Analysis & Commentary
West Should Be Telling Assad To Go
When US President Barack Obama offered his rationale for supporting the UN imposed no-fly zone over Libyan skies, he said that "We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi - a city nearly the size of Charlotte - could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world."
Western Civilization on Trial
I used to think of the Netherlands as a land of tulips, windmills, Anne Frank, and a little boy with his finger in the dike. Increasingly, I think of it as the place where Theo van Gogh was murdered in broad daylight, Aayan Hirsi Ali was betrayed, and free speech is on trial.
Western Sharia
Ismail Belghar, a 36-year-old Muslim man living in Australia, assaulted, abducted, and nearly killed his sister-in-law. The victim, a 25-year-old Moroccan named Canan Kokden, had dared to take her older sister, Mrs. B, to the beach without Belghar’s permission.
Western Terrorism Recruits in Somalia
On Monday, the United States unsealed terrorism charges against eight defendants for supporting a Somali Islamist group called al-Shabaab. While few lay people in Canada or the United States have heard of al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-connected extremist organization — which controls a significant amount of territory in Somalia — has recently become a particular concern for analysts examining possible homegrown terrorist flashpoints in North America.
Wet Work
Osama bin Laden sleeps with the fishes. His deputy, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad sleeps between clean sheets, eats three square meals a day and receives the same quality medical care as U.S. military officers. Yet for many people, not least the President of the United States, what happened to OBL – shot dead by Navy SEALs – represents justice and victory, while what happened to KSM – waterboarded under conditions designed to ensure no lasting physical harm -- was unjust and outrageous. Is there any logic to this?
We’ve Been Warned
Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, had a saying: “The Americans cannot do a damned thing.” Tehran has tested that proposition time and again – conspiring, over three decades, to kill Americans in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan.
What a Bunch of Winners
Here's one for the new ethics office at the United Nations: Not only do we now know that Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepted a $500,000 prize from the ruler of Dubai, courtesy of a judges' panel rife with U.N. connections, one member of which Annan then appointed to a high U.N. job. Less well known is that Annan was advised to take the prize money by another senior U.N. official, Mark Malloch Brown—according to Malloch Brown himself in an interview this past February.
What About Iran?
While the world focuses on Libya's popular uprising and Moammar Gadhafi's murderous response, Iran has also—far from the international spotlight—been ratcheting up its repression. In the last few days, Tehran has moved to arrest the two leading figures
What Are Iran’s Plans Now that Mubarak Is Out? What Are Ours?
Today marks the 32nd anniversary of Khomeini’s Islamic revolution in Iran, just as the Iranian regime, while falsely claiming to support Egyptians’ right to assemble and protest, employs heavy-handed tactics to suppress demonstrations in Tehran. The failure of the West to energetically confront Iran’s bellicose policies might very well be revealed in the post-Mubarak era.
What Are Ron Paul’s Liberal Fans Thinking?
For anyone moderately familiar with Ron Paul’s record, it shouldn't come as a surprise that a litany of racists, anti-Semites, conspiracy-theorists, and militia members back his presidential campaign.
What Are We Doing About Gaddafi’s Bloody Hands in Libya?
As uprisings sweep the Middle East and North Africa, the bloodiest crackdown is happening, right now, in Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi has ruled for more than 41 years. There are reports of hundreds killed, of massacres in Libya’s second-largest city of Benghazi, of snipers shooting peaceful protesters, of tanks crushing bystanders, of regime gunmen firing on mourners in funeral processions for protesters previously murdered; of rocket-propelled grenades and helicopter gunships used against crowds of demonstrators.
What Becomes of The Palestinian Reconciliation?
In the past couple of weeks, the dormant inter-Palestinian “reconciliation” process was said to be stirring again. Representatives of the rival Fatah and Hamas movements met in Damascus, where they are scheduled to meet again in a week to continue talks. However, from the vantage point of the US and its allies and clients – most notably the Palestinian Authority and Egypt –“reconciliation” will not advance the key US strategic objective in the region: the weakening of the Iranian alliance system.
What Bush Should Tell Turkey
The visit of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House on January 28 is an opportunity for the U.S. to help an important ally set a new strategic course. Erdogan will come with the usual list of concerns. He will request assistance for counterterrorism and support for Turkey’s EU membership bid. Erdogan will worry about the future of Iraq and express opposition to autonomy for the Kurds in that country.
What Can Bibi Expect from Obama
Today's meeting between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama has the potential to repair the U.S. administration's frosty posture toward Israel.
What Can Stop Iran Now? Nothing Much
The latest round of media hype on Iran offers much comic relief for an otherwise terrible truth. Iran can only be stopped from getting nuclear weapons by factors that are largely beyond the control of Israel, the Western world or the international community at large.
What Canada Can Do to Thwart Iranian Threat
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has described Iran in recent interviews as the gravest threat to international security, expressing certainty that the regime is striving to build nuclear weapons.
What Could Be Worse Than ElBaradei?
Jay could not be more correct that Mohammed ElBaradei is a menace. He is more responsible than any non-Iranian for the progress the mullahs have made on their nuke program (with dishonorable mention to China and Russia) — although I think another Egyptian, Yasser Arafat, may have been a worse Nobel choice. I also agree that, under the circumstances, Egypt could do worse than having ElBaradei running its government. Some perspective: the guy I convicted in 1995, Omar Abdel Rahman — the Blind Sheikh who issued the fatwa approving the murder of Anwar Sadat and tried energetically to have his successor, Hosni Mubarak, killed — was a great admirer of Ayatollah Khomeini Islamist revolution in Iran and hoped to replicate it (a Sunni version of it) in Egypt, with himself recognized as the top Islamic authority advising the sharia government.
What Did Canadians Do to Deserve This?
Are you surprised that terrorists appear to have set their sights on such unlikely targets as the Parliament building in Ottawa and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in Toronto? Astonished that anyone would even consider sawing off the head of a Canadian Prime Minister? Are you thinking: What could anyone have against free, democratic, liberal, multicultural, diverse and tolerant Canada?
What Do You Mean Obama’s An Empty Suit? Had Napoleon Written Memoirs At This Age?
Classic Krauthammer, on Obama's coronation on Mount Olympus...
What Does It Mean?’
Many fine stories have been written this past week honoring Robert L. Bartley, editorial-page editor for 30 years of The Wall Street Journal, who died last Wednesday at 66. In many ways Bob wrote his own visionary story across the decades and around the globe, with his love of ideas that set people free, and his vitality in fighting for what he believed.
