty searchers for “Ashley Sewraz” or “Chetanand Sewraz” have found their way to Gates of Vienna. So somebody is looking for him.

Searches still don’t find him on Google News, and the only MSM site I can find him on is on MSNBC. So where are all these searchers coming from?

Then today commenter pbz23294 weighed in:

I signed up for a blog account just so I could respond to you. I was offered a job by “Ashley” but I ended up not taking it because I was way too suspicious. He was going to pay me $56K a year to be an 80 hour a week assistant. Glad I didn’t take it.

Pbz23294: if you are reading this, please email me at the address on the left sidebar, or click here. We’d really like to know more.

Chirac's Latest Nuclear Threat:"Grand ne Parlez de Rien"

 
The Washington Post has the story on President Jacques Chirac's latest — heh — “threat”:

	… France was prepared to launch a nuclear strike against any country that sponsors a terrorist attack against French interests. He said his country's nuclear arsenal had been reconfigured to include the ability to make a tactical strike in retaliation for terrorism.
	"The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would envision using . . . weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and fitting response on our part," Chirac said during a visit to a nuclear submarine base in Brittany. "This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind."

So does this mean that his tactical strike will be on the Paris suburbs? Because that’s where the armaments very likely are stored even as he bloviates.

Don’t forget, France is Target Number One for the Algerian terrorists. They make our feelings for France look positively warm:

In September 2005, the same month that the GSPC named France its "enemy number one," authorities rounded up several members of the group who were allegedly planning attacks on the Paris metro, Orly airport, and the French intelligence headquarters.

Can you say “Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat”?* If you’re French, you might try using your cathedrals to start a campaign for a “French Catholic Group for Call and Prayer” because the nuclear terrorists have come ashore long ago, Chirac’s bluster notwithstanding.

Fall on your knees, France. You did it for Saddam, so you already have calluses in the right places. It's the knack for folding your hands and closing your eyes which your people have forgotten.

Prayer may not cure what ails you but it's a good start. Besides, it gives you something to do while you wait for the Algerian Armageddon that GSPC has planned just for you.

Besides, fervent prayer has this additional advantage: not only is it not radioactive, it has more efficacy than Chirac's bluster.


See here for Dan Darling’s "Who Are These Guys?"

Google This!

 
I noticed the headline of the main feature on the front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch this morning:

The Feds Want to Know What You’re Googling

Well, good morning, America!

The story started last summer when the White House wanted Google to provide a week’s slice of searches plus a sample of the URLs in Google’s databases, in order to figure out how to track more effectively the people who look for and traffic in child pornography.

We all know MSM version of the story by now: a further example of the Bush Administration’s intrusion into the lives of ordinary citizens, erosion of our civil liberties, trampling on the Constitution, etc blah yak. Remember, these are the pals of Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, who want to control the internet for our own good.

But when it’s the Republicans doing it, why, that’s different.

Isn’t that right, Mr. Mainstream Journalist? Or are you worried that they might find out that you were searching last night for “topless photos pamela anderson”? Hmm? Or maybe even “directory of dominatrixes in ann arbor”…?

Since I am somewhat of a libertarian, I have sympathy with people who resent the idea of the government watching what we do. I don’t like Uncle Sam looking over my shoulder, either.

But given the kinds of searches that send people to Gates of Vienna, I wouldn’t mind too much if the Feds found out about some of these people. Hell, I’d send ’em the IP addresses myself.

Dymphna has PTSD, so she can’t stand to look at the search word referrals on our site meter. (WARNING: Dymphna, if you are reading this, stop now! DO. NOT. READ. FURTHER.)

How about all the people who arrive here searching for “kill jews” or “I hate jews”? And all the ones wanting to know “how to make a bomb”? Or the perennial favorite, “how to make a bomb jihad”?

Not to mention all the people who use Google as an oracle to answer “did bill gates convert to islam?”

There are people who find their way here by typing “sex with little girls” and “filipino sex slave”. People who want to know more about “raping little girls”.

Then there are the peculiar or pathetic ones like “naked muslim women” and “bathing suit hijab”.

But mostly it’s “how to make a bomb”, over and over again, with occasional variants, such as “how to kill infidels”.

I tell you, it’s depressing sometimes to read the “search words ranked by visits” section of our site meter.

However, I’m not giving up all hope. The other day, someone with an IP address in Austria found us by searching for “how to defeat the jihad”.

If we find out, let’s let him know.

Is France a WMD?

 
So what would it be like if we hadn’t gone into Iraq? If Saddam were still in power? If the French had their way, we'd still be negotiating, wouldn't we? While they sneered at the Cowboy's paranoia and lies about WMD and blustered in the UN, Saddam would still be on the throne.

But leaving the quesitons about weapons aside, and bracketing for a moment the unspeakable misery of the Iraqi people under Saddam's heel, consider what his remaining in power would have meant for the further training and dispersal of terrorists throughout the world.

In fact, look at the wide swathe of infection he spread before the Coalition Forces took him down.

In “The Algerian Plague,” The Weekly Standard assesses the damage:

According to officials, one of the groups trained in Iraq prior to the war was al Qaeda's Algerian affiliate, the Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat ("GSPC"). The GSPC and its predecessor, the Armed Islamic Group ("GIA"), are well-known to European counterterrorism officials: Within the last several months, in fact, the GSPC has been at the center of several substantive terrorist plots.

Spain arrested 20 suspected terrorists last week in Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque region. They included Moroccans, Spaniards, a Turk and an Algerian.

But they aren’t the only ones. Spain has been arresting “numerous” GSPC members over the last few years:

According to one Spanish daily, the judge's writ stated that the GSPC has "a vast financing activity based on a constant labor of common crime," which includes "drug retailing, offences against property" as well as "forgery of documents and credit or phone cards." The judge's writ also noted the close ties between the GSPC and bin Laden's al Qaeda.

And Italy? The author of the article describes Italy as a “crossroads” —

… for Islamists seeking access to Europe from the Middle East—[and]has also been recently targeted by the GSPC. In November 2005, Italian authorities arrested three Algerians affiliated with the group. Authorities had been eavesdropping on the suspects for some time. Through intercepted phone conversations and bugging devices they learned of the Algerian's plans for a massive terror attack.

But France is the preferred target. France, the soft underbelly of Europe, the hated colonial power in Algeria. Her chickens have come home to roost and to riot:

	"The only way to make France disciplined is jihad and Islamic martyrdom," a September 2005 statement from the GSPC's leadership reads, "France is our enemy number one, the enemy of our religion, the enemy of our community." (The group also accused the Algerian president of ruling in France's name.)
	In January 2005, French authorities arrested 11 suspected terrorists with ties to the GSPC. Like their brethren in the Spanish cell, the 11 were charged with recruiting suicide bombers to send to Iraq.
	In September 2005, the same month that the GSPC named France its "enemy number one," authorities rounded up several members of the group who were allegedly planning attacks on the Paris metro, Orly airport, and the French intelligence headquarters.

The connections between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were close and long-standing:

THE GIA'S HISTORY is especially notable because both bin Laden and Saddam took an early interest in the group. Bin Laden's "Arab Afghans" were among the first leaders of the GIA in the early 1990s. His patronage proved especially beneficial as hundreds of former veterans from the war in Afghanistan were redeployed to Algeria to swell the GIA's ranks. By some accounts, bin Laden is said to have personally arranged for the financing and necessary travel documents to be provided to upwards of 1,000 "Arab Afghans" who returned or relocated to Algerian soil.

But bin Laden did not just finance the building of the GIA with money from his own pockets. He also received help from Saddam Hussein: At least one former CIA official has confirmed that some of the money bin Laden funneled to the GIA came from Saddam's Iraq.

These two played ball together for a long, long time. And all the while France, mendacious France, thought she could contain the terrorists on her own soil while continuing to draw down the illicit oil money from Iraq.

The French look more like criminals with each passing day. Meanwhile, the hatred and death they spawned in Algeria continues to infect Europe and the Middle East with a virulent strain of terrorism and death.

Could it be? Is France herself a kind of Weapon of Mass Destruction?



The author of this essay in the Weekly Standard, Thomas Joscelyn, has good sources, including former American intelligence people. This post has only touched on his material.

“Transformational Diplomacy”

 
Using a phrase from her Senate confirmation hearings, Dr. Rice gave a broad outline of the sea change about to happen at the State Department.

In a speech at Georgetown University, reported by The Washington Times Insider, the Secretary of State outlined broad changes at Foggy Bottom:

	The United States will shift hundreds of its diplomats from Washington and Europe to emerging countries over the next few years as part of a broad reconfiguration of the Foreign Service and its mission… U.S. envoys would be asked to spend less time on traditional diplomacy -- monitoring political developments and talking to officials -- and more time traveling outside the capitals "to help foreign citizens better their own lives."
	[…]
	The United States has "nearly the same number of State Department personnel in Germany -- a country of 82 million people -- that we have in India -- a country of 1 billion people," she said. There are "nearly 200 cities worldwide with over 1 million people in which the United States has no formal diplomatic presence."

Perhaps, Dr. Rice, we could begin with a more visible presence in the Ivory Coast? Ivorians could certainly use some of that transformational diplomacy now that the French have had their way with them.

We could call it "transformational compassionate diplomacy." Anything to annoy the French.