DP World has agreed to delay taking over the US ports for a while to allow time to make people comfortable.

In a few weeks the hysteria will have blown over and the deal will be approved. (And as an added bonus it will have flushed the crackpots, the blowhards, the hacks and the willfully ingnorant into the open.)

The level of ignorance and misinformation floating around in the anti-port-deal arguments simply amazes me. The government is not selling these ports to an Arab company. A British company already handles these ports and that British company is being sold to a company run by the UAE. The government is only involved because it has the right to approve or not approve the sale.

And the Arab company won't be running security at these ports. The British company doesn't handle that now and DP World won't handle it after. Security is handled by the Coast Guard and Customs. This deal is mostly a matter of deciding who it is that hires the union longshoremen.

People argue that some 9/11 attackers were UAE citizens... gee, Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber", was born in London. Does that mean that the commercial aspects of the ports currently being run by the British company is a security risk?

There are some valid arguments to be made in opposition to this deal, but they seem to be in the microscopic minority compared to the spurious arguments being made. Far too many of the arguments against this deal seem like nothing more than hysterical xenophobia.

Lawyers: America's attempts to keep our clients from killing themselves in Guantanamo are abusive.

Today's winner:

If Americans extract information from terrorists by torture, would Americans be any different than the terrorists?

--Dayton Daily News: Speak Up

Michael Yon sends back dispatches from Mosul, Iraq. It's the type of stuff you won't hear on the news here at home where they only take notice when good-guys are killed.

The Yarmuk traffic circle is fantastically dangerous. On the first mission I ran in Mosul, we lost two soldiers and an interpreter, all killed by a car bomb. Others were horribly burned, scarred for life. Many of our wounded and killed soldiers got it right here, or in the immediate vicinity. The ISF takes serious losses in this part of town. But it's not entirely one-sided-- the Deuce Four has killed well over 150 terrorists in this neighborhood in the past 10 months. But almost none of those made the news, and those that did had a few key details missing.

Like the time when some ISF were driving and got blasted by an IED, causing numerous casualties and preventing them from recovering the vehicle. The terrorists came out and did their rifle-pumping-in-the-air thing, shooting AKs, dancing around like monkeys. Videos went ‘round the world, making it appear the terrorists were running Mosul, which was pretty much what was being reported at the time.

But that wasn't the whole story. In the Yarmuk neighborhood, only terrorists openly carry AK-47s. The lawyers call this Hostile Intent. The soldiers call this Dead Man Walking.

Deuce Four is an overwhelmingly aggressive and effective unit, and they believe the best defense is a dead enemy. They are constantly thinking up innovative, unique, and effective ways to kill or capture the enemy; proactive not reactive. They planned an operation with snipers, making it appear that an ISF vehicle had been attacked, complete with explosives and flash-bang grenades to simulate the IED. The simulated casualty evacuation of sand dummies completed the ruse.

The Deuce Four soldiers left quickly with the "casualties," "abandoning" the burning truck in the traffic circle. The enemy took the bait. Terrorists came out and started with the AK-rifle-monkey-pump, shooting into the truck, their own video crews capturing the moment of glory. That's when the American snipers opened fire and killed everybody with a weapon. Until now, only insiders knew about the AK-monkey-pumpers smack-down.

--Michael Yon

It took them long enough but American Muslim scholars have issued a fatwah condemning terrorism.

American Muslim scholars who interpret religious law for their community issued an edict Thursday condemning terrorism against civilians in response to the wave of deadly attacks in Britain and other countries.

In the statement, called a fatwa, the 18-member Fiqh Council of North America wrote that people who commit terrorism in the name of Islam were "criminals, not `martyrs.'"

"There is no justification in Islam for extremism or terrorism," the scholars wrote. "Targeting civilians' life and property through suicide bombings or any other method of attack is haram — or forbidden."

--Yahoo! News

And let's say you carried out yesterday's "bombings"... Why would you go and claim responsibility for it? Doesn't claiming responsibility for a failed bombing just make you look ineffectual?

4 small explosions in London today, 3 in the Subway and 1 on a bus. It'll be interesting to see what in the world happened here. Did they mean for the explosions to be so small? Did the detonators not explode the real explosives? Was it just some kind of demented prank?

"This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful; it is not aimed at presidents or prime ministers; it was aimed at ordinary working class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christians, Hindu and Jew, young and old, indiscriminate attempt at slaughter irrespective of any considerations, of age, of class, of religion, whatever, that isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith, it's just indiscriminate attempt at mass murder, and we know what the objective is, they seek to divide London. They seek to turn Londoners against each other and Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack," said Mr Livingston.

He then had a message for the terrorists who had organised the explosions.

"I wish to speak through you directly, to those who came to London to claim lives, nothing you do, how many of us you kill will stop that flight to our cities where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another, whatever you do, how many you kill, you will fail."

--Channelnewsasia.com

Today isn't that type of day. :( My thoughts and prayers are with the British people.

There are reports of upwards of 1.5 million people protesting in Beirut today against Syria's presence and influence in Lebanon.

Pictures here.

Much more here.

The leader of the "Lebanese intifada", Walid Jumblatt, on what the events in Iraq mean to Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East:

"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."

--Washington Post

I defy you not to admire these men who are choosing to go back into combat even after having lost a leg.

They've issued a fatwa against bin Laden.

Spain's Islamic Commission, which groups the nation's Muslim community, said it was issuing a fatwa against Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden,
'We are going to issue a fatwa (religious decree) against Bin Laden this afternoon,' Mansour Escudero, who leads the Federation of Islamic religious entities (Feeri) and co-secretary general of the Spanish governmenmt-created Commission told AFP.

The Commission invited Spanish-based imams to condemn terrorism at Friday prayers, when the whole country will be remembering the 191 people who were killed in the train blasts and the 1,900 injured a year ago.

The attacks have been blamed on mainly Moroccan Islamic extremists loyal to Bin Laden.

'We have called on imams to make a formal declaration condemning terrorism and for a special prayer for all the victims of terrorism,' Escudero said.

--Yahoo!

...and there are still between 150,000 and 250,000 protestors on the streets of Lebanon after Syria said they would pull their troops back, but not all the way out of Lebanon.

How am I supposed to come up with stuff to blog about when Reynolds is already saying everything that needs to be said about the Giuliana Sgrena situation?

The car carrying the recently freed hostage/reporter for an Italian communist paper was shot at by US troops as it approached the Baghdad Airport. US troops say the car was travelling towards the checkpoint at speed and ignored their warnings so they had to open fire. Sgrena claims... a lot of things. They were driving haphazardly enough that just before they had almost lost control of the car... they weren't speeding towards a checkpoint... there was no checkpoint... all she remembers is fire... they were shot at by a tank... they were specifically targeted because the US didn't like that Italy had paid the ransom...

Her claims that they weren't speeding towards a checkpoint and that they were purposefully targeted are... quite worthy of doubt to say the least. Not that that will stop the anti-Americans from using the incident to get people worked up.

Saudi Arabia has taken a firm stance with Syria, telling its president to begin fully removing his troops from Lebanon in accordance with a United Nations resolution, or Saudi-Syrian relations will suffer.

A Saudi official said Crown Prince Abdullah delivered the warning Thursday during a meeting in Riyadh with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

--VOA

I don't see how you can look at what's going on in Lebanon and not feel happy for these people and good about what they're doing. They are throwing off their yokes and making a stand for their right to self-determination and self-governance.

The Lebanese government abruptly resigned Monday during a stormy parliamentary debate, prompting a tremendous roar from tens of thousands of anti-government protesters in Beirut's Martyrs Square.

The demonstrators, awash in a sea of red, white and green Lebanese flags, had demanded the pro-Syrian government's resignation -- and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon -- since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri two weeks ago.
...
Meanwhile, a Lebanese opposition figure called for popular protests in Beirut to continue until Syria leaves.

"The battle is long, and this is the first step, this is the battle for freedom, sovereignty and independence," Ghattas Khouri told a cheering protest in central Beirut, according to Reuters.

--CNN

It really makes it easier to take on the axis of evil when they go ahead and actually team up and form an axis.

As time goes by the explanation gets more and more innocuous. First it was a missile strike, then it was the fuel tank off an airplane, now it's "construction". By tomorrow I expect it'll be "it must have been that... bean... we ate."

You mean we're spying on Iran?!

We'd damn well better be.

The increased frequency with which Middle Eastern terrorists target Americans and U.S. installations is due in part to the terrorists' continued perception that America acts cowardly when under attack, according to former Central Intelligence Agency director R. James Woolsey.
...
With President Jimmy Carter trying to negotiate the hostages' release in 1979 and 1980, the reaction of the average American was to "tie yellow ribbons around trees," Woolsey said. A few years later, when Hezbollah terrorists blew up the U.S. marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, Americans "ran," he added.

Throughout the 1980s, as Americans like Leon Klinghoffer on the cruise ship Achille Lauro were killed and others were kidnapped in Lebanon, "what did the Americans do? They sent the lawyers," Woolsey said.
...
The Japanese, like al Qaeda, attacked the United States {to start WWII} in part because they considered the U.S. cowardly and unlikely to react forcefully. "Based on what we were doing in the 1920s and 1930s ... the Japanese in the 1940s thought pretty much the same thing about us, because our behavior had certain parallels," to the more recent period, Woolsey said.

"I think you have to admit that [al Qaeda] had some basis for the assessment that I've just described, just as the Japanese had some basis for the assessment that they made of us in the beginning of the 1940s."

Woolsey said he believes the conflict with Islamism and Baathism is neither a recent nor a short-term phenomenon. "What's new is not the war. What's new is not our being attacked. What's new is we noticed. We finally decided after 9-11 that we would be at war too." He added that the U.S. must "stay awake" in order to prevent future attacks.

--CNSNews

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders will declare a formal end to more than four years of fighting at Tuesday's Mideast summit, both sides said Monday. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators finalized the agreement during last-minute preparations Monday.

--ABC News

"You don't suppose that cowboy could have been right all along, do you?"

That horrified question is lodging mischievously in scores of millions of brains around the world. Few people are saying it out loud, but it is on the tips of tongues.

The degree to which the Iraqi elections have changed things is simply stunning. A week ago, the worldwide consensus was that the insurgents were on the move, had the initiative. The American side needed a new strategy. Military leaders and other American officials said that publicly, for quotation. They couldn't get in trouble for saying it, because it was so obvious.

Now that seems like an era ago. Now the insurgents are sucking wind, or worse.

True, they might be back. Nevertheless, democracy in Iraq is looking now not like a gleam in some naive zealot's eye, but like a gestated baby demanding to be born.
...
For some people, this is all disorienting, simply because they have always assumed that Bush is bad guy. For them, the invasion was about Halliburton, vengeance, getting re-elected or oil, whatever he said. To see some of the stuff he said being borne out makes no sense, because, they think, he didn't even mean it.
...
But that election in Iraq Sunday! My goodness. It had to scare some non-democrats in the Mideast who could use a good scare. And it had to inspire others who pine for democracy.

Sure, this is just another stage in a long, long process. Still, the thought won't go away: Maybe the cowboy knew something.

--Martin Gottlieb - Dayton Daily News

"...Liberals have been expecting the imminent descent of Iraq into civil war for years."

"But it keeps not descending."

"So far, so good."

From an American soldier in Iraq:

It is now dusk in Baquba, a city that lies thirty-five miles Northeast of Baghdad, along the edge of the Sunni Triangle. The streets are quiet. Vehicular traffic has been banned today, a curfew is due to come into effect soon after dark. Mothers hurry home from the markets. Children scurry to keep up with them. Election posters cling to the walls and streetlights. The city is filled with expectations. The vast majority of the people realize what is at stake here. They are ready to cast their ballots tomorrow, to elect representatives who will govern them and craft a new constitution for their nation. They are eager to write a new chapter in the history of their country. Meanwhile, the enemies of freedom lurk in the dark alleyways of this city. Domestic and foreign terrorists lie in wait. They fear not only the outcome of the vote, but the very process itself. They want to halt the inexorable march of freedom. They may try to disrupt the voting. No matter what happens tomorrow, they are doomed to failure in the long run. The elections will take place, the citizens of Baquba will cast their ballots. The transformation of Iraq is about to commence. Still, this is not the end of the beginning; nor the beginning of the end; it is the beginning of the beginning. Sunday will mark the first step on the long road to political and moral recovery in Iraq – and in the region. When the sun rises, the people will speak.

--The Corner

Experts seem to have ruled out the prospect of an "unkillable zombie Bin Laden". :)

The United Nations official charged with election assistance yesterday threw a barb at American troops in Iraq,accusing them of conducting an "overenthusiastic" campaign to promote this weekend’s Iraqi election.

The chief of the U.N. Electoral Assistance Division, Carina Perelli, was asked in a press conference about reports that American troops helped Iraqi officials distribute information on the electoral process to Iraqi citizens, and encouraged them to participate in Sunday’s vote.

Ms. Perelli said that U.N. officials spent time "asking, begging military commanders precisely not to do that," but the time has not been well-spent. The Americans were "overenthusiastic in trying to help out with these elections," she said. "We have basically been saying they should try to minimize their participation because this is an Iraqi process."

--The New York Sun

It's just more of the same old damned if you do, damned if you don't. If the military hadn't helped educate people about the elections the UN would just be complaining that Iraqi's weren't being educated about the elections.

"I don't just see light at the end of the tunnel, I see light at the start and throughout the tunnel," says [Mohammed Hanash] Abbas, 41, in a typically upbeat remark. His partner [Attallah] Zeidan, 39, agrees.

"We must live like other people," Zeidan says. "Let a million of us die. That's the price of freedom. Have you heard of any society that gained freedom without sacrifices?"

--AP News - TBO.com

An overwhelming majority of Iraqis continue to say they intend to vote on Jan. 30 even as insurgents press attacks aimed at rendering the elections a failure, according to a new public opinion survey.

The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, found 80 percent of respondents saying they were likely to vote, a rate that has held roughly steady for months.

--Washington Post

The confession of the head of the Army of Muhammad in Iraq, aired on Al-Fayhaa TV and translated by the good folks at MEMRI:

Interrogator: "What is your name?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Colonel Muayed Yassin 'Aziz 'Abd Al-Razaq Al-Nasseri, commander of the Army of Muhammad, one of the resistance factions in Iraq. The Army of Muhammad was founded by Saddam Hussein after the fall of the regime, on April 9, 2003. At first, Yasser Al-Shab'awi was put in charge, until his capture in July 2003. Then Sa'd Hammad Hisham was in charge until December 2003. Then I was put in charge from January 2004 until now. The Army of Muhammad has some 800 armed fighters."
...
Interrogator: "Did you get support from the countries of the region?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Yes, sir... Many factions of the resistance are receiving aid from the neighboring countries. We in the Army of Muhammad - the fighting has been going on for almost two years now, and there must be aid, and this aid came from the neighboring countries. We got aid primarily from Iran. The truth is that Iran has played a significant role in supporting the Army of Muhammad and many factions of the resistance. I have some units, especially in southern Iraq, which receive Iranian aid in the form of arms and equipment."

Interrogator: "You're referring to units of the Army of Muhammad?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Yes. They received money and weapons."

'[Fighters] Met Personally with Iranian Leader Khamenei… They Even Got Car Bombs'

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "As for other factions of the resistance, I have reliable information regarding the National Islamic resistance, which is one of the factions of resistance, led by Colonel 'Asi Al Hadithi. He sent a delegation to Iran from among the people of the faction, including General Halaf and General Khdayyer. They were sent to Iran in April or May and met with Iranian intelligence and with a number of Iranian leaders and even with Khamenei."

Interrogator: "You mean they personally met with Khamenei?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "According to my information, they met with him personally, and they were given one million dollars and two cars full of weapons. They still have a very close relationship with Iran. They receive money, cars, weapons, and many things. According to my information, they even got car bombs."

'Cooperation with Syria Began in October 2003… Later, Saddam Hussein Himself Authorized Me to Go to Syria'

Muayed Al-Nasseri "In addition, as I've told you, Syria… Cooperation with Syria began in October 2003, when a Syrian intelligence officer contacted me. S'ad Hamad Hisham and later Saddam Hussein himself authorized me to go to Syria. So I was sent to Syria. I crossed the border illegally. Then I went to Damascus and met with an intelligence officer, Lieutenant-Colonel 'Abu Naji' through a mediator called 'Abu Saud.' I raised the issues that preoccupied Saddam Hussein and the leadership. There were four issues: First, the issue of the media; second, political support in international forums; [third], aid in the form of weapons, and [fourth], material aid, whether it is considered a debt or is taken from the frozen Iraqi funds in Syria."

'The Syrian Government is Fully Aware of this, and the Syrian Intelligence Cooperates Fully'

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Through the Ba'th party - the Arab Socialist Ba'th Party operates in Syria with complete freedom. It maintains its relations and organizes the Ba'th members outside Iraq. The Syrian government is fully aware of this, and the Syrian intelligence cooperates fully, as well as the Ba'th Party, in Syria.

--MEMRI

Fascists do bad things just to be bad. "I'm the baddest dude in Baghdad," Saddam Hussein was saying, "the baddest cat in the Middle East. I'm way bad." This was way stupid. But fascists are stupid. Consider Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. He didn't have any. How stupid does that make Saddam? All he had to do was say to UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, "Look under my bed. Look in the special spider hole I'm keeping for emergencies." And Saddam Hussein could have gone on dictatoring away until Donald Rumsfeld is elected head of the World Council of Churches. ... [Terrorism] is terrifying, hence its name.... But as frightening as terrorism is, it's the weapon of losers. When someone detonates a suicide bomb, that person does not have career prospects. And no matter how horrific the terrorist attack, it's conducted by losers. Winners don't need to hijack airplanes. Winners have an air force.

--P.J. O'Rourke - Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism

A US plan to develop a bad breath bomb and a chemical weapon to make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other has been revealed in newly declassified documents.

New Scientist's web site reports that the documents show the Pentagon considered a range of non-lethal chemical weapons aimed at disrupting enemy discipline and morale.

The "sex bomb" idea would cause a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale, it states.

Also considered were concoctions that would be irresistible to wasps or angry rats to render enemy bases uninhabitable.

And there was the bad breath bomb idea - a weapon that caused "severe and lasting halitosis" to make it easier to sniff out spies.

Other ideas dating back to 1994 from the US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Ohio included making soldiers' skin react painfully to sunlight.

--smh.com.au

I figure this qualifies as good news as it's the terrorists who are doing the losing.

THE spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiah says he is losing the battle for the hearts and minds of Aceh's tsunami survivors because of the humanitarian assistance from Australian and US military forces.

A spokesman for Abu Bakar Bashir said the Indonesian cleric, who is on trial for terrorism, regarded the relief operations by Australian and US military personnel as a dangerous development, overshadowing the role of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI).

"We are suspicious of the presence of foreign soldiers and their show of force and the minimum publicity given to assistance from Arab states," said Fauzan Al Anshari, a spokesman for Bashir's militant Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia group.

"It's dangerous, this idea by Acehnese that US and Australian forces are their guardian angels - more popular than the TNI."

--News.com.au

Reports indicate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been captured. Take it with the afore-mentioned sodium chloride.

Despite a year of ferocious combat, mounting casualties and frequent deployments, support for the war in Iraq remains very high among the active-duty military, according to a Military Times Poll.

Sixty-three percent of respondents approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, and 60% remain convinced it is a war worth fighting. Support for the war is even greater among those who have served longest in the combat zone: Two-thirds of combat vets say the war is worth fighting.

But the men and women in uniform are under no illusions about how long they will be fighting in Iraq; nearly half say they expect to be there more than five years.

In addition, 87%% say they're satisfied with their jobs and, if given the choice today, only 25% say they'd leave the service.

Compared with last year, the percentages for support for the war and job satisfaction remain essentially unchanged.

--USATODAY.com - Poll shows troops in support of war

Powerline reports that the uproar over the lack of uparmored humvees may not be all it's made out to be, at least in regards to the unit that the soldier who asked the infamous question of Secretary Rumsfeld was in.

Of the 800+ vehicles in the 278 ACR, only 20 weren't "uparmored" and those 20 were scheduled to be upgraded (and were upgraded) within 24 hours of when the question was asked according to Major General Stephen Speakes.

Donald Rumsfeld's been taking quite a beating recently. I have to say, I wouldn't be at all opposed to his leaving. At this juncture though I don't think his departure is really politically feasible.

Now don't take this to be playing politics with defense. I don't mean that his departure would reflect badly on President Bush or help the Democrats or anything like that. I do though think that his leaving right now could affect the next SecDef's ability to do the job. The attacks are going to continue to escalate in Iraq and I think it's advisable for Rumsfeld to stay on until early next year so that we can at least get over that hump. Then I'd fully support dumping Rumsfeld and bringing in a new guy to manage the operations in post-election Iraq.

President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.

Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity.
...
The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S. navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The European Union (news - web sites) is developing a $4.8 billion program, called Galileo.

The military increasingly uses GPS technology to move troops across large areas and direct bombs and missiles. Any government-ordered shutdown or jamming of the GPS satellites would be done in ways to limit disruptions to navigation and related systems outside the affected area, the White House said.

"This is not something you would do lightly," said James A. Lewis, director of technology policy for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It's clearly a big deal. You have to give them credit for being so open about what they're going to do."

--Yahoo News

From Citizen Smash.

Iraq's Electoral Commission on Sunday set national elections for Jan. 30, and a spokesman said ballots would be cast nationwide, including in areas now wracked by violence. ... Iraqis will go to the polls to choose a national assembly, which will among other things draft a permanent constitution. The vote is seen as a major step toward building democracy after years of rule by Saddam Hussein. ... Sunday was the first time a date for national elections was set; the commission was charged with choosing a date before the end of January.

"Having elections in Iraq are very important, and having them in time is also so important for the Iraqi people to have more security in Iraq," said Salama al-Khafaji, a Shiite member of the interim Iraqi National Assembly.

Iraqi voters will choose representatives for a 275-member national assembly, provincial councils and the national council for Kurdistan. Ayar said that 122 political parties out of 195 applications were accepted and registered for the elections.

--ABC News

Posted by robbernard at 01:50 PM in War/Terrorism/Middle East | Comments (0)

With the defeat of the Saddam Hussein regime on April 9, 2003, the Ba'th ruling party was outlawed and a committee for the de-Ba'thification of Iraq was established. [1] However, the Ba'th's propaganda machine appears to have found a new abode in Paris, France, whence threats to the U.S. are issued regularly in three languages - English, French, and Spanish. Not surprisingly, the Ba'thist propagandists use the word "resistance" (in French, "la resistance") to underscore the association with the struggle against the Nazi occupation of France during WWII.

The resurrection of the Ba'th Party on French soil was further strengthened by France's proposal that representatives of "la resistance" should participate in any future conference that will be convened to discuss the future of Iraq. This position was clearly stated by Michel Barnier, the French Foreign Minister, in an interview with the French TV station " France Inter." In the interview, Mr. Barnier called for a political process in Iraq that would include "a number of groups and people who have today opted for the path of resistance through the use of weapons."

--MEMRI

Frenchmen are dying alongside on the other side of our troops in Iraq.

The battle in Fallujah was supposed to be the worst possible conditions for our military to fight in. Urban combat. Street-to-street, door-to-door. As things stand now, the enemy is said to be "broken" and 1,000-2,000 insurgents have been killed to the coaltion's 44. That's a ratio of between 22:1 and 45:1. I think that number says a lot about the abilities of our military. They took what are widely seen to be the worst possible conditions for a traditional military battle and crushed the enemy.

First Coast News has learned a body has been found in Iraq and DNA testing is underway.

Multiple sources tell First Coast News Captain Scott Speicher's family has been notified.

They will not disclose the details of why they believe these are his remains only to say they have reason to feel confident these are his remains.

Test results are expected within weeks.
...
[Speicher was believed to have died in a plane crash in the first Gulf War. --ed]

First Coast News has learned the human remains, thought to be Speichers, were not found at the crash site.

The remains being tested were found in another part of Iraq.

After the initial discovery of the crash site, in an unprecedented move, the Pentagon changed Speicher's status from Killed in Action, to Missing in Action, and then later, Missing Captured.

The president even included Speicher and the fact that he was still in Iraq in a speech he gave to the nation.

Shortly into the second Gulf War, the initials M.S.S were found in a Baghdad prison.

Sources are now telling First Coast News they have information that indicates Speicher was captured after the crash and held as a prisoner for some time before he died.

However, DNA tests performed on the materials used to make the markings failed to confirm those initials found in a cell were made by Michael Scott Speicher.

His friends and family were not discouraged saying they knew the wall had been painted over several times and other things found in other prison cells supported their theory that Scott had been held at that prison.

--First Coast News

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat died in the Percy military hospital near Paris, Proche Orient Info, a French newspaper that covers the Middle East reported Thursday evening.

Radio Monte-Carlo also reported on Thursday evening that Yasser Arafat is clinically dead.

Proche Orient reported that doctors decided to take Arafat off the artificial respirator.

The commanders of the Palestinian security forces have been summoned to an urgent meeting in Ramallah Thursday night following reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was in critical condition.

--Jerusalem Post

--Update--
Of course other reports indicate he isn't.

From the good folks at MEMRI:

The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera(1) on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to "each U.S. state," designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush. The U.S. media in general mistranslated the words "ay wilaya" (which means "each U.S. state")(2) to mean a "country" or "nation" other than the U.S., while in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state. This suggests some knowledge by bin Laden of the U.S. electoral college system. In a section of his speech in which he harshly criticized George W. Bush, bin Laden stated: "Any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security."

The Islamist website Al-Qal'a explained what this sentence meant: "This message was a warning to every U.S. state separately. When he [Osama Bin Laden] said, 'Every state will be determining its own security, and will be responsible for its choice,' it means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president has chosen to fight us, and we will consider it our enemy, and any state that will vote against Bush has chosen to make peace with us, and we will not characterize it as an enemy. By this characterization, Sheikh Osama wants to drive a wedge in the American body, to weaken it, and he wants to divide the American people itself between enemies of Islam and the Muslims, and those who fight for us, so that he doesn't treat all American people as if they're the same. This letter will have great implications inside the American society, part of which are connected to the American elections, and part of which are connected to what will come after the elections."

--MEMRI

Iraq’s principal Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has informed the interim Iraqi government of his “full support” for elections scheduled for January.

“The grand ayatollah’s message is that elections should be held as scheduled and that he will advise the faithful to take active part,” Sistani’s spokesman Ahmad Safi told Arab News yesterday.
...
Sistani’s support comes as a major boost to plans for the election that is designed to choose a constituent assembly to finalize a draft constitution that will then be submitted to the people in a referendum.

--Arab News

Jonah Goldberg has a good column up on the myriad reasons the Iraq war was justified.

The notion that the invasion of Iraq was justified - and justifiable - solely on the WMD threat is a canard. It's true, the administration did emphasize the WMD issue. But it's also true that the press consistently demanded "one reason" - in Tim Russert's words - to go to war. The WMD case was simply the most compelling one to make. Every allied intelligence agency - including France's and Germany's - was convinced Saddam had WMDs. As were all of the various competing agencies in our own defense-intelligence complex.
...
But that doesn't mean that Bush didn't offer numerous other rationales before and after the war. In major speeches he touted the importance of democratizing the Middle East. Administration officials pointed out that Saddam was the only world leader to applaud 9/11, and that he was a major source of funding for suicide bombers in Israel. They argued that removing Saddam would have a positive impact on the peace process. President Bush made a masterful case to the United Nations that, in the post-9/11 world, the world body could not afford to let a dictator - one who had gassed his own people and invaded a neighbor - flout its countless reso