Q: You've spoke about having seen the children's prisons in Iraq. Can you describe what you saw there?
A: The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children — toddlers up to pre-adolescents — whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace.

Q: Some on the right call you the new Jane Fonda, and joke about what you'll call your exercise video.
A:(Long pause?) Those on the right who say that disgrace the 12 years of service I gave to my country as a Marine. I love my country. I'll put my record of service up against anyone, bar none. If they want to have an exercise video then why don't they come here and say it to my face and I'll give'm an exercise video, which will be called, "Scott Ritter Kicking Their Ass."

State Minister Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Fahd yesterday blasted a section of the Western media for their anti-Islam smear campaign and said Islam is a religion of peace, justice, tolerance and moderation.
“Justice demands that we should not generalize the actions of certain individuals and groups and a make a blind judgment on all,” the prince said in his address to an Islamic conference which opened here yesterday.

I am a writer for BIOSIS, a biology information company. Last summer, I became interested in the West Nile virus and decided to write an article on the topic for the company newsletter.
I interviewed Richard Levinson of the American Public Health Assoc. on the possibility of WNV's use as a bio-terror weapon. He said it was exceedingly unlikely b/c it has such low infection and low mortality rates. There were initial reports in The New Yorker that raised this possibility and drew a lot of attention to the disease, but the relevant authorities dismissed it.
Basically, more people have died of heat this summer than WNV, but b/c of this initial association with terrorism people remain afraid. Like flu, most (or all, I haven't checked) of the victims have been very old or very young - i.e. weak immune systems.
As long as it doesn't mutate, it shouldn't present huge problems for the general population.

Ask an Arab — or any Muslim for that matter — about Osama Bin Laden and you will be bewildered by the apparent contradiction in the answer. While most do not agree with his terrorist orientation, many do understand his motive. It is as if a group of red Indians were sitting around a fire, exchanging grievances and stories about white men’s atrocities. Suddenly an overwhelmed, overburdened member shouts. "Let’s kill them all!" The wiser ones will not agree to his mad proposal, but they will certainly understand where it came from — and won’t hate him for it.

I can be your hero baby
I can kiss away the pain
I will stand by you forever
You can take my breath away

Would you swear that you'll always be mine
Would you lie would you run and hide
Am I in too deep have I lost my mind
Well I don't care you're here tonight

Well, it is really pathetic. I don't know what has come over Scott to make him say these things and behave in the way that he is. Iraq -- one of Iraq's charges against us four years ago is that we were American spies. We were not. It was most obvious possible thing for them to say as they sought to avoid inspection, as they sought to shut us out to protect their weapons program.
It is pathetic and sad to hear Scott repeating their propaganda. Look, I want to make this clear. Until the day he left UNSCOM, Scott was robustly advising me, in writing -- you know, the papers are out there to prove it -- in writing that Iraq continued to retain illegal weapons. He begged me to authorize him to go in and do what he called kick in the doors and find those weapons. Sometimes, I authorized him to lead inspections, sometimes I rejected his proposals because, quite frankly, they were a little bit off the wall.
Now, his advice to me then, on the basis of good evidence, which I knew, was that Iraq continued to retain illegal weapons. He resigned. A few months later, he crossed the road and for some reason, I don't know why, I am not a psychoanalyst, but he crossed the road and started to tell the world that there were no such weapons.
So I put it to you this way. Either he was misleading me when he worked for me, or he began to mislead the world's public later. Now, I know which one it is. He was misleading me -- he was not misleading me, rather, he is now misleading the world's public, and I find that sad, wrong, and frankly, a touch dangerous.

In Saudi Arabia when you walk in with articles of faith of other religions (a crucifix, yarmulke, the Bible, Torah, figurines of Hindu deities etc.) the customs officer will first declare these objects "haraam" in a loud voice - after that he will fling them down spit on them, stamp them or grind them to dust. The fate gets worse if you are caught possessing these things as a resident.

September 11, 2002, approx. 1:15 p.m.
Jim Stewart: I think we should clear up a report that we came out earlier in which we said that an al-Qaeda website had, thought to reflect the views of al-Qaeda, was running an eyewitness account of the death of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. bombing raid last December. That account it now appears was a fake and the entire article was a tease. It concluded, in fact, that bin Laden is still alive, according to our translator, and offers no new information on his health or whereabouts.
It appears to be the latest in a series of teases about bin Laden that have surfaced. Earlier, al-Jazeera, an Arabic television station, reported that a senior al-Qaeda official had referred to bin Laden in the past tense. And U.S. officials say they now believe the station has another tape it has not released. Officials do not know whether that tape contains new information about bin Laden or not. This afternoon al-Jazeera said it does not have such a tape.
The bottom line is that on the anniversary of 9/11 the U.S. still doesn't know the status of the man it believes planned these attacks and al-Qaeda appears to be taking full advantage of that.

Dubya is a democratic leader in the truest sense, both reflecting the consensus view of a self-governing people and offering those people the reassurance that out of the chaos of the present moment there is a clear direction forward in the future.
In an amazingly compact speech that may have been the briefest major presidential address since Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg, Bush managed to give Americans a sense of where we've been this past year, where we need to go in the coming years and the meaning of the challenge that has been placed before us.

US President George W Bush has urged the Palestinian people to drop Mr Arafat and bring in new leaders uncompromised by "terrorism".

We gather today to remember them. But we are here for another purpose as well--to mark the first anniversary of a day that will be remembered by history, and commemorated by successive generations, so long as we remain a free people.
For a battle was joined on that day--a battle still unfolding--between a nation of free people, and forces that seek to plunge that nation, and indeed the free world, into the darkness of hatred, tyranny and terror.
We assemble today to ask: what has been accomplished in the name of those who died--and on behalf of those who live?

It might be wise also to reflect on the fact that a free society is not immune to the attentions of retrograde forces such as superstition, tribalism, and the like. If anything, we have learned that our affluence, hospitality, and liberality were magnets to the killers, whose hatred and sense of frustration grew in proportion to their own desires to travel, be schooled, and enjoy the West. Students should be reminded that, if we had no real armed forces — or if we had reduced our military to the levels of Europe — the Taliban would still be in power, al-Qaeda would freely be planning more destruction, and hostile regimes would be providing terrorists with havens, all without worry over American force.
There are probably already too many national holidays, but we should commemorate September 11 for what it was: the worst attack on American citizens on their home soil ever — and a turning point in our national life. The attack was worse than Pearl Harbor, not merely because of the toll of 3,000 dead, but because it struck so unexpectedly at innocent civilians in our major cities, without signs of conventional military tension. In response, on the morning of September 11, 2002, the country should stop all public activities and observe an official period of silence, the first of a yearly institutionalized hour of remembrance.

Surprise, when it happens to a government, is likely to be a complicated, diffuse, bureaucratic thing. It includes neglect of responsibility but also responsibility so poorly defined or so ambiguously delegated that action gets lost. It includes gaps in intelligence, but also intelligence that, like a string of pearls too precious to wear, is too sensitive to give to those who need it. It includes the alarm that fails to work, but also the alarm that has gone off so often it has been disconnected. It includes the unalert watchman, but also the one who knows he'll be chewed out by his superior if he gets higher authority out of bed. It includes the contingencies that occur to no one, but also those that everyone assumes somebody else is taking care of. It includes straightforward procrastination, but also decisions protracted by internal disagreement. It includes, in addition, the inability of individual human beings to rise to the occasion until they are sure it is the occasion—which is usually too late. (Unlike movies, real life provides no musical background to tip us off to the climax.) Finally, as at Pearl Harbor, surprise may include some measure of genuine novelty introduced by the enemy, and possibly some sheer bad luck.
The results, at Pearl Harbor, were sudden, concentrated, and dramatic. The failure, however, was cumulative, widespread, and rather drearily familiar. This is why surprise, when it happens to a government, cannot be described just in terms of startled people. Whether at Pearl Harbor or at the Berlin Wall, surprise is everything involved in a government's (or in an alliance's) failure to anticipate effectively.

In our bid to downplay the enormity of the attacks and to show the West that extremism is not only found in the Muslim world, we have written exhaustively about the Oklahoma bomber and other American extremists.
The question that cries out to be asked is: While the Americans make a thorough study of their own extremism as a precautionary measure, what have we done to protect our society from our own extremists?
Yes, we do have extremists and fanatics just like the rest of the world. Step No. 1 should be to stop denying this fact. Step No. 2 should be to confront these extremists and tell them that they are a part of a system and that they have to respect the voice of the majority. And who constitute that majority? We, the moderate people of Saudi Arabia.

SWITZERLAND ADMITTED AS 190TH MEMBER OF UNITED NATIONS
New York, Sep 10 2002 5:00PM
The United Nations General Assembly today, opening its fifty-seventh annual session, voted to accept Switzerland as the organization's 190th member.
During a ceremony to raise the Swiss flag outside UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised Switzerland for embodying what the United Nations stands for - a peaceful and multicultural society built on strong democratic traditions - and noted the country's active and generous participation in the wider UN family.
"You bring to us invaluable experience and know-how in areas at the forefront of the UN agenda," Mr. Annan said in his remarks at the flag raising, which also included the participation of Kaspar Villiger, President of the Swiss Confederation, and Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss. "From today, your entry as a full member enables you to make your voice heard across the full range of our work. I, for one, very much look forward to hearing it."
In Geneva, which hosts the UN's European headquarters, a number of events were scheduled to mark Switzerland's membership, including an exhibition by Swiss painter Hans Erni at the Palais des Nations.

I do not question that we have a vicious, abhorrent enemy that opposes most of what I cherish — including democracy, pluralism, secularism, the equality of the sexes, beardless men, dancing (all kinds), skimpy clothing and, well, fun. And not for a moment do I question the obligation of the American government to protect the lives of its citizens. What I do question is the pseudo-declaration of pseudo-war. These necessary actions should not be called a "war." There are no endless wars; but there are declarations of the extension of power by a state that believes it cannot be challenged.
America has every right to hunt down the perpetrators of these crimes and their accomplices. But this determination is not necessarily a war. Limited, focused military engagements do not translate into "wartime" at home. There are better ways to check America's enemies, less destructive of constitutional rights and of international agreements that serve the public interest of all, than continuing to invoke the dangerous, lobotomizing notion of endless war.

Now, I agree with this entirely -- though my definition of "perpetrators" and "limited, focused military engagements" is probably a lot broader than hers. But this is actually quite a statement coming from Sontag, and though people are criticizing other, dumber observations in her piece, it's worth noting just how far someone who was identified as part of the Chomskyite Left last fall has come.

The American suspicion of foreign "entanglements" is very old. But this administration has taken the radical position that all international treaties are potentially inimical to the interests of the United States — since by signing a treaty on anything (whether environmental issues or the conduct of war and the treatment of prisoners) the United States is binding itself to obey conventions that might one day be invoked to limit America's freedom of action to do whatever the government thinks is in the country's interests. Indeed, that's what a treaty is: it limits the right of its signatories to complete freedom of action on the subject of the treaty. Up to now, it has not been the avowed position of any respectable nation-state that this is a reason for eschewing treaties.

Jonah,
After the U.S. Civil War, during the period now known as Reconstruction, a large portion of the U.S. Army was stationed in the South ¯ some historians have argued that it wasn't there long enough and wasn't used forcefully enough.

After WWII, the U.S. set up garrisons in Japan and Germany ¯ they're still there.

If we want democracy in Afghanistan, and they've no history of it, then we will likely have to keep a garrison there for at least 50 years.

If we want democracy in Iraq, same thing. And the garrison in Iraq would have to be at least one division in size.

There was a pattern to U.S. military interventions in the Caribbean during the first third of the 20th Century: the Marines would come in, depose the squalid dictatorship, clean up the country, supervise free elections, and then withdraw; and the whole cycle would begin again after 15-20 years (sometimes less).

John Derbyshire has a point about how difficult it is to export democracy and how we need to do so.

So, the Administration should ramp up the size of the armed forces, reinstitute the draft, and send conscripts to hold the garrisons in Japan and Germany while the paid volunteers get to clean up Iraq et al.
(During Vietnam the Army offered volunteers the choice of Vietnam or garrison duty someplace else while conscripts were sent to Southeast Asia.)