ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER: SYRIA BEHIND BOMBING

BBC: Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has accused Syria of involvement in Friday's Tel Aviv suicide bombing in which four people were killed. He was speaking hours after Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad's Damascus office said it carried out the attack. ... A statement issued by Mr Mofaz's office said the defence minister had ruled that "Israel sees Syria and the Islamic Jihad movement as those standing behind the murderous attack in Tel Aviv".

Here's the remedy: the USA, Israel AND the democratic elements of Lebanese society and Palestinian Authority should issue the following terse ULTIMATUM (with or without the UNSC): "Syria's forces must leave BEFORE the impending Lebanese election and Nasrallah's forces must DISARM after the election (because paramilitary groups with split allegiances are subversive to any democracy), or they will be forcibly ejected from Lebanon - or destroyed. "

SUICIDE BOMBER IN TEL AVIV A SYRIAN & IRANIAN STOOGE FROM HIZBALLAH

HAARTEZ IS REPORTING THAT AL AKSA BLAMES THIS SUICIDE ATTACK ON HIZBALLAH (hat tip ROGER L. SIMON) - THE SAME THUGS WHO ASSASSINATED HARIRI.

THIS IS ANOTHER DIRECT ASSAULT ON THE PEACE PROCESS - AND ON THE DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS - BY IRAN AND SYRIA - (RUSSIA'S TWO BIGGEST CLIENTS IN THE REGION).

ISRAEL AND THE USA AND THE LEBANESE PEOPLE MUST RETALIATE AGAINST SYRIA - NOW - BY ATTACKING AND DESTROYING THE SYRIAN MILITARY FORCES IN LEBANON AND BY ANNIHILATING HIZBALLAH AND THEREBY FREEING SOUTHERN LEBANON FROM THEIR NEOJIHADIST STRANGLEHOLD.

UPDATE: "Reuters" reports that Islamic Jihad claims resposibility for the attack. This is NOT a subsatntial difference: both Islamic Jihad and Hizballah are fronts for Iranian and Syrian hegemony and neojihadism:

Syrian Operational and Logistical Support

As early as 1993, Shiqaqi [a founder of Islamic Jihad] acknowledged that he received Iranian funding and channeled it to operatives in Gaza and the West Bank. "Iran gives us money and supports us," he said in an interview with Newsday, "then we supply the money and arms to the occupied territories and support the families of our people. Just about all of it goes there because that's where most of our organization is."7

The most detailed evidence that Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus planned attacks, sent orders for attacks to operatives in the territories and funneled money to them, comes from the documents of PA intelligence agencies seized by Israeli forces in the West Bank earlier this year and deemed authentic by American officials. In an October 2001 document, Palestinian Preventive Security chief Jibril Rajoub briefed Yasser Arafat on the activities of Palestinian terrorist groups in Syria, citing intelligence indicating that "intensive meetings are being held in Damascus, in which leaders of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front and the Hezbollah take part, in an attempt to increase the joint activities "inside," with financial support
from Iran."8

Until we destroy the tyrannies in Syria and Iran there can be no peace and no democracy in the Holy Land. Destroying the Syrian and Iranian tyrannies would be easier with Putin's help, but he has evidently decided to screw us and to use Syria and Iran to try to reestablish Russian hegemony in the region. That's okay: Syria's defeat and Iran's defeat will be Putin's defeat too.

BUSH'S FAILED EURO-DIPLOMACY

A few readers of this blog have expressed to me their HOPE & BELIEF that Bush has probably been tougher on the euro-weenies "behind closed doors" on his recent trip to Old Europe, than he appeared to be in public; (in public Bush appeared obsequious and weak; MORE HERE).

The belief that Bush talked tough behind closed doors is nothing more than WISHFUL THINKING. And even if it were true, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. And as Bush is fond of saying about himself: I AM A RESULTS GUY!

Has Russia canceled it's arms sales to Venezuela? NO! To Syria? NO! Has Putin canceled the missile sale to Syria? NO! Has Putin canceled the nuke technology sales to Iran? NO! Have France or Germany or Spain or Turkey or NATO really stepped up to the plate and begun to do what they should do in Iraq? No, no, no, no, no and no!!!!!

SO: even IF Bush is "talking tough behind closed doors," it is NOT having any positive effect out here in the real world., because out here, there have been ZERO ZILCH NADA NIL positive results, so far.

Therefore I stand by my assessment of the public record of this trip: it was a TOTAL FAILURE; Bush has come off as a weenie, as a loser with his hat in his hand as he brown-nosed the WORST pinko appeasing schmucks in all of Old Europe - AND HE HAS NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT!

This does NOT bode well.

In addition, some readers have written to me that my critique of Bush on Lebanon is too harsh, because we have to stay "behind the scenes" in Lebanon, too - because if their "Orange Revolution" looks like it has our support, then it would be "BAD PR."

This bad-reasoning perpetuates the "ugly America is a Zionist tool" BS and plays right into nasty false stereotypes WHICH WE SHOULD BE DISPELLING, NOT PLAYING INTO!

It's actually long passed the time for the Muslims of the world to accept that we have been their best allies for decades: saving Kuwait - TWICE (from Saddam); saving Afghanistan - TWICE (from the USSR and the Taliban); saving Egypt with aid (Egypyt is our second largest aid recipient); saving Somalia; and for decades allied to Pakistan against India; saving the Kosovars from Serbian genocide, and by defending for decades the Arabian Peninsula. It's HIGH TIME that all Muslim to be as pro-USA as Karzai and Sistani and the good half of the House of Saud. And that includes Jumblatt and the rest of the Lebanese nationalists - and ALL the Palestinians. It's time they woke up and smelled REALITY: forming democracies and allying themselves to America are their best way for a better future.

By "playing down" our aid to the "Orange Revolution" in Lebanon, Bush is perpetuating the misconceived anti-Americanism in that part of the world.

This would be a ANOTHER "tip of the hat" to "realpolitik" by Bush, and a virtual renunciation of everything Bush's foreign policy has come to stand for since 9/11. Again: it seems more like Powell and Scowcroft than Bush and Rice, and it's evidence that Bush is weakening his foreign policy in order to curry favor with the very leaders who have been - and remain - his and the Free World's ADVERSARIES: Chirac, Schroder, and Putin.

I think that this pandering is pathetic.

Do you need more proof that Bush is misplaying his strong hand: REAGAN WOULD NOT HAVE DONE IT THIS WAY. Bush seems like he's repudiating the policies he'd been defending up-to-now - from withering criticism - just as these policies are succeeding!!!

This is bizarre, stupid, hypocritical, and COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE. Why is he doing it?

I think to make Rice look good to our euroweenie foes as she starts her new assignment. And I think it's a bad bad BAD move.

IF...(in the coming 8 weeks) Bush wins unanimous UNSCR's which authorize military attacks against Syria and Iran - IF they fail to play ball with previous international agreements, (and if Russia now puts BIG PRESSURE on North Korea) then I will admit that I am now being too critical, and that Bush and Rice were right and shrewd.

Anything short of that would mean that I am right, and that Bush had SQUANDERED a major chance to bear down hard on the euro-weenies and get Old Europe to ante-up NOW.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Denis Boyles - who covers euroweenieland and euro-weenie media for the NRO - is also critical of Bush's trip.

ADDENDUM: Bush must soon appoint a UN Ambassador. If he appoints a "neocon" - (like Kirkpatrick or Moynihan) - then he will be signalling the world that his core policies haven't changed. If he appopints a career State Department type, then it will signal that Bush is capitualiating to the "realists" - perhaps because he is exhausted and ready to coast from here on out, perhaps prefering to take on domestic challenges.

BOTTOM-LINE: defeat in Iraq - and Iran and Syria and North Korea - lurks around the corner; if Bush continues to appease our pseudo-allies in Old Europe, then defeat is MORE likely to happen, not less. We need INCREASED resolve and devotion to the priciple of confronting and defeating evil, NOT a greater willingness to moderate our tactics to appease vestigial pseudo-allies who have neither the will or the means to be effective/REAL wartime allies.

Two weeks ago I would have NEVER thought Bush capable of abandoning the Bush Doctrine - especially NOT coming on the heels of its greatest victories. But his recent pandering in euroweenieland has made me very VERY concerned.

BUSH SQUANDERING HIS INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL CAPITAL

Bush made a great point - after his re-election - that his win gave him a big deposit of political capital and he was going to spend it boldly. He has already won a major change in class actions and he is taking on the "third rail" of American politics - Social Security.

Bush also got a huge deposit of more political capital from the Iraqi election - BUT HE SEEMS TO BE SQUANDERING IT!

Instead of using this capital to get concessions from the pinko appeasers of Old Europe, he is kow-towing to them and trying to "mend-fences." It's the kind of BIG MISTAKE I expected during the Powell Era, but not from Condi. I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED!

Chirac and Schroder and Zapatero and Putin should be ashamed of how they behaved during the Iraq Crisis, and now they should be BEGGING forgiveness - and asking if they can do more! Instead: Bush is letting them off the hook!

Now: Bush and Condi should be ashamed of themselves for lowering themselves down to their level!

Instead of sucking up to the pinko appeasers of Old Europe, Bush should be rewarding the brave allies who stood with us and liberty. But Bush is doing the OPPOSITE: he's rewarding the BUMS who were too cowardly and selfish to help their brothers and sisters in the USA and ther UK liberate their brothers and sisters in Iraq.

SURE: It's very magnanimous, but it'll only hurt us AGAIN down the road: by letting them off the hook, Bush is reinforcing their cynicism: the pinko appeasers of Old Europe will always just feel that they can always screw us without ever having to pay the price because we always forgive them!

Well I say: enough is enough. Let's quit NATO and remove our troops from Germany and Turkey. (We can negotiate bi-laterally to base them elsewhere - like Bulgaria and Romania and the Czech Republic.)

IT SEEMS TO ME THAT BUSH SHOULD BE AT LEAST AS TROUGH WITH THE PINKO PSEUDO-ALLIES AS HE SAID HE'D BE TO STEVE FORBES (according to "Weasel Wead's" tapes!). According to the tapes, Bush said:

"Steve Forbes is going to hear this message from me. I will do nothing for him if he does to me what he did to Dole. Period. There is going to be a consequence. He is not dealing with the average, you know, 'Oh gosh, let's all get together after it's over.' I will promise you, I will not help him. I don't care."

I REPEAT: Bush should be as AT LEAST as tough with Chirac and Schroder and Putin and Zapatero as he CLAIMED he would have been with Forbes.

DISLOYALTY TO THE USA AND TO THE CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND LIBERTY MUST HAVE CONSEQUENCES! Bush's pathetically obsequious trip sends EXACTLY THE WRONG MESSAGE! He is rewarding Putin and Chirac and Schroder. This will set us back YEARS in the GWOT...

The ONLY acceptable excuse is if Bush's PUBLIC PERFORMANCE is a ruse, and if we are in fact deeply - and surreptitiously - engaged in fomenting democratic revolutions in Lebanon and Iran and North Korea (and even Russia) - RIGHT NOW. As we should be.

Time will tell: if the Lebanese Orange Revolution - and the upcoming Lebanese election - fail to bring real change; if Mahmous Abbas fails; if Iraq becomes like Iran is now (instead of the reverse) - THEN BUSH WILL HAVE FAILED, AND IT WILL HAVE BEEN BECAUSE HE SQUANDERED THE POLITICAL CAPITAL HE GAINED IN THE IRAQI ELECTION.

Bush has squandered his political capital because he has chosen to be magnanimous instead of "going in for the kill" - which is VERY un-cowboy-like.

It's sort of like, well, it's sort of like if Bush was "Marshall Will Kane" (the Gary Cooper character in the classic Western, "HIGH NOON") - who - having just faced-down a gang of murderous outlaws ALL BY HIMSELF, and just as he's outdrawn the baddest badguy and the ringleader of the gang that was after him, suddenly turns his back to take a bow in front of the town that ABANDONED HIM and made him face the gang alone - and he gets shot in the back!

Which is why Gary Cooper didn't do it. And why George W. Bush shouldn't have. The pinko appeasers of Old Europe will shoot him in the back the first chance they can. Unless we get them first.

Sound too harsh? Too hawk-like and extreme? Not if you remember this simple dictum: the pinko appeasers are NOT anti-war; they're on the other side.

WW4 will not end until we have utterly defeated the enemy, and that cannot happen until we defeat THE AXIS OF EVIL, which means overthrowing Iran and Syria and North Korea.

That NOW means we must also defeat Putin - and his sycophants in Old Europe - the part of Europe we liberated in WW2, protected in the Cold War - (WW3), and that took our efforts for granted. We must defeat Russia and Old Europe because their selfish and short-sighted arms deals nuke deals strengthen our enemies: Iran and China (and even that thug Chavez in Venezuela), and thereby they hurt us (because these EU/Putin strengthened enemies will INEVITABLY cause us more casualties in the inevitable battles that lie ahead).

TRUE: The "spirit of magnanimity" is noble and fine; Bush and Rice are merely PREMATURELY MAGNANIMOUS. The time for sweet talk and magnanimity has not come yet; it can only come AT THE END OF WW4. And that's still a long way off.

(ASIDE: NEW EUROPE - that part of Europe we liberated from the USSR - is OKAY. Bush should have ONLY visited New Europe and Italy and Denmark, even Ukraine - the nations who stood by us in OUR time of need.)

LEBANESE ORANGE REVOLUTION GROWS IN BEIRUT'S NEW TENT CITY

FROM MY TELUS (CBC): Anti-Syrian tent city grows in Beirut -
A small tent city has popped up on Martyrs' Square in Beirut as anti-Syrian protesters call for political changes in the wake of former prime minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. Thousands of tent dwellers have spent four nights in the square and more are joining them each day.

"The people, united, will never be defeated! Power to the people! What do we want? DEMOCRACY! When do we want it? NOW!"

BUSH SHOULD BE IN BEIRUT, NOT BRATISLAVA

Bush is on a PR offensive in the EU and it makes me so SICK I want to PUKE! He should be sounding more like Reagan now; instead, he's sounding more like BJ Clinton!

Reagan went to the Berlin Wall and - over the objections of most of his "realist" foreign policy advisors - he challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Wall; thereby sending a powerful message to all the dissidents in the USSR that we were on their side!

Bush - or Rice or Cheney - should be in Beirut right now, not Bratislava.

We should be UNABASHEDLY fomenting a democratic revolution there, and not "fence-mending" with the useless, morally-relativist, pinko appeasers of Old Europe!

And as far as having a "heart to heart" with Putin: NOTHING COULD BE A BIGGER WASTE OF TIME! Putin is as bad as they come: he's helping North Korea and Syria and Iran - and he probably helped Saddam smuggle out all the WMD into Syria.

Instead of talking nice to phony allies, we need to be sending UNAMBIGUOUS messages of support to the brave people of Lebanon and Iran who are ready to take to the streets to fight for their LIBERTY!

This will do more for our security - and for the liberty and prosperity of all humanity for generations to come - than all the fake sweet-talk from bad-guys like Schroder and Chirac and Putin.

And when the democratic revolutions come to Lebanon and Iran, they'll do more to undermine these obsolete, corrupt demagogues (Chirac, Putin, Schroder) than all the phony joint-pressers and so-called joint-missions (in which we end up doing all the heavy lifting, anyhow!).

I mean, lookit: fricky-dicky France is giving all of ONE (that's right 1) soldier to help NATO train Iraqi security forces. Instead of smiling and saying thanks, Bush should SPIT IN CHIRAC'S FACE AND QUIT NATO! Making Old Europe defend themselves might just make them into responsible adults - instead of the ungrateful spoiled brats they are.

SO... BUSH: WAKE UP! Stop brown-nosing Old Europe and start using the bully pulpit to agitate for democratic revolution all over the world. The only people who will curse you are tyrants and their lackeys - the Putins and the Chiracs and the Schroders and the Kim Jong Ils and the Mugabes and the Chavezes of the world - and they're ALL SCUM. Their ever-increasing hatred of you would NOT be an indication that you were a dumb bellicose cowboy; it would be a badge of honor, and a sign that you'd be doing the right thing.

PUTIN, ASSAD, KHATAMI, NASRALLAH AND ZARQAWI

The Corner linked to a news item from ABC/AP: BAGHDAD, Iraq Feb 23, 2005 — Iraqi state television aired a video Wednesday showing what the U.S.-funded channel said was the confession of a captured Syrian officer who said he trained Iraqi insurgents to behead people and build car bombs to attack American and Iraqi troops. The video also showed an Iraqi who said the insurgents practiced beheading animals to train for decapitating hostages.

Since Assad doesn't wipe his "toochus" without Iran and Russia's approval this must be seen as a direct threat by all three nations - and they must be given "back-channel" ultimatums: "cease all interference or we will make incursions into Syria and destroy Syrian miltary in Lebanon and in Syria.")

If we have a little more patience, than we might wait until the Lebanese Orange Revolution succeeds (by summer I predict) and then form a new truly democratic government which then asks us to help them expel Syrian forces from Lebanon, and Hizb'allah from southern Lebanon. With Iraq and Lebanon (and Arab Palestine) free, and with Syria completely neutered, then we can focus on IRAN!!

PREDICTION: This autumn Tehran will fall!

WHY PUTIN IS AIDING IRAN AND SYRIA

Putin is seeling nuke parts to Iran and missiles to Syria because Putin believes that with the help of Iran and Syria he can turn Iraq into our "Afghanistan" the way the USA and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and the mujahadeen turned Afghanistan in "the USSR's Vietnam."

Putin wants us pinned down in the Middle East - which means he wants Iraqi democracy to fail, and he wants the Israeli-Arabs peace process to fail, too. That's why he's aiding Iran and Syria.

In other words: peace and freedom in the Middle East are not in Putin's interest. Additionally, if Putin can help Noth Korea muddle things up in Asia, he will. Putin also wants high oil prices (which greatly benefit Russia), as much as he wants the American military to get bogged down in as many places as possible.

In a nutshell: Putin is an authoritarian seeking to re-establish Russia's hegemony along the borders of the old USSR. He is no longer a trustworthy partner in any shape, manner or form. He is an adversary.

WHY DID THIS HAPPEN? Well, we beat him on the ABM, and in Georgia and Ukraine, and he is PISSED OFF and doing whatever he can to "eff us up." And he is a greedy authoritarian with no meaninglfull opposition or checks on his greed. THAT'S ALWAYS DANGEROUS A THING!

Bush must make it clear to Putin that we are onto his game, and will take it to him. How? By winning Lebanon, Syrai, and Iran - AND North Korea.

And by fomenting an Orange Revolution in Russia! We must identify and aid a true democratic movement in Russia. ASAP!

BUSH INSPIRED LEBANESE ORANGE REVOLUTION GAINS MOMENTUM

More proof that Bush's bold "NEOCON" action in Iraq is paying off HUGE dividends that will benefit humanity for generations:

NRO/The Corner - TKS' QUOTE OF THE DAY [Jonah Goldberg]

Jim's right: QUOTE OF THE DAY

From David Ignacius' column in the Washington Post today: The leader of this Lebanese intifada [for independence from Syria] is Walid Jumblatt, the patriarch of the Druze Muslim community and, until recently, a man who accommodated Syria's occupation. But something snapped for Jumblatt last year, when the Syrians overruled the Lebanese constitution and forced the reelection of their front man in Lebanon, President Emile Lahoud. The old slogans about Arab nationalism turned to ashes in Jumblatt's mouth, and he and Hariri openly began to defy Damascus...

"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."

Glenn links to this too - and adds (in his typical pseudo-snarky manner which so wondefully makes fun of the reactionary Left): "Those damn idealistic neo-cons. Don't they realize that Arabs don't care about democracy?"

I'll just concur with Glenn and Jumblatt by adding what I wrote a month ago: the road to Damascus goes through Beirut. IOW: this is still just the beginning; many more exciting democratic revolutions lie before us in the days and months ahead in Syria and then in Iran and even in Egypt - and everywhere else in the tyrannical Muslim world...

And I'll add one more thing: I BET that it will be Bush inspired indigenous democratic revolutions in Iran and North Korea which will ultimately save us all from their nukes (and NOT U.S.A. military action).

Democracy and freedom are ultimately our most potent weapon against tyranny and terror; the innate universal desire for personal liberty (combined with American resolve to defend it EVERYWHERE) ended the Cold War and it will defeat the neojhihadists and end WW4, too.

LEBANON, DEMOCRACY AND PLURALISM

Good article from NRO - HERE. RTWT. The article gives historical context to Lebanon's current crisis - and the solution.... DEMOCRACY. KEY EXCERPT: The war in Lebanon that erupted in 1975 was not at its core a civil war at all. It was triggered by a sweeping Palestinian armed assault on Lebanese sovereignty, beginning in the late 1960s.

NEOJIHADIST THUGGERY DESTROYED LEBANON. First Arafat's thugs - and now the thugs of Hizb'allah (supported by Syria and Iran). When we ERADICATE THEM, then Lebanon will once again be a jewel of tolerance and prosperity.

LEBANESE ORANGE REVOLUTION BLOSSOMING

AP - hat tip Glenn - Tens of thousands of opposition supporters shouted insults at Syria and demanded the resignation of their pro-Syrian government in a Beirut demonstration Monday, marking a week since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Beating drums and waving Lebanese flags, those of their own parties and portraits of past leaders killed during the 1975-90 civil war, the protesters gathered at the site where Hariri was killed Feb. 14 in a bombing that the opposition blames on Damascus. Some in the crowd yelled "Syria out!" and "We don't want a parliament that acts as a doorkeeper for the Syrians," competing with loud insults shouted against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

This is another instance of the Bush Doctrine - and the neo-con Democratic Domino Theory - WORKING! Soon BOTH Syria and Iran will be entiredly surrounded by pro-USA / pro-democracy governments which will oppose neojihadist terrorism. This will put increasing pressure on Syria and Iran to democratize, too - (and to cease supporting neojihadism and imbalancing armament policies). It's a WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN!

LEBANESE ORANGE REVOLUTION BEGINS!

Perhaps we won't have to invade Lebanon (in order to expel Syrian troops and the Hizb'allah neojihadist terrorists), after all. From the BBC:

Lebanon's opposition has called for an peaceful "independence uprising" and called for the government to step down. The opposition holds both the Lebanese and Syrian governments responsible for the assassination on Monday of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Hariri's death in an explosion in Beirut has sparked anti-Syrian feeling. Tourism Minister Farid al-Khazen resigned on Friday, saying the government was unable to "remedy the dangerous situation in the country". He said his decision was in line with his convictions and his "obligation to the nation". ... The opposition says it wants a representative government to be formed which would then oversee the departure of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

VIVA LA REVOLUCION - the DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION!

Welcome Le Sabot Moderne readers. And if your not one yet - YOU SHOULD BE, EVERYDAY! Start now with his LINK-FILLED post on the situation In Lebanon . For those of you unfamiliar with him, he has a great perspective on how popular democratic movements lead to real REVOLUTIONARY change: he's been living through, and been blogging on, the current ORANGE REVOLUTION in Ukraine.

ADDENDUM: I was looking for the Arabic word for ORANGE (in order to make a clever post) when I found this:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

orange

SYLLABICATION: or·ange

PRONUNCIATION: ôrnj, r-

ETYMOLOGY: mela, fruit + arancio, orange tree (alteration of Arabic naranj...

WORD HISTORY:

... the orange , originating in China, then being introduced to India, and traveling on to the Middle East, into Europe, and finally to the New World. ... As the fruit passed westward, so did the word, as evidenced by Persian narang and Arabic naranj. Arabs brought the first oranges to Spain, and the fruit rapidly spread throughout Europe. The important word for the development of our term is Old Italian melarancio, derived from mela, “fruit,” and arancio, “orange tree,” from Arabic naranj.

It seems as if democracy is flowing back - in reverse - along the very same route that oranges took: from the New World, to Europe, and now Arabia. CHINA: get ready... you're next!

UPDATE - 2/19 - (FOX/AP):BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Lebanese opposition stepped up its campaign against the pro-Syrian government Friday, calling for a peaceful uprising to force the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami (search) and the withdrawal of Syrian troops. ... the Lebanese opposition, in a statement read to reporters by Samir Franjieh, urged residents to continue gathering daily at Hariri's gravesite in Beirut's Martyrs' Square to light candles and pray near the mosque there that Hariri built. The government should resign and a transitional Cabinet should be formed "to protect the people, and to ensure an immediate and full withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon as a prelude for free and fair elections," said Franjieh, a second cousin of the interior minister. ... The grave of Hariri, a self-made billionaire businessman credited with rebuilding Lebanon after the 1975-90 civil war, has become a pilgrimage destination.

I can hear the protesters at Hariri's grave: "POWER TO THE PEOPLE! THE PEOPLE UNITED CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED! ORANGE POWER! FREE LEBANON FROM HIZB'ALLAH AND SYRIA AND IRAN! ORANGE POWER!: And, of course: "WHAT DO WE WANT? DEMOCRACY! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!"

PUTIN-IRAN AXIS

MSNBC/AP: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he is convinced Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons and said he plans to visit Iran. Putin, at a meeting with Iranian National Security Council chief Hasan Rohani, also said Russia would continue its nuclear cooperation with Iran. Moscow has helped Iran build a nuclear reactor, a project that has been heavily criticized by the United States which fears it could be used to help Tehran develop nuclear weapons.

I have looked into Putin's eyes and seen the soul of an autocrat and an adversary who has joined the Axis of Evil. Putin is helping Iran, Styria, and North Korea. That makes him part of the problem, not part of the solution.

It is HIGH TIME we fomented an ORANGE REVOLUTION in Russia! More HERE.

UPDATE: NRO has a MUST READ on Russia by Ilan Berman. EXCERPT:

Moscow's renewed maneuvers in the Middle East have everything to do with ideology. Over the past year, Putin's increasingly authoritarian governing style has succeeded in eliminating any semblance of serious domestic opposition to the Kremlin, giving the Russian president virtual carte blanche to formulate foreign and defense policy. Worse still, this growing political mandate has been mirrored by the revival of unhealthy notions of Russian greatness and geopolitical opposition to the United States. Whether these ideas actually benefit Russian national interests in the long term remains to be seen. But for the United States, the Kremlin's counterproductive policies in the Middle East — and the corrosive ideology underpinning them — are becoming harder and harder to ignore.

UPDATE #2: CAPT'S QUARTERS has MORE. And MORE HERE and HERE. And HERE. And HERE.

More at OTB. Check it out.

MORE HERE AT SECULAR BLASPHEMY, (hat tip ROGER l. SIMON.)

ROGUES GALLERY OF RECENT LEFTIST SCOUNDRELS

Joe Wilson. Richard Clarke. Sandy Berger. Dan Rather. Eason Jordan. Ward Churchill. Paul Krugman. Maureen Dowd. Jimmy Carter. Teddy Jo Kopechne. Howard Dean. John Kerry. Barbara Boxer. Chirac. Zapatero. Schroder. Putin. Kofi. Saddam. Assad. Arafat.

What a crew! Just saying each one's name makes me CRINGE! Thank God they're not calling the shots! I wouldn't trust a single one to cat-sit for me, let alone have ANY real influence on my nation's security.

At least Arafat is dead - a death that greatly improved the world of the living. When the others pass on from the scene, the world will improve some more.

(If you're reading this blog, then you know what immoral acts each of these awful Left-wing prevaricators, appeasers, and evil-doers have committed.)

SPHINX VERSUS LINKS: Old Media versus the blogosphere

In many ways, the conflict between Old Media and the blogosphere might be best summed up as a conflict between Old Media insiders who thrive by using the contacts they've accumulated through years of covering a beat and schmoozing with insiders - their "un-named sources" who so often speak ONLY off the record, and WITH an agenda - (what I call their SPHINX-like sources), and the bloggers who must LINK to sources which can be (and should be) readily tested by anyone and everyone.

Hence the "clever" phrase: "SPHINX vs LINKS."

In this contest - as in most others like it (in science or in law) - arguments based on testable hypotheses, which pan out, win.

Given the choice between (a) open-sourced independent bloggers - (often reporting in the area of their professional expertise, OR IN THEIR NECK OF THE WOODS), who analyze the public record and write up foot-noted essays, and (b) reporters working for editors with hidden agendas (and using unnamed sources with THEIR OWN hidden agendas), who do you think MOST people with a more than cursory interest in news will almost always prefer?

The blogosphere EVERYTIME. And the Old Media better get into it or they're goners.

CIA: MEXICAN BORDER CRUCIAL TO HOMELAND SECURITY

NYTIMES:

U.S. Aides Cite Worry on Qaeda Infiltration From Mexico

By DOUGLAS JEHL Published: February 17, 2005

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 - New intelligence information strongly suggests that Al Qaeda has considered infiltrating the United States through the Mexican border, top government officials told Congress on Wednesday. ... Intelligence that "strongly suggests" that Al Qaeda operatives have considered using the Mexican border as an entry point was cited in written testimony by Adm. James M. Loy, the deputy secretary of homeland security. But he wrote that there was "currently no conclusive evidence" that this had succeeded. In the past, law enforcement officials have said Al Qaeda might try to use the Mexican border, but the testimony on Wednesday [by CIA diredctor Goss] seemed to suggest increasing concern.

I blogged on this last week - on 2/12/05 - when Mexico announced it was no longer going to require visas for visitors from Algeria, (a MAJOR hot-bed of neojihadism and home of many dangerous neojihadis who have been involved in international terror). We shouldn't want an unchecked flow of unchecked Algerians to enter Mexico IF WE DON'T HAVE A SECURE BORDER WITH MEXICO; it just doesn't make sense!

In addition, non-Algerian neojihadis can pose as Algerians, get fake Algerian passports and then EASILY enter the USA from Mexico.

Therefore, if Mexico goes forward with this new policy (which, as a sovereign nation, they're entitled to do, even though it's a policy which DIRECTLY threatens our national security), we MUST take COUNTER-MEASURES: we must build a fence along the ENTIRE USA/Mexican border, and check EVERY SINGLE Mexican entering the USA against watch-lists, and record their retinas and fingerprints. Anything less is an OPEN INVITATION to a neojihadist terror attack here in the homeland.

The NYTIMES article is very good - RTWT!

UPDATE - NOTES: (a) the Israeli security fence proves that fences WORK; (b) the cost of a fence is LESS THAN the cost of an attack.

UPDATE #2 - WELCOME JAWA REPORT READERS! Please check out some other posts. And if you're not a regular JAWA REPORT reader yet - go there now and you'll become one!

JENIN & ARAFAT; FALLUJAH & ZARQAWI; LEBANON & NASRALLAH

BOTTOM-LINE:

WHO CARES IF IRAN OR SYRIA OR BOTH WERE INVOLVED IN THE HARIRI MURDER; IT'S TIME TO FLUSH OUT THE THUGS FROM LEBANON THE WAY ISRAEL DID IN JENIN, AND THE MARINES DID IN FALLUJAH.

(AND MAYBE IT'S TIME "JACK-ASS CH'IRAQ" - WHO CLAIMS HE WAS A LONGTIME FRIEND OF HARIRI - TO QUIT ENABLING HIZB'ALLAH, AND TREAT THEM LIKE THE TERRORISTS THEY REALLY ARE!)

HARIRI WAS WHACKED BY SUICIDER

From IAFRICA (AFP - excerpt; RTWT!):

Likely a suicide car bomb

"The security services are almost sure that it was a suicide car bomb," Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh said, adding however that the investigation was still going on and rejecting calls for an international probe. ... A hitherto unknown Islamic group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge Hariri's close ties with the Saudi regime, but experts suggested it required highly sophisticated technology and know-how that only a well organised group or government might possess.

I have previously posted - and still believe - that a sucider indicates neojihadists are behind the murder, and that this implicates Iran, NOT Syria (who had the most to lose). Iran's announcement today - that they will help defend Syria in case it is attacked- maybe their attempt to "kiss and make up" with Assad, who may be furious that he's bearing the brunt of international criticism for the Hariri hit.

UPDATE - JIHAD WATCH:

Hariri's killer is Palestinian linked to al-Qaida

The jihad has indeed returned to Lebanon. Hariri murder update from UPI, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The suicide bomber who killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is a Palestinian member of an Islamic group linked to al-Qaida. A security source, on condition of anonymity, identified the bomber as Ahmed Abu Adas, a Palestinian refugee who lived in the low-income Beirut neighborhood of Tarik Jadida. The source said the bomber's neighbors saw him leave his home a few hours before the attack that killed Hariri and eight other people.

SYRIA AND IRAN ANNOUNCE AXIS

"BREAKING NEWS" BBC:

Iran and Syria say they are to form a common front to face challenges and threats from overseas. "We are ready to help Syria on all grounds to confront threats," Iranian Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref said after meeting Syrian PM Naji al-Otari. Both countries are under intense US pressure, with Washington accusing Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. US tensions with Syria have soared since the apparent suicide attack that killed former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. Many Lebanese blame Monday's car bombing in Beirut on Syria, but the Syrian government has denied it was responsible for the blast.

Maybe we shouldn't worry about which ONE had a direct hand in Hariri's assassination and just WHACK THEM BOTH! WITH A PROLONGED TARGETED CRUISE MISSILE ATTACK = al la OPERATION DESERT FOX!

Stay tuned...

MAYBE IT'S BEGUN: there are numerous reports about a blast at an Iranian nulcear plant - some claim it was an aerial attack by missile; other reports claim it was a "fuel tank drop." STAY TUNED!

FORENSICS WILL REVEAL HARIRI'S KILLERS

If we discover forensic evidence - and the actual status of the group which claimed responsibility for the bombing - then this will point us in the direction of the perps:

IF the neojihadist group that claimed the hit is real, and IF it was a suicide bomber, THEN it was done by IRAN (because they are more neojihadist than Syria which is actually run by non-Muslims/Alawites).

IF the group is phony, and IF the bomb was remotely detonated, THEN the hit was done by Syria.

Sure: Syria does have some contacts with neojihadists - like Hizb'allah, BUT Syria only uses Hizb'aalah for selfish geopolitical aims (contra-Israel); whereas Iran uses Hizb'allah for international jihad.

Whoever did it should get whacked for a week with cruise missiles until their military - and any/all suspected WMD sites in their territory - are GONZO.

MUCH MORE HERE AT DREZNER'S.

HAS PUTIN JOINED THE AXIS OF EVIL?

Putin has been acting very autocratically lately on domestic affairs, and internationally he has been VERY UNHELPFUL TO SAY THE LEAST - remember how he tried to help the thugs steal the election in Ukraine!?!

And don't forget: Putin is selling Iran most of its nuke hardware; as if that wasn't bad enough - Putin is also not doing a dang thing to help us contain North Korea; ON TOP OF ALL THAT now Putin is GOING AHEAD WITH A DESTABILIZING ARMS SALE TO ASSAD!

YUP: on the heels of the Hariri assasination - and just as Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are making some progress - Putin makes an unnecessary move that will upset the balance of power, and potentially give Hizballah - a neojihadist terrrorist organization - a very serious anti-aircraft weapon.

I think it is time that Condi - a Russia expert, by training - turned up the heat on Putin.

THE BEIRUT AND DAMASCUS NEXUS - you read it hear first

One month ago - on 1/15/05 - I posted on the relationship of Syria and Iraq, and posited that we would use Lebanon as our wedge to gain some leverage over Syria. The post was titled: THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS GOES THROUGH BEIRUT.

The Hariri assassination may be more useful to the USA's efforts at containing/taming Syria than the continued presence of Syrian troops which violates UNSCR #1559. IF the USA can prove that the Hariri murder was done by Syrian agents, then the USAwill use it to "forcibly neutralize" the Assad regime and get Syria to play ball. AND IF the neojihadist group that CLAIMED responsibility is phony, then this might be further proof that the bombing was indeed done by Syria.

BUT IF it is a real neojihadist group, and if the murder was in fact a result of a suicide bomber, then I think this indicates that Iran - and NOT SYRIA - was behind the murder -- (because, as I blogged HERE, Iran is more neojihadist than Syria; Syria merely exploits Hizballah for its own geopolitical gain; whereas Iran is truly neojihadist.

If we prove that Iran was behind it, then we should unilaterally undertake an OPERATION DESRT FOX type attack to destroy all of Iran's nuclear assets and most of the military infrastructure. (OPERATION DESERT FOX was the unilateral attack that liberal Democrat President Clinton waged against Saddam in 1998 - without UNSC approval and without even explicit Congressional approval.)