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Title: THE FEDERALIST
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31 October 2003
Federalist No.
03-44
Friday Digest
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THE FOUNDATION
"Great necessities call out for great virtues." --Abigail
Adams
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FEDERALIST PERSPECTIVE
Top of the
fold...
One year ago, The
Federalist first reported that Allied Forces would be unlikely to
discover Saddam's WMD stores in Iraq -- that the UN Security Council's
foot-dragging had provided Saddam with plenty of time to export his biological
and nuclear WMD. Back then, we wrote, "There is a substantial body of
intelligence supporting our position that Iraq shipped some or all of its
biological and nuclear WMD stores to Syria and Lebanon's heavily fortified
Bekaa
Valley." In December, a senior-level intelligence source confirmed again that
much of Iraq's WMD had, in fact, been moved to and through Syria.
This
week, there was, for the first time, official public confirmation of our
report.
(In case you missed it as the Leftmedia's lead story, don’t fret; we
missed it too.) Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, former director of
the Defense Intelligence Agency, now director of the National Imagery and
Mapping Agency, told reporters that U.S. surveillance satellites captured
images
of vehicle traffic dispersing WMD materiel to urban locations in Iraq and
moving
large quantities into Syria as well.
"Those below the senior
leadership
saw what was coming, and I think they went to extraordinary lengths to
[dispose,
destroy and disperse] the evidence," said Gen. Clapper. "By the time that we
got to a lot of these facilities...there wasn't that much there to look at.
There was clearly an effort to disperse, bury and conceal certain equipment
prior to inspections." Gen. Clapper added that there is "no question" that
people and WMD materiel were moved by truck convoys into Syria.
So why
wait until now to release this information? First, as we noted last year, the
extent and accuracy of this information is a valuable intelligence asset, and
the CIA, DIA and NSA are responsive only to U.S. national-security interests.
Finding and destroying these WMD stores has everything to do with the
likelihood
that what we don't find now will visit our shores in a most terrible way
later.
Undoubtedly General Clapper's remarks were thoroughly vetted for their national
security implications as we endeavor to contain Saddam's WMD and make clear
that
any effort to move them will confirm their current location.
Secondly,
because some Americans and their Leftmedia opinion-shapers have very short
attention spans, recent claims by Ted Kennedy et al. that President George Bush
"misled" the nation regarding the "imminent threat" posed by Iraqi WMD, have
undermined some domestic resolve. It is critical that our national resolve
remain high and that Americans understand how important it is to keep the
frontlines of our war with Jihadistan on their turf, not ours.
And
third, because this merely confirms what many Americans not blinded by
political
ambition, already knew: that Saddam's most deadly WMD are still out there,
still
capable of inflicting catastrophic devastation in one or more major U.S. urban
centers of an al-Qa'ida sleeper cell's choosing, and still capable of wreaking
havoc on the economic recovery now
underway.
Quote of the week...
"I want to tell you something about this war against terror
we are fighting in Iraq and around the world. The foreign terrorists, the
Ba'ath
Party sympathizers, the Islamic extremists who wantonly kill Americans and
innocent people from many nations, have no idea what they are up against. ...
When we say we are going to win this global war on terrorism, we mean exactly
that. We don't mean a moral victory, or victory in some abstract sense. The
reality of more than 3,000 dead in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon does
not allow for such nuances." --Gen. John M. Keane, Army vice chief of staff, at
his retirement ceremony earlier this month
On
cross-examination...
"When it comes to whether or not we are
going to wage this war against terror in places like Kabul or Baghdad or be
more
likely to have it waged in places like Boston or Kansas, the American people
understand the front line has become Iraq. ... We saw it again over the
weekend,
but that's where it needs to be. We need to take this fight to them and we need
to support our troops in that effort." --RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie
In a
draft memo to the Republican congressional leadership, Mr. Gillespie added:
"Last week a significant minority, including leading Democrats, moved to the
left of Syria and France by opposing funding for troops and reconstruction in
Iraq. ... When it comes to winning the war against terror, the president's
critics are adopting a policy that will make us more vulnerable in a dangerous
world. ... Specifically, they now reject the policy of pre-emptive self-defense
and would return us to a policy of reacting to terrorism in its
aftermath."
In other
news...
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan commenced with a
murderous bang in Iraq ... literally. Monday marked a new and unprecedented
wave
of violence, when at least 39 people were killed and 224 were wounded in a
series of coordinated attacks in Baghdad, including the bombing of the Red
Cross
headquarters. On Sunday, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was just a
floor away from an attack on his hotel -- which killed an American military
officer -- one of two Americans killed in the attacks. (Sources advise
The Federalist that some of the
shoulder-fired rockets involved in the attack were French-made, and noted they
were produced after the arms embargo
against
Iraq.)
The terrorist assaults are being coordinated by Saddam or most
likely his Ba'athist loyalist Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, No. 6 among the "Deck of
Death" of 55 most wanted Iraqis, working in conjunction with the Jihadi group
Ansar al-Islam, which has proven links to al-Qa'ida. Two captured members of
Ansar al-Islam -- a terrorist faction largely composed of foreign Islamist
insurgents to Iraq -- admitted responsibility for attacks against U.S.
occupation forces and identified al-Douri as the mastermind behind the
attacks.
This recent spate of attacks has not been aimed at American
targets, however. Their bloodthirsty objective has been to discourage Iraqi
"collaborators" -- those supporting the democratization of Iraq after
decades of
Saddam's terror.
President Bush, pledging to keep the warfront with
Jihadistan on their turf, said, "This country will stay the course. We'll do
our job. ... The more successful we are on the ground, the more these killers
will react. We're determined in this administration not to be intimidated by
these killers. We will find these people, and we will bring them to
justice."
Of the terrorist's media campaign, Kansas Republican Sen. Sam
Brownback concluded, "The opposition, the terrorist groups, the Ba'athists read
our media and read our public opinion polls and are trying to play to the
country's opinion. ...No question in my mind. This is an international media.
They know the importance of this." But not only are they playing to public
opinion -- and to partisan political “debate” -- they are also
attempting to enliven Muslim sentiment during Ramadan toward anti-U.S. and
anti-coalition efforts. Indeed, the Leftmedia is currently an invaluable
Jihadi
tool, a veritable Islamist recruiting agent.
Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld added, "We are in a war of ideas, as well as a global war on terror.
[I]deas are important, and they need to be marshaled, and they need to be
communicated in ways that are persuasive to the listeners. ... In many
instances, we're not the best messengers."
Despite all the news on the
attacks, L. Paul Bremer, U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, notes, "There are
a lot of wonderful things that've happened in Iraq since July. We have a
Cabinet now; ministers actually are conducting affairs of state. ... We
have met
all of our goals in restoring essential services. ... All the schools and
hospitals are open. Electricity is back at prewar levels."
Further,
Commerce Secretary Donald Evans returned from his tour of Iraq estimating the
nation's oil output to hit five to six million barrels per day within the next
three to for years -- an amount tripling Iraq's current output. Iraq's oil
ministry, meanwhile, remains decidedly more cautious in its estimates,
hoping to
reach the six million barrel-per-day mark by 2014. The
Federalist suspects Evans' optimism derives from his expectation
that
free-market incentives will accelerate the rebuilding of Iraq's dilapidated or
destroyed oil infrastructure.
News
from the
Swamp...
In the Executive Branch, President Bush returned
from
his ten-day diplomatic whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia and Australia to a
legislative backlog the administration is eager to see resolved before
Congress's recess, scheduled to begin November 7. At the top of the agenda are
wrapping up the administration's energy bill and the so-called Medicare
"reform"
bill with a "prescription drug benefit" for seniors. In keeping with the White
House's expansionist domestic policies, Medicare prescription drug coverage was
a key Bush campaign pledge in the 2000 election.
On the Hill, a major
victory for the White House this week as the joint House-Senate conference
committee approved the President's $87-billion defense and reconstruction bill
without the stipulation that half of Iraqi aid should be in the form of loans,
not grants. The full House approved the bill Thursday night, and the Senate is
expected to do the same. The President had threatened to veto his own bill if
the loan amendment was not defeated. The bill includes $64.7 billion in
military
funding and $18.6 billion for Iraqi reconstruction, as well as $1.2 billion for
the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
The nearly $20 billion in U.S. grants
for Iraq's reconstruction was buttressed by an additional $13 billion promised
by state donors at last week's Madrid conference, though it is still well-short
of the $56 billion the World Bank estimates a five-year reconstruction will
cost.
Madrid's success was mitigated by the reticence of Old Europe,
specifically Germany and France, to contribute to Iraq's reconstruction -- a
reticence not missed by Ayad Allawi, current president of the Iraqi Governing
Council and Iraq's senior representative at the meeting. Said Allawi, "As far
as Germany and France are concerned, really, this was a regrettable position
they had. I don't think the Iraqis are going to forget easily that in the hour
of need, those countries wanted to neglect Iraq."
World Bank President
James Wolfensohn, meanwhile, said this week that nations should forgive about
two-thirds of Iraq's foreign debt of $120 billion to give the emerging
democracy
"a real chance of getting back to equilibrium." The
Federalist holds that a liberated Iraq is not responsible for the
debts incurred under the abuses of Saddam's Ba'athist regime, and should
not pay
those, like the French, who attempted to profit from the regime's
rule.
In the Senate, the nomination of Judge Charles Pickering to the
U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals hit the Left's filibuster wall again. "More
than one-third of my nominees for the courts of appeals are still awaiting a
vote," President Bush said in response to the obstructionists. "The continued
obstruction by a willful minority of the Senate is bad for our country, harmful
for the provision of justice for all Americans, and damaging to the smooth
functioning of our judicial system. It hurts America and it is
wrong."
Meanwhile, conservatives are split over a deal being brokered by
the White House and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Orrin Hatch, in an effort
to have Michigan Demo Sen. Carl Levin remove his blockade against some of the
President's stalled judicial nominees. The deal would create two new
Michigan-based federal court seats and would move forward the confirmation
of at
least one unconfirmed Clinton judicial nominee. The
Federalist would rather that Senate conservatives choose the
so-called "nuclear" option and force judicial nominations to a floor vote.
Let's
RUMBLE!
In not-so-good news, Congress will not get a chance to extend
the Internet Tax Freedom Act before it expires today, because Republicans Lamar
Alexander and George Voinovich are holding the legislation in limbo -- fodder
for some other legislative wink-and-nod shenanigans. The Act is a moratorium on
Internet access taxation, and double taxation of Web purchases.
And a
footnote: Georgia Democrat Zell Miller announced his support for President
Bush's reelection in 2004, offering to campaign for the man he considers "the
right man at the right time." Sen. Miller, set to retire from the Senate next
year, voiced sentiments highly critical of the Democrat establishment, saying
that he would not "trust" any of the nine Demo presidential contenders with the
executive office. "This Democrat will vote for President Bush in 2004." Of the
Braying Herd of Jackasses, Miller suggests they all take some "calm-me-down
pills."
On the Homeland Security
front...
Domestic Jihadi Iyman Faris (AKA Mohammad Rauf) of
Columbus, Ohio, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing material
support and resources to al-Qa'ida and conspiracy for providing the terrorist
organization with information about possible U.S. targets for attack.
And there’s more domestic eco-terrorism news from the West
Coast.
The FBI has issued a warrant for the arrest of 62-year-old Michael Devlyn
Poulin, suspected of removing bolts from high-voltage electrical towers,
causing
them to collapse the next time they’re hit with high winds. The most
recent case involved a tower in Sacramento, but in the last 10 days, other
towers in Madras, McNary and Klamath Falls, Oregon, have had bolts removed. It
is not known how many other towers may be affected, but it is known that
radical groups such as Earthfirst and the Earth Liberation Front have used
similar tactics against power grids in the past.
From the "Department of Military
Readiness"...
In an effort to keep military recruiters off
campus, Yale Law School University professor Robert Burt and 43 of his
colleagues have filed suit against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
protesting
DoD's “don’t ask don’t tell” policy on
homosexuals. The
suit claims that DoD refusal to sign a "non-discrimination" pledge is
sufficient
to disqualify its recruiting efforts. Our readers should note that Yale
receives $300 million of your tax dollars
for medical and scientific research, which was suspended the last time the
University pulled this stunt. Apparently Burt and company think that
taking the
matter to the Leftjudiciary will enhance their efforts to keep recruiters out
while retaining their Leftist indoctrination funding. Alas, they’re
probably right.
From the "Department of
Military Correctness"...
And if you were wondering what DoD
does with the lawyers it recruits, consider the following: Army Lt. Col. Allen
West, who used "psychological pressure" to coerce an Iraqi detainee into
providing information that thwarted a planned attack on U.S. soldiers in the
northern Iraqi town of Saba al Boor, is facing one count of aggravated assault
and a scheduled Article 32 hearing that could result in his
court-martial. Col.
West twice fired his service weapon in close proximity to the prisoner to
"encourage" him to disclose the life-saving information. West is an artillery
officer with the 4th Infantry division occupying hot zones around Tikrit,
Saddam's hometown.
Col. West reports, "I did use my 9mm weapon to
threaten him and fired it twice. Once I fired into the weapons-clearing barrel
outside the facility alone, and the next time I did it while having his head
close to the barrel. I fired away from him. [I]t was done with the concern of
the safety of my soldiers and myself."
Article 128 of the Uniform
Code of
Military Justice notes: "Any person subject to this chapter who attempts or
offers with unlawful force or violence to do bodily harm to another person,
whether or not the attempt or offer is consummated, is guilty of assault and
shall be punished as a court-martial may direct." Col. West has rejected a
prosecutor's offer to resign rather than be tried. If convicted, he could
receive a maximum term of eight years. Regardless of the judicial outcome, our
esteemed thoughts, our well-wishes, and our gratitude are with Col.
West.
Meanwhile, Senator Trent Lott had a few things to say about the
difficulties in Iraq: "Honestly, it's a little tougher than I thought it was
going to be. If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what
happens.
You're dealing with insane suicide bombers who are killing our people, and we
need to be very aggressive in taking them out." Perhaps Col. West can call the
good Senator as a defense witness!
Judicial
Benchmarks...
From the Leftjudiciary, as predicted last week,
the legal battles over the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo resumed this week,
with Mrs. Schiavo's estranged husband resorting, again, to the Florida
courts as
the instrument to ensure his wife's death. Quick query: Mrs. Schiavo is
innocent of any crime; why, then, may Florida courts permissibly hand her a
death sentence, merely at the behest of her husband? Michael Schiavo is
contesting the legality under Florida's constitution of the hastily passed
"Terri's Law," which allowed Gov. Jeb Bush to order that Mrs. Schiavo not be
starved to death. Benighted "bioethics" analysts may cast Mrs. Schiavo's plight
as a classic "quality of life" case; it's not, however. Instead, it's a "value
of life" case.
Regarding the redistribution of
your income...
When is a pay raise not a pay raise? When
it's written up as a law, amazingly. "This is not a pay raise. This is an
increase that's required by law," claimed Senate Appropriations Committee chair
Ted Stevens, on the "not a pay raise" that raised pay for members of Congress
from today's $154,700 to $158,000 in 2004.
And now that they got
theirs, how are they spending yours? For starters, this week's 60th annual
National Peanut Festival in Dothan, Alabama, received $202,500 for the event.
The BIG
lie...
"[President Bush can not] walk away from his
responsibilities for 9/11. ... You can't blame something like this on
lower-level intelligence officers...." --Fired former NATO Supreme Commander
Gen. Weasely Clark humming Teddy Kennedy's tune that Mr. Bush knew there was no
imminent threat from Iraq.
On the
Left...
From the "Braying Herd of Jackasses," a few thoughts
from this week's "debate": "I'd say all of us up here support our troops a
great
deal more than the president of the United States does." --Howard Dean ....
"Right after 9/11, this administration determined to do bait and switch on the
American public. President Bush said he was going to get Osama bin Laden, dead
or alive. Instead, he went after Saddam Hussein. He doesn't have either
one of
them today." --Wesley Clark .... "What I voted for was to hold Saddam Hussein
accountable but to do it right. This president has done it wrong every step of
the way." --John Kerry .... "Bush was wrong to go in in the first place. To
delay coming out doesn't make it right." --Rev. Al Sharpton .... "We blew the
place up, we have to fix it back." --Carol Moseley Braun .... "Our sons and
daughters half a world away put their lives at risk every single day with no
plan in sight. Is this our America? No, we have work to do." --John Edwards
.... And sometimes they get it right: "I didn't duck it, I didn't avoid it, I
voted to support our troops and I am proud of it. ... If everyone had voted the
way John Kerry did, the money wouldn't have been there to support our troops."
--Joe Lieberman
From the "Non Compos
Mentis" Files...
So much for the "Alpha male." Though we
didn't think it was possible, Demo presidential frontrunner Howard "Dizzy" Dean
has proved himself an even more laughable jackass. Earlier this week, Dean
touted himself a "metrosexual" -- the latest, greatest buzz word to describe
heterosexual men cognizant of their feminine sides. Uh, yeah. Dean went on to
confuse his audience with a story about the time a homosexual told him he was
'handsome,' but was ultimately reduced to telling ... the truth: "I'm a square.
... I've heard the term [metrosexual], but I don't know what it means."
Around the
nation...
From the states, you may have noted that large
swaths of California are ablaze. These fires are not acts of God. Why is
a lot
of California burning? A shorthand version: Because double-minded state
denizens have split allegiances, priding themselves their "green" environmental
record and kowtowing to demands that no deadwood be removed, while
simultaneously recognizing the need for affordable housing that pushes
developments out near the uncleared forest lands.
Most of the fires are
being set by arsonists. In one such case, Dikran Armouchian was arrested in
Angeles National Forest this week after he was caught setting a fire in a
steep,
remote canyon filled with dry brush and large trees. Armouchian may be
responsible for additional fires.
And speaking of Kah-lee-for-knee-ah,
some Golden State Republicans are now suggesting that political satirist Dennis
Miller may take a shot at unseating Sen. Barbara Boxer! Miller, a Santa Barbara
Republican, is reportedly talking with political consultants to determine the
feasibility of a campaign against Boxer.
In business/economic news...
The economy grew at a 7.2% annual clip in the third
quarter, the sharpest advance since 1984. Consumer spending and business
investment are credited for the surge, in large part thanks to the Bush
administration's series of modest tax cuts
and regulatory reform.
In faith matters...
President Bush is under attack by Islamic clerics this
week. "We feel this administration has not dealt with the Muslim community in
the right way," says Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American
Society. "This administration has primarily engaged the American Muslim
community in photo opportunities and ceremonial opportunities; a lot of fluff
and no stuff."
The complaints stem from a White House dinner to
recognize
the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Most of the guests were,
appropriately, ambassadors from predominantly Muslim countries and leaders of
some Islamic organizations. Not making the cut -- the Nation of Islam, Muslim
Students Association, American Muslims for Jerusalem, the Islamic Society of
North America, Project Islamic Hope, the Coordinating Council of Muslim
Organizations of Greater Washington and the Council on American-Islamic
Relations. We suppose that Mahdi's Muslim American Society won't make the guest
list next Ramadan either.
In other faith matters, today is "Reformation
Day," when, in 1517, an Augustinian father, Doctor Martin Luther, nailed his
ninety-five theses to the cathedral door in Wittenberg, Germany. Not to be
outdone by Luther, the Episcopal Church continued its reformation this week.
The Federalist noted in our essay,
"Homosexual Advocacy in the Church"
[
http://federalist.com/papers/03-32_paper.asp
], on the heels of the election of
a homosexual bishop, the next standard to fall would be marriage. Indeed, John
Chane, Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., announced plans to develop rites
for homosexual "marriages" for the 94 churches in his diocese -- including the
National Cathedral. "In keeping with good Anglican liturgical order, it is my
intention...to form a task force to study those liturgical rites that have
clearly been in use for some time within the Diocese of Washington to see if
there is a form that could be uniformly used by parishes," says
Chane.
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold will be in New
Hampshire
this Sunday to celebrate the seating of that diocese's new bishop, Vicky Gene
Robinson. However, Griswold has been uninvited from Saturday's installation of
the newly-elected bishop of Florida, Rev. Samuel Howard. The event is
scheduled
to be held at a large Catholic parish, but both the Catholic leadership and the
outgoing Episcopal bishop, Stephen Jecko, objected to Griswold's attendance
because of his heretical support for Vicky Gene. Bishop Jecko notified
Griswold, "Your attempts to posture a reconciling public image in the
church are
absurd when, in truth, your abuse of the office has already abandoned any
pretense of objectivity and mutual concern."
And last...In case you
missed it, this was national "Protection from Pornography" week. In his
proclamation, President Bush noted, "Pornography can have debilitating effects
on communities, marriages, families, and children. During Protection from
Pornography Week, we commit to take steps to confront the dangers of
pornography. The effects of pornography are particularly pernicious with
respect
to children."
Memo to George: How many millions of children attempt to get
to the White House website and type in ".com" instead of ".gov"? If they
type in
the former suffix, they will be greeted by a graphic pornography website. This
cyber-squatting on "White House" has been in effect since Bill Clinton was in
office. Granted, it may have been apropos in his administration, but please
bring the full force of the central government's regulatory authority to
bear in
this matter, and put this pornography site out of business.
Lex et
Libertas -- Semper Vigilo, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for
the editors and staff. (Please pray on this day, and every day, for our
Patriot
Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty,
and for the families awaiting their safe return.)
-- PUBLIUS --
--- End Message ---
