Saturday, November 20, 2004
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A Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq
1 hour, 23 minutes ago
By The Associated Press
As of Saturday, Nov. 20, 2004, at least 1,221 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq (news - web sites) war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 946 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said as of Friday. The figures include three military civilians.
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Baghdad Suffers A Day of Attacks, Assassinations washingtonpost.com - 1 hour, 12 minutes ago
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A Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq AP - 1 hour, 23 minutes ago
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U.S. Fights Baghdad Militants; GI Killed AP - 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
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The AP count is four higher than the Defense Department's tally, which was last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military has reported 73 deaths; Italy, 19; Poland, 13; Spain, 11; Ukraine, nine; Bulgaria, seven; Slovakia, three; Estonia, Thailand and the Netherlands, two each; and Denmark, El Salvador (news - web sites), Hungary and Latvia have reported one death each.
Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush (news - web sites) declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,083 U.S. military members have died, according to AP's count. That includes at least 837 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
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The latest deaths reported by the military:
_ One U.S. soldier was killed in an ambush Saturday in Baghdad.
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The latest identifications reported by the military:
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Dimitrios Gavriel, 29, New York; killed Friday in Anbar province; assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Phillip G. West, 19, American Canyon, Calf.; killed Friday in Anbar province; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Luis A. Figueroa, 21, Los Angeles; killed Thursday in Anbar province; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Michael W. Hanks, 22, Gregory, Mich.; killed Wednesday in Anbar province; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
___
On the Net:
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THE ARGUMENT FOR CUTTING AND RUNNING
Thu Nov 18, 8:00 PM ET
By Richard Reeves
NEW YORK -- This, I expect and others hope, is my last column on the specifics of the 2004 presidential election. After Election Day, I found my thoughts going back to something that happened during a panel discussion I moderated for The New York Observer in October. I mentioned then that I once asked a presidential candidate what was the worst part of running, and he said: "All the lying you have to do."
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G20 opposes "abrupt changes" in forex, oil; Iraqi debt relief on way AFP - 14 minutes ago
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U.S. Fights Baghdad Militants; GI Killed AP - 35 minutes ago
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A Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq AP - 1 hour, 9 minutes ago
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Richard Reeves
What do you mean? I asked. He answered: "You have to go to Michigan and lie about what you think about automobile emissions and air pollution. You have to go to New York and lie about what you really think of Israel and Ariel Sharon (news - web sites). You have to go to Miami and lie about your feelings about Cuba."
Kieran Mahoney, a very smart Republican consultant, took that up and said: "You were probably having dinner with a Democrat, because, frankly, the Democratic Party is out of step with the national electorate. More so than the Republicans. John Kerry (news - web sites) obfuscates, in my opinion, because if he were to tell the truth -- the unvarnished kind of liberal truth -- he would receive only the base Democratic vote, which would leave him 20 points short of being president."
He was on to something. Republicans do believe pollution laws are too restricting. They love Israel, or at least the idea of it. They hate and overrate Fidel Castro (news - web sites).
Perhaps that is why Senator Kerry had so much trouble talking about Vietnam and Iraq (news - web sites). Looking back, I think he might have been better off if he denounced the war in Iraq as national folly -- if that is what he believes, and I don't know if it is. He certainly would have been better off if he answered the know-nothing criticism of his opposition to the war in which he served bravely by saying he was right 30 years ago when he said sending troops into Vietnam was a mistake -- and he's still right.
Cut and run? Yeah, cut and run, just as President Reagan cut and ran in Lebanon a few weeks after more than 240 U.S. Marines were killed by a suicide bomber in Beirut. Those young men paid the ultimate price for being in the wrong place at the wrong time in someone else's civil war. My God, the lessons of Beirut terrify anyone who remembers or cares to think about them. We took that terrific hit one October morning in 1983 -- the explosion at the undefended Marine barracks was the largest non-nuclear explosion recorded -- and we did not know who did it or why.
Reagan had made a mistake, several of them, leading up to that disaster. We are repeating those mistakes in Iraq, basically taking sides in a civil war. That time, more than 20 years ago, American troops were indeed pelted with flowers and candy when they came as peacemakers -- and then came to be seen as occupiers.
The Israelis, led by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, did worse than we did in that war. They gained none of the central goals of their decision to invade in June of 1982. They lost more than 1,000 soldiers killed in action -- the United States' loss equivalent would have been 50,000 killed; they divided their own country and drained their treasury paying for an 18-year occupation.
It was all a mistake. So is Iraq, but again, I do not know if Kerry believes that. You have to take him at his word, but if you do, then you have to conclude there was no fundamental difference between him and President Bush (news - web sites). That's the way you lose elections.
Maybe the Democrat would have lost anyway if he had decided to truly challenge Bush on the flawed assumptions of the 2002 invasion that led us to Baghdad and Fallujah. Maybe he should have listened to cooler heads. This was said by our secretary of defense defending the decision not to go into Baghdad during the first Gulf War (news - web sites) in 1991:
"Once you get to Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime, a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward Islamic fundamentalists? How much credibility is that going to have if it's set up by the American military there? How long does the United States military have to stay there to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens once we leave?"
That secretary of defense was a former congressman from Wyoming named Dick Cheney (news - web sites). What will happen once we leave this time? The answer is probably that the same things will happen whether we leave now or in 18 years.
(EDITORS: If you have editorial questions, please contact Alan McDermott at amcdermott@amuniversal.com.)-->
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Rebellious Republicans Derail 9/11 Reform
1 hour, 33 minutes ago
By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - In a defeat for President Bush (news - web sites), rebellious House Republicans on Saturday derailed legislation to overhaul the nation's intelligence agencies along lines recommended by the Sept. 11 commission.
AP Photo
"It's hard to reform. It's hard to make changes," said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who sought unsuccessfully to persuade critics among the GOP rank and file to swing behind the measure.
Hastert's decision to send lawmakers home without a vote drew attacks from Democrats, and capped an unpredictable day in which prospects for enactment of the measure seemed to grow, then diminish, almost by the hour. He left open the possibility of summoning lawmakers back in session early next month.
As approved by key negotiators, the White House and the bipartisan the 9-11 commission, the compromise would create a powerful position to oversee the CIA (news - web sites) and several other nonmilitary spy agencies. A new national counterterrorism center would coordinate the fight against foreign terrorists.
Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) both contacted congressional negotiators by phone in hopes of nailing down an acceptable compromise that could clear Congress in the final hours of a postelection session.
But Reps. Duncan Hunter and Jim Sensenbrenner, chairmen of the Armed Services and Judiciary committees, raised objections. Officials said Hunter, R-Calif., expressed concerns that provisions of the bill could interfere with the military chain of command and endanger troops in the field. Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., wanted additional provisions dealing with immigration, these officials said.
"I am very disappointed that these objections have been raised at the 11th hour and temporarily derailed this bill," said Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine, the primary negotiator on the measure for Senate Republicans.
Collins said it was surprising, given Bush's recent re-election triumph, that Republicans were not willing to approve legislation that he favored and his aides lobbied for throughout the day.
Democrats were biting.
"The commander in chief in the middle of a war says he needs this bill to protect the American people," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record), D-Conn., who led Democratic negotiators on the issue.
He said the development was "particularly shocking after the president, the commander in chief, has been re-elected."
"Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House, and the blame for this failure is theirs alone," added House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
If lawmakers fail to pass legislation this year, they will render moot three months of hearings and negotiations that started with the commission's July release of its report studying the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Lawmakers would have to start from scratch next year — if they even pick up the issue again. With a new Congress taking office in January, unapproved bills expire and new lawmakers and committee leaders would have to consider any new legislation.
Lawmakers originally thought they had a deal Saturday and the commission, a bipartisan group that sharply criticized the performance of intelligence agencies, had endorsed their work.
The deal "contains not only major reforms of the intelligence community, but significant measures to improve aviation and border security, and emergency preparedness and response," the commission's leaders, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, said in a statement.
The agreement had been reached between Collins and Lieberman and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., early Saturday.
Harman, D-Calif., said the Pentagon (news - web sites) has worked to scuttle the bill.
"The forces in favor of the status quo are protecting their turf, whether it is in Congress or in the bureaucracy. And at a time when we are in a war we can't allow turn concerns" to triumph, Collins said.
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Violent Attacks Sweep Baghdad; GI Killed
18 minutes ago
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents ambushed a U.S. patrol, killing a soldier, gunned down four government employees and clashed with American troops in neighborhoods across Baghdad on Saturday. Nine Iraqis died in fighting west of the capital — another sign the insurgency remains potent despite the fall of its stronghold, Fallujah.
AP Photo
Reuters
Slideshow: Iraq
Latest headlines:
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Rebels Attack Baghdad Police, Troops Reuters - 4 minutes ago
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Violent Attacks Sweep Baghdad; GI Killed AP - 18 minutes ago
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Former Egyptian hostage says he was kept with French captives AFP - 27 minutes ago
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In Fallujah, where U.S. Marines and soldiers are still battling pockets of resistance, insurgents waved a white flag of surrender before opening fire on U.S. troops and causing casualties, Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert said Saturday without elaborating.
U.S. troops in the northern city of Mosul found the bodies of nine Iraqi soldiers Saturday, all shot in the back of the head. Seven also were decapitated, Lt. Col. Paul Hastings said. American and Iraqi forces detained 30 suspected guerrillas overnight in Mosul, the U.S. military said.
Four other decapitated bodies found earlier in the week in Mosul have not been identified, the military said Saturday.
In a positive development, a Polish woman abducted last month in Baghdad reappeared Saturday in Poland after being suddenly released. Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, refused to say how she was freed but said her captors treated her "properly" — treatment that they told her was "motivated by their religious beliefs."
But the widespread clashes in Baghdad — which broke out early Saturday in at least a half-dozen areas — and other areas of central and northern Iraq (news - web sites) underscored the perilous state of security in this country after 18 months of American military occupation — and just more than two months before vital national elections.
One American soldier was killed and nine were wounded in an ambush in central Baghdad. Five other U.S. soldiers were injured in a car bombing on the road to Baghdad's airport — considered by U.S. authorities among the most dangerous routes in the country.
A Web posting claimed responsibility for the attack in the name of a group led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to have fled Fallujah before the city fell this month to U.S. forces. The veracity of the claim could not be confirmed.
Iraqi Brig. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin said he had seen various reports placing al-Zarqawi in the Tuz Kharmato area south of Kirkuk and in the Baqouba area.
The heaviest fighting in the capital took place in the Azamiyah district, a largely Sunni Arab quarter, where insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and small weapons at a police station, killing one policeman, Iraqi officials said.
Anger among Sunnis rose after Iraqi troops backed by U.S. soldiers Friday raided the Abu Hanifa mosque in Azamiyah — one of the most revered sites in Sunni Islam. Three worshippers were killed, witnesses said.
A number of U.S. armored vehicles were seen in flames, including a U.S. Army Humvee with what appeared to be a body in the driver's seat. Smoke rose from burning shops along a commercial street as U.S. helicopters circled overhead and ambulances raced to the scene.
The U.S. command said the American soldier died when his patrol came under a coordinated attack including small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs. The statement did not specify where the attack occurred or whether it was part of the Azamiyah fighting.
Clashes also erupted in the western Amiriyah neighborhood, long a center of insurgent activity, after three Iraqi National Guardsmen were killed by roadside bombs, policeman Akram al-Azzawi said.
A suicide driver blew up his vehicle shortly after noon at an intersection on Saadoun Street, a bustling commercial street. One Iraqi civilian was killed and another wounded in the blast, which sent black smoke rising above the city center and set several cars ablaze.
Gunmen chased down a vehicle carrying Ministry of Public Works employees on their way to work Saturday, opening fire and killing four of them, a ministry spokesman said. Amal Abdul-Hameed — an adviser to the ministry in charge of urban planning — and three employees from her office died, spokesman Jassim Mohammed Salim said.
To the west of the capital, U.S. troops clashed with insurgents Saturday near the local government building in Ramadi, and hospital officials said nine Iraqis were killed and five were wounded.
Earlier, U.S. troops sealed off roads and launched a house-to-house search of the city's Tamim neighborhood as U.S. helicopters flew overhead, playing loudspeakers urging residents to "hand over terrorists," police Lt. Jamal Abdul-Kareem said.
Elsewhere, saboteurs blew up an oil well near the northern city of Kirkuk — the sixth such attack in the last 10 days, oil officials said. Insurgents regularly attack Iraq's oil infrastructure, which provides much of the revenue for reconstruction.
Clashes occurred between U.S. troops and insurgents in Qaim along the Syrian border and in Samarra, where mortar shells struck a U.S. base but caused no casualties. Five Iraqis were hurt in the Qaim fighting, the local hospital reported.
In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said gunmen killed an Iraqi police colonel and his driver as they headed south to Baghdad.
Violence surged in Sunni areas of central and northern Iraq after U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major attack Nov. 8 against the main rebel stronghold of Fallujah in hopes of restoring order so national elections can be held by Jan. 31.
But many militants are believed to have fled the city to continue attacks elsewhere — and the operation risks alienating Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, whose participation in elections is seen as key to legitimacy.
Al-Zarqawi's group, which recently declared its allegiance to al-Qaida, is believed responsible for numerous car bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages, including three Americans. The United States has placed a $25 million bounty on al-Zarqawi — the same amount as for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).
In New York, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations (news - web sites) said his government has "a good chance" of being able to hold the elections in January but might have to postpone them if violence escalates or Sunni Muslims decide to boycott.
Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie told a news conference Friday that "what happens in the next weeks will be important" in determining whether the insurgents can rally after losing their Fallujah base.
In an effort to shore up the government, Germany and the United States announced agreement on a deal forgiving 80 percent of Iraq's foreign debt. The deal will be discussed by the Paris Club of creditor nations, which is owed about $42 billion by Iraq.
The United States has been pushing for a generous write-off of as much as 95 percent of Iraq's debt. However, other governments, including Germany, have questioned whether a country rich in oil should benefit from huge debt reduction.
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Violence Breaks Out All Over Baghdad
1 hour, 2 minutes ago
By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Baghdad exploded in violence Saturday, as insurgents attacked a U.S. patrol and a police station, assassinated four government employees and detonated several bombs. One American soldier was killed and nine were wounded during clashes that also left three Iraqi troops and a police officer dead.
AP Photo
Reuters
Slideshow: Iraq
Latest headlines:
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G7, Paris Club Agree on Iraq Debt Relief Reuters - 7 minutes ago
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9 Iraqi Soldiers Found Executed in Mosul AP - 8 minutes ago
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Baghdad violence erupts as Iraqi-US troops press on with sweep of Mosul AFP - 39 minutes ago
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Some of the heaviest violence came in Azamiyah, a largely Sunni Arab district of Baghdad where a day earlier U.S. troops raided the capital's main Sunni mosque. Shops were in flames, and a U.S. Humvee burned, with the body of what appeared to be its driver inside.
U.S. forces and insurgents also battled in the Sunni Triangle city of Ramadi, where clashes have been seen almost daily. Nine Iraqis were killed and five wounded in Saturday's fighting, hospital officials said.
In northern Iraq (news - web sites), U.S. and Iraqi forces uncovered four decapitated bodies as they continued a campaign to crush militants who rose up last week. American and Iraqi forces detained 30 suspected guerrillas overnight in Mosul, the U.S. military said Saturday.
Meanwhile, Germany and the United States reached a deal for forgiving 80 percent of Iraq's foreign debt, capping a months-long U.S. push to lift the country's debt burden as a boost to its economy as it seeks to rebuild and establish a democractic government.
The deal will be discussed by the Paris Club of creditor nations, which is owed about $42 billion by Iraq. "Our expectation is that it will be accepted," said Joerg Mueller, a spokesman for the German finance minister.
The United States has been pushing for a generous write-off, as much as 95 percent of Iraq's debt. However, other governments, including Germany, have questioned whether a country rich in oil should benefit from huge debt reduction.
The U.S. soldier was killed when his patrol was ambushed in Baghdad early Saturday, coming under a barrage of small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs, the military said. The statement did not say where the attack occurred, but it came amid clashes in a string of Baghdad neighborhoods.
Insurgents using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms attacked a police station early Saturday in Azamiyah, in the northern part of the city, killing one policeman, according to police officials.
Clashes spread in Azamiyah before dawn, with a number of U.S. armored vehicles seen in flames. Footage by Associated Press Television News showed a smashed and burning U.S. Humvee, with what appeared to be the remains of a body in the driver's seat.
Smoke rose from burning shops along a commercial street. U.S. helicopters circled overhead and ambulances were driving to the scene of the clashes.
In western Baghdad, heavy fighting broke out Saturday between gunmen and Iraqi National Guards and American troops in the Amiriyah neighborhood, where three National Guardsmen were killed by roadside bombs, said policeman Akram al-Azzawi.
Nearby, a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. patrol passed in the Khadra area, wounding two U.S. troops, according to policeman Ali Hussein of the Khadra police station. The U.S. military had no immediate confirmation.
In downtown Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle just after noon at an intersection on Saadoun Street, a bustling commercial street. One Iraqi civilian was killed and another wounded in the blast, which sent black smoke rising above the city center and set several cars ablaze.
And in the western part of the city, gunmen in a car chased down a vehicle carrying employees of the Ministry of Public Works on their way to work Saturday, opened fire and killed four of them, a ministry spokesman said. Amal Abdul-Hameed — an adviser to the ministry in charge of urban planning — and three employees from her office were killed, said spokesman Jassim Mohammed Salim.
The spasm of violence came a day after Iraqi forces backed by U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque — one of the country's most important Sunni mosques — as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers in the Azamiyah neighborhood.
The operation appeared to be part of a government crackdown on militant clerics opposed to the U.S.-led attack on Fallujah. Witnesses said at least three people were killed and 40 others arrested.
Congregants at the Abu Hanifa mosque said they heard explosions inside the building, apparently from stun grenades. Later, a reporter saw a computer and books, including a Quran, scattered on the floor of the imam's office near overturned furniture. U.S. soldiers were seen inside the mosque compound.
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an offensive that they say has secured most of Fallujah, hoping to tame the insurgents' strongest bastion ahead of January elections. But many militants are believed to have fled the city to continue attacks elsewhere — and the operation risks alienating Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, whose participation in elections is seen as key to legitimacy.
Insurgents have carried out a wave of violence across Iraq coinciding with the Fallujah offensive. Mosul — Iraq's third-largest city with more than a million residents about 225 miles north of Baghdad — has been a center of violence.
Officials were trying to identify the four decapitated bodies found Thursday in the city, said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, a spokesman for Task Force Olympia.
An extremist group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, said in a Web statement Saturday that it kidnapped and killed two members of a Kurdish political group in Mosul. It posted a video showing two men being shot. The men wore robes bearing the initials of their group, the Kurdistan Democratic Party. The claim's authenticity could not be verified.
On Friday, a statement posted on an Islamist Web site in the name of Jordanian terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group said it had "slaughtered" two Iraqi National Guard officers "in the presence of a big crowd" in Mosul. The claim included no photos or video and could not be verified.
There was no way of knowing immediately whether the decapitated bodies were connected to either claim.
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surfergirlAnchor AdriftChris Matthews free-associates at the opening of the Clinton Library.By Dana StevensUpdated Friday, Nov. 19, 2004, at 9:21 AM PT
The best part of the opening ceremony at the Clinton Presidential Library was watching MSNBC's Chris Matthews kill time. I've finally figured out the secret of Matthews' weirdly hypnotic charm: he's more comfortable free-associating on TV than most people are on their analyst's couch, so the duller the event he's covering, the further out he gets. As the guests arrived to take their seats in the icy rain, Matthews battled his worst enemy -- silence -- with some of his usual libidinally charged ramblings: "Boy, that Tipper Gore is a good-looking woman. I'm sorry, I'd like to offer that commentary." During the "Star Spangled Banner," Matthews mused aloud about the inherent unsingability of our national anthem -- a point everyone secretly agrees on, but how many news anchors would say it on the air? Best of all, though, were his memories of bygone meetings of a Washington social club for presidential speechwriters, "back in the days when people used to drink." Later, Pat Buchanan, Matthews' fellow member in that club, predicted a grim future for Bill Clinton: "Twenty years of basically just sort of fading away." Matthews objected to this scenario: "You have him just going from watering hole to watering hole, gaining weight." Perhaps Matthews' sympathy for Clinton (which was evident throughout the broadcast) springs from the fact that the two men have a lot in common; both are blustery, hyperintelligent Irish-Americans with poor impulse control and a seemingly endless appetite for political trivia. Tonight's Hardball will focus on the library and what it means for Clinton's presidential legacy; the very dullness of the topic guarantees that the host's fevered imagination should be in top form.
Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004
President Bush loves to talk about the 19-year-old Afghan woman who was the first to cast a vote in October's presidential election. In the last few weeks before the election, he could hardly mount the podium without getting dewy-eyed over the thought of this spunky, once-veiled young lady casting her vote, not just for the candidate of her choice, but for Western-style democracy. What the president neglects to mention (besides the fact that the election was widely regarded as troubled and fraudulent) is that the girl in question, Moqadasa Sidiqi, voted absentee. A refugee from Afghanistan's two decades of war, she has been living in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital city, since her family emigrated there twelve years ago. In an interview after voting, she said she had voted for peace in the hope that her country would one day be safe enough for her family to return.
Afghanistan Unveiled, a one-hour documentary which will premiere this week on PBS (check local listings for airtimes), provides a glimpse of the complexities of life in Afghanistan for the less fortunate women who actually live there now. The film is both by and about Afghan women: fourteen young Afghans were trained in videojournalism before going on a tour of the country with the French journalist Brigitte Brault. In their travels, they interview women from four different parts of Afghanistan. An old woman named Zainab, a member of the dirt-poor Haraza ethnicity, speaks so eloquently of her people's ethnic cleansing under the Taliban that you can hear the filmmaker weeping behind her video camera (if you can stifle your own sniffles long enough.) Then, just when you're feeling righteous about having chased those Taliban sons-of-bitches from power, a young mother in the city of Herat tells of losing her brand-new husband and his brother to collateral damage from US bombings in the fall of 2002. In the end, one comes away with the impression that the Afghan people, still reeling from two decades of war and occupation, are simply relieved to have a break from the bombing. For most of the shell-shocked, malnourished interviewees, the right to vote seems several notches down the priority list.
In the traditional city of Herat, a merchant complains that since the rout of the Taliban, his brisk business in chadris, the head-to-toe coverings worn by women, has fallen off. The interviewer herself, wearing only a light headscarf, then gets into an argument with a group of men in the street about whether or not the wearing of the chadri is prescribed by the Koran; of course it is, they assure her, but the young woman contradicts them: "No, that is not true. Any person who says that is ignorant beyond comprehension." I have no idea which interpretation is correct, but the irreconcilable terms of this argument – conservative dogmatism versus progressive disdain – can't help but recall the debates raging in this country around our own divisive social issues of religion and gender. I guess democracy really has arrived in Afghanistan after all. ... 3:12 p.m.Dana Stevens (aka Liz Penn) writes on television for Slate and on film and culture for the High Sign.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2109826/
The best part of the opening ceremony at the Clinton Presidential Library was watching MSNBC's Chris Matthews kill time. I've finally figured out the secret of Matthews' weirdly hypnotic charm: he's more comfortable free-associating on TV than most people are on their analyst's couch, so the duller the event he's covering, the further out he gets. As the guests arrived to take their seats in the icy rain, Matthews battled his worst enemy -- silence -- with some of his usual libidinally charged ramblings: "Boy, that Tipper Gore is a good-looking woman. I'm sorry, I'd like to offer that commentary." During the "Star Spangled Banner," Matthews mused aloud about the inherent unsingability of our national anthem -- a point everyone secretly agrees on, but how many news anchors would say it on the air? Best of all, though, were his memories of bygone meetings of a Washington social club for presidential speechwriters, "back in the days when people used to drink." Later, Pat Buchanan, Matthews' fellow member in that club, predicted a grim future for Bill Clinton: "Twenty years of basically just sort of fading away." Matthews objected to this scenario: "You have him just going from watering hole to watering hole, gaining weight." Perhaps Matthews' sympathy for Clinton (which was evident throughout the broadcast) springs from the fact that the two men have a lot in common; both are blustery, hyperintelligent Irish-Americans with poor impulse control and a seemingly endless appetite for political trivia. Tonight's Hardball will focus on the library and what it means for Clinton's presidential legacy; the very dullness of the topic guarantees that the host's fevered imagination should be in top form.
Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004
President Bush loves to talk about the 19-year-old Afghan woman who was the first to cast a vote in October's presidential election. In the last few weeks before the election, he could hardly mount the podium without getting dewy-eyed over the thought of this spunky, once-veiled young lady casting her vote, not just for the candidate of her choice, but for Western-style democracy. What the president neglects to mention (besides the fact that the election was widely regarded as troubled and fraudulent) is that the girl in question, Moqadasa Sidiqi, voted absentee. A refugee from Afghanistan's two decades of war, she has been living in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital city, since her family emigrated there twelve years ago. In an interview after voting, she said she had voted for peace in the hope that her country would one day be safe enough for her family to return.
Afghanistan Unveiled, a one-hour documentary which will premiere this week on PBS (check local listings for airtimes), provides a glimpse of the complexities of life in Afghanistan for the less fortunate women who actually live there now. The film is both by and about Afghan women: fourteen young Afghans were trained in videojournalism before going on a tour of the country with the French journalist Brigitte Brault. In their travels, they interview women from four different parts of Afghanistan. An old woman named Zainab, a member of the dirt-poor Haraza ethnicity, speaks so eloquently of her people's ethnic cleansing under the Taliban that you can hear the filmmaker weeping behind her video camera (if you can stifle your own sniffles long enough.) Then, just when you're feeling righteous about having chased those Taliban sons-of-bitches from power, a young mother in the city of Herat tells of losing her brand-new husband and his brother to collateral damage from US bombings in the fall of 2002. In the end, one comes away with the impression that the Afghan people, still reeling from two decades of war and occupation, are simply relieved to have a break from the bombing. For most of the shell-shocked, malnourished interviewees, the right to vote seems several notches down the priority list.
In the traditional city of Herat, a merchant complains that since the rout of the Taliban, his brisk business in chadris, the head-to-toe coverings worn by women, has fallen off. The interviewer herself, wearing only a light headscarf, then gets into an argument with a group of men in the street about whether or not the wearing of the chadri is prescribed by the Koran; of course it is, they assure her, but the young woman contradicts them: "No, that is not true. Any person who says that is ignorant beyond comprehension." I have no idea which interpretation is correct, but the irreconcilable terms of this argument – conservative dogmatism versus progressive disdain – can't help but recall the debates raging in this country around our own divisive social issues of religion and gender. I guess democracy really has arrived in Afghanistan after all. ... 3:12 p.m.Dana Stevens (aka Liz Penn) writes on television for Slate and on film and culture for the High Sign.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2109826/
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Clinton Rips Starr, Media on Prosecution
Fri Nov 19, 9:05 PM ET
By JAMES JEFFERSON, Associated Press Writer
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - In a prime-time television outburst, Bill Clinton (news - web sites) ripped old nemesis Kenneth Starr and what the former president portrayed as a gullible media eager to report every "sleazy thing" leaked from a prosecutor bent on bringing him down.
AP Photo
The exchange came in an interview with ABC news anchor Peter Jennings that aired Thursday night, hours after Clinton opened his $165 million presidential library. Clinton blasted Starr and spoke disdainfully of a national media that he suggested was complicit in a scheme to ruin his presidency.
"No other president ever had to endure someone like Ken Starr," Clinton said. "No one ever had to try to save people from ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and people in Haiti from a military dictator that was murdering them, and all the other problems I dealt with, while every day an entire apparatus was devoted to destroying him."
The former president said he would go to his grave at peace that, while he had personal failings, he never lied to the American people about his job as president.
Clinton added that he doesn't care about what his detractors think about him. Jennings then said it seemed to him that Clinton did care.
The former president responded, "You don't want to go here, Peter. You don't want to go here. Not after what you people did and the way you, your network, what you did with Kenneth Starr. The way your people repeated every, little sleazy thing he leaked. No one has any idea what that's like."
"You never had to live in a time when people you knew and cared about were being indicted, carted off to jail, bankrupted, ruined, because they were Democrats and because they would not lie," he said. "So, I think we showed a lot of moral fiber to stand up to that. To stand up to these constant investigations, to this constant bodyguard of lies, this avalanche that was thrown at all of us. And, yes, I failed once. And I sure paid for it. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the American people. And I'm sorry for the embarrassment they performed."
Starr's former chief deputy said Friday he understood the difficulty for Clinton, but added that the bipartisan staff did what they had to do and performed honorably in seeking the truth.
"It's not easy being accused of things. We had allegations and we had to investigate them," Hickman Ewing said. "We believe we performed in an honorable manner."
As for the news coverage, he said the media "reported what they thought was news worthy."
A seven-year, $70 million investigation conducted mostly by Starr ranged from Clinton's involvement in the Whitewater land deal in the 1980s to the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Clinton was not among the dozen Arkansans indicted on criminal charges in the far-ranging Whitewater probe, but his affair with Lewinsky, a one-time White House intern, led to his impeachment by the GOP-controlled House in 1998. He was acquitted following a Senate trial.
Starr, now dean of the Pepperdine University law school, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.
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today's papersClause and EffectBy Sam SchechnerPosted Saturday, Nov. 20, 2004, at 2:54 AM PT
The New York Times leads (online, at least) with "a potentially far-reaching" anti-abortion clause that conservatives have slipped into the omnibus spending bill that Congress is expected to vote on today. The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times (online) stuff the abortion portion and lead instead with a full helping of Iraq, where the LAT channels the spirit of the conventional wisdom to pronounce that rising violence imperils January's elections. The WP's catchall lead instead goes high with news that government forces raided the Abu Hanifa mosque, the most holy Sunni shrine in Baghdad, just after Friday afternoon prayers, killing between two (WP) and four (LAT) people in a chaotic melee that left blood spattered on the sidewalk outside. The focus of the raid may have been the prayer leader, who was arrested; just before, the NYT says he had been urging the faithful to make cities like Mosul into battle zones "like Fallujah."
The LAT catches late word that House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a final version of the $388 billion spending bill with the anti-abortion provision intact; it is likely to pass. The NYT says it will allow hospitals and healthcare providers that receive federal money to opt out of state and local regulations requiring them to offer abortion counseling. The WP frames it differently: States that mandate the availability of such services, like New York and Hawaii, could lose federal funding. "They are catering to their right wing doing this," Sen. Tom Harkin said in the NYT. "It doesn't make it right. I think this is the first step."
The papers' Iraq roundups return again to Mosul, where the LAT says clashes continued, the NYT says U.S. troops mounted successful intel-gathering raids, and everyone notes that between two (WP) and a dozen (NYT) decapitated bodies were seen strewn in the streets. The WP reports that the group "Al-Qaida in Iraq" claimed on its Web site to have beheaded two Iraqi National Guardsmen before a large crowd and the NYT interviews someone who says he was there for the grisly slayings. "The bodies are still on the street because [the insurgents] have threatened everybody not to come near them," the man said.
The papers also note that fighting continues to flare in central and northern Iraq. The WP reports that U.S. troops fought a ninth day of battle against insurgents in Hawija, while a car bomb in eastern Baghdad killed at least three and wounded 13, according to the LAT.
The WP off-leads allegations that the $30 billion sweetheart deal the Air Force made to lease Boeing tankers was backed by the secretary of the Air Force, not just the contracting official who's already pleaded guilty to charges in the matter. In a series of punchy emails released yesterday by Sen. John McCain (who himself delivered a fiery Senate speech on the topic), the AF secretary called the deal's detractors "animals," and asked a lobbyist to "quash" one of them. At one point he wrote a colleague, "Privately between us: Go Boeing!" The secretary resigned a couple days ago for what he said were personal reasons.
The WP reports that Iran is continuing to turn raw uranium into hexafluoride gas, despite its agreement earlier this week to freeze such activity. "This is really a shot in the eye," one European negotiator told the Post. "The Iranians are trying to get as much work in before the suspension takes effect because they know most countries want the freeze to be permanent," another diplomat added. The papers, however, disagree on when that effective date would be. While the WP and Knight-Ridder say the IAEA expects the freeze to begin on Monday (Nov. 22), the NYT says, in passing, that Iran does not plan to suspend enrichment activities until Dec. 22. This TPer wonders: unfortunate typo or casus belli?
Meanwhile, as some officials vocally bolster Colin Powell's surprisingly bellicose (and weakly substantiated) statement Wednesday that Iran may be building delivery systems for nuclear warheads, others are still muddling the hard-boiled message. "We're not in a Feb. 5 mode on Iran, in the sense that we're not ready to submit our information to public scrutiny," an anonymous official says in the NYT, referring (blind to the irony?) to Powell's infamously inaccurate Security Council presentation on Iraqi weapons. Deputy SecState Richard Armitage likewise downplayed the tough talk as a role-playing exercise. "My view would be that the incentives of the Europeans only work against the backdrop of the United States being strong and firm on this issue," he said on Al-Jazeera yesterday. "In the vernacular, it's kind of a good cop-bad cop arrangement. If it works, we'll all have been successful."
Everyone notes that Fed Chair Alan Greenspan talked down the greenback during a banking conference in Frankfurt yesterday, saying the current accounts deficit—now at nearly $600 billion—was unsustainable, and that lower demand for U.S. debt could eventually drive down the dollar even further and force interest rates up. Administration officials have said they will not intervene, in part because a weak dollar helps domestic manufacturing by making U.S. exports cheaper. The dollar was down sharply in currency markets after Greenspan's remarks.
The papers note that protesters greeted President Bush as he arrived in Santiago, Chile, yesterday for the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, with the alternating goals of 1) making nice and 2) twisting arms. More enlighteningly, NYT marks the occasion with a long story on China's growing influence in Latin America. The relationship, built on China's need for imports to feed its economy (in fact, Santiago announced a free trade agreement with Beijing last week), has a political side, too. For example, after the Caribbean nation Dominica severed ties with Taiwan, China awarded it a direct aid package of $112 million.
Chicken soup for the mujehedeen … The Post a fronts a colorful story that highlights explains the political significance of the often inflammatory Friday prayer sermons delivered at both Shiite and Sunni mosques across the country: "In American terms, they might be akin to a mix of stern evangelical sermons, combustible talk radio and self-help lectures."Sam Schechner is a freelance writer in New York.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2110010/
The New York Times leads (online, at least) with "a potentially far-reaching" anti-abortion clause that conservatives have slipped into the omnibus spending bill that Congress is expected to vote on today. The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times (online) stuff the abortion portion and lead instead with a full helping of Iraq, where the LAT channels the spirit of the conventional wisdom to pronounce that rising violence imperils January's elections. The WP's catchall lead instead goes high with news that government forces raided the Abu Hanifa mosque, the most holy Sunni shrine in Baghdad, just after Friday afternoon prayers, killing between two (WP) and four (LAT) people in a chaotic melee that left blood spattered on the sidewalk outside. The focus of the raid may have been the prayer leader, who was arrested; just before, the NYT says he had been urging the faithful to make cities like Mosul into battle zones "like Fallujah."
The LAT catches late word that House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a final version of the $388 billion spending bill with the anti-abortion provision intact; it is likely to pass. The NYT says it will allow hospitals and healthcare providers that receive federal money to opt out of state and local regulations requiring them to offer abortion counseling. The WP frames it differently: States that mandate the availability of such services, like New York and Hawaii, could lose federal funding. "They are catering to their right wing doing this," Sen. Tom Harkin said in the NYT. "It doesn't make it right. I think this is the first step."
The papers' Iraq roundups return again to Mosul, where the LAT says clashes continued, the NYT says U.S. troops mounted successful intel-gathering raids, and everyone notes that between two (WP) and a dozen (NYT) decapitated bodies were seen strewn in the streets. The WP reports that the group "Al-Qaida in Iraq" claimed on its Web site to have beheaded two Iraqi National Guardsmen before a large crowd and the NYT interviews someone who says he was there for the grisly slayings. "The bodies are still on the street because [the insurgents] have threatened everybody not to come near them," the man said.
The papers also note that fighting continues to flare in central and northern Iraq. The WP reports that U.S. troops fought a ninth day of battle against insurgents in Hawija, while a car bomb in eastern Baghdad killed at least three and wounded 13, according to the LAT.
The WP off-leads allegations that the $30 billion sweetheart deal the Air Force made to lease Boeing tankers was backed by the secretary of the Air Force, not just the contracting official who's already pleaded guilty to charges in the matter. In a series of punchy emails released yesterday by Sen. John McCain (who himself delivered a fiery Senate speech on the topic), the AF secretary called the deal's detractors "animals," and asked a lobbyist to "quash" one of them. At one point he wrote a colleague, "Privately between us: Go Boeing!" The secretary resigned a couple days ago for what he said were personal reasons.
The WP reports that Iran is continuing to turn raw uranium into hexafluoride gas, despite its agreement earlier this week to freeze such activity. "This is really a shot in the eye," one European negotiator told the Post. "The Iranians are trying to get as much work in before the suspension takes effect because they know most countries want the freeze to be permanent," another diplomat added. The papers, however, disagree on when that effective date would be. While the WP and Knight-Ridder say the IAEA expects the freeze to begin on Monday (Nov. 22), the NYT says, in passing, that Iran does not plan to suspend enrichment activities until Dec. 22. This TPer wonders: unfortunate typo or casus belli?
Meanwhile, as some officials vocally bolster Colin Powell's surprisingly bellicose (and weakly substantiated) statement Wednesday that Iran may be building delivery systems for nuclear warheads, others are still muddling the hard-boiled message. "We're not in a Feb. 5 mode on Iran, in the sense that we're not ready to submit our information to public scrutiny," an anonymous official says in the NYT, referring (blind to the irony?) to Powell's infamously inaccurate Security Council presentation on Iraqi weapons. Deputy SecState Richard Armitage likewise downplayed the tough talk as a role-playing exercise. "My view would be that the incentives of the Europeans only work against the backdrop of the United States being strong and firm on this issue," he said on Al-Jazeera yesterday. "In the vernacular, it's kind of a good cop-bad cop arrangement. If it works, we'll all have been successful."
Everyone notes that Fed Chair Alan Greenspan talked down the greenback during a banking conference in Frankfurt yesterday, saying the current accounts deficit—now at nearly $600 billion—was unsustainable, and that lower demand for U.S. debt could eventually drive down the dollar even further and force interest rates up. Administration officials have said they will not intervene, in part because a weak dollar helps domestic manufacturing by making U.S. exports cheaper. The dollar was down sharply in currency markets after Greenspan's remarks.
The papers note that protesters greeted President Bush as he arrived in Santiago, Chile, yesterday for the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, with the alternating goals of 1) making nice and 2) twisting arms. More enlighteningly, NYT marks the occasion with a long story on China's growing influence in Latin America. The relationship, built on China's need for imports to feed its economy (in fact, Santiago announced a free trade agreement with Beijing last week), has a political side, too. For example, after the Caribbean nation Dominica severed ties with Taiwan, China awarded it a direct aid package of $112 million.
Chicken soup for the mujehedeen … The Post a fronts a colorful story that highlights explains the political significance of the often inflammatory Friday prayer sermons delivered at both Shiite and Sunni mosques across the country: "In American terms, they might be akin to a mix of stern evangelical sermons, combustible talk radio and self-help lectures."Sam Schechner is a freelance writer in New York.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2110010/
