From the WSJ Opinion Archives
A
Bomber Goes Down
An American B-1 bomber has crashed in the Indian Ocean. All four crewmen survived.
Johnnie
Walker Sings
If his parents are to be believed, Marin mujahid John Walker was just
going through a phase when he went to Afghanistan to join al Qaeda. The Washington
Times' Bill Gertz reports Walker, now in captivity at a U.S. Marine base, has
told U.S. intelligence that al Qaeda was just going through a phase when it
murdered thousands at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
According to Gertz, Walker (whom Gertz calls by his father's name, Lindh) "said in intelligence debriefings . . . that 'Phase II' of al Qaeda's war against the United States will occur at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends Sunday. Mr. Lindh told U.S. intelligence officials that the Ramadan attack will involve the use of biological weapons. A third phase of al Qaeda's war on the United States will result in the destruction of the entire country, the Islamic convert stated."
Is it possible, though, that Walker is off on the timing of Phase II? After all, America was already attacked with biological weapons, namely the anthrax letters mailed in September and October.
In an interview with the New York Times' Maureen Dowd (links requires registration), New York's Mayor Rudy Giuliani stakes out a moderate position on Walker:
I asked if he thought John Walker, the American Taliban fighter, was a "poor fellow," as the president put it, or if he wanted him strung up.
"I could feel sorry for someone and still string 'em up," said the former prosecutor.
The Times also reports that an Al Jazeera interview with Osama bin Laden has been making the rounds, in which the terror mastermind hints at Phase III: "The battle has been moved inside America, and we shall continue until we win this battle, or die in the cause and meet our maker." He adds that "the bad terror is what America and Israel are practicing against our people, and what we are practicing is the good terror that will stop them doing what they are doing."
Al Jazeera has not aired the interview, which was apparently conducted around Oct. 20, "partly because it revealed how much Mr. bin Laden had intimidated the network's correspondent":
The tape shows Mr. bin Laden's refusal to answer the reporter's questions; instead he dictates both the questions and the answers. The correspondent for Al Jazeera, who has not been identified, appeared fearful and intimidated. "He looked like a wimp," said one government official.
Our
Friends the Pakistanis
Does this have anything to do with Phase III? "Two Pakistani nuclear scientists
reportedly have told investigators they conducted long discussions about nuclear,
chemical and biological weapons with accused terrorist Osama bin Laden in August
in the Afghan capital of Kabul, according to Pakistani officials familiar with
the interrogations of the men," the Washington Post reports.
The Pakistani officials, however, "characterized the discussions between the scientists and bin Laden as 'academic' and said they have no evidence the information resulted in the creation or production of any type of weapon." What a relief to hear that Osama is just an inquisitive student of physics.
No
Surrender--Yet
Bin Laden's boys in Tora Bora are taking their sweet time surrendering to anti-Taliban
opposition forces. ABC News reports satellite-phone traffic the U.S. intercepted
after dropping a 15,000-pound "daisy cutter" bomb Sunday provides
"new evidence on the whereabouts of bin Laden," who "was near
the blast and is now on the run." Many other al Qaeda leaders were reportedly
killed. "Though intelligence sources said the telephone calls made after
the bomb was dropped made them more confident than ever that bin Laden was with
the groups hiding in the mountains, some U.S. officials said the calls could
have been made to deceive the Saudi dissident's pursuers."
The Times of London reports on the devastation wrought by American bombers in Tora Bora:
Everywhere we saw bloody shoes, tins of tomatoes, packets of biscuits, pieces of food the enemy had eaten before their last stand against the anti-Taleban forces were scattered in front of their abandoned positions.
The eight days of bombing finally shattered the morale of the al-Qaeda fighters and yesterday forced them to turn and run.
Wave after wave of B52s delivered the explosive force equivalent to the bombing of Dresden. The bombing was continuing last night with AC130 gunships being deployed again above al-Qaeda positions.
The Telegraph, meanwhile, reports that "Afghan defectors from bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network said a split had emerged between hard-core Algerian fighters and other Arabs, including Egyptians, who felt they had been left for dead by their leaders in Afghanistan's White Mountains." Whatever happened to glorious martyrdom?
Potemkin
Caves
Bin Laden's cave compound in Tora Bora may not live up to those snazzy
graphics. "So far, the famous caves where Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda
fighters were assumed to be hiding have turned out to be little more than rough-walled
rooms dug into hills," USA Today reports:
Tuesday's first probes into the caves that fighters from bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network abandoned here turned up about a dozen hideouts. But none is anything close to the sophisticated, air-conditioned, comfortable networks of tunnels and rooms that were thought to be in these foothills of the White Mountains. Instead, local commanders say, most look like the cave a USA Today reporter went into: a hole in the side of a hill.
Kamikaze
Camels
"US marines based at Camp Rhino in southern Afghanistan have been warned
about the danger of attack from 'kamikaze camels,' " the BBC reports.
"During their war with Soviet forces during the 1980s Afghanistan's mujahideen
were known to strap explosives to camels and send them towards enemy positions."
'Without
Doubt a Miracle From Allah'
You have to say this about Islamic fanatics: They have an active and interesting
fantasy life. Consider this report (second item) from Azzam.com, a site offering
"News from the Jihad in Afghanistan":
TORA BORA (Special Report): On Saturday afternoon after Asr Prayers, the Eastern Shura launched a concentrated offensive against Mujahideen [al Qaeda] positions in the Tora Bora mountains. . . . It was when they had moved back and the forces of the Eastern Shura, supported by a heavy detachment of US ground troops had moved forward, that bombs began to fall on the Coalition forces from the sky, killing 300 of the enemy comprising Americans and Haji Qadeer's militia.
This was without doubt a miracle from Allah (SWT) who had blinded the American pilots so that they bombed their own people. The Mujahideen counter-attacked after this incident and killed another 300 US troops/ Alliance militia, capturing 100 prisoners. . . .
This was a highly organised offensive against the Mujahideen, which was coordinated by high-ranking US military commanders, whose mutilated bodies littered the battlefield at the end of the battle. It has been reported that after this major victory for the Mujahideen, Haji Qadeer asked the Americans to deploy more ground troops as American air support has proved to be impotent against the Mujahideen and lethal instead to the Americans and their agents.
From
Oz to al Qaeda, by Way of Kosovo
John Walker isn't the only Westerner to join the bin Laden brigades. The Associated
Press reports Northern Alliance fighters have captured an unnamed Australian
man who was trained at an al Qaeda camp after joining the Kosovo Liberation
Army and receiving training with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani "militant
group."
Amateur
Chemical Warfare
The terrorist group Hamas killed
eight more people today in a suicide bombing and a gun attack on a bus.
"Hamas said on Wednesday that it had dealt a blow to Israeli morale by
planting poisonous chemicals on the bombs its activists have detonated of late":
Israel's Health Ministry revealed this week that nails and bolts packed into explosives detonated by a Hamas suicide bomber Dec. 1 in a Jerusalem pedestrian mall had been dipped into rat poison. The report unnerved many Israelis who already live with the fear of a biochemical attack from Iraq.
Slow
Journey to the Holy Land
The Jerusalem Post, meanwhile, has a revealing report on why America moved so
slowly in closing down the Holy Land Foundation, an alleged Hamas front group
based in Texas, which the FBI had been eyeing for eight years:
Why did authorities move so slowly? Political considerations, restrictions on investigations of religious groups and even oversights by immigration officials may have hindered the probe, according to experts on domestic terror investigations. . . .
After FBI abuses in the 1960s and '70s, the Justice Department adopted limits on investigating religious groups, and the restrictions no doubt slowed the probe into Holy Land, said Fred Moss, a former federal prosecutor and now a law professor at Southern Methodist University. . . .
Mark Briskman, Texas regional director of the Anti-Defamation League . . . said the administration of former President Bill Clinton feared that shutting down Holy Land would undermine the US stature among Arab nations and prevent it from leading Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
"Clearly, it would have had a negative effect on relations with Yemen, Saudi Arabia and some of the Gulf states," Briskman said.
Our
Friends the Israelis
Fox News reports that among those being held under the new antiterrorism law
are some 60 Israelis suspected of spying. "There is no indication the Israelis
were involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, but investigators suspect that they may
have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance and not shared it."
The network adds that "one group of Israelis spotted in North Carolina
recently is suspected of keeping an apartment in California to spy on a group
of Arabs who the U.S. authorities are investigating for links to terrorism."
Terrorist
Welfare Queens--III
The BBC reports that "the self-styled Caliph of Cologne," a Turkish
terrorist living in Germany, "claimed social benefits in Cologne for many
years until 2m Deutschmarks ($1.2m) in cash was found in his flat." Metin
Kaplan "planned to fly a plane into the mausoleum of Ataturk, the founder
of modern Turkey, on the 75th anniversary of the country's establishment"
in 1998, according to Turkish officials. "As that was taking place, a commando
was supposed to storm a mosque in Istanbul."
German officials are refusing to extradite Kaplan to Turkey until Turkey guarantees he won't face the death penalty. Turkey hasn't executed anyone since 1984.
America
Held Hostage: Day 8,075
In a New York Times op-ed piece, erstwhile hostage Barry Rosen blasts
the State Department for trying to obstruct a lawsuit against Iran over Rosen
and fellow hostages' 444-day captivity in 1979-81:
On Oct. 15, the day the hostages were to begin testifying about what we had gone through, the State and Justice Departments intervened, asking the court to dismiss our lawsuit. At the time, the Bush administration was trying to build support for the war on terrorism and minimize official opposition abroad. The State Department said it hadn't known about our lawsuit earlier. But regardless of when it found out, Iran's behavior in 1979 is no less outrageous after Sept. 11 than it was before. . . .
The government's argument is that Iran must be shielded because of an extortionate deal made in 1981, after Iran threatened to try us as spies and execute us. President Jimmy Carter had no choice but to accept the demands: to unfreeze $7.9 billion in Iranian assets (Iran did get this payment), and to deny us the right to sue Iran.
That agreement was superseded by the Antiterrorism Act, passed in 1996 and signed by President Bill Clinton. It said foreign parties could be sued in American courts for terrorism against American citizens.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for tomorrow.
Stupidity Watch
Emily
Levine, "a Los Angeles writer and comedian," weighs in with this
pearl of wisdom in an L.A. Times op-ed:
We are now, as a nation, in the process of creating a story that will one day make sense of Sept. 11 and become part of our history. For our history to teach us lessons for our future, for the connections to resonate as true, for the story to unite us as a nation, it must contain all the interlinking bytes of information. Every voice needs to be heard. Every Barbara Lee and every Lynn [sic] Cheney. Every Susan Sontag and every Jerry Falwell. Every Bill Maher, every Ann Coulter. Yes, even Osama bin Laden.
The editorialists at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, meanwhile, manage to conclude that Alabama, home state of fallen CIA officer Mike Spann, and Marin County, Calif., are the same place:
Oh, please. The opposite of "cultural liberalism" is "cultural conservatism," which should be familiar to the Taliban. The same culture that created John Walker created Mike Spann and the 20-year-old Marines and Rangers he [Walker] was fighting against.
The Post-Dispatch adds that "Mr. Walker deserves the same presumption of innocence given all defendants in the nation he fought against"--by which the paper seems to mean that no one should criticize his parents' public pronouncements.
Bye-Bye,
ABM Treaty
President Bush will invoke the withdrawal provision of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union, allowing the U.S. to move forward with
the development of a missile defense. Russia officially opposes the move, though,
as we noted
last month, President Vladimir Putin has said he's open to the idea of jointly
developing missile defenses.
Zero-Tolerance
Watch
Officials at San Antonio's Edgewood
Independent School District have sent a seven-year-old first-grader to an
"alternative school"--that is, a school for delinquent youths. The
boy is the only elementary-school student in the alternative school, reports
KSAT-TV. His offense? He showed up to school with "his grandfather's 1
1/2-inch pocketknife in his backpack." He'll spend 11 days in the company
of high schoolers who've committed "serious offenses."
The
Revolving Door
When Clinton appointee Ann Brown headed the Consumer Products Safety Commission,
she had a policy of appearing exclusively on NBC's "Today" show to
announce product recalls--a policy that understandably drew objections from
ABC and CBS. Now Brown, who's left the government, has a part-time job with
NBC. She "she has a contract to do 12 consumer stories a year. Her first
piece, on toy safety, aired Nov. 21 on Today," USA Today reports.
Brown's response to the criticism? "If I were going to work for Mattel toys, that might be appropriate. But becoming a reporter like any other reporter, I don't see that as a problem."
Monkeyfishing
With Gary Condit?
Rep. Gary Condit, running for re-election, tells the Los Angeles Times that
whole Chandra Levy scandal was a hoax. The Times reports: "He often sounded
bitter during the 20-minute interview, repeatedly criticizing news coverage
of Levy's disappearance and referring to 'the fabricated scandal . . .
the national media has put us in.' "
Hey, maybe he's right. After all, it's not as if anyone has actually seen Chandra.
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today, and we get by with a little help from our friends. Thanks to Michiel Visser, Jim Orheim, David Arredondo, John Gangloff, Raghu Desikan, C.E. Dobkin, Doug Levene, Michael Smeeton, Amanda Stoermer, Paul Music, Yehuda Hilewitz, Mark Sprague, S.E. Brenner, Anthony Brunsvold, Shelley Taylor, Doug Crice, Rob Federle and Alicia Vilora. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Michael Rubin: We need military might, not diplomatic talk (link requires registration).
- Pete du Pont: How the media color the news.
- John Fund: How Gore could have won.
