Englishman in New York

Two questions emerge from Tony Blair’s anti-terrorism announcement yesterday.

Number One. According to the New York Times:

The measures announced by Mr. Blair are…making it an offense to glorify, prepare for or incite acts of terrorism. Mr. Blair made clear on Friday that the law would include such acts committed outside Britain, suggesting that threats against the United States and Britain ascribed on Thursday to Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy in Al Qaeda, would become a formal offense under British law.

In that case, what about “Gorgeous” George Galloway’s latest comments on Arabic TV? Can the British Member of Parliament get away with words like the following for much longer:

Galloway (on Al-Jazeera TV, July 31, 2005): They can control the skies, but only if they don’t come within range of an RPG, but they can’t control one single street in any part of occupied Iraq. Not one street. Not one street anywhere. These poor Iraqis - ragged people, with their sandals, with their Kalashnikovs, with the lightest and most basic of weapons - are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars, with 145 military operations every day, which has made the country ungovernable by the people who occupy it.

[…]America is losing the war in Iraq, and even the Americans now admit it. Even the puppet ministers and regime in Baghdad know it. The former puppet minister (Iyad) Allawi admitted it three times in the last month. America is losing the war in Iraq. And this will not change. The resistance is getting stronger every day, and the will to remain as an occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker everyday. Therefore, it can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs, and they are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony.

Number Two. In response to Tony Blair’s decision to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, the group had this to say:

Imran Waheed, a spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, said the move to outlaw it would cause “serious repercussions” among British Muslims and “will be seen by the Muslim community as stifling legitimate political dissent.”

No democracy wants to ban opposition groups/parties, whatever their views. But when those groups have the following to say, can it really be decribed as legitimate political dissent? And should we really allow it?:

O Muslims:

You can see these states, especially the colonialist states and those which have ambitions over our countries, may disagree on everything but they are united against you and against your Deen. Here they all move in one direction; they want to keep the issue of the Muslims in a state of crisis, separated and disconnected; they want the Muslims to be under their sphere of influence and under Jewish influence, so that, as they themselves admit, they can prevent the Muslims from returning as one Ummah in one state; the Khilafah Rashidah which will put the world in its right place and give back the rights to its people, and spread goodness to all corners of the world.

[…]Hizb ut-tahrir is steady in following this path, it will not undertake material actions nor does it view that as a correct solution. It does not accept the killing of civilians or the harming of those who have security. But despite this, it takes the view that because the powerful nations spill the blood of Muslims, violate their honour and desecrate their sanctities, that these are the real reasons which produce these material reactions [terrorist attacks–ed]. If the big nations wanted to put a stop to these actions they would have thought and reflected on the questions that we mention above - but we know that the arrogance of these states will stop them from thinking in a sound manner and following the correct path.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, already banned in a couple of European countries, seems to think that just by adding a couple of lines renouncing violence in its press statements that it can cover up its support for terrorism. Meanwhile, its attempt to expunge calls to violence from its website have been well documented at Harry’s Place here. They include statements like the following:

(Hizb ut-Tahrir, 25 Rajab 1420, 3/11/1999) Know that the Jews and their usurping state in Palestine will, by the Help and Mercy of Allah (swt), be destroyed ‘..until the stones and trees will say: O Muslim, O Slave of Allah. Here is a Jew behind me so come and kill him’. The signs indicate that this time is about to come In the forthcoming days the Muslims will conquer Rome and the dominion of the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) will reach the whole world and the rule of the Muslims will reach as far as the day and night. And the Deen of Muhammad (saw) will prevail over all other ways of life including Western Capitalism and the culture of Western Liberalism.

If that’s legitimate political debate, I would love to see their idea of extremism. I assume it looks something like this.

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I have a story in the New York Times tomorrow. It’s probably one of the best stories I have ever written. It’s available online now here and in my clips archive here.

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Film critic Mike D’Angelo was the sole reason I started reading Time Out New York. I’m no film expert but I am incredibly picky in the video store or at the cinema. Hence the concluding parts to the Matrix and LOTR trilogies passed me by after disappointing sequels. I’d rather skip Meet the Parents and take a chance on earth-shatteringly depressing films like Love Liza or Head On. So, I was thrilled to find a critic with the power to sum up films like this:

Not remotely anti-Semitic, but utterly anti-dramatic, Mel Gibson’s unprecedentedly bloody portrait of Jesus of Nazareth’s final day on earth arrives on a wave of pointless controversy that threatens to engulf the larger truth about the movie: that it has virtually nothing to offer anybody who doesn’t already believe that its hero died for their sins

Or this:

Of all the filmmakers currently working, perhaps only Von Trier has both the courage to employ such a baldly theatrical conceit and the skill to transform it into something triumphantly cinematic. Simple, magical, ferocious and visionary, Dogville makes most other recent movies—even the handful of really good ones—seem anemic by comparison. Its formal audacity is matched only by its metaphorical potency. Better still, it’s just a humdinger of a yarn, exacting and relentless; at a few minutes shy of three hours, it feels shorter than movies less than half its length. Narrated with amused detachment by John Hurt, possessor of the most magnificent voice in Hollywood since the death of Orson Welles, the story unfolds with the economy and inevitability of one of Grimm’s fairy tales, though I can’t recall the brothers devoting an entire narrative to the systematic plucking of the fairy’s wings.

So imagine my disappointment at his departure from TONY last year. And my relief when I found him again on his own personal website here, reviewing films for Nerve.com here, and blogging here. It turns out he even lives in the same neighborhood as me.

PS I watched Kurasawa’s Ran last night. It was excellent. But it occurred to me near the end that the storyline (an adaptation of King Lear) could have been summed up in two words. Shit happens!

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I’m at the end of a very close email Scrabble game with Macboy “Lower Case L-er” Levin. It’s his turn. And there are only about 14 tiles left in the bag…

UPDATE: William plays ONENESS under AIDER for a BINGO and 74 points (see below). I come back with YIN on the right hand side of the board for 31 points and William replies with BOW on the left scoring 32 points. All looks lost.

I am holding AEIRSTV. Good letters. But there’s nowhere to go, there’s only one tile left in the bag and I really need a BINGO (using all seven letters and scoring an extra 50 points) if I want to win. I can see the six-letter word STRIVE in my rack, so I throw down the A under BO, making BOA and hoping that I pick up a good letter and that William does not close down the board. William playes RELAXED. I am trailing by 81 points

The letter I pick up is a T! I have got a BINGO! THRIVES. I play it under BOA making BOAT and THRIVES hoping that it will be enough. I score 71 points and an extra 3 points for the tiles on William’s rack (ORU). William has three deducted.

Final Score: William 410, Paul 406.

Well done William!

UPDATE:Noooooooo! I’ve just seen it. If I had played THRIVES making BOAR instead of BOAT, I would have won! Aaaaaargh…..

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They’re really making my blood boil over at the Guardian online. Not the reporters. The commenters. Take a look at these shallow, moronic insights into the murder of freelance journalist Steven Vincent:

Why go half way across the world and then comment on corruption in the Iraq police? Is there no corruption among US police forces? Learn to clean up your country first, before talking in a patronising way about other cuntries. During saddam’s time there was less democracy. But at least the state was functioning,. Now nothing works.

People are watching foreigners in Iraq. Who they talk to, who they meet. Some journalists are not straight forward. They could be spies. If they are freelance people are wondering. How do they survive on a daily basis? How do they pay their meals? Their accommodation? Who are they working for? Are they CIA agents in civilian dress. Do they work for the State department? Do they work for the Defence department. Some people have suspect background. They are beig watched. The killings are not random. Some are targetted because people are wondering what they are doing there. Even you wear a head covering and try to pass off as a local it won’t work. Looks at the blogs he wrote about wome? He was just applying US standards to Arab behavious? Even though he stayed in Basra there was no understanding Iraq from the local perspective. Most of his articles were highly critical of Iraq way of life. They are all sorts of armed groups out there. They read the blogs. The Iraqis are among the most educated Arabs. How much do you think they can tolerate?

I’m not going to paste any more in here. You can take a look at them yourself here. Some people, eh?

UPDATE: I notice the Guardian closed the comments on the post. They were becoming extremely obnoxious.

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Last night my wife was conned out of $20 by an asshole. I think the asshole is the guy in the picture below.

The man approached her yesterday evening, gave her a sob story about his mum being in a car accident and needing to borrow a bit of cash to pay for a tow truck. His story was a little more finessed. But that was basically it.

When I came home last night and she told me the story I thought it sounded familiar so I trawled my excellent local blog dailyheights and sure enough, there he was—the alleged perp in question, pulling the same stunt back in April. The photograph above was taken by a dailyheights reader who was approached by the asshole (against whom certain allegations have been made) and she snapped this beautiful pic. My wife reckons that is the guy. And it’s a bit of a coincidence that their “stories” are so similar.

So, if you live in Prospect Heights/Park Slope and this guy approaches you with his little sob story. Tell him where to go. Tell him you’ve seen his photograph online. Tell him everyone’s calling him an asshole. And tell him he can drop my wife’s $20 off anytime he wants.

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Where in the name of all that’s holy did the New York Civil Liberties Union get this crazy idea from?

August 4, 2005 — In response to the NYPD’s unprecedented policy of subjecting millions of New Yorkers to suspicion-less searches, the New York Civil Liberties Union today filed suit in federal court seeking an injunction to halt the policy. The lawsuit filed today argues that the NYPD is violating the Fourth Amendment rights of commuters by adopting and enforcing a policy of searching possessions of those seeking to enter the subway system without any suspicion of wrongdoing. Since the police adopted this policy two weeks ago, officers have searched the purses, handbags, briefcases and backpacks of thousands of people, all without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

Okay. Fair enough. These guys are liberal extremists! They don’t think anyone should be searched. But wait. They seem to be saying something else. Not that they don’t think everyone should be searched—but that because everyone is being searched the searches are ineffective. Right?

In addition to violating the constitutional rights of millions of subway riders, the NYPD policy appears to be ineffective as a security measure. The NYPD is not conducting searches at most subway entrances at any given time, is giving advance notice about searches at those entrances where searches are being conducted, is allowing people selected for a search to walk away, and is not basing the searches on any suspicious activity of individuals. As common sense would suggest, the NYPD’s program is virtually certain neither to catch any person trying to carry explosives into the subway system nor to deter such an effort. Indeed, given the way the Department has implemented its search program, the only people being searched are innocent users of the subway system.

Well, I’m glad we got that sorted out. So the civil liberties Union thinks the NYPD should only be searching people who look or act suspicious. Right?

And although the NYPD claims that they are conducting searches that are purely random, the large number of people entering the transit system and the lack of control over that traffic result in people being selected for search in a discretionary and arbitrary manner, which creates the potential for impermissible racial profiling.

So random people are entering the subway. Police are selecting people based on their own judgements. And this is causing impermissible racial profiling? You mean, singling out people who look like they could be a potential terrorist? You mean, on the one hand you don’t want innocent New Yorkers to be searched, but on the other hand you don’t want the police to single people out for the way they look or act? So you oppose the searches completely then?

“We have no objection to reasonable searches, but we cannot and will not stand by while the police depjartment(sic) seeks to expunge the Fourth Amendment from the Constitution with a program that subjects millions of people to suspicion-less searches and that serves virtually no public-safety purpose,” said Christopher Dunn, Associate Legal Director of the NYCLU, lead counsel on the case.

Well, you got me there Christopher. I have no idea what a “reasonable search” is on your planet. How is the NYPD supposed to conduct searches without rummaging through the bags of thousands of innocent people and using a form of profiling, racial or otherwise? What would you prefer? That the NYPD puts up signs at all subway stations asking terrorists to voluntarily—and only if they so wish— locate the nearest police officer so that they can be searched and have their weapons taken away from them, as long as they don’t mind too much and don’t feel that any of their civil liberties are being infringed?

***

At dinner last night the subject of terrorism came up. There were three of us around the table, and if my beer-impaired memory serves me correctly all of us admitted to checking out our fellow passengers every time we got on the subway. We also agreed that New York was the number one target for terrorists. From there our opinions diverged. There was talk of dirty bombs, and blown up bridges and tunnels.

But there was also talk about the fact that if there is one police force in the world which is truly dedicated to tackling terorism then it is the NYPD. As Anguswit reported last week.
.

[NYPD police chief] Ray Kelly has spared no effort, and seemingly no expense, gathering the most experienced guys, training hundreds of officers, investing millions in infrastructure, and building a force that is way ahead of the curve in scope and capability.

Perhaps the New York Civil Liberties Union can find a better use for its resources and its time than suing the NYPD for trying to protect this city.

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Interesting story in the New York Times today about the freelance journalist from New York called Steven Vincent who was murdered in Iraq on Tuesday. Steven was obviously a brave, talented, and dedicated reporter—a man who was motivated to go to Iraq after 9/11 to find out for himself what was going on there. I was particularly struck by the following lines in the New York Times story:

Mr. Vincent said in conversations that he was particularly incensed about the sharp divide between men and women in the Islamic world. He was close to [his interpreter] Ms. Tuaiz, who he said had declined to accept payment for her work as an interpreter. He said he believed that the American-led invasion of Iraq was justified and part of a much larger campaign against what he called “Islamo-fascism.”

But he also said he was deeply disappointed by the failure of the United States and Britain to enforce their visions of democracy here. It was the duty of journalists, he said, to expose the pitfalls of the rising tide of Shiite Islam in Iraq in order to awaken the Bush administration to the kind of nation it was helping to create.

Whoever arranged for Steven Vincent to be killed had a lot to hide. Steven had been investigating corruption among Iraqi police in Basra—specifically about the role of policemen in the recent assassinations of former Baath Party officials. He was last seen on Tuesday being taken away by two men dressed in police uniforms and driving a police sedan.

This week the world lost a man with an extremely valuable insight into post-war Iraq. Hopefully his interpreter, who was shot but survived, will have enough information to find the men who did this, so that Steven’s story does not die with him. And the responsibility for tracking and capturing these men lies with the British.

Here is an extract from an Op-Ed by Steven that appeared in the New York Times last weekend.

The fact that the British are in effect strengthening the hand of Shiite organizations is not lost on Basra’s residents.

“No one trusts the police,” one Iraqi journalist told me. “If our new ayatollahs snap their fingers, thousands of police will jump.” Mufeed al-Mushashaee, the leader of a liberal political organization called the Shabanea Rebellion, told me that he felt that “the entire force should be dissolved and replaced with people educated in human rights and democracy.”

Unfortunately, this is precisely what the British aren’t doing. Fearing to appear like colonial occupiers, they avoid any hint of ideological indoctrination: in my time with them, not once did I see an instructor explain such basics of democracy as the politically neutral role of the police in a civil society. Nor did I see anyone question the alarming number of religious posters on the walls of Basran police stations. When I asked British troops if the security sector reform strategy included measures to encourage cadets to identify with the national government rather than their neighborhood mosque, I received polite shrugs: not our job, mate.

The results are apparent. At the city’s university, for example, self-appointed monitors patrol the campuses, ensuring that women’s attire and makeup are properly Islamic. “I’d like to throw them off the grounds, but who will do it?” a university administrator asked me. “Most of our police belong to the same religious parties as the monitors.”

[…]Meanwhile, the British stand above the growing turmoil, refusing to challenge the Islamists’ claim on the hearts and minds of police officers. This detachment angers many Basrans. “The British know what’s happening but they are asleep, pretending they can simply establish security and leave behind democracy,” said the police lieutenant who had told me of the assassinations. “Before such a government takes root here, we must experience a transformation of our minds.”

In other words, real security reform requires psychological as well as physical training. Unless the British include in their security sector reform strategy some basic lessons in democratic principles, Basra risks falling further under the sway of Islamic extremists and their Western-trained police enforcers.

A good start would be finding, trying, and convicting Steven’s killers.

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It has to be said, because a lot of cant is allowed to pass about ‘alienation’ and ‘disaffection’ caused by racism - well, there are one million Indians living in Britain who also experience discrimination, marginalisation and prejudice but they do not resort to a fascist ideology in response to this - and the instinct to proclaim that a stop and search policy based on scrutiny of those who match intelligence reports of a specific nature - to describe that as being a result of a form of latent (racism) is wicked in its implications and mischievousness.

Some interesting and eloquent thoughts from an Indian reader over at Normblog. Well worth reading.

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The following are excerpts from a truly amazing account of New Year’s Eve/Day in Iraq for US Marine Maj. Thad Coakley, a staff judge advocate officer for Marine Task Force 1/23 (via One Hand Clapping).

My friend Capt Jon Kuniholm, our battalion engineer was hit, looked down at his right side and said: “my arm’s gone.” It was hanging by a bootlace sized strip of sinew. Under fire, he told the Marines he was okay, then calmly walked back to the boat, carrying the one hand with his other. There he coolly waited until all the Marines retrograded to the shore before reflecting that he “wasn’t feeling well and, if everyone was back, maybe they should head back to the dam.”

[…]The corpsman who was with the patrol was also hit, but nobody knew it. He got to the wounded amidst the firefight and treated them, providing emergency aid that saved the lifes of at least two Marines. It was only after they all got back to the dam and he’d turned the wounded over to the aid station corpsman, briefing them fully on the Marines’ injuries and status, that he commented his arm hurt. It was shot through, and his whole side was soaked in his own crimson blood, but he hadn’t said a word or taken a moment to staunch his own wounds.

[…]This morning the bn assembled on the dam as the sun began to dawn over the river. At 0700, as the first rays chased away the night’s damp, the formation was called to attention. As we did for Corporal Kolda last month, the Chaplain led a memorial before an M-16 upended in sandbags. The dogtags of LCpl Parrello clinked against the black, plastic forestock, a sun-faded helmet sat atop the rifle butt, and crusty boots sat forlornly, but straight-laced, at the fore. The CO and some of Parello’s squadmates said some words; I guess the same kinds of things that have been uttered since men first went forward under a banner, but had to carry a comrade from the field. The Spartans’ wives would tell them “come back with your shield or on it,” the Romans followed the legion’s golden eagle embossed “For the Senate and the People of Rome,” an outnumbered English king once proclaimed “We few, we happy few.” Men of arms have died from time out of memory for a slogan, a flag, a tradition, a belief, a brother-in-arms. Some in our country would ask what our Marines died and were maimed for; I am here and I would say that it was for all these things and, that if you can only believe it was for a strip of dirt in a grimy palm grove along the river of a country in which we have no business, you just don’t get it.

The Marines get it. Everyone of them waited patiently in the chill air to individually stand before the rifle and salute this fallen Citizen before moving off to pick up their own rifles and helmets and get back to work. As we dispersed, it was as if you could once again feel the life all around us, from the roaring of the river to the wheeling,crying gulls.

Link here.

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Nobody likes a smart aleck but I said more than two months ago that Kasparov’s new political life would make a great story. And here it is in the Guardian.

He is also aware of the risks he is running in attacking Putin. “I’m sure all my telephone lines are tapped. That’s normal practice in Russia. Here in England you have been arguing about the terrorism bill, but in Russia we live under conditions that are much worse without even being told. We understand that we live in a state that acts as a Soviet state, paying no attention to the constitutional rights of its citizens, but we assume there are still certain limits that they can’t cross.”

Initially, he says, he will be vilified. “I expect vicious attacks from the government-run press and television. They will make a laughing-stock of me, saying: ‘What does a chess player know about politics?’ I know that the worst is yet to come - most of the things I expect in the next few months will be very negative.”

He also recognises the danger of more serious retribution. “These people have no allergy to blood. But you have to act. If I convince myself I have to act, I do act. If I believe that I am doing the right thing at the right time, I don’t consider the risk factors. It’s a part of the game.”

He also has some interesting things to say about European leaders’ attitudes to Putin.

“Putin has learned that because of certain geopolitical realities - the war on terror, high oil prices - he is immune to criticism. He knows that he will have enough political support from Chirac, Schröder, Berlusconi, Blair, all of whom are supporting a criminal regime in Russia.”

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The American people do not like the Jews nor do the Europeans, because the Jews by their very nature do not like anyone else. Rather they look at other people as wild animals which have to be tamed to serve them. So, how can we imagine it being possible for any Arab or Muslim to like the Jews whose character is such?

Know that the Jews and their usurping state in Palestine will, by the Help and Mercy of Allah (swt), be destroyed ‘..until the stones and trees will say: O Muslim, O Slave of Allah. Here is a Jew behind me so come and kill him’. The signs indicate that this time is about to come In the forthcoming days the Muslims will conquer Rome and the dominion of the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) will reach the whole world and the rule of the Muslims will reach as far as the day and night. And the Deen of Muhammad (saw) will prevail over all other ways of life including Western Capitalism and the culture of Western Liberalism

From a Hizb’ut Tahrir leaflet. Who? You know. That moderate Islamic group that claims it’s being repressed! The one that Mr Aslam is a member of. Oh come on, you know…

(Via Reactionista, via Harry)

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New York City tap water was tested 430,600 times during 2004 alone.

An interesting fact in this Boing Boing post which originated at Kottke. The article is about how bottled water can be worse for you than tap water. Whatever some people might say—and we have had complaints from guests—I think NY tap water tastes great.

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My advance copy of Blog!, the book I have spent a good part of the last year working on, arrived in the mail ten minutes ago! I’m only the contributing editor on this one, but it was still a lot of work. And I’m very impressed with the outcome.

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I have just endured a stomach-churning five minutes watching George Galloway on Arab Television courtesy of the Middle East Media Research Institue (via Harry). I wonder, with quotes like these is it not possible to chuck Galloway out of Parliament?

Galloway (on Syrian TV, July 31, 2005): Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners - Jerusalem and Baghdad. The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will. The daughters are crying for help, and the Arab world is silent. And some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters. Why? Because they are too weak and too corrupt to do anything about it.

Galloway (on Al-Jazeera TV, July 31, 2005): They can control the skies, but only if they don’t come within range of an RPG, but they can’t control one single street in any part of occupied Iraq. Not one street. Not one street anywhere. These poor Iraqis - ragged people, with their sandals, with their Kalashnikovs, with the lightest and most basic of weapons - are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars, with 145 military operations every day, which has made the country ungovernable by the people who occupy it.

We don’t know who they are, we don’t know their names, we never saw their faces, they don’t put up photographs of their martyrs, we don’t know the names of their leaders. I’m sure, for all the times I spent in Iraq, that I never met any of them before. They are not the comfortable in the former regime, they are not the leaders, with maybe one exception: Izzat Ibrahim Al-Durri. They are the base of this society. They are the young men and the young women who decided, whatever their feelings about the former regime - some are with, some are against. But they decided, when the foreign invaders came, to defend their country, to defend their honor, to defend their families, their religion, their way of life from a military superpower, which landed amongst them. And they are winning the war.

America is losing the war in Iraq, and even the Americans now admit it. Even the puppet ministers and regime in Baghdad know it. The former puppet minister (Iyad) Allawi admitted it three times in the last month. America is losing the war in Iraq. And this will not change. The resistance is getting stronger every day, and the will to remain as an occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker everyday. Therefore, it can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs, and they are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony.

These don’t sound like the words of a British MP who opposes the war. Galloway’s tirade is an incitement for insurgents in Iraq to attack British troops. Are British MPs allowed to do this? I’m all for free speech. But where’s the respect? Oh sorry, I forgot. That’s the name of Galloway’s party.

When I watch Galloway on television, when I hear his invective, I am truly afraid. He reminds me of a dictator, a racist, and a bully. There is indeed, as AA Gill pointed out, more than an inch of Napoleon in George.

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Some more information on Hizb’ut Tahrir via David T at Harry’s Place with arguments why The Guardian should be doing more to tell its readers what the party really stands for.

To those with experience of Hizb’ut Tahrir, its facade is paper thin. It was described by the Home Office as a political party which holds “anti-semitic…and homophobic views”. It proselytizes these views strongly to its own members, and to other muslims whom it seeks to recruit. It is thought to have 2,000-3,000 members. Its Danish spokesman has been convicted of disseminating racist propaganda in Denmark. The case in question involved the distribution of a racist leaflet which was hosted on a website which was run by Hizb’ut Tahrir in the United Kingdom. It is banned in a number of European countries, and is also banned by the National Union of Students, which holds it “responsible for supporting terrorism and publishing material that incites racial hatred”.

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