FUNERAL: One cleric said Hakim's funeral would begin in Baghdad on Sunday morning and later move on to Najaf. Dubai-based Al Arabiya television said Hakim's body had arrived in Baghdad.
"This is the greatest crime ever against the Muslims in this holiest place," said Sheikh Ali Jabbar, a cleric at the Imam Ali mosque, as women dressed in black slapped their heads in grief.
Thousands of shoes lay around the mosque, left behind by worshippers and scattered in all directions by the bomb.
:: From a report by Joseph Logan at Reuters AlertNet.
NAJAF DRAGNET Iraqi police have detained 19 men-- many of them foreigners and all with admitted links to al-Qaeda...
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two Iraqis and two Saudis grabbed shortly after the Friday attack gave information leading to the arrest of the others. They include two Kuwaitis and six Palestinians with Jordanian passports. The remainder were Iraqis and Saudis, the official said, without giving a breakdown.
:: From a report at Al Bawaba.
Saturday, August 30
FATWA HITS A FOUL: Al-Azhar's Sheikh Tantawi in Egypt suspended the cleric who improperly overstepped his bounds by issuing a fatwa denigrating the Iraqi Interim Governing Council. ::Reported by AFP via Rantburg.
IRAQI RECOVERY: A nice background feature story from USA Today. Link courtesy of On The Third Hand.
Friday, August 29
RESURGENCE OF THE TALIBAN: Arnaud de Borchgrave gives a background briefing on what's happening in Afghanistan and the Afghan-Pak border region.
WHAT THEY SAID:
*I believe the Islam versus militant Islam distinction stands at the heart of the war on terror and urgently needs to be clarified for non-specialists. The most effective way of achieving this, I expect, is by giving voice to the Muslim victims of Islamist totalitarianism.*
:: From an op-ed piece by Prof. Daniel Pipes
at the National Post of Canada.
CAR BOMB IN NAJAF: At least 20 people are reported to have been killed and dozens wounded.
The explosion was outside the Imam Ali mosque, according to reports.
Sky TV is reporting that Al-Hakim may have been killed.
FIERCE FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN: Khalil Hotak, the head of intelligence in Zabul, said troops were searching village homes. He said the insurgents were led by Mullah Arif, who is in contact with the Taliban's fugitive chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
:: Also may want to check the Afghan News Network.
SOFT COUP D'ETAT
"CORONARIES IN CONES"
Killjoy cranks are after your sundae!
*Hand in hand with the hype (indeed it's a corollary of it) is the assumption that Americans are not responsible for what they eat. This gives the fat police an excuse (if people can't control their eating then someone-- usually government-- must step in to do it for them) and the overweight an alibi-- thus its appeal.*
:: From a piece by by Andrew Stuttaford for NRO.
TOWARD DYSTOPIA:
*The older I get, the less I seem able to understand the mysterious forces dragging us all towards Dystopia...
You will notice that the social jihad against smoking is serving as the model for new crusades, which comes as no surprise, certainly, to anybody who both smokes and thinks.
Perhaps you're comfortable with all this because your own unhealthy pleasures haven't been proscribed yet... Your turn is coming, as long as the premise that good health is an unlimited pretext for state action remains unresisted as such.*
:: From the weblog of Colby Cosh.
Thursday, August 28
SADDAM SIGHTINGS: An eyewitness told Al-Arabyia Sat TV Network that Saddam Hussein was spotted in Mosul and that he "looked fine."
And that's a definite maybe! He really doesn't have a very distinctive appearance and could probably blend in to an Iraqi crowd without much difficulty.
:: From Al Bawaba.
ELECTRICAL EMERGENCY: According to their media, Lebanon is experiencing some kind of severe power shortage. Yet we never seem to hear about it. We hear about only the Iraqi situation. I wonder if the sudden proliferation of electronic gadgets and computers recently introduced into the region has anything to do with this. According to the Daily Star:
Electricity crisis set to worsen still further
Draconian rationing may become total blackout
Power rationing has reached its peak over the past few days and the country is set for more power cuts or even a total blackout unless proper funding for fuel and diesel are arranged very soon. Rationing has exceeded 20 hours a day in many areas of Lebanon, especially in the Bekaa and the North, and is spreading to include certain parts of Mount Lebanon and Beirut’s suburbs...
Meanwhile, politicians have observed that the electricity situation in the country has become intolerable.
Akkar MP Wajih Baarini said that a “state of emergency” should be proclaimed...
MP Mohammed Yehia also called on government officials to quickly find a solution for the electricity crisis and to reveal the main causes and people behind it.
:: Excerpted from a report by Sabine Darrous for the Daily Star of Lebanon.
RELIEF WORKER: *Kandahar Chronicles is the ongoing story of the day-to-day life of a relief worker based in Kandahar Afghanistan. For security reasons, the identity of the author has been kept anonymous, as is the relief organization for which he works.*
Link from Ben Hammersley in Kabul who has just updated. Ben describes KC as "much more hardcore than me." I'll check it out later. Kandahar Chronicles.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE: *Iraq is negotiating to buy electricity from Iran, Syria and Turkey as it faces a serious power shortage that has grown worse since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Muwaffak al-Rubai, a member of Iraq's interim Governing Council, said Wednesday.*
:: AFP via Zawya.
THE NEW JIHAD CAMPUS: Pakistani soldiers who serve in Iraq with coalition forces and their families will no longer be considered Muslims and "will face serious punishment under the laws prescribed by sharia (Islamic law)." So decreed a fatwa recently issued in Pakistan... Musharraf has concluded that to be the first Muslim nation to send troops to Iraq would be political suicide... Quetta, the provincial capital, is now a vast privileged sanctuary for former Taliban officials and their fighters...
This reporter's informants in Islamabad and Quetta say U.S. agents are unable to tell the difference between Baluchis, Pashtuns and Taliban, and that most people are convinced Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar, the former Taliban chief, are hiding safely somewhere in Baluchistan under the protection of ISI and its extremist allies in the provincial government.
:: Excerpts from a report by Arnaud de Borchgrave for UPI via Zawya.
TRANSMITTING THREATS: Philip Reeker, U.S. State Department spokesman, strongly criticised Al-Arabiya Sat TV Network for broadcasting masked men who threatened to kill members of the American-appointed governing council in Iraq. He characterized the decision to air the piece as "irresponsible in the extreme."
RETURN IMPRESSIONS: Rory McCarthy from The UK Guardian returns to Baghdad after two months away and relates his impressions of what's changed in the situation there.
Wednesday, August 27
SHARING SACRED SITES: The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was opened to visitors Monday morning at about 7:30 am. Shortly thereafter, a group of Moslems tried to prevent the non-Moslems from entry by holding a prayer service while blocking the entrance with their bodies.
*An argument then broke out between the Moslems and the Israeli policemen accompanying the visitors, which ended with most of the Moslems leaving the Temple Mount compound.*
*It was later learned that three Waqf officials who caused a disturbance yesterday and succeeded in impeding Jewish visitors to the Mount were arrested over the night.*
:: Also stories at Al Bawaba and WorldNetDaily.
"TO DENY THEIR PRESENCE"
I came across an interesting op-ed piece this past Sunday at Dar Al-Hayat, but was preoccupied with something else at the time, so I tagged it with the intention of returning on Monday. I finally got back there on Tuesday evening. I wanted to read it more carefully and thoughtfully. It's an interesting piece because it is flagrantly distorted, but in an interesting way. I don't like to quote extensively from someone's work, so I have tried to be as economical as possible about excerpting.
*I want to talk again about Pipes today, because I read another one of his despicable articles, which reveal the secrets of his sick personality and thoughts, which come as if he were saying: I, in Israel's name condemn you Israel.*My first reaction to this was dismay. The rhetoric is overheated, hyperbolic, and not at all customary for the activity of critiquing an academic scholar's writings.
I have never read any of Daniel Pipes' books. If I've read an article by him, I have forgotten it. All I know about him is that he is a professor. The U.S. is a huge country in which there are thousands of professors.
Prior to 9/11, it is likely that the vast majority of Americans never even heard of him. I certainly hadn't. And most people probably still don't know who he is.
The facile use of the phrase "his sick personality" does not exactly enhance the writer's credibility because it is not a polemic chain of reason. And resorting to a personal attack on Pipes in a vague and unspecific way seems like a sign of desperation. But the more important part is yet to come:
*The easiest solution to the refugees' problem is not to deny their presence but to return the Russian emigrants to Russia - some of whom are not even Jews - and the Poles to Poland, the Hungarians to Hungary, so that there is enough room for the Palestinian refugees who are the real land owners, despite the curse of Pipes and his friends.*Now, is this guy kidding himself or what??? It is common knowledge, at least in the U.S., that at least half the population of Israel consists of Arab Jews. They were expelled from the Arab countries they lived in. Those Arab governments revoked their citizenship and made them stateless. And, in many cases, systematically pauperized them, confiscating their financial assets and properties.
One wonders whether the writer is deliberately deceiving himself or expressing his feelings based on ignorance.
Daniel Pipes was appointed to some kind of group in which his voice or opinion will be only one of many voices and opinions. He was not appointed to be the Chief Commandante in control of Saudi Arabia's foreign policy.
This op-ed piece is a ridiculous over-reaction to President Bush's selection of Pipes. And nowhere is the writer described as an American, so that it remains a mystery why he's so inordinately overwrought about it.
As long as the writer refuses to acknowledge the existance of the Arab Jews who constitute at least half the population of Israel, no thoughtful person is going to take him and his rantings seriously.
:: Excerpts from "Pipes' Curse"
an op-ed essay by Jihad Al Khazen
at Dar Al-Hayat dated 8/24/03.
Tuesday, August 26
GOING TO IRAQ: In blogging news today...
**My So-Called Blog has changed its name to “Babel On!”. As I mentioned before, the blog’s author left his job of democracy teaching in Russia and is headed for a similar position in Iraq.**
:: Link courtesy of James at Parkway Rest Stop Blog.
It is with great sadness . . .
that I note the death of Sir Wilfred Thesiger at the age of 93. There will never be another like him. And he was a talented writer.
It is 4:30 am here in the N.E. U.S. I had been cleaning up my bookmarks, filing some, and deleting many. I just surfed over to the Beeb to catch up with some of the latest news before I have a bite to eat and crash for a while.
I find that I am unable to express myself about this right now. Perhaps later on I may be able to say a few words about it. But I don't really know.
:: BBC Obituary for Sir Wilfred Thesiger.
Monday, August 25
~~ OUR GEEK IN KABUL ~~
**I’m staying at the Mustafa Hotel, just round the corner from Chicken Street, both Kabul landmarks, as much as such a thing exists. Like the Dubai sportsbar of a few days ago, the staircase is decorated with painted renditions of gangster movies - my floor is adorned with an impressive homage to Scarface...
The power stopped just as the sun was setting, and so I’ll probably post this tomorrow morning - conserving battery power on my sat phone seems a good idea. Afghanistan has had five years of drought, and so the hydroelectric dam powering Kabul is less than reliable...
Meanwhile, the manager and at least three other guys eating in the restaurant this evening had pistols tucked into their belts...**
:: Excerpts from Ben Hammersley in Kabul. Keep an eye on this guy ;-)
VIOLENCE AGAINST IRAQI WOMEN: More than 400 Iraqi women have been kidnapped amid the lawlessness gripping the country since the occupation of US troops, the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq said on Sunday.
The group's director Yanar Mohammed said the four months since the US-led coalition took control had seen an "unprecedented" explosion of violence against women.
The Organisation of Women's Freedom has accused US forces of not doing enough to secure the streets. It said it had appealed, in vain, for help from Iraq's US-appointed interim Governing Council as well as US civil administrator Paul Bremer.
"We demand the setting up of security guards and patrols in every main street and a community centre on a 24-hour, seven-day basis. We also demand heavy sentences against sex offenders.
:: Excerpts from an article by AFP at The Jordan Times.
ALMOST A-BRIDGED: Anthony Shadid reports from Baghdad that *one of the main bridges over the Tigris River in Baghdad was closed today after explosives were found there, Iraqi police said. The bridge is one of the main routes to U.S. headquarters.*
LIVING ARAMAIC: Interesting article about the Assyrians called Elsewhere in Iraq by Paul Marshall at OpinionJournal.
*Iraq's Assyrians claim direct descent from the original inhabitants of Iraq, who built the tower of Babel and enthusiastically received Jonah's grudging call for repentance at Nineveh.*They continue to speak a version of Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.
Sunday, August 24
IRAQ'S FEMALE LEADERSHIP: Iraq Today provides a portrait of Dr. Raja Habib Al-Khuzai (posted 8-25).
"By our struggle, we will soon eliminate sexism, because a woman can prove her ability in leadership. We must change the narrow views on women; we have to go along with civilization..."Al-Khuzai also promises to push for women's rights to be made law in the new constitution.
:: From a feature story by Ghada Butti at Iraq Today.
BAGHDAD COMINGS AND GOINGS: The guys from Berkeley J-School are leaving Baghdad, but Chief Wiggles has moved to Baghdad.
OUR BLOGGER GUY IN AFGHANISTAN: Jeff Jarvis notes that Ben Hammersley has arrived in Afghanistan and provides a link to him.
ARAB PRESS REVIEW: Thamer Abu Baker provides this week's Digest at the Jordan Times.
NAJAF CLERIC'S HOME BOMBED: A gas cylinder wired to explode was placed along the outside wall of the home of Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim in Najaf. It blew up just after noon prayers. The cleric suffered scratches on his neck... He is a member of an influential family associated with SCIRI...
Iraqi newspapers had reported last week that Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim had received threats against his life. He is also one of three top Shiite leaders threatened with death by a rival Shiite cleric shortly after Saddam Hussein was toppled on April 9.
A day after Saddam's ouster, a mob in Najaf hacked to death a Shiite cleric who had recently returned from exile. Abdul Majid al-Khoei was killed when a meeting called to reconcile rival Shiite groups erupted into a melee at the Shrine of Ali...
Mohammed Saeed Al-Hakim, in his late 60s, holds the highest theological title in Shiite Islam-- Ayatollah al-Uzma, which means Grand or Supreme Ayatollah.
Excerpts from an article by Steven R. Hurst for AP via The Washington Times.
DUELING AYATOLLAHS: The activist Shi'ites sometimes refer to themselves as the hawza natika, or the outspoken hawza, or the thawra (revolutionary) hawza, or faala (active), and disparagingly view their introverted counterparts as the hawza samita, or silent hawza...
Fudala held its founding conference on April 30... [snip] ...Sheikh Husain al-Tai, the office director of Fudala, explained that their goal was to prove that the hawza could govern all aspects of life in Iraq, political, social, administrative. He said that Fudala is an experiment in the efficiency of a theocracy, starting in Najaf.
Al-Yaqubi and Muqtada are rivals in the contest to define the direction that Iraqi Shi'ites will take in post-Saddam Iraq.
Excerpts from an article by Nir Rosen at the Asia Times.
GETTING CONNECTED IN TIKRIT: *The U.S. army opened the first unrestricted Internet access in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit on Saturday in a bid to convince sceptical Iraqis their occupation will bring tangible benefits.*
"Before, we had no free e-mail, no chat, no good information, no connection with the world," cafe user Asim Abdullah said. "We were in a big jail."U.S. military spokesmen said the troops were helping set up a string of new Internet cafes across Iraq.
:: From an article by Andrew Cawthorne for Reuters via Zawya.
~~ BLOGS OVER BAGHDAD ~~
M.I.B.T.s - Riverbend blogs about the Men in Black Turbans in her Saturday entry.
Big Tent - Sgt Sean [somewhere in Baghdad] writes:
"i was just in the chow hall for breakfast... and many different nationalities of soldiers were eating... "More members of the Coalition of the Willing are starting to show up on the ground around him. And he blogs his impressions of some of them.
A CRYPTO-NORWEGIAN IN KABUL: George Rosie reviews The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad for the UK Sunday Herald. Described as "one of the best-selling Norwegian books of all time."
