The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

BARACK OBAMA’S ALBATROSS
By Avi Davis and Christian Whiton

Taken at face value, the decision by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to honor the American president with its Peace Prize would be a cause for celebration in the U.S. But the circumstances surrounding this decision call into question not only the choice to honor President Obama, but whether the Nobel Committee is able to discern real achievements of peace from illusory ones.

In announcing its decision, the Committee noted the President’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Furthermore, it said the Committee “has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

What exactly are these “extraordinary efforts”? While the announcement does not go into detail, one presumes the Nobel Committee is cheering the Obama Administration’s offer to conduct direct negotiations with Iran, its ‘reset’ of relations with Russia, and the President’s tendency to note the purported flaws of the country he represents. Has any of this led to actual accomplishments and has it really contributed to a material expansion of peace?

Even the President’s political supporters would probably concede it is too early to judge the outcome of these policies. This is true today and it certainly was true when Mr. Obama was nominated, which likely had to take place by the Committee’s deadline of February 1, 2009. On that day, the President had been in office for all of twelve days. That is a rather amazing fortnight’s work, considering some earlier recipients of the prize, such as Lech Walesa, toiled for years and risked everything they possessed—including their lives and freedom—before being recognized.

The reality is that the President’s policies have made long-term peace in the world less likely. Prolonged international negotiations with Iran, which started not with Mr. Obama but in fact have gone on throughout the decade, have actually given the Tehran regime time to improve its nuclear and missile capabilities while wars are fought through proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Similarly, the rhetorical and real concessions the Obama Administration has made to Moscow have yet to yield anything tangible in return other than modest verbal praise. The price paid for this volte face recently rose with the betrayal of two friendly governments—those of Poland and the Czech Republic – countries that had made the unpopular decision to host missile defense facilities at America’s earlier request. They must now be content with an expanded future missile threat from Iran, and also an emboldened Russian neighbor. It can’t be too far from the thoughts of the Polish and Czech leadership that just last year Russia invaded a country it borders. Skeptics are right to wonder how any of this contributes to long-term peace and security.

Perhaps the Nobel Committee’s most unjustified claim is that because of President Obama, “[d]emocracy and human rights are to be strengthened.” This is not even a claim typically made by the President’s most ardent supporters. Indeed, the unapologetic promotion of human rights and democracy that has had a place in a long succession of U.S. administrations has been disavowed by the Obama Administration. Secretary of State Clinton spelled out the rationale for this in her inaugural trip to China in February: “Our pressing on [human rights] issues can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis.” Just this week the President refused to see the Dalai Lama during his visit to Washington, the first time in eighteen years the renowned human rights advocate has not been received by a president. The President also refused to support pro-democracy protesters in Iran after the June elections there. Whether one advocates or opposes these policies, it is hard to believe that one can strengthen human rights and democracy while ignoring those actually fighting for them.

What then was the Nobel Committee’s criteria, if not quantifiable achievements for peace? Unfortunately, a look at more recent Nobel Prize recipients shows a bias toward trendy political causes and icons.

In 2001, the award was split between the United Nations and its then-kingpin, Kofi Annan. This was at a time when the UN was facilitating the largest instance of corruption in human history in the form of the Oil-for-Food Program, which also funneled billions of dollars to the Middle East’s most brutal and corrupt regime. Meanwhile, the UN was continuing its traditional role of providing a prominent platform for corrupt dictators from around the world. Did that help peace?

In 2002 it was awarded to Jimmy Carter, for “persevering in conflict resolution on several continents, and “ outstanding commitment to human rights.” They forgot to mention his apparently tireless coddling of dictators, tyrants and terrorists, his record of mocking the foreign policy of his own government and his avowed animus to the State of Israel.

In 2007, the awardees were Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As a private organization, it is the Nobel Institute’s prerogative to expand its view of threats to peace to a definition broader than traditional war. But in the year Gore won the prize, more than 800,000 people died of malaria. How many people died of climate change? But you can guess which issue was the zeitgeist that year.

Any true gauge of the reasons for this Award must necessarily produce some very disturbing truths: The Norwegian parliamentarians awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama because they feel he is one of them. His unwillingness to prosecute a vigorous American foreign policy; his apparent absence of belief in American exceptionalism and his penchant for apologizing for American actions abroad, all seem very much in keeping with a Euro-centric view of the world. For this crowd he is the ultimate un-George Bush, less jingoistic, more calm in temperament and much more likely to act in the pacific, multicultural and appeasement vein they so appreciate.

So just as the prize went to Carter seven years ago as a "kick in the leg" to the Bush Administration and the award went to Gore in 2007 as a spur to reject the supposedly anti-environment policies of that same gang, the Obama Award is designed as an attempt to enshrine the politics of "internationalization.” It is aimed at isolating Obama and his Administration from the main thrust of American foreign and domestic policies since the Second World War - which has been to provide the world with vigorous leadership in the promotion of democracy, liberty and free enterprise.

Many have argued that the Award’s prestige will burnish America’s international standing and build support for American intervention in other areas of conflict in the world. But the reverse is actually the case. Constrained by his new image as a peace maker, Barack Obama will inevitably struggle to meet the demands of upholding America's international standards and leadership in regions of intense conflict such as Afghanistan, Israel and Iraq and in confronting the rising menace of a nuclear Iran. It will necessarily befuddle any attempts of his Administration to reform the United Nations and will diminish respect for America’s military clout.

It is welcome that the Nobel Committee has honored the U.S. by giving an award to its president. Unfortunately, every indication is that it did so for the wrong reasons. As with other once-respected institutions of Western Europe, the Nobel Committee has moved from rewarding merit and advancing classical liberalism to celebrating fashionable trends and rewarding whichever icon of the left is most active in promoting them.

Avi Davis is the President of the American Freedom Alliance. Christian Whiton is AFA's new Associate Fellow.

Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com

Obama Declares War on Free Speech
by Robert Spencer (more by this author)

The Obama Administration has now actually co-sponsored an anti-free speech resolution at the United Nations. Approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council last Friday, the resolution, cosponsored by the U.S. and Egypt, calls on states to condemn and criminalize “any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.” What could be wrong with that? Plenty.
First of all, there’s that little matter of the First Amendment, which preserves Americans’ right to free speech and freedom of the press, which are obviously mutually inclusive. Any law that infringed on speech at all -- far less in such vague and sweeping terms -- would be unconstitutional. “Incitement” and “hatred” are in the eye of the beholder -- or more precisely, in the eye of those who make such determinations. The powerful can decide to silence the powerless by classifying their views as “hate speech.” The Founding Fathers knew that the freedom of speech was an essential safeguard against tyranny: the ability to dissent, freely and publicly and without fear of imprisonment or other reprisal, is a cornerstone of any genuine republic. If some ideas cannot be heard and are proscribed from above, the ones in control are tyrants, however benevolent they may be. (Humanevents)

NYC terror suspect Najibullah Zazi met with senior al Qaeda operative, say intelligence officials-AP
WASHINGTON — An Afghan immigrant accused of plotting a terrorist attack in New York after receiving training in Pakistan was in contact with a senior al-Qaida operative, intelligence officials familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. The CIA learned about Najibullah Zazi through one of its sources and alerted domestic agencies, including the FBI, intelligence officials said. U.S. intelligence organizations first became aware of Zazi in late August, a senior administration official said. Interest in Zazi surfaced just weeks before prosecutors claim he was planning to strike on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The intelligence and administration officials declined to offer more details on the operative and spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The fact that intelligence officials learned of Zazi through a CIA source sheds more light on the government's claim that the charges against him are part of a broader, international case and begins to explain why the investigation triggered such a large offensive from the nation's intelligence community. It also shows the case stems from the CIA's counterterrorism efforts to track al-Qaida and not an investigation initiated in this country by someone's suspicious actions, like most other domestic terrorism cases handled by the FBI. (NYdailynews)

'Islamists helped leader of airliner plot prepare attacks'-Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Three “radicalised and committed Islamists” were heavily involved in helping the leader of the transatlantic airliner plot to prepare terrorist attacks, a court heard. Adam Khatib, Mohammed Uddin and Nabeel Hussain were complicit and willing to “do their bit” in the plot to blow up aircraft, jurors were told. Three people — Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Tanvir Hussain and Assad Sarwar — were found guilty of conspiracy to murder last month. Mr Khatib, 22, Mr Uddin, 38, and Mr Hussain, 25, were alleged to have held meetings with Ali, who was described as the ringleader, at key dates when “preparations for a terrorist attack were reaching a climax”, and one of them was involved in the bomb-making process. Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said Mr Khatib was directly involved in the conspiracy and “was prepared to bring about the murder of innocent civilians”. His fingerprints and DNA were found in a flat in Walthamstow, east London, where a bomb factory had been set up, Woolwich Crown Court heard. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Now Italy considers banning the burqa too-Nick Pisa
Italy today became the latest European government to announce it was considering introducing a law which would make wearing a burqa illegal. MPs from the anti-immigration Northern League party, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling right wing coalition, have presented the proposal in a bill. It comes just weeks after France also said that it was considering making the wearing of burqas by Muslim women illegal - a statement which prompted al Qaeda terrorists to vow revenge if it was banned. Italy has more than one million Muslims but it is rare to see women wearing the full burqa. There have been incidents, especially in northern cities such as Milan and Verona, where women wearing it have been asked to remove at least the face veil. Last month centre-right politician Daniela Santanche was involved in clashes with Muslims after she attended an end of Ramadan festival and urged women to remove their burqas. There has also been a backlash against the 'burkini', a bathing costume that is suitable for Islamic dress. Several Musilim women who have used swimming pools wearing burkinis in Italy have been asked to leave, with officials claiming the garments are 'unhygienic'. The Northern League's proposal aims at amending a 1975 law, introduced amid concern over domestic terrorism, which bans anyone wearing anything which makes their identification impossible. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Salam Al-Marayati: The Anti-Anti-Terrorist-IPT
During the Cold War, the term "anti-anti-Communist" was used to describe people who were not Communists themselves, but who objected to every practical initiative to counter Soviet and Red Chinese expansionism. In today's struggle against radical Islamists, Salam Al-Marayati, a founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and its current executive director, can fairly be described as an "anti-anti-terrorist" - someone who rhetorically opposes Islamist terror but objects to virtually every practical measure that democracies take to defend themselves. While condemning terror in vague or general terms, Al-Marayati and MPAC focus their attacks on U.S. and Israeli security measures like Israeli military operations against Hamas or U.S. investigations of domestic terrorism . Al-Marayati has long belittled the importance of using informants to monitor "homegrown" terror cells, as in this case in which two Lodi, California men were convicted. In May, after federal authorities disrupted an alleged plot to bomb synagogues and fire missiles at American military aircraft, Al-Marayati continued his attacks against law enforcement. Asked in an interview whether it was useful to have informants in mosques, Al-Marayati replied by suggesting that the investigation was a waste of money. (Investigativeproject)

Terrorist cell found in Hamburg where 9/11 attacks conceived
An Islamic terrorist cell has been discovered in Hamburg, the city where the 9/11 attacks were planned eight years ago.
German intelligence services learned that a new militant group with ten members, headed by a German of Syrian origins, had sprung up in the port city. The leader was identified as Rami M in a secret report that has been leaked to Die Welt newspaper and the investigative television show Report Mainz. The ten members are understood to have left Hamburg early this year to attend paramilitary camps in the Hindu Kush, however, two are thought to have recently returned. All of them were said to have used Hamburg's Taiba Mosque as a meeting place, the same location frequented by the 9/11 leader Mohammed Atta and his accomplices. They went onto carry out the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre and Washington. "It is to be assumed that these persons are absolutely prepared to carry out suicide or other attacks at home or abroad," the report said, according to Die Welt and Report Mainz. "The members of the group have a basic commitment to jihad and belong to Hamburg's potentially violent pro-jihad scene." (Telegraph.co.uk)

Daimler Opens Islamic-Friendly Financing Arm in Dubai
Daimler is hoping to boost its troubled sales with a financing and leasing company in the United Arab Emirates that offers Islamic-friendly financing. The new companies, joint-ventures with local Mercedes distributors, will give Mercedes dealers a host of financing services to entice more customers. In a bid to boost sagging sales, Daimler Financial Services AG, the financial services arm of auto giant Daimler AG, has open two new companies in the Middle East that will finance cars under the rules of Islamic law. Mercedes-Benz Finance Middle East and Mercedes-Benz Leasing Middle East will offer loans and leasing deals to customers of new and pre-owned Daimler vehicles that comply with Islamic law or Sharia, according to the company. The move will allow Mercedes dealers in the United Arab Emirates to offer a new range of financial services to their Islamic customers. Islamic law prohibits its followers from charging or collecting interest fees when money is lent or accepted, or investing in businesses, goods or services such as pork, alcohol or gambling that are contrary to its principles. There are several methods of investing that comply with Islamic law. For example, instead of offering a loan with interest to buy a car, a bank could purchase the car outright and sell it back to the buyer at a profit. (Spiegelonline)

A Letter from a Child-Thomas Sowell
Not everything that happens in a classroom is “education.”
Recent videos of American children in school singing songs of praise for Barack Obama were a little much, especially for those of us old enough to remember pictures of children singing the praises of dictators like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. But you don’t need a dictator to make you feel queasy about the manipulation of children. The mindset that sees children in school as an opportunity for teachers to impose their own notions, instead of developing the child’s ability to think for himself or herself, is a dangerous distortion of education. Parents send their children to school to acquire the knowledge that has come down to us as a legacy of our culture — whether it is mathematics, science, or whatever — so that those children can grow up and go out into the world equipped to face life’s challenges. Too many “educators” see teaching not as a responsibility to the students but as an opportunity for themselves — whether to indoctrinate a captive audience with the teacher’s ideology, manipulate them in social experiments, or just do fun things that make teaching easier, whether or not it really educates the child. (Nationalreview)

Exclusive: Review: ‘The Trouble with Textbooks – Distorting History and Religion’-Martha Gies-Chumney
Intense criticism of American public education makes The Trouble with Textbooks – Distorting History and Religion (Lexington Books 2008) by Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra even more relevant today. “This book is a case study of the information and message in American classrooms: how factual they are, how inclusive, how balanced.” Textbooks today have what Tobin and Ybarra call a “booming authorial voice.” Consequently, knowledge and scrutiny of the evaluation process of textbooks, supplementary classroom materials, and teacher in-services are needed as never before. This study involves 28 textbooks from the three major publishers: Pearson Education, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, and McGraw-Hill. The insight into and the documentation of this study are both penetrating and frighteningly revealing. School text books “matter deeply” especially in the realm of social studies: history, geography, and comparative religions that tell the stories of American and world civilizations. Tobin and Ybarra have examined these texts, supplements and professional teacher training as to their accuracy and objectivity. Their findings “…demonstrated every thing from grade-level appropriate balance and impeccable facts to head-scratching mistakes, omissions, and mischaracterizations that bordered on propaganda.” (Familysecuritymatters)

Hollywood, Media Misfire on Polanski and Letterman-Larry Elder
Hollywood and the traditional media seem determined to flaunt their cluelessness. Director Roman Polanski pleaded guilty, in 1977, to one count of unlawful sex with a minor -- a girl 13 years old. Normal people call this rape. After a photography session with the girl, the 43-year-old Polanski gave her drugs and alcohol. The victim told a grand jury she repeatedly told him to "keep away," but Polanski forced her to have sex -- orally, anally and vaginally. Authorities charged Polanski with six felony counts -- furnishing a controlled substance to a minor, committing a lewd or lascivious act on a child, unlawful sexual intercourse, rape by use of drugs, perversion and sodomy -- charges that, if resulting in conviction, meant possible prison time of 50 years.
To spare the girl the ordeal of a trial, the prosecution accepted a plea deal and reduced six counts to one, and Polanski agreed to spend 90 days in prison for psychiatric evaluation. Prison officials released Polanski after only 42 days and recommended no additional prison time. Both the defense and prosecution expected the judge to agree. (Humanevents)

Newsweek Seriously Asks: ‘Was Russia Better Off Red?’-Scott Whitlock
Proving yet again how out of touch the publication can be, the October 12 issue of Newsweek seriously asked the question: "Was Russia Better Off Red?" The "Back Story" page of the magazine featured a graphic comparing life under communism to now and bizarrely asserted: "Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has seen an increase in oligarchs and Louis Vuitton outlets. But by many other measures, Russians are worse off." Yes, despite the fact that 20 million people were murdered in Soviet Russia, this unsigned feature in Newsweek contrasted the crime rate under communism, the number of hospitals and the total number of cinemas (among other factors) to those in the country today. Sadly, there are only 1,510 movie theaters today. Under the brutal repression of communism, however, there were 2,337.(JPG image, via a scan, that matches the full size [1] of the Newsweek page and so is readable.) For sources, Newsweek cited the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Labour Organization, National Statistical Office of Federation, UNESCO and the World Health Organization. The publication didn’t explain why readers are supposed to assume that the original communist numbers are accurate. (Newsbusters)

Muslims Not 'Free of Being Mocked,' Danish Cartoonist Says-Joshua Rhett Miller
Muslims need to develop a sense of humor and an appreciation of satire — and they need to understand that they are not "free of being mocked or being offended," says the Danish caricaturist whose cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad incited rage throughout the Muslim world four years ago. Kurt Westergaard told roughly a dozen listeners Wednesday night that he will "always" be ready to defend an individual's right to religious freedom. "As the Danish tradition is for satire, we say you can speak freely, you can vote, you can speak out anytime, but there's only one thing you can't do — you can't be free of being mocked or being offended," Westergaard said. "That's the conditions in Denmark and so many countries." Westergaard spoke at a private residence in midtown Manhattan in conjunction with the Hudson New York Briefing Council. It was just his second appearance in the U.S. since the 2005 publication of his notorious cartoon, which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban resembling a lit bomb. In Islam, any depiction of Muhammad is forbidden and considered blasphemy. Westergaard's controversial cartoon was one of 12 that appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 and led to widespread violent protests throughout the Middle East, Asia, Denmark and Africa. (Foxnews)

St. Louis U. cancels speech by activist David Horowitz-KAVITA KUMAR
Conservative activist David Horowitz will not be speaking at St. Louis University this month after school officials raised objections about the title and content of his speech, "Islamo-Fascism Awareness and Civil Rights." The SLU College Republicans, a student group, had invited Horowitz to speak on campus. The event would have been paid for out of student activity fees. SLU said in a statement that it did not "ban" Horowitz from campus. Rather, the school was concerned that the event could be viewed as "attacking another faith and seeking to cause derision on campus." Horowitz, reached by phone on Friday, called the university's decision "outrageous." He said his speech is about what he sees as a campaign against Jews and the state of Israel on many college campuses. "I have spoken at 400 universities," he said. "This is the first time my speech has been censored and stopped by an administration. And they are supposed to be the guardians of intellectual discourse." (Stltoday)

Like it or not, the Temple Mount is key to Israeli-Palestinian peace-Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper , THE JERUSALEM POST
Here we go again. As Jews celebrate in their tens of thousands the festival of Booths, Succot, religious extremists like Sheikh Raed Salah incite Palestinian masses to recapture Jerusalem with "blood and fire." Not to be outdone, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah rushed in to pour fuel on the fire as it protests a "plan by Jews to perform religious rituals" on the Temple Mount,' and called on the international community to "force Israel to put off its attempts to take over Jerusalem." So as Israel struggles to stop the stone throwers' verbal assaults, and the next spate of resolutions, it's worth reminding the world that ever since the Six Day War in 1967, when Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem, millions of people have safely streamed to the Western Wall to offer their prayers and insert hand written supplications to the Almighty. While most visitors shedding their tears adjacent to Judaism's holiest site - the Temple Mount - are Jews, not all pilgrims are. Witness Pope John Paul II inserting his own kvittel (written prayer) within the Wall's cracks; pilgrims from Africa, tourists from Indonesia, Swamis from India, Evangelicals from the Americas, Buddhists from across Asia - all come and go to the Wall. (Jpost)

Revolutionary Anti-Semitism-MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
Chávez imports Ahmadinejad's ideology to Latin America.
Sometimes I ask myself if Hitler wasn't right when he wanted to finish with that race, through the famous holocaust, because if there are people that are harmful to this country, they are the Jews, the Israelites.
David Romero Ellner Executive Director Radio Globo, Honduras, Sept. 25, 2009
Meet one of Honduras's most vocal advocates for the return of deposed president Manuel Zelaya to office. He's not your average radio jock. He started in Honduran politics as a radical activist and was one of the founders of the hard-left People's Revolutionary Union, which had links to Honduran terrorists in 1980s. A few years ago he was convicted and served time in prison for raping his own daughter. Today Mr. Romero Ellner is pure zelayista, hungry for power and not ashamed to say so. This explains why he has joined Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Mr. Zelaya in targeting Jews. Mr. Chávez has allied himself with Iran to further his ability to rule unchecked in the hemisphere. He hosts Hezbollah terrorists and seeks Iranian help to become a nuclear power. He and his acolytes cement their ties to Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by echoing his anti-Semitic rants. (WSJ)

Stop the Campus War Against Israel and the Jews – by David Horowitz
The radical Islamic state of Iran is leading a global movement calling for a second Holocaust — the elimination of Israel from the face of the earth. The Islamic terrorist organizations Hizbollah and Hamas are calling on Muslims to destroy the Jewish state and kill the Jews in those exact words. And on campuses across the United States, radical professors and student groups are lining up to support the genocide. The day Israeli troops left Gaza – a territory that has been used as a launching pad for three aggressive wars against the Jewish state – Hamas terrorists began a three-year campaign of rocket attacks on Israel that was only halted by an Israeli counter attack, which began in December 2008. As Israel was defending itself from these Hamas attacks, University of California Sociology professor William Robinson assembled pictures university administrators described as “lurid” of Nazis persecuting Jews and emailed them to all the students in his course on globalization along with a diatribe about how the Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas terrorists were no different from fascist troops in World War II destroying the city of Warsaw. (Frontpagemagazine)

This Time, the Jewish Ghetto Has Nuclear Weapons-Phyllis Chesler
But For How Long?
So, let me understand this.
If an Israeli diplomat visits a European country and the Foreign Ministry decides to protect him (even though he is not the Prime or Foreign Minister), then that exceptional Israeli is not vulnerable to being arrested as an alleged “war criminal.” So far, so good. But, what if an ordinary Israeli (everyone serves in the army, everyone is in the reserves) visits, let’s say, Londonistan, might he or she be arrested and shipped to the Hague on Goldstone-exacerbated “war crime” charges? I raised this question here before and have since discussed it with a number of Israeli friends. Outrageous as it seems, they believe this possibility must be taken seriously. After all, where Jews are concerned reality is surreal. I’ve been writing about the war against the Jews for eight years now. Increasingly, I am outraged, frustrated, by how viral Jew-hatred has become, how synchronized it now is: Just like the coordinated attacks by jihadic homicidal mass murderers. And, by the way: Why call them “suicide” bombers? The first word already has our sympathy, (“poor guy, he is so unhappy he wants to kill himself”) when in fact we are talking about vicious mass murderers. (Pajamasmedia)

The Campus War Against Israel and the Jews: The Carter Center – by John Perazzo
Established in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter [1] and his wife Rosalynn, the Center that bears the Carters’ surname works in partnership with Emory University on the self-identified mission of fighting to “[promote] human rights and the alleviation of human suffering”; “prevent and resolve conflicts”; “enhance freedom and democracy”; and “improve health.” Employing some 150 workers and operating on an annual budget of $36 million, the Carter Center describes itself as a “nonpartisan” organization that is “neutral in dispute-resolution activities.” But in point of fact, there is nothing “nonpartisan” or “neutral” about the Carter Center – particularly as regards its view of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Jewish people. This is due chiefly to two related factors: (a) the fact that large portions of the Center’s financial backing derive from anti-Israel, Islamic sources in the Arab world, and (b) the rabidly anti-Israel perspective of the Center’s founder, Jimmy Carter. (Frontpagemagazine)

TERRORISM, security and policy

Air passengers face full body X-rays after suicide bombers hide devices INSIDE their bodies-David Gardner
Air travellers could face even more intrusive security checks amid fears that Al Qaeda is planning a terror campaign using suicide bombers carrying explosives hidden in their bodies.The body bomb threat was revealed after the tactic was used in an assassination attempt on a Saudi prince. Although the bid failed, it has sent shockwaves through the world’s airline industry and US and French anti-terrorism experts are urging increased security to safeguard against future attacks. Intelligence chiefs feared it was only a matter of time before terrorists would try the kind of methods used by drug mules to evade airport security.The dilemma is that explosives inserted into body cavities like the stomach or rectum, or even implanted surgically, cannot be detected by regular airport checks. But draconian and potentially costly measures such as full X-ray screening or a requirement for all passengers to hand in electronic equipment that could possibly be used as detonators would cause chaos and massive delays. (Dailymail.co.uk)

FBI Director: Al Qaeda-Linked Somali Group Could Attack U.S.-Catherine Herridge
For the first time, the FBI director has stated on the record that the Al Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab is no longer content to strike within the East African nation of Somalia. They could strike the United States. That grim assessment is the first time the FBI director or any other senior law enforcement or intelligence official has stated on the record that the Al Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab is no longer content to strike within the East African nation of Somalia. During a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, FBI Director Robert Mueller was asked if members of al-Shabaab, which translates as "mujahideen youth," would send American recruits back to the U.S. to launch attacks. "I would think that we have seen some information that the leaders would like to undertake operations outside of Somalia," Mueller told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Mueller said he is "absolutely" concerned that Americans who traveled to Somalia to train as terrorists would have U.S. legal status and would therefore be able to return to the United States and carry out attacks. (Foxnews)

Ahwazi Organization: Iran is Planning to Attack the Gulf Countries; Iran is Producing Chemical Weapons and Burying the Waste in Ahwaz-MEMRI
On October 5, 2009, Alarabiya.net posted an interview with an Arab Ahwazi man who was presented as a former undercover agent for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The man claimed that 40,000 well-trained operatives, mostly Shi'ites, are in the service of Iran in the ArabGulf states - 3,000 of them in Kuwait alone. He stated that the cells formed by these operatives were trained to collect intelligence, sabotage installations in the Gulf region, and assassinate senior officials. He added that Iranian Al-Qods forces commander Qassem Suleimani had prepared a plan to take over 22 embassies, both in Iran and outside it, if Iran were to be attacked. This interview is in line with a July 14, 2009 intelligence report posted by the Ahwazi Islamic Sunni Organization on its website (www.sonnaalahwaz.org ). The organization claimed that the report was based on classified Iranian Air Force information, according to which Iran has a comprehensive military plan to attack the Gulf countries using the MiG-31 aircraft that it had purchased from Syria. Thus, it said, Iran is preparing secret airports and camps in Ahwaz province, as well as forces in the northwest of the province, in order to attack Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. (MEMRI)

France Warns of New Terror Threat From 'Body Bombs'-Cro-with wire reports
The French intelligence service has warned of a new terrorism threat from suicide bombers carrying in-body explosives that can't be detected by standard airport screening. The method was used in a failed attempt to kill the Saudi anti-terrorism chief in August. French anti-terrorism experts have warned that suicide bombers carrying explosives inside their bodies pose a new threat to air traffic, French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Monday. Standard metal detectors at airports can't detect in-body explosives and full X-ray screening would be needed to spot them -- a costly measure that would entail health risks for frequent flyers. The fear is that terrorists could detonate explosives on board a pressurized plane, when only a small explosion would suffice to bring it down. The method was first used in an al-Qaida attack on the Saudi anti-terrorism chief, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, in late August. (Spiegelonline)

If You Don't Get Islamic Ideology, You Don't Get the Problem in Afghanistan-Andy McCarthy
I'm very under it this week between a couple of overdue projects and a sick kid at home, but I will eventually have some things to say about Fred Kagan's characteristically thoughtful response to my column on Afghanistan last week — and maybe even about Max Boot's diatribe at Contentions. For present purposes, I want to note a report in today's Washington Times. The Grand Mufti of Egypt — who unquestionably is a "moderate" by Islamic standards — is urging President Obama not to send more troops to Afghanistan. His rationale elucidates a central flaw in the McChrystal strategy touted by Fred. Adopting the conventional Western wisdom about Islam (which is probably best exemplified by Larry Wright's otherwise worthy history of al-Qaeda, The Looming Tower), General McChrystal and Fred miniaturize what we're up against. By their lights, our enemy is a fringe element of Muslims who hold the controversial view that Muslims resistant to their severe interpretation of Islam are apostates and can properly be killed under Islamic law. The Islamic term for this view, by the way, is takfir. Fred describes it as an Islamic "heresy" although, as Bernard Lewis has explained, heterodoxy is a Western concept that doesn't have a precise Islamic analogue. Because the takfiris are engaged in "anti-Islamic" violence, the McChrystal/Kagan thinking goes, we can exploit their "heresy" and win the majority of Afghan Muslims to our side. (Corner.nationalreview)

UN calls for new reserve currency-AFP
The United Nations called on Tuesday for a new global reserve currency to end dollar supremacy which has allowed the United States the "privilege" of building a huge trade deficit. "Important progress in managing imbalances can be made by reducing the reserve currency country?s 'privilege' to run external deficits in order to provide international liquidity," UN undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, Sha Zukang, said. Speaking at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Istanbul, he said: "It is timely to emphasise that such a system also creates a more equitable method of sharing the seigniorage derived from providing global liquidity." He said: "Greater use of a truly global reserve currency, such as the IMF?s special drawing rights (SDRs), enables the seigniorage gained to be deployed for development purposes," he said. The SDRs are the asset used in IMF transactions and are based on a basket of four currencies -- the dollar, euro, yen and pound -- which is calculated daily. China had called in March for a new dominant world reserve currency instead of the dollar, in a system within the framework of the Washington-based IMF. (Breitbart.com)

National Sovereignty and International Law- Richard Baehr
"Five to Rule Them All: The UN Security Council and the Making of the Modern World" by David L. Bosco, Oxford University Press, 2009
John Bolton, the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, has described President Barack Obama as "the US President most enamored of international law, and the Security Council". In his campaign for the White House, the President was harshly critical of what he called America's unilateralism during the Bush years. In turning over a new leaf, the President promised to work more with allies, open dialogue with former enemies (dialogue presumably would turn them from enemies to former enemies), and participate as a full partner in the United Nations and other multilateral organizations. As made clear in "Five to Rule Them All," David Bosco's history of the Security Council, in his tenure as the United Nations Ambassador during the last decade, and earlier in the State Department under the first President Bush, John Bolton held the United Nations in far lower regard. Bosco's book, a balanced and generally non-ideological history of the Security Council (a rare achievement in today's super heated partisan wars over most everything) comes out somewhere in between the two positions of Obama and Bolton as to the organization's and the Security Council's effectiveness or lack thereof.

The great global warming scam (ctd)-Melanie Phillips
Yet another scientific scandal has come to light which knocks another whopping crater in the already shattered theory of anthropogenic global warming. Eight peer-reviewed studies, which for years have played a significant supporting role behind the IPPC’s claims of AGW, have been shown to be fraudulent. As Andrew Orlowski reports in The Register, the issue is the use of tree rings as a temperature proxy in order to ‘reconstruct’ past temperatures. The papers in question incorporated data from trees at the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia: This dataset gained favour, curiously superseding a newer and larger data set from nearby. The older Yamal trees indicated pronounced and dramatic uptick in temperatures. How could this be? Scientists have ensured much of the measurement data used in the reconstructions remains a secret -- failing to fulfill procedures to archive the raw data. Without the raw data, other scientists could not reproduce the results. The most prestigious peer reviewed journals, including Nature and Science, were reluctant to demand the data from contributors. Until now, that is. At the insistence of editors of the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions B the data has leaked into the open -- and Yamal's mystery is no more. From this we know that the Yamal data set uses just 12 trees from a larger set to produce its dramatic recent trend. Yet many more were cored, and a larger data set (of 34) from the vicinity shows no dramatic recent warming, and warmer temperatures in the middle ages. In all there are 252 cores in the CRU Yamal data set, of which ten were alive 1990. All 12 cores selected show strong growth since the mid-19th century. The implication is clear: the dozen were cherry-picked. (Spectator.co.uk)

Israel presents the world’s smallest medical camera-Ilana Teitelbaum
The tiniest medical camera in the world, invented by an Israeli company, measures 0.05 inches, is cheap to produce and should eliminate the need for many invasive, costly and risky procedures. Seeing is believing when it comes to many medical diagnoses, and that often necessitates invasive surgical procedures, X-rays and radioactive dyes. But what if you could just use a camera? Medigus, an Israeli company that specializes in developing innovative endoscopic devices and procedures, has teamed up with Tower Semiconductor to produce the world's smallest medical camera. The device, which measures 0.05 inches in diameter, can be incorporated into endoscopes so that doctors receive a direct visual of even the narrowest lumens (cavities or channels within tubular structures) in the body. This would eliminate the need for invasive surgeries, X-rays and other costly and sometimes risky procedures. Mounted on a disposable endoscope, the camera is also cheap to produce and doesn't need to be sterilized after each use.Medigus has sent out samples to various companies and hopes to begin mass distribution in the first quarter of the coming year. The demand is already there, says Adi Frish, chief of business development at Medigus, adding: "We've been receiving requests on a large scale from device companies in different fields." (Israel21c.org)

Chosen People, Choosing Left-Richard Baehr
In the presidential election, Barack Obama won 78% of the Jewish vote. In a conference call with more than 1,000 rabbis before Rosh Hashanah, President Barack Obama encouraged the religious leaders to use their sermons on the Jewish New Year to promote health-care reform. It is more than ironic that liberal Jews, who call for a complete separation of church and state, saw nothing wrong with the president scripting their sermons. The reason may be that the script came from a modern sort of Jewish holy book, what Norman Podhoretz calls the "Torah of liberalism." "Why Are Jews Liberals?" is a fine and bracing examination of a question that has vexed Mr. Podhoretz for decades. He displays, along the way, the skill for supple reasoning and pugnacious argument that was the hallmark of his long editorship of Commentary magazine. Mr. Podhoretz grew up on the political left and remained there until the late 1960s, when he moved to the right. In "Why Are Jews Liberals?" he ponders, with a sense of deep frustration, why so few other Jews have made his journey. (WSJ)

Exclusive: Che Lied, Artists Fried-Ben-Peter Terpstra
In the High Point Enterprise (October 29, 1967), J.F. Ter Host described Ernesto “Che” Guevara, as “the New folk hero of America’s New Left.” He also wrote about a “concerted move to immortalize Che as a martyr worthy of emulation,” thanks to so-called underground publications and wannabe radicals, also known as high-bourgeois college kids, with dough. “The cult of Che Guevara is not” run “by gentle peaceniks and well-meaning pacifists. It is, rather, a cult -as ruthless and arrogant as Che, that literally would like to see a violent revolution to overthrow the U.S. government,” wrote Ter Host. “Gone is the one time reverence for the late John F. Kennedy and the subsequent hope that his brother, Bobby, might lead some kind of national reformation. The Kennedys have turned out to be too square.” Che, in a word, was groovy. Today, you’ll see leftists wearing his image, thanks to sweatshop T-shirt companies, where little hands allegedly make the best threads. There are even movies portraying the rich bearded-communist as a hot-and-sweaty babe. It is a cult built on pop images. Or as Ter Host correctly prophesized: “Now that he is dead, his own atrocities can be overlooked and he can be elevated as a kind of Communist St. George who tried only to liberate the masses from the imperialist dragon.” (Familysecuritymatters)