Friday, August 13, 2004
Book review: The Republican Noise Machine
My take on conservative-turned-liberal pundit David Brock's The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy is up online at the The American Spectator's website. (The review appeared in the July-August issue of the print magazine.)
As you might have guessed, I didn't like this book at all. It's actually even worse than Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stpuid White Man. Yup. It really is.
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As you might have guessed, I didn't like this book at all. It's actually even worse than Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stpuid White Man. Yup. It really is.
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Thursday, August 12, 2004
Wait, the CBC is Liberal? or Pity Susan Murray
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Those incriminating Oil-for-Food documents
Claudia Rosett, the indefatigable Wall Street Journal columnist whose work on the Oil-for-Food program merits a Pulitzer and more, has another important column today on her favourite topic. Rosett touches on some intelligence files pertaining to Oil-for-Food "allegedly held" by Ahmad Chalabi:
And then, of course, there's the hoard of documents allegedly held by Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress. Mr. Chalabi was one of the first to call for serious investigation of Oil-for-Food, based on what he has described as "damning documents" found in government offices in Baghdad, implicating senior officials of both the U.N. and various unnamed nations. Mr. Chalabi, according to his Washington-based adviser, Francis Brooke, recovered enough of Saddam's paperwork last year to fill three basketball courts chest-high. Of this hoard, says Mr. Brooke, some 20,000 pages relate directly to Oil-for-Food, most of them from the files of the Finance Ministry--which was just one of the many Iraqi ministries involved in this program.
When I was in Baghdad last May, I saw these alleged documents. They were part of a huge stash of files recovered by the INC from the Mukhabarat (Iraqi intelligence service) headquarters in the days after the war's end. I cannot say for sure that what I saw were the supposedly incriminating Oil-for-Food documents, but I saw a ton of intelligence documents. So when the INC says they recovered "enough of Saddam's paperwork last year to fill three basketball courts chest-high," believe me, they are not fibbing. Rosett is right to say that Chalabi should just release the documents.
Anyway, I took these pictures of what I saw:
Keep in mind that these were just two sections of a huge warehouse!
The greater question, which Rosett doesn't explicity note in her piece, is this: Is Chalabi's possession of incriminating Oil-for-Food documents part of the reason for the obvious vendetta against him?
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And then, of course, there's the hoard of documents allegedly held by Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress. Mr. Chalabi was one of the first to call for serious investigation of Oil-for-Food, based on what he has described as "damning documents" found in government offices in Baghdad, implicating senior officials of both the U.N. and various unnamed nations. Mr. Chalabi, according to his Washington-based adviser, Francis Brooke, recovered enough of Saddam's paperwork last year to fill three basketball courts chest-high. Of this hoard, says Mr. Brooke, some 20,000 pages relate directly to Oil-for-Food, most of them from the files of the Finance Ministry--which was just one of the many Iraqi ministries involved in this program.
When I was in Baghdad last May, I saw these alleged documents. They were part of a huge stash of files recovered by the INC from the Mukhabarat (Iraqi intelligence service) headquarters in the days after the war's end. I cannot say for sure that what I saw were the supposedly incriminating Oil-for-Food documents, but I saw a ton of intelligence documents. So when the INC says they recovered "enough of Saddam's paperwork last year to fill three basketball courts chest-high," believe me, they are not fibbing. Rosett is right to say that Chalabi should just release the documents.
Anyway, I took these pictures of what I saw:
Keep in mind that these were just two sections of a huge warehouse!
The greater question, which Rosett doesn't explicity note in her piece, is this: Is Chalabi's possession of incriminating Oil-for-Food documents part of the reason for the obvious vendetta against him?
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Death in Tehran
Like many Canadians, I've been disappointed at the way the federal government has dealt with Iran regarding the Zahra Kazemi case. Despite the pleadings of Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, it appears the feds are content do nothing and to hope this story will just fade from memory. Let's try to keep this issue in the public discourse so that they can't forget about it.
I have an article in The New York Sun today about the affair. It is tailored to an American audience, so it includes a summary of the saga in case some readers aren't familiar with what happened.
I conclude by saying:
Sooner or later, America will have to confront the Iranian menace. No other countries appear prepared to do so.
President Bush has named the Islamic Republic as part of the axis of evil, but has so far flinched from publicly providing material support aimed at ousting the regime in Tehran. Senator Kerry has called for a less confrontational approach.
Whoever leads America in the next four years of the war on terrorism will have to deal with the fact that in Tehran sits a regime fully capable of murdering a foreign journalist without showing the slightest hint of remorse, covering it up, and moving on as if it were business as usual.
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I have an article in The New York Sun today about the affair. It is tailored to an American audience, so it includes a summary of the saga in case some readers aren't familiar with what happened.
I conclude by saying:
Sooner or later, America will have to confront the Iranian menace. No other countries appear prepared to do so.
President Bush has named the Islamic Republic as part of the axis of evil, but has so far flinched from publicly providing material support aimed at ousting the regime in Tehran. Senator Kerry has called for a less confrontational approach.
Whoever leads America in the next four years of the war on terrorism will have to deal with the fact that in Tehran sits a regime fully capable of murdering a foreign journalist without showing the slightest hint of remorse, covering it up, and moving on as if it were business as usual.
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Speaking of the Chalabis
The Wall Street Journal editorial board has done a much better job than I did below summing up what needs to be said on this file. I 100% agree with everything said in this editorial.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Michael Moore sucks, and so does this book
I had a book review published last weekend in the Montreal Gazette of Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man. I dislike Michael Moore vehemently, but I still couldn't comment favourably on this book. To learn why go here.
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Chalabi issues
A few friends have asked what I make of the latest controversy involving Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi political figure. Chalabi has been charged with counterfeiting Iraqi dinars. His nephew, Salem, the man in charge of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein, has also been charged (perhaps somewhat ironically) with being an accomplice to murder.
I am not following the daily minutiae of the Iraq situation as closely as I used to, and I do not do any reporting of my own anymore. So I cannot say anything with real authority on this. All I know is what I read by other reporters.
What I do know from my past experiences is that there has been a concerted and obviously quite successful effort to discredit Ahmad Chalabi for many years now. This effort has been spearheaded by the CIA and the State Department, aided and abetted by many others. They may have played a role in this latest incident, they may not have. But the judge who charged Ahmad Chalabi is the same man who ordered that his house be raided a few weeks ago, for God knows what reason. This is a man with no legal training whatsoever.
Salem Chalabi is a very fine man with an Ivy League education. He is accomplished in both law and business. He does not strike me as someone who would commit murder. You can never say never because there's always a chance that someone you know and think of as being a good and moral person is actually a very different person than you thought. But I really doubt that this man is a criminal. I really, really doubt it.
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I am not following the daily minutiae of the Iraq situation as closely as I used to, and I do not do any reporting of my own anymore. So I cannot say anything with real authority on this. All I know is what I read by other reporters.
What I do know from my past experiences is that there has been a concerted and obviously quite successful effort to discredit Ahmad Chalabi for many years now. This effort has been spearheaded by the CIA and the State Department, aided and abetted by many others. They may have played a role in this latest incident, they may not have. But the judge who charged Ahmad Chalabi is the same man who ordered that his house be raided a few weeks ago, for God knows what reason. This is a man with no legal training whatsoever.
Salem Chalabi is a very fine man with an Ivy League education. He is accomplished in both law and business. He does not strike me as someone who would commit murder. You can never say never because there's always a chance that someone you know and think of as being a good and moral person is actually a very different person than you thought. But I really doubt that this man is a criminal. I really, really doubt it.
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