The Iconoclast

From Fox News: 

"After much delay the United States opened its new $700 million embassy in Iraq on Monday, inaugurating the largest — and most expensive — embassy ever built.

The 104-acre compound, bigger than the Vatican and about the size of 80 football fields, boasts 21 buildings, a commissary, cinema, retail and shopping areas, restaurants, schools, a fire station, power and water treatment plants, as well as telecommunications and wastewater treatment facilities.

The compound is six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York, and two-thirds the size of the National Mall in Washington.

It has space for 1,000 employees with six apartment blocks and is 10 times larger than any other U.S. embassy.

In a ceremony Monday attended by U.S. and Iraqi officials, the U.S. Ambassador Ryan Cocker ushered in a "new era" for both Iraq and for the Iraqi-U.S. relationship, although critics have said that the embassy's fortress-like design and immense size show a fundamental disconnect between the U.S. and conditions on the ground in Iraq.

“The presence of a massive U.S. embassy — by far the largest in the world — co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country,” the International Crisis Group, a European-based research group, said in 2006.

"The idea of an embassy this huge, this costly, and this isolated from events taking place outside its walls is not necessarily a cause for celebration," architectural historian Jane Loeffler wrote in Foreign Affairs in 2007.

"Traditionally, at least, embassies were designed to further interaction with the community in which they were built," she wrote. “Although the U.S. Government regularly proclaims confidence in Iraq’s democratic future, the U.S. has designed an embassy that conveys no confidence in Iraqis and little hope for their future. Instead, the U.S. has built a fortress capable of sustaining a massive, long-term presence in the face of continued violence.”

The inauguration of the $700 million embassy compound in the heart of the Green Zone came just days after a security agreement between Iraq and the United States took effect, replacing a U.N. mandate that gave legal authority to the U.S. and other foreign troops to operate in Iraq.

"I think we have seen a tremendous amount of progress, even since September. But the development of this new Iraq is going to be a very long time in the making, and we need to be engaged here," Crocker said.

Crocker's remarks were an indirect appeal for the U.S. to stay engaged diplomatically and politically in Iraq,"

A picture of the American Embassy ion Baghdad can be found here: 

http://www.himmapan.com/images/img_sm_paint_whiteelephant.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJG8LWux_b8

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD217509

"in a very real sense"

Cut it out. In a very real sense, just cut  it out.

No, not you. I know you would never use it. The others.

"I'm the emir-dynamite, yelled Bender. If in two days they still won't give us decent food I will incite some barbaric tribes to revolt. I will declare myself to be the Prophet's representative and start a holy war, a jihad. For example, against Denmark. Why did they torture to death their Prince Hamlet? In the current political situation even the League of Nations will be satisfied with this pretext to start the war. I swear to God, I will spend one million to buy rifles in England  -- they like to sell weapons -- and I'll march straight on Denmark. Can you imagine the entrance of barbaric tribes into Copenhagen? And I'll be in front of them all, riding on a white camel."

From The Telegraph:

In 1910 bitter hostilities raged in the letters columns of The Morning Post (later incorporated into The Daily Telegraph) on the subject of Morris dancing. On one side was Cecil Sharp, the collector of song and dance; on the other Mary Neal, a social worker who sought dances for her Espérance Girls' Club. To tell the truth, neither yet had the means to establish authenticity among English traditional dances.

Sharp won the war, but today an association of Morris dancers predicts their extinction because young people are embarrassed to take part. Blame the bells or hankies or beards or real-ale bellies. A stouter tradition of dance – the Nutters of Bacup, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, the Padstow Hobby Horse – deserves its fierce local support.

Soon there will ony be incest left to try. Say what you like about Morris dancing, at least it keeps you warm. It's bloody parky out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeaBNAXfHfQ

From Deutsche Welle
A man believed behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US went on trial in absentia in Paris on Monday, Jan. 5, on separate charges of ordering a deadly bombing on a Tunisian synagogue that killed 21 people.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is suspected of organizing the April 11, 2002, bombing in which a truck laden with explosive cooking gas was driven into the ancient Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba.
The detonation killed 14 Germans, five Tunisians and two French tourists. Thirty others were injured in the blast, for which al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
Two other men are also facing charges of involvement in the Djerba attack -- a German convert to Islam, Christian Ganczarski, and the brother of the suicide bomber who drove the truck into the synagogue, Walid Naouar.
All three men face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if found guilty.
The trial is expected to last five weeks. . . The Ghriba synagogue in the former Jewish village of Hara Seghira has been standing for some 1,900 years. The building survived the attack, though it sustained some fire damage.

From The Times.
As fighting intensified on the northern outskirts of Gaza City today, a top Hamas leader broke cover to warn Israel that the Islamists would kill Jewish children anywhere in the world in revenge for their own young who have died in the devastating assault.
“They have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine,” said Mahmoud Zahar, in a televised broadcast recorded at a secret location. “They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people.”
What did Golda Meir say? That there would never be peace until the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews.
Mr Zahar, a hard-line political leader, made his first appearance since Israeli launched its offensive against his organisation. Dressed in a dark suit and as he read the statement, he declared “Victory is coming, God willing.”
Abu Obeida, the leader of Hamas’ military wing, made his first appearance on Gaza television, his face masked in a red and white scarf, to goad Israeli forces massed on the fringes of the teeming city of 400,000 people. “We have prepared thousands of brave fighters who are waiting for you in each corner of the street and will welcome you with fire and iron,” he said. “We tell you in all confidence that your defeat in the Gaza Strip is approaching with every hour."
Many analysts believe that Hamas wants Israel to move into its stronghold, a hellish landscape for urban combat which the Islamist have had 18 months to prime with hidden booby traps, ambushes and tunnels.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli soldiers raided the house of a Hamas militant only to find three separate tunnels underneath through which their quarry escaped.
Mr Sarkozy, part of a high-level EU effort in the region to negotiate a truce, said he would tell Israel in meetings tonight that “the violence must halt”. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and Fatah leader whom he met in Ramallah today, also called for an unconditional truce.
Mr Sarkozy quickly ran foul of Hamas though when he said it must bear most of the blame for the increasingly miserable plight of the 1.5 million Gazans it rules over.
“Hamas acted in an irresponsible and unforgiveable manner... Hamas is to blame for the suffering of the Palestinians,” he said. A Hamas spokesman quickly accused the French leader of “total bias” towards Israel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEaDvb05ssw&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBSasDL2Hcs

ROMA - Domenica Walter Veltroni aveva definito la posizione della Farnesina «inadeguata». Ma la vera sorpresa è che anche dalla maggioranza arrivano critiche al ministro Frattini dopo che, a fronte di un intenso lavoro diplomatico della Ue e degli Usa per porre fine al sanguinoso conflitto in Medio Oriente, il governo italiano ha emesso un comunicato in cui si parla di «preoccupazione e apprensione». Dalle colonne della Stampa è l’ex ministro della Difesa ed esponente di Forza Italia Antonio Martino a dire senza mezzi termini che il problema di Franco Frattini è che «ha un unico grande difetto: è un fifone. Non ha coraggio, in questa crisi a Gaza; e quando uno non ha coraggio non può darselo. Solo che in politica l’assenza di coraggio è il difetto peggiore. Frattini è attanagliato dal terrore di sembrare troppo aggressivo con i palestinesi, il risultato è che avalla l’idea, sciaguratamente sbagliata, che sia in corso un attacco di Hamas contro Israele. No. Hamas attacca l’Occidente tutto, attacca anche noi e ci dovremmo difendere come si difende Israele». Per Martino, dunque, «il nostro amico Frattini è un fifone, ed è anche colpa del nostro governo se si ha l’impressione che l’unica politica estera europea sia quella incarnata da Sarkozy».

FRATTINI: «TRAVISATO» - È stato poi lo stesso ministro degli Esteri a sdrammatizzare le parole di Martino, in un'intervista a Sky Tg24: «Devo dire, per onor del vero, di aver ricevuto una telefonata di Martino dispiaciuto e indignato per come le sue parole sono state interpretate». Frattini ha aggiunto che andrà nei Territori palestinesi «appena le condizioni saranno mature».

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NomqdcECx_g&feature=related

I find that Alistair Crooke has been mentioned on many occasions at Jihad Watch, by me, and I thought, since his name  has just come up, I'd re-post a sample of those comments here:

I mean -- what would you call it?

Posted by: Hugh at April 14, 2005 11:18 PM

Michelle Malkin takes us on a walk down memory lane regarding the troubling (or is it troubled?) Mr. Norquist who is hosting an RNC debate today at the Naitonal Press Club.

Alistair Crooke, on no account to be confused with Alistair (Alfred) Cooke, just loves Islam. From the FT, via Harry's Place:

One of Crooke’s first postings was to Ireland, in the chaos of the early 1970s, where he cultivated a range of contacts in and around the IRA. One former high-ranking MI6 agent told me that the Secret Intelligence Service strategy was to build discreet long-term relationships with reasonable people within radical movements and then, over a long period, use those relationships to separate moderates from extremists and thus “influence the situation”. Crooke confirmed that this was indeed the general approach, though he feared that patience was increasingly being sacrificed for expediency. “You can lose a relationship in a day and it might take you 20 years to repair it,” he said. In postings to Pakistan during the Afghan war and to South Africa in the years leading to the end of apartheid, it was a lesson that Crooke took to heart. “The point is to understand the people who it is hardest to understand,” he said. “It is easy to talk to people who you might want to have around your dinner table.”

Could he imagine negotiating with al-Qaeda, I wondered? “Never say never,” he replied, though he couldn’t really see the point. Groups such as al-Qaeda only get a hearing, he said, because of the failure of more mainstream political Islamism to speak to the Muslim world.

Though proud of his work for the British government, Crooke admits to a period of reassessment after he was sacked. His views appear to have undergone something of a sea-change. Unusually for a former British spy, Crooke sprinkles his lectures with references, for example, to the work of Marxist postcolonial thinker Frantz Fanon. He believes that Hizbollah is a key factor in the renaissance of Islam - particularly its Shia variant - in the Middle East. The fact he remained in Beirut throughout the Israeli bombing might have stoked his sympathetic approach to Israel’s enemies. From his balcony he pointed out where some bombs fell, even criticising the Israeli Air Force for poor targeting and outdated intelligence.

His sympathy for Islamism extends beyond the political. Islam, he believes, has a valuable “imaginative, intuitive” approach to the individual that has been lost in the west. He views the 1979 Iranian revolution as progressive and enthusiastically explained obscure theological differences between its main Islamic protagonists. In the past two years he has visited Iran regularly - at one point he said “our view”, before correcting himself: “the Iranian view, I mean”.

The Sun:

STONEHENGE was built as a dance arena for prehistoric raves, a university professor believes.

Dr Rupert Till, who is also a part-time DJ, carried out experiments that he says showed the 5,000-year-old stone circle is ideal for listening to “trance” music.

Archaeologists have argued for decades over the Wiltshire Neolithic monument’s purpose.

But Dr Till, an expert in sound technology at Huddersfield University, West Yorks, believes the stones have perfect acoustics for repetitive rhythms like those used in some dance music.

He tested the effect using a computer model of Stonehenge and during a visit to a concrete replica built in Washington State, US.

And he came to the conclusion that ancient Britons shaped the stones to create special sounds.

He said: “The results were interesting. The stones are all curved and reflect sound perfectly.

“We reproduced the sound of someone speaking or clapping in Stonehenge 5,000 years ago.

“It is clear that Stonehenge did have a very unusual sound.

“We managed to get the whole space to resonate, almost like a wine glass will ring if you run a finger round it.

“While that was happening a simple drum beat sounded incredibly dramatic. It felt special.” ...

From IC Publications
Georgia on Monday blamed the Islamist movement Hamas for causing the intense armed clashes that have shaken the Gaza Strip in recent days, and expressed concern over the plight of civilians there.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia expresses its concern over the escalation of tensions in the Gaza Strip and deteriorating humanitarian situation, which has been triggered by rocket attacks launched by Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians," the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile Georgian students held a pro-Israel rally in central Tbilisi, Rustavi-2 television reported. Demonstrators were shown waving Israeli flags and banners reading "Israel has the Right to Defence" and "Stop Terrorism."
Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal supported Moscow's actions in Georgia when Russian troops and tanks rolled into the ex-Soviet republic in August to push back a Georgian offensive to retake the rebel region of South Ossetia.
Russia has also had official contacts with Hamas, in contrast to Western governments that refuse to negotiate with it, calling it a terrorist group.

Sheik Qaradawi is a "guide" of the Muslim Brotherhood and is the originator of IslamOnline. Some say he is the Supreme Guide, but this is disputed. The actual MB hierarchy is quite secret.

WASHINGTON — In an effort to reach out to its wider audience and larger readership, IslamOnline.net [IOL] opened a new media office in the American capital Washington.

"IslamOnline.net has proved its commitment to function as a media organization targeting a universal audience," said Mr. Muhammed Zidan, Managing Director of IOL English section.

"This new office stands as a step forward in realizing part of the aims and objectives of IOL, that is, promoting awareness about important events in the Arab, Muslim and larger world, in addition to providing services to Muslims and non-Muslims in several languages."

The office is located in the historic National Press Building, which also hosts the National Press Club.

"Today, one of our dreams has come true, and I believe it is very important to have an office in an important country like America," said Kamal Badr, IOL English website editor-in-chief.

"We will be equipping the new office with competent staff and proper resources."

Two full-time employees have already been hired while several others across the country will be contributing as freelancers...

Helen Kane imitation: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dub9JKBRg8g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83aJj72UjlM

----The Law

Thanks to Nana Landenberger for this story:

Geert Wilders has more and more of an international audience for his call to politicians to join hands cross-borders.  The head of the