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THE FALL AND RISE OF GEORGE W. BUSH
By Avi Davis
 Do any of these descriptions of recent presidents ring a bell?
“ I never did see so weak or imbecilic a man. The weakest man I ever knew in high place.”
“ The craftiest and most dishonest politician that ever disgraced an office in America”
“ An intellectual pygmy who disgraces the office occupied so grandly by men such as Washington and Jefferson.”
These snide denunciations could all well have been found in almost any of the nations’ newspapers or magazines over the past eight years. But they do not refer to George W. Bush. The first two were written contemporarily about Abraham Lincoln. The third about Harry S.Truman.
Attacks on the character, ability, integrity and performance of a President is a tradition as old as the nation itself. No chief executive ever escapes them. Even George Washington, in his attempt to keep the United States neutral at the beginning of the Revolutionary Wars in the 1790s, suffered ridicule and the contempt of editorialists and opinion makers.
But the point of presenting these quotes to you is to demonstrate the political truism that history is the final arbiter of a President’s legacy – and no amount of contemporary vilification will alter its final judgment. The presidencies of Lincoln and Truman certainly offer proof. In William Riding and Stuart McIver’s book Rating the Presidents ( Citadel Press, 1997) both Lincoln and Truman, viciously excoriated in their time as imbeciles and incompetents, are hoisted into the highest echelons of the ranking, with Lincoln occupying the first place and Truman the seventh.
This is the week, of course, when editorials gleefully indulge in the necromantic pleasure of dissecting the cadavers of dead presidencies. In that spirit, both Time and Newsweek have published pieces declaring Bush the worst president in U.S history. Commentators on MSNBC , CNN and ABC have mercilessly savaged the Bush Administration for its failures, listing the invasion of Iraq, the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina, the abuse of human rights at Guantanomo and the NSA wire tapping operation as evidence of not just incompetence, but mala fides. The Administration is widely regarded in the media, academia and among the intellectual elites of this country as having abused constitutional safeguards, exercised arbitrary executive power, used manipulative tactics and fabricated evidence to goad the American into an unnecessary military confrontation.
Contrary views are mocked. The press has laughed off the Administration’s own defense of its record as another farrago of lies and fabrications and even conservatives mouth resigned platitudes about a failed presidency.
But Bush’s many achievements are documented and cannot be dismissed as the mere posturing of a defeated administration.
Included are the President’s Malarial Initiative ( PMI) which is on track to reduce malarial deaths in Africa in half in 15 selected countries; the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, ( PEDFAR) - the single most important AIDS initiative in history which has provided life saving treatment for more than 2.1 people on the African continent and has cared for 10.1 million more worldwide. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) which has invested $6.7 billion in 35 countries to fight corruption, govern justly, and focus on in the health and education of their people.. Since 2001 the United States has provided 10.1 billion in disaster relief and was by far the lead international contributor after the 2005 Tsunami in South East Asia, the earthquakes in Turkey and the cyclone in Burma.
The Bush Administration has also been the greatest promoter of free trade in U.S. history. In 2001 the United States had negotiated free trade agreements with only three countries. Recognizing that free trade is the true key to global peace and security, the Administration ensured that today the United States has agreements in place with 14 countries with Congress recently approving another three.
In education reform , the results have also been impressive. The No Child Left Behind Act , a law which demands that the states hold schools accountable for ensuring that every child learns to read and perform math at grade level has been a signal success. According to the Nation’s Report Card, by 2007 fourth-grade students had achieved their highest reading and math scores on record, and eighth-grade students achieved their highest math scores. African-American and Hispanic students posted all-time highs in reading and math, narrowing the achievement gap.
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives also brought important changes to volunteerism in this country. More than 515,000 children received after-school tutoring through supplemental educational services, many from faith-based and community providers. Critics might well have virulently attacked the Bush Administration response to Hurricane Katrina, but this same program’s national service plan encouraged more than 5.4 million hours of service, directing 405,000 volunteers in recovery efforts.
The “anti-environment President”, also seems to have transformed into something of an environmentalist. In terms of sheer land mass protected, the Bush Administration is without peer. The Healthy Forest Initiative extended protection to more than 27 million acres of federal forests and grasslands and helped protect more communities from catastrophic fires than at any other time in history. The Wetlands Initiative extended protection to 11 million acres. With the Oceanic Action Plan, the Administration worked to end over fishing, advance marine science, and educate the public about the need for preservation. Bush also designated nearly 140,000 square miles of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a Marine National Monument making history as the largest allocation of the world’s surface for conservation purposes. The new Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument designated just last week, now protects more than 7,000 endangered species. And the President’s National Parks Centennial Initiative has provided record funding for the repair and improvement of the nation’s national parks.
And yet in the popular imagination, George W. Bush’s diplomatic and military failures far outweigh any of these achievements.
That is largely because of the Administration’s response to the events of September 11. 2001. The canard is that Bush lied to the American people about the justifications for the Iraq War, that he executed that invasion incompetently and then used imaginary threats to American security to justify torture, tightened security and spying on Americans.
But lets get some facts straight. The CIA evidence of Saddam’s Hussein’s WMD threat to the United States presented by the Administration and put on display by Colin Powell at the United Nations, was widely accepted by everyone – from Nancy Pelosi to Harry Reid to the viciously anti-Bush State Department– as true and unimpeachable.
Here is Nancy Pelosi:
“ Saddam Hussein has engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology and is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process.”
And Harry Reid:
“Saddam Hussein in effect thumbed his nose at the world community and I think the President is approaching this in the right fashion.”
And Al Gore:
“ We know that Saddam has stored throughout his country secret supplies of chemical an biological weapons. Iraq’s acquisition of weapons of mass destruction has proved impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam Hussein is in power.”
Hussein himself had done much to reinforce their opinions. He was not only in violation of innumerable U.N. resolutions. In the previous 15 years he had instigated military campaigns which had accounted for a greater loss of human life than any other political leader since the Second World War. He had butchered his own people, using chemical agents (for the first time since the First World War), arbitrary executions and mass slaughter to further enforce his rule. He had fought one war with United States and made known his desire for vengeance in a second. He was indubitably, incontrovertibly a menace to both his own people, his neighbors and to world peace. His control of and proximity to great oil resources threatened global stability. His removal from power was regarded almost universally as a necessity
The war that followed was a protracted affair and the occupation that followed it was, admittedly, bungled. But here are the results: Hussein is dead. Iraq is a fledgling democracy. The United States’ casualty list stands at a tiny fraction of what it had been in other engagements of a similar nature and duration and this country now has a base in the Middle East from which it can apply pressure to other terror sponsoring states.
More important than this is the psychological impact the Iraqi success has had on the terrorist networks and their masterminds. Improved intelligence, surveillance and security are not the only reasons the United States has not suffered a devastating attack on the level of 9/11 in the past seven years. American resolve to defend the country no longer took the shape of mere words and ineffectual action. The image of weakness projected by the Carter and Clinton Administrations, which had given the Iranians the temerity to hold American diplomats hostage for 435 days and terrorists the gall to launch their 9/11 strike, was finally reversed. Under the presidency of George W. Bush, the United States would no longer tolerate provocations from terrorists or rogue states.
But what to make of the other charges regarding the abuse of individual and constitutional rights? The trouble with successful pre-emptive measures taken domestically to protect citizens, is that their need can never be fully demonstrated since the event they sought to deter does not take place. Hence the Patriot Act, the NSA Wire Tapping operation and the water boarding of Guantanomo prisoners are all open to criticism as needless measures designed to increase executive power rather than reinforce American security.
The discussion is fairly useless. What is necessary to recall, and what many liberal commentators have chosen to forget, is that an act of war was carried out against the American hinterland in September, 2001. No other President since 1812 had been confronted with as bold a challenge to American security. The Bush Administration’s legislative and executive responses to the threat illustrated an axiom that may well come to define our world: that during a time of war or threatened war, individual liberties must some times give way to the exigencies of national security. Any democracy, seeking to preserve its institutions and its security must be prepared, at times, to assert control over modes of communication, transportation and the vehicles of self expression and cannot be squeamish about using means that might elicit information necessary to save the lives of millions of its people. Strong democratic leaders, recognizing their responsibilities to the security of their citizenries, must be prepared to take the heat when they enforce measures which on their face may seem to fly in the face of individual liberty but do much to actually protect and strengthen it. George W. Bush was such a leader and may yet set the modern standard for political courage in a time of military crisis.
And there is one further aspect of the Bush presidency for which future historians will not fail to applaud. On September 20, 2001, Bush delivered one of the most powerful presidential addresses in American political history, articulating a philosophy that would come to dominate the seven remaining years of his Administration. Declaring the Islamic fundamentalist menace the heir to 20th Century fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism, Bush drew a thread from George Washington, sewed it through Woodrow Wilson, looped in the presidency of Harry Truman and connected it to our own time:
“The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us. Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.”
He further elaborated on what would become known as the Bush Doctrine before the Air Force Academy on June 2, 2004:
“ For decades, free nations tolerated oppression in the Middle East for the sake of stability. In practice, this approach brought little stability and much oppression, so I have changed this policy. Some who call themselves realists question whether the spread of democracy in the Middle East should be any concern of ours. But the realists in this case have lost contact with a fundamental reality: America has always been less secure when freedom is in retreat; America is always more secure when freedom is on the march.”
Here was an American president forcefully expressing the concept of American execptionalism; Here was an American political leader disavowing the moral relativism of our age and declaring unashamedly that the American experiment in democracy has a purpose which is not simply to provide comfort and contentment to its citizens but to deliver freedom and liberty to all humanity. Savagely attacked as simplistic and hubristic, Bush nonetheless gave voice to the strongest emotional undercurrent of American life: that the American people stand for something beyond themselves and that this is a cause they will die to defend and live to advance.
Say what you want about George Bush’s skills as an orator or his level or his powers of communication, these speeches and the philosophy they outlined, were defining moments in his presidency and may come to be regarded eventually as two of the most important presidential addresses in U.S. history. They define a moment in time when the American people were reawakened to the perils of living in a world where evil is tolerated and to the reality that only assertive action against such evil can ensure security, stability and national cohesion.
Abraham Lincoln understood this. As did Harry Truman. Both knew that hard truths are not so easily swallowed and that a democratic leader must sometimes be prepared to endure unparalleled dissatisfaction and personal vilification in advancing a cause vital to the country’s security and future. They stand today in the pantheon of great presidents because they withstood the rancor of their critics and hewed to their beliefs and convictions without waver.
The 43rd president was also such a man. And history will remember him for it.
Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ new blog
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
Should Israel Agree to a Ceasefire?
by Robert Spencer
“We in Europe want a ceasefire as quickly as possible, and…everyone understands that time is running against peace. The guns must fall silent.” So said French President Nicholas Sarkozy after meeting with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Later, a delegation from the European Union met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to ask Israel to cease operations in Gaza immediately. Karel Schwarzenberg, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic, which currently has leadership of the EU, declared that Israel should not wait for victory: “We are not sharing the view that the cease-fire is only possible if all possible aims of the Israeli action are achieved.”
Israel’s chief aim is to stop the rocket attacks into southern Israel from Gaza and prevent them from recurring. Islamic jihadists have fired 5000 rockets into Israel in the last three years, making no effort whatsoever to distinguish between civilian and military targets. Israeli civilians in southern Israel have grown accustomed to the daily possibility of death from the sky. Sarkozy and the EU expect the Israelis to stop short of achieving their simple goal of ending this threat because they are placing their hope on a negotiated settlement between Hamas and Israel -- one that they would perhaps broker. (Human Events)
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
 Archbishop of York claims fall of Empire and rise of multiculturalism has destroyed Britain's 'big idea'-Martin Beckford
The loss of Empire and the rise of multiculturalism has destroyed Britain's "big vision" and risks creating segregation, the Archbishop of York has warned.
Dr John Sentamu claimed the country has lost its way and become self-absorbed in recent decades, following the pioneering reforms that led to the creation of the National Health Service.
He agreed that Labour has repeatedly put forward new ideas to generate "social cohesion" but they had yet to be made real because ministers do not want to hand over power to residents, and instead rely on "over-hasty" laws. However the Archbishop, the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, also claimed the current economic crisis provides an opportunity for people to look again at their priorities and admit they had been worshipping "false gods" in the financial world rather than working to improve society. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Pentagon: 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism-David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as "returning to the fight" and 43 are suspected of having done in a report issued late in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Morrell declined to provide details such as the identity of the former detainees, why and where they were released or what actions they have taken since leaving U.S. custody. "This is acts of terrorism. It could be Iraq, Afghanistan, it could be acts of terrorism around the world," he told reporters. Morrell said the latest figures, current through December 24, showed an 11 percent recidivism rate, up from 7 percent in a March 2008 report that counted 37 former detainees as suspected or confirmed active militants. (news.yahoo)
Terrorist Penpals A new program by Amnesty International-Thomas Joscelyn
As the President-elect's administration weighs what to do with the detainees remaining at Guantánamo, the pressure is mounting from advocacy groups. For years, some organizations have taken an extreme approach, telling the detainees' stories in the most favorable manner possible -- ignoring evidence of their ties to terrorism, while magnifying nearly every allegation of abuse whether it is valid or not. The result is a picture of Guantánamo that is clearly distorted. Most inmates are portrayed as obvious innocents who are tortured by an American government run amok. Consider a pamphlet published in mid-December of last year by Amnesty International. In a four-page piece titled "Solidarity with Guantánamo Detainees," Amnesty asks people to "support the detainees" and implores them to "act now" in their defense. The pamphlet references nine current and former detainees, highlighting their words from "poems and letters," and asking people to write them in order to boost their morale: "Please write to any or all of the following Guantánamo detainees, expressing in your own words your solidarity with them." (Weeklystandard)
Prisoners convert to Islam for gang protection-Tom Whitehead
Prisoners at one of the country's top security prisons are converting to Islam for protection because of a rife gang culture, an inspection report says.
Inmates at Long Lartin prison said some were "becoming Muslim" because it is a "bigger gang".
Radical cleric Abu Qatada, once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was held at the prison last year before being released on bail - which he went on to breach. Similar concerns were raised in an inspection report in to Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire last year, in which prison officers warned extremist Muslim prisoners are ganging up on others in an attempt to radicalise them Inspectors at Long Lartin, in Worcestershire, were told gang culture us widespread.One inmate said: "Yes there is a gang culture here which is becoming an issue. A lot of people are becoming Muslim just because it's a bigger gang."
Another said: "There are issues with Muslim gangs wanting to overpower others." (Telegraph.co.uk)
Dutch politician calls for dedicated Muslim area-Paolo Gallini
A Dutch council leader has sparked protests after he called for declaring an area of Amsterdam as a haven for Muslims. His calls follow a local council reorganization several years ago. However, debate has continued to rage about the future direction of the councils. Now Ahmed Marcouch has suggested that other councils in Amsterdam-West should merge and be established as ‘a town in itself’. Although he is well-known for his calls for integration, but other Dutch politicians have expressed alarm at the drift towards Islamisation. Mr Marcouch suggested that is the councils merged, a ‘blooming’ Muslim community could arise. Previously, he has called for the teaching of Islam in all state schools and was blocked from inviting the controversial Islamic scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to address a congress on Islam. (Religiousintelligence.co.uk)
Academic freedom
The State of Free Speech on Campus: UCLA-Samantha Harris
Over the next six months, FIRE will be exposing the speech codes silencing students at America's most prestigious colleges and universities. Although students from around the world compete intensively for the opportunity to live and learn at these institutions, most maintain policies that violate students' fundamental rights to freedom of expression and freedom of conscience. Since we believe strongly that prospective students and their families should consider these restrictions—just as they would consider average test scores and faculty/student ratios—when deciding where to apply to school, we want to make this information as accessible as possible. Information about restrictions on speech at over 400 colleges and universities is already available in our Spotlight database, but we also want to draw particular attention to speech restrictions at the top 25 American colleges and universities, since these elite institutions almost uniformly advertise themselves as—and succeed on the basis of their reputations as—centers of free inquiry and debate. To that end, for each of the next 25 weeks, The Torch will include a detailed discussion of the speech codes in force at these top 25 institutions. Today, we begin with the institution ranked as #25 on U.S. News & World Report's list of top national universities: the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA receives FIRE's "red light" rating for the policies it maintains that restrict student expression. Not just one but several policies at UCLA are constitutionally infirm. (FIRE)
Media Bias
Norwegian Doctors in Gaza: Objective Observers or Partisan Propagandists?-
The source of most of the information coming from Gaza thus far has been from Palestinian representatives. One of the only non-Palestinian voices heard has been that of Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor who entered Gaza on December 31 along with his colleague Erik Fosse ostensibly to provide medical assistance to Palestinians at Shifa Hospital. They have become media stars as the BBC, CBS, CNN, ABC, Independent, Sky News, and New York Times, among others, have turned to them as independent foreign observers to provide a presumably non-partisan perspective. They have been extensively interviewed in the Norwegian as well as the world press. In fact, Gilbert appears in so many interviews that one wonders how he has the time to provide medical help, never mind "doing surgery around the clock" as he claims. (CAMERA)
 Exclusive: Prince Harry's 'Racist Remarks' - Is Media Outrage Justified?-Pam Meister
The British media and some of the world media have gotten themselves into a lather over a video that recently surfaced of Prince Harry voicing “racist” comments. The video diary was made in 2006 as Harry prepared to deploy to Afghanistan. In one segment, while waiting in the airport, the camera focuses on one man whom Harry calls “our Paki friend Ahmed.” (In Britain, though not America, the term “Paki” is considered a slur against anyone who comes from the Pakistan/India region.) Later, we hear him say that one of his fellow soldiers resembles a “raghead.” An apology from Clarence House (the official residence of Harry’s father, Prince Charles) was issued, and palace PR flacks are desperately doing damage control. Meanwhile, stories from around the world about this brouhaha continue to accumulate, raking Prince Harry across the coals. (As of this writing, there were well over 2,500 articles about it on Google.) (Familysecuritymatters.org)
Freedom of Speech
OUTRAGE OVER DEMONSTRATION IN GERMANY
Police Remove Israeli Flag during Islamist Protest March-Yassin Musharbash
Police in the western German city of Duisburg have admitted they removed flags a student had hung in his apartment in support of Israel during a pro-Palestinian protest march in the city. Officers broke down his door and removed the flags. The city's police chief has issued an apology, but outrage is spreading.
It's certainly not a new phenomenon in Germany for feathers to be ruffled every time bombs fall or rockets fly in the Middle East. It is unusual, though, for German police officials to use force to enter into an apartment and remove an Israeli flag from a bedroom because people protesting the Gaza Strip invasion on the street below are bothered by it.But that's what happened this weekend in Duisburg in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Around 10,000 people had gathered on Saturday morning at the central station in the city, located in the Ruhr region, to protest against Israel's course of action in the Gaza Strip. The protest, organized by the Islamist group Milli Görüs, which, although still legal, has been monitored for years by German domestic intelligence agencies in charge of observing potentially radical or fundamentalist groups. (Spiegel.de)
ANTISEMITISM
 Israel worried about upswing in international anti-Semitism-Haviv Rettig Gur
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has expressed concern over "a wave of anti-Semitic attacks" faced by Jewish communities worldwide. "We have received with great concern and revulsion many reports of physical, moral, verbal and other manifestations of anti-Semitic attacks towards Jews and Israeli citizens in many parts of the world," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued this week. "Examples of these include physical assault, violence and abuse towards Jews, the desecration of cemeteries and synagogues, the use of anti-Semitic incitement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the writing of anti-Semitic graffiti on Jewish property, as well as cartoons, editorials and other press stories reminiscent of the kind that appeared in the media of certain countries during the darkest days of the early 20th century," the statement read."Israel and the Jewish people are appalled at these expressions of incitement, hatred and blatant extremism," it said. Attacks on Jews in recent days range from a burning car driven into a gate outside a synagogue in Toulouse, France two weeks ago to Chicago synagogues vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti last weekend. (Jpost)
THE HAMAS WAR: HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS SLAM WORLDWIDE CAMPAIGN TO EXPROPRIATE THE SHOAH AND ITS IMAGERY- Simon Wiesenthal Center
Holocaust survivors and their families gathered at the Simon Wiesenthal Center to protest international campaigns that compare Israel’s attack on Hamas strongholds in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust. Protestors in such major cities as London, Paris, Sydney and Los Angeles used images of Nazi death camps and swastikas to cast Israelis as Nazis and Gazans as Warsaw Ghetto victims. Survivors of the Holocaust say that this "outrageous comparison exaggerates the truth and desecrates the memory of our loved ones who perished at the hands of the Nazis." At the press conference, the survivors held up cards the showed the name of the concentration camp they were incarcerated in by the Nazis. "The memory of the Holocaust is being distorted in a deliberate campaign to deny Jews and the State of Israel both their past and their future," said Rabbis Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center, and Abraham Cooper, the Center's associate dean. "We are deeply angered by the chants on the streets of our cities, ‘Death to the Jews’ and ‘Jews to the ovens’," they said, adding, "Those Muslim leaders who express concern over Islamophobia should be the first to denounce the hateful rhetoric." (SimonWiesenthalCenter)
Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi On Al-Jazeera Incites Against Jews, Arab Regimes, and the U.S.; Calls on Muslims to Boycott Starbucks and Others; Says 'Oh Allah, Take This Oppressive, Jewish, Zionist Band of People... And Kill Them, Down to the Very Last One'-MEMRI
Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 9, 2009:
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"The Islamic Countries... Received [the Jews] With Open Arms [When They Were Banished From Europe]... [But The Jews] Turned Their Backs On [Us], And We Have Become Their Victims"
Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi: "I address my first message to the aggressor Jews, those arrogant plunderers, who act arrogantly toward the servants of Allah in the land of Allah.[...] "In the past, the Jews spread corruption in the land twice, and Allah punished them both times, by setting as masters upon them people who tormented them, humiliated them, and made them bow their heads. This is what they did in history, and it is well known that Allah set as master upon them the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, who took them into captivity. He destroyed their homes, razed their temples, and burned their Torah, and took them into captivity in Babylon for 70 years. Then they repeated their deeds, so He set the Romans as masters upon them. (MEMRI)
Jewish groups condemn Vatican prelate for comparing Gaza with concentration camp-EJP
BRUSSELS/NEW YORK (EJP)---Two Jewish organizations have condemned a statement made by a senior Vatican official comparing Gaza to a Nazi concentration camp.
Cardinal Renato Martino, a former Vatican envoy to the United Nations who is currently the Pope’s top official on issues of justice and peace, was quoted by the Italian media as saying the conditions in Gaza "look more and more like a big concentration camp." The Brussels-based Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE), a leading rabbinical organization in Europe and the highest Jewish authority in the continent, representing over 700 rabbis of Jewish communities all over Europe, called the prelate’s comparison "totally injustified and fundamentally wrong." "It is totally unjustified and fundamentally wrong to equate the deliberate extermination of Jews in Europe as a ‘Final Solution’ with what is transpiring in Israel today," Asher Gold, the centre’s spokesperson said in a statement. “It is totally contemptible and all the more tragic that it comes from the Vatican that has expressed its own remorse and regret for the Holocaust. Cardinal Renato Martino has exploited a cheap propaganda soundbyte and should be ashamed of his remarks." (EJP)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
 Martyrdom beckons Lebanese teen, but she really wants to direct-Borzou Daragahi
Aspiring filmmaker Hiba Qassir is about to graduate from a Hezbollah-backed high school. She loves movies, but would give up her career dream if offered the chance to be a suicide bomber.
Reporting from Tyre, Lebanon — Hiba Qassir dreams of making movies. She's ambitious and precocious enough. At 18, she's taught herself how to edit video and sound on a computer, and has her sights set on directing gripping social and psychological dramas. But if the movie business doesn't work out, that's OK. She has other dreams: perhaps to become a cop or a pilot. Or maybe a suicide bomber. "Martyrdom is the shortest way to heaven, and the history of martyrdom is not like any history," Hiba says. "It made victory. We wouldn't have achieved victory without these martyrdoms.":: Hiba wears a colorful head scarf and faded bluejeans and running shoes under a black cloak as she gives a tour of Hezbollah's annual "martyrdom" exhibit here in this southern port city. Cheery and rosy-cheeked, she helpfully guides visitors past mannequins of guerrilla fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, and placards chronicling suicide operations against Israeli troops during the Jewish state's two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon. Recorded sounds of machine-gun fire, helicopters and walkie-talkie chatter fill the halls of a drab brick community center on the outskirts of Tyre. "Here is some information about each martyrdom operation," she informs a small tour group. (LAT)
Radical Islamic Networks in America-Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Ryan Mauro, the founder of WorldThreats.com. He is currently a national security researcher for the Christian Action Network and a researcher for the Reform Party of Syria. A frequent guest on radio and TV programs, he is the author of Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq. He can be contacted at TDCAnalyst@aol.com.
FP: Ryan Mauro, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Mauro: Thank you.
FP: I’d like to talk to you today about radical Islamic networks that exist in the U.S. Tell us about them.
Mauro: Many Americans seem to think the War on Terror is a synonym for “War on Al-Qaeda,” but Al-Qaeda is just one small, dying portion of the entire radical Islamic movement that seeks to enslave the Muslim community to its ideology and attack the United States. Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and virtually every terrorist organization has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, which can be said to be the “mother” that gave birth to today’s terrorists. (Frontpagemagazine)
U.S.-based Imam Urges Muslims to Join the Gaza Battlefield-IPT
A North Texas imam is calling on Muslims to take up arms in defense of Palestinians in Gaza. Sheikh Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti, director of the Islamic Center of South Plains in Lubbock, Texas, participated in an online chat, "Fatwas on Gaza," at the web site IslamOnline.net. El-Shinqiti encouraged readers to fight - or if they can't, to send money to those who are fighting - in response to six out of the eight questions posed to him in the online chat. When asked what can be done to help the people in Gaza, El-Shinqiti emphasized war over sending food or medicine or other supplies that might directly help people: (IPT)
The Gaza-Egypt Smuggling Tunnels Must Be Closed-Dore Gold
When Israelis look back on what caused the current conflict in Gaza, they point to their government's decision in September 2005 to leave the narrow "Philadelphi Route" that runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. More than Israel's disengagement from the Strip as a whole, the abandonment of this strategic area made full-scale war inevitable. The 1994 Gaza-Jericho Agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization placed this 100-meter wide corridor, which separated the Egyptian side of the town of Rafah from the Palestinian side in Gaza, under Israeli military control. (The Israeli army gave it the code name "Philadelphi.") By 2000, local Palestinians, many of whom worked with Hamas, dug underground tunnels between the two halves of Rafah. The tunnels allowed for a lucrative smuggling trade that included weapons. (WSJ)
Web-based terrorist hunter to teach-Alfred Lubrano
Shannen Rossmiller, a former Montana judge whose late-night hunts for al-Qaeda on the Web led to the two largest terror convictions in U.S. history, announced yesterday that she would begin teaching others her arcane and dangerous craft. At the first FBI-sponsored International Conference on Cyber Security, held at Fordham University in New York City, Rossmiller, 39, said she planned to team with an as-yet-unnamed defense contractor to form a "cyber corps" of intelligence experts who will search out terrorists on the Internet. "Everybody finally understands what the terrorists have known since 9/11," said Rossmiller, an FBI counter-intelligence asset. "With just a few thousand dollars and the Web, terrorists can be more efficient than our own government. And we have to do something about that." (ThePhiladelphiaInquirer)
 The Palestine-Israeli Conflict on the Web
As any conflict that happened in the 21st century, there is usually a parallel conflict raging online as well. Either commanded by individuals or groups, which can be helped or not by either government agencies or other interest groups, acts of cyberwarfare are getting more and more common. The conflict in the Gaza strip offers a new opportunity to explore this kind of activity. This time, reports of websites defacement are numerous and ongoing, some reporting that malware is spreaded from hacked websites and even an Israeli botnet is starting to grow in order to attack Hamas supporters servers. Reports are now growing over hundreds of websites defacements of Western websites by Palestinians supporters1. Various Palestinian groups and supporters have been vandalizing Israeli and other western nation commercial websites by putting propaganda and redirecting to jihadist forums and/or uploading malware on the hacked web servers. Hackers mentioned in the article are Team Evil, DNS Team, Tw!$3r, KaSPeRs HaCKeR CreW, PaLiSeNiaN HaCK, MoRoCcAn HaCkErZ. (Cyberwarfaremag)
ENVIRONMENTALISM and Science
Apocalypse delayed: tropical forests fight back as farmers flee-Lewis Smith
Tropical rainforests are proving more resilient than environmentalists feared, with up to a third of the virgin jungle torn down by loggers and farmers sprouting new trees, scientists announced yesterday.Aerial and satellite photographs presented at a scientific conference in Washinton show that trees have regrown in up to a third of tropical forests wiped out by loggers and slash-and-burn agriculture. The scientists found that while tropical forests are still being lost at a rate of 13,000 hectares each year – equivalent to 50 football pitches every day – the damage is less severe than some environmentalists have claimed.The rainforest debate has raged publicly for decades, and more recently has been the subject of fierce argument among conservationists. These discussions are taking place as the international community tries to stem global warming and slow down the rate at which plant and animal species are becoming extinct. (Timeslonline.co.uk)
Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade-Donald G. McNeil Jr.
A new book defending vaccines, written by a doctor infuriated at the claim that they cause autism, is galvanizing a backlash against the antivaccine movement in the United States. But there will be no book tour for the doctor, Paul A. Offit, author of “Autism’s False Prophets.” He has had too many death threats. “I’ll speak at a conference, say, to nurses,” he said. “But I wouldn’t go into a bookstore and sign books. It can get nasty. There are parents who really believe that vaccines hurt their children, and to them, I’m incredibly evil. They hate me.” Dr. Offit, a pediatrician, is a mild, funny and somewhat rumpled 57-year-old. The chief of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, he is also the co-inventor of a vaccine against rotavirus, a diarrheal disease that kills 60,000 children a year in poor countries. “When Jonas Salk invented polio vaccine, he was a hero — and I’m a terrorist?” he jokes, referring to a placard denouncing him at a recent demonstration by antivaccine activists outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. (NYT)
Society and CULTURE
 Kate Winslet's Oscar hopes in doubt after Hollywood backlash over Nazi role-Anita Singh
Kate Winslet's hopes of replicating her Golden Globes success at the Oscars could be in doubt after a Hollywood backlash against her controversial role as a former Nazi in The Reader.
The British actress is expected to earn two nominations when the Oscar shortlist is unveiled next week. However, while she remain a strong contender to win best actress for Revolutionary Road, she may struggle to win a best supporting actress prize for The Reader, the Holocaust drama directed by Stephen Daldry.
Critics have branded the film "Holocaust chic" and damned Winslet's sympathetic portrayal of Hanna Schmitz, a woman who hides her past as a concentration camp guard as she embarks upon a passionate affair with a teenage boy half her age. The role was rewarded at the Golden Globes, voted by members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. However, industry insiders question how well it will play with Academy voters, who have previously heaped glory upon films which depict the true horrors of the Nazi regime, such as Schindler's List and The Pianist. (Telegraph.co.uk)
The Return of Cultural Diplomacy-Martha Bayles
America should aim to export more serious forms of entertainment as well as 'Dark Knight' and 'Baywatch.'
Hollywood screenwriters get paid to come up with clever lines, so it's not surprising that when their organization, the Writers Guild West, held a panel discussion on American culture 15 months after 9/11, it gave it a catchy title: "We Hate You But Keep Sending Us 'Baywatch': The Impact of American Entertainment on the World." After a brief discussion, the panel concluded that apart from stereotyped portrayals of Muslims as terrorists, Hollywood was not to blame for America's plummeting global reputation. One panelist, radio entrepreneur Norman Pattiz, cited global opinion surveys conducted in 2002 that showed disapproval of U.S. policies but approval of U.S. popular culture. Encouraged by such findings, Pattiz, a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (which oversees all U.S.-funded broadcasting), created Radio Sawa, an Arabic-language channel aimed at Arab youth that combines Western and Arabic pop music with U.S.-style news bulletins. The channel has become popular, but at the price of supplanting the more serious Voice of America Arabic service. (Newsweek)
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