2020 Hindsight

a fitting tribute

on the message boards at RonaldReagan.com, from Radek Novotny, of the Czech Republic.

Mr. President, thank you for breaking down communism in Europe, for safe of our life, of our freedom. We will be grateful to you to the end of our life.

Global Guerrillas

I've been reading John Robb's Global Guerrillas weblog without a mention besides a link in the blogroll. It's very smart, avoids a partisan us-them, I always learn something, and in the coupla months that it's been going (started in March 2004), he's attracted quite a following, both in terms of hits and highly-placed readers.

Today he writes:

Global Guerrillas has proven to be an invaluable analytical resource on the fast moving world of international terrorism. To wit: the recent attacks in Saudi Arabia should have come as no surprise to the site's readers. Thanks again to the thousands of current readers who have made this effort worthwhile.

Religious Policemen

I may have mentioned it before-- the blog from inside Saudi Arabia: The Religous Policeman, but it's worth mentioning again. It's brilliant, brilliant.

He wants to sell advertising on the national 404 page ("you can't go to whatever page you requested because we won't let you") and retire.

He wants to start a new lottery:

Every week, Saudi citizens could buy a 10-Riyal ticket with a number from 0 to 20. Then, following the weekly terrorist "surrounding" and shoot-out, those whose number matches the number of escaping terrorists, win a cash prize. It's topical, it's exciting, and no other country could imitate it.

It's a must-read. (but it updates more often than blo.gs realizes, so it doesn't rise up to the top of my blogroll as often as it should)

Why are we still there?

(I got this in an email from my brother. Thought it could use a wider audience...)

Every day there are news reports about more deaths. Every night on TV are photos of death and destruction. Why are we still there?

We occupied this land, which we had to take by force, but it causes us nothing but trouble. Why are we still there?

Many of their people are uncivilized, or at least don't speak English. Why are we still there?

There are more than 1,000 religious sects and almost as many languages and dialects, many of which we don't understand. Why are we still there?

We can't even secure the borders. Why are we still there?

They are billions of dollars in debt and it will cost billions more to rebuild, which we can't afford. Why are we still there?

It is becoming clear. We must abandon California.

the so-called Human Rights commission

I guess that Sudan's nomination to the UN Human Rights commission turns the meaning of said commission on its head: Human Rights means "The Right to Slaughter Humans."

In late April, the Human Rights Commission expressed concern about the situation in Sudan's western Darfur region. It stopped short of formal condemnation of the government, which has been accused of backing militias that are destroying villages, executing civilians, raping women and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

"A government that engages in wholesale abuses of its citizens should not be eligible for a seat at the table, especially a country just criticized by the commission," said Joanna Weschler, U.N. representative for Human Rights Watch, which is part of the coalition.

...In recent years, Human Rights Watch has complained that the growing number of nations on the 53-member commission with poor human rights records have been sticking together to cover up abuses.

(It's stuff like this and UNSCAM that's caused me to question my heretofore unexamined assumption that the UN is unfailingly good and worthy of unquestioning support.)

Transcript of the Bush Press Conference

I'm reading it again, and yes, I really *did* hear him say that. Aaack.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

In the last campaign, you were asked a question about the biggest mistake you'd made in your life, and you used to like to joke that it was trading Sammy Sosa.

You've looked back before 9-11 for what mistakes might have been made. After 9-11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have learned from it?

BUSH: I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it.

John, I'm sure historians will look back and say, gosh, he could've done it better this way or that way. You know, I just -- I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet.

....

I hope -- I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't -- you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one. (emphasis mine)

WTF?

and... this one

QUESTION: Mr. President, why are you and the vice president insisting on appearing together before the 9-11 commission? And, Mr. President, who will we be handing the Iraqi government over to on June 30th?

BUSH: We'll find that out soon. That's what Mr. Brahimi is doing. He's figuring out the nature of the entity we'll be handing sovereignty over.

And, secondly, because the 9-11 commission wants to ask us questions, that's why we're meeting. And I look forward to meeting with them and answering their questions.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) I was asking why you're appearing together, rather than separately, which was their request.

BUSH: Because it's a good chance for both of us to answer questions that the 9-11 commission is looking forward to asking us. And I'm looking forward to answering them.

Let's see. Hold on for a minute. Let's see. Oh, Jim. [next question]

The Killing Fields

No, the story doesn't talk about how that the song, "Happy Birthday," is still under copyright and can't be used without permissions (and, presumably payment). But this story by J.D. Lasica does tell of the effects of corporate enforcement of copyright law in drastic ways.

"What has happened over the past few decades is that culture has become privatized to the point where we're now facing a crisis."

...

"This all comes down to whether you believe culture should be bottom up or a top-down approach imposed by the corporations," Horowitz says. "As it is now, copyright law has become the killing fields of culture."

What was that principle of a positive feedback loop as market condition, that market share begets more market share? I can't recall the catchy term describing the dominance domino effect. But this story reminded me of that.

Al Qaeda chief reveals full 9/11 plan

Other U.S. Targets: Library Tower in downtown L.A. (the tallest building west of the Mississippi, and tallest building in earthquake region) and Sears Tower , Chicago.

"The original plan was for a two-pronged attack with five targets on the east coast of America and five on the west coast," he told interrogators.

"We talked about hitting California as it was America's richest state and bin Laden had talked about economic targets."

Bin Laden, who like Khalid had studied engineering, vetoed simultaneous coast-to-coast attacks, arguing that "it would be too difficult to synchronise".

Khalid switched to two waves: hitting the east coast first and following up with a second attack. "Osama had said the second wave should focus on the west coast," he said.

On the attacks and what happened afterwards...

When the suicide planes struck on September 11, al-Qaeda seems to have been taken by surprise - both by the success of the attacks and by the US reaction.

"Afterwards we never got time to catch our breath, we were immediately on the run," Khalid said.

"Osama declared Tony Blair our principal enemy and London a target."

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,

to US interrogators

He said the war on terrorism and the US bombing of Afghanistan completely disrupted their communications network. Operatives could no longer use satellite phones and had to rely on couriers, although they still used internet chat rooms.

Loh Life Loh Down Loh-latest

So local station KPCC is hiring Sandra Tsing Loh. Good for them. (LA Observed follows the story.) Now, since KPCC axed the Saturday night Theatre show, The Play's The Thing, will KCRW (which fired Loh) make it tit-for-tat, er, an even trade by picking up The Play's The Thing?

At the Abyss author Thomas Reed on Fresh Air

I'm listening to the Fresh Air interview with Thomas Reed, former Air Force Secretary and author of the book At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War. Gotta go back to listen to the bit about atomic weapons and the then-Soviet counterparts. Recommended. (hmmm. I thought I posted this at the time I was listening to the show, which was on the 10th. So it's a little belated.)