by JAMES TARANTO
Thursday, December 26, 2002 1:29 P.M. EST

The World's Smallest Violin
U.S. interrogators are using "stress and duress" techniques on enemy combatants in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reports. The Post implies, though it stops short of saying, that such techniques constitute torture. The page-one headline uses the word "abuse," and the article describes "a brass-knuckled quest for information, often in concert with allies of dubious human rights reputation, in which the traditional lines between right and wrong, legal and inhumane, are evolving and blurred."

So what are the mean old Americans doing to these poor dears? Here's an example: "Sometimes, female officers conduct interrogations, a psychologically jarring experience for men reared in a conservative Muslim culture where women are never in control."

Someone ought to remind the Washington Post that this is the 21st century. There's no place for a retrograde, sexist attitude that treats women as second-class interrogators. What next? Will the Post accuse Howell Raines of "torturing" Hootie Johnson?

They're Torturing Little Boys, Too
The Taliban banned education of girls, and United Press International reports that the U.S. Agency for International Development now is using imaginative methods to encourage Afghan families to sent their daughters to school:

"In many areas where we're having trouble getting the number of girls to equal the number of boys in the classrooms . . . we used this vegetable oil" to bring the girls out," said Andrew Natsios, administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development.

"What we did was . . . to give a supplement of vegetable oil, which is a very valued commodity in Afghanistan, to families' monthly ration if they made sure their girls were in school," he added. And in those areas that we did that, we were able to equalize the rates."

No doubt being forced to go to school with girls is a psychologically jarring experience for boys reared in a conservative Muslim culture where girls are never in control.

A Religion of Peace--I
A pair of Muslim fanatics threw grenades into church in Pakistan that was holding Christmas services, murdering three girls, ages six, 11 and 15. The attackers were wearing burkhas, but CNN says it isn't clear if they were actual women or cross-dressers. Pakistani police have picked up a Muslim cleric, Mohammed Afzal, who in a sermon at a nearby mosque declared that "it is the duty of every good Muslim to kill Christians." A Pakistani cop also quotes Afzal as saying: "You should attack Christians and not even have food until you have seen their dead bodies."

The Washington Post notes that in India, "an armed gang stormed a church in the eastern state of West Bengal." They injured six but didn't manage to kill anyone.

The Patty Murray Whitewash
Sen. Patty Murray's outrageous comments extolling Osama bin Laden as a humanitarian continue to draw mostly silence from the national media. Blogger Robert Musil notes that a piece by Adam Nagourney in today's New York Times discusses Democrats who "are beginning to challenge President Bush's record on terrorism"--but makes no mention of Murray. Indeed, a Factiva search turns up no mention of Murray at all since she made the speech.

Those who're skeptical of liberal media bias should ponder this hypothetical: Suppose that during President Clinton's Kosovo war, a Republican congressman had sung the praises of "great humanitarian" Slobodan Milosevic. Is it even imaginable that the Times would omit such a comment in an article on GOP critics of the war--let alone that the paper would ignore it altogether?

Murray's comments are helping feed enemy propaganda. Taliban Online, a pro-jihadi Web site, excerpts a WorldNetDaily report on Murray's comments. "Pak Taliban," who posted the article to the Taliban site, appends his own commentary: "The rest of the story trie's [sic] to put down Osama with the same old rubbish and a thought, is this why the Kuffar [disbelievers] in Afghanistan are trying to set bases of the so called reconstruction phase, thinking if they look like helping the Afghan's [sic] that they might start to like them or something? No doubt the Russians did the same thing. What would please us is when you pack and go."

In Murray's home state, the Seattle Times published a disdainful Christmas Eve editorial titled "Those Silly Attacks on Patty Murray." But the Vancouver Columbian, the paper that broke the story, rightly blasts Murray. "She . . . had every obligation as a U.S. senator and high-level representative of this country and this state to present the United States in a far more accurate light. That she didn't is something voters can consider when she is up for re-election."

This reflects a geographical divide in the state of Washington. Seattle is a haven for wacko anti-Americanism; it even sends pro-Saddam congressman Jim McDermott to Congress. The rest of the state, however, is populated by normal Americans. A Seattle Post-Intelligencer poll finds that Seattle residents oppose the liberation of Iraq by 52% to 40%, while the statewide figures (despite including Seattle) are reversed: 51% favor liberation and only 43% oppose it.

The Murray whitewash may prove to be an example of how liberal media bias helps Republicans. Murray probably feels vindicated, having won the support of her hometown paper and escaped criticism in most of the national press. Thus, she doesn't appear to have done anything to make amends. If she runs for re-election in 2004, this will be a big problem for her. WorldNetDaily reports that her comments have "generated an Internet and talk-radio firestorm," especially in Washington state. Two years from now, Murray's voters will know what she said about Osama bin Laden--even if most people elsewhere don't.

Our Friends the Saudis
Buried in an Associated Press dispatch on Saudi suppression of Christmas is this revelation:

Timothy Hunter, a former U.S. diplomatic official assigned to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, says State Department policy was to avoid sending Jewish employees to the kingdom under an agreement with the Saudis.

In a letter this past June, Hunter told [Middle East expert Daniel] Pipes that it was "the duty of the foreign service director of personnel to screen all Foreign Service officers applying for service in the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and to 'tick' Jewish officers' names using the letter 'J' next to their names, so that selection panels would not select Jewish diplomats for service in Saudi Arabia."

Writing in the New York Post, E.V. Kontorovich asks a good question: How is it that the Saudis have gotten to "the advanced stages of negotiations to join the World Trade Organization, an institution dedicated to free and open trade between nations," when Riyadh openly boycotts Israel, a WTO member?

Life Imitates Watt

"I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent."--Interior Secretary James Watt, 1983 (the comment led to his resignation)

"The Army wants commercial freight handlers to help it ship 30,000 vehicles to the Middle East in the coming weeks from bases in Germany, according to European transport industry sources invited to contract for the job. . . . Potential European carriers were being asked to hire 'American military veterans, preferably black, Jewish or disabled' as drivers and crew."--Reuters, Dec. 24, 2002

Dog Bites Man
"Today's peace activists are drawing support from unlikely sources," claims Time magazine in a blurb for a recent article that profiles five "antiwar" folks. Here is what Time regards as "unlikely" adherents to the cause:

• The guy who headed Dade County Citizens for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze in the 1980s.

• A woman who protested the Vietnam War in the 1960s and more recently "quit her teaching job and founded Quilts for Peace, a nonprofit group that has sent 50 quilts to war zones around the world."

• A University of Minnesota professor with a record of being "active in campaigns against U.S. policies in Latin America."

• A Los Angeles woman whose "parents raised her to be politically conscious" and now "is the closest thing to a professional antiwar activist, holding down jobs at two peace-advocacy groups."

• A Gulf War veteran who couldn't "live with myself" because he killed enemy soldiers.

Meanwhile, Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan notes someone who actually is an unlikely peacenik: Michael Walzer, who recently wrote an antiwar essay for The New Republic. Why unlikely? Because Walzer's recent article directly contradicts one he wrote for the same magazine back in 1998. When Bill Clinton was president, Walzer advocated forceful unilateral action against Saddam Hussein.

A Religion of Peace--II
A signed statement published by 200 Moslem religious leaders and scholars on Monday in London's Arabic daily Al-Quds al-Arabi warned that a US attack on Iraq 'will open the gates of Jihad and the legitimate struggle that will end in the ousting of the Christian and Zionist invaders,' " the Jerusalem Post reports, noting that "the majority of those whose signatures appeared at the bottom of the article are from Saudi Arabia."

You Don't Say--I
"Trust Is the Greatest Casualty in Mideast Rift"--headline, Boston Globe, Dec. 25

You Don't Say--II
"Palestinian Authority Uncovers Corruption Involving Top Officials."--headline, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 26

You Don't Say--III
"Al-Qaeda Cells Plan Attacks"--headline, Australian, Dec. 26

The Plane Truth?
New York Press columnist Michelangelo Signorile may be the silliest journalist in America, but in this week's column he actually breaks some interesting news. It turns out that the CNN Airport Network provides travelers with a sanitized version of the news:

I was sitting in the Detroit Metro Airport on the day that Sen. Paul Wellstone's plane went down. The cool new Northwest terminal there is Disney gone absolutely mad, by the way, with a sleek and silent monorail inside the terminal, taking you from gate to gate, and massive flat-screen monitors everywhere, showing--what else?--Airport Network.

Signorile says he watched the Airport Network for 40 minutes and no one mentioned the crash. A few weeks later, he was at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport when "there was another aviation incident--but nothing about it on Airport Network." A CNN spokeswoman explained the network's policy:

"So, we don't show sensitive materials like that," she continued. "We use our discretion. If it is something that is specific to the airline industry, something that is particularly upsetting or disturbing to travelers, then it's not shown. That's always been our policy, and we make that known to the airports and the airlines and they're fully in agreement with that policy."

Later she called him back and backpedaled somewhat, claiming that "Airport Network does not censor the news" but merely refrains from showing "sensitive footage."

Signorile isn't content to let this story stand on its own, though. He describes CNN's practices as a manifestation of "John Ashcroft's wet dream for how the entire society should become." That's right, so all-consuming is Singorile's hatred of the attorney general that he blames him for the actions of Ted Turner's network.

You Don't Say--IV
"Christmas Eve Offers Shoppers Last Chance"--headline, Washington Times, Dec. 25

You Don't Say--V
"Pope Leads Christmas Prayer for Peace"--headline, ABCNews.com, Dec. 25

You Don't Say--VI
"Clerics Insist Year of Adversity Demands Faith From Followers"--headline, (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun, Dec. 25

New Frontiers in Sensitivity
FrontPageMag.com reports that "the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee has ordered the University of North Carolina-Pembroke . . . to explain why it still uses the 'racially offensive' logo of an Indian and the 'Braves' nickname for its athletic teams." One reason, as FPM notes, might be that the college was "founded for the Lumbee Indians."

You Don't Say--VII
"Many Still Smoke Despite Warnings"--headline, Boston Globe, Dec. 25

You Don't Say--VIII
"Downsizing Could Have a Downside"--headline, New York Times, Dec. 26

You Don't Say--IX
"Homeless Enjoy Food and Gifts"--headline, Fresno Bee, Dec. 25

Brother, Can You Spare 30,000 Dimes?
"A cop suspended for refusing to arrest a homeless man received a gift of $3,000 yesterday--donated by grateful homeless advocates and street people," the New York Daily News reports. The check was made out to Marissa Delacruz, wife of insubordinate cop Eduardo Delacruz, "to avoid a personal conflict for her husband."

How is exactly that the "homeless," who supposedly need to beg for money for food, are able to raise $3,000 bucks for what sounds very much like a bribe for a policeman?

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