Just scanned the NYT story on the Wikileaks document dump -- which is itself a scan of the Wikileaks document dump, given that a colossal 251,287 State Department cables have been released in this Internet/media robbery/fencing information-operation.

The several items highlighted at this early stage are either (1) obvious (Afghan government officials are corrupt! Saudis support Al Qaeda!) (2) of watch-that-space interest (Berlusconi and Putin are big pals) or (3) of urgent public interest (Syria supplies Hezbollah;  Pakistan isn't accepting our plan for their nuke materials, or, as the Politico story noted and the NYT did not, North Korea managed to ship 19 advanced, nuclear-capable, Russian-made...

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Queen (and Supreme Governor of the Church of England) and Prime Minister's Foreign Secretary's wife Islamically swathed, wrapped and encased. Hello, respect for Islam, goodbye, self-respect. And that goes for their husbands.

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Somehow, on viewing this depressing, dispiriting -- and therefore, must-see! -- Sunday pictorial from the Daily Mail (via Ruth King), this lush line from "Easter Parade" by Irving Berlin came wafting by:

The photographers

Will snap us

...

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Gates of Vienna has a stomach-turner of a story up, with video from Vlad Tepes, about the sentencing this week of a swaggering (watch the video) Toronto Muslim man convicted of aggravated manslaughter in his attempt to "honor kill" his 16-year-old daughter. In 2007, it seems, the man drove his minivan at his daughter, his son-in law and the daughter's 17-year-old boyfriend, dragging the girl under the vehicle causing head injuries, breaking his son-in-law's pelvis, and causing more minor injuries to the boyfriend. The father was sentenced to five years in federal prison and, and taking off for time already served,...

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This week's syndicated column:

A few days ago, I got to do what many Americans would like to do -- ask Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano a thing or two. Before I report on what I asked and what she said, I must note there were "ground rules" in effect. The conversation itself between a small group of mainly conservative-minded journalists and Napolitano was free and even easy, but reporting on any aspect of the exchange required after-the-fact approval from DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Sean Smith.

This rankles. It is also something new in my personal experience. Sure, I have conducted scores of one-on-one interviews "on background," a term which, in brief, I define as a means to acquire an understanding of a story from a source unwilling to be quoted directly, at least at first. Follow-up conversations may or may not be "on the record."...

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I just found out that Sgt. Evan Vela was denied parole last month -- again.

This is a T-R-A-V-E-S-T-Y.

Evan's father recaps the whole outrageous story here, which culiminates in last month's hearing where, notwithstanding the better part of four years served, unanimous support for parole from prison officials, letters of support from Idaho Senators Crapo & Risch, Idaho Congressman Simpson, and Idaho Governor Otter.,, and the promise of employment on release, the answer came back, parole denied. The US government can and does free countless killers of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of clemency, but no such feelings...

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More courage, wisdom and humanity from Geert Wilders in the Israeli paper Yedioth via Gates of Vienna, which has posted the English translation of the Hebrew:

Even a journalist from a friendly country such as Israel does not escape invasive hands of the security guards who protect Geert Wilders. At the entry point to the interview with Holland’s extreme politician, founder and leader of the anti-Islamic “Party for Freedom” [PVV], bodyguards do not hold back, and run extensive security checks. Time and again they recheck my identity, making sure that I possess nothing that could potentially turn into a weapon. Wilders, on the other hand, looks disconnected from the security turmoil around him. It seems that he must be used to it. That’s the way it is if you are one of the most threatened persons in the world.

...

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Marine Sgt. Michael Brattole (above) has been evacuated from Afghanistan to be treated in a US military hospital for extensive wounds suffered when a fragmentation grenade, which disperses "notched wire and ball bearings," ripped through his chest while he was leading a patrol earlier this month. He has already had open heart surgery "to remove shrapnel."

What was Brattole, 22, doing when he was so grievously wounded? Military officials aren't saying much, but a photographer who had been embedded with the Marine's unit last month made his overall mission pretty clear to the NJ.com. Brattole and his men had been ordered to find and domesticate a herd of unicorns.

In Afghanistan, Brattole led troops on patrol in Marjah in Helmand Province and tried to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, according to Cali Bagby, a journalist who was embedded last month with...

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In a video from Vlad Tepes (which Vlad says can't be seen in the UK), the English Defense League's Tommy Robinson is takes fire from all sides -- worst of all from BBC dhimmis who, for openers, allege that the EDL is the cause of Islamic jihad. Tommy isn't buying.

This week's syndicated column:

Wikipedia, the widely read, online, multi-authored encyclopedia, features an entry on the term "memory hole," which originated with the prescient, if not also clairvoyant, George Orwell. The Wikipedia definition begins:

"A memory hole is any mechanism for the alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts or other records … particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened."

Wikipedia itself may have just offered a good example of how the mechanism works when unknown, unknowable site authorities "took down" a new entry on Lt. Col. Terrence "Terry" Lakin's challenge to President Barack Obama's eligibility to hold office almost as soon it went up. I read a screen shot of the entry and it is factual and non-inflammatory. Did Lakin's page go down the memory hole?...

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Much brouhaha over an interview with Afghanistan's Karzai in Sunday's Washington Post in which he called for a reduction in American military activities in A-stan that would essentially gut the Petraeus strategy, such as it is, of running down "extremists," often by night, and winning hearts and minds, presumably, of non-extremists, the rest of the time.

What's going on here seems clear, as this 'graph from the follow-up story in today's Post illustrates:

In addition to ending night raids, Karzai said that he wants U.S. troops to be less intrusive in the lives of Afghans, and that they should strive to stay in their bases and conduct just the "necessary activities" along the Pakistan border.

What Karzai seems to be after is an American...

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Let's assume Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs,  knows his way around a battleship. However, he clearly doesn't know his way through the Koran. Otherwise, he wouldn't have made such a fool of himself this past weekend at the Hoover Institution where he pressed literacy as a "new" deterrent to jihad because the potential "extremist" will then "understand the Koran for what it is and not merely what his mullah tells him it is."

No record of anyone present crying out, "For God's sake, man, have you a brain?" or harrumphing noticeably.

From The Hill, via Weasel Zippers:

Adm. Mike Mullen, in a speech at Stanford University’s...

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This week's syndicated column is about Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff (above), who goes to trial for "hate speech" -- i.e., speaking out against Islamization -- on November 23 in Vienna. Her website, including defense fund information, is here.

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When Barack Obama spoke in Mumbai about "the different meanings" of jihad, he set up us up again for the Big Lie: "I think," the 44th president said, sounding much like the 43rd president, "all of us recognize that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted to justify violence toward innocent people that is never justified."

All -- all -- of the sacred books and schools of Islam say differently. Every, single one. The fact is -- not the fantasy -- there is no distortion of Islamic texts required to justify the violence of...

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George W. Bush is telling the world says he was “sickened . . . when we didn’t find weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq.

How, I would like to know, did he feel when 550 metric tons of yellowcake were finally, secretly and successfully extracted from Iraq in the summer or 2008?

From the AP, July 5, 2008:

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities...

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From the AP:

The United States is open to the idea of keeping troops in Iraq past a deadline to leave next year if Iraq asks for it, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.

Hey, why not forever?

"We'll stand by," Gates said. "We're ready to have that discussion if and when they want to raise it with us."

Could someone please explain  -- could someone please ask -- why the USA should continue to bleed for an Israel-boycotting, sharia-bound, OPEC nation of thankless never-never-allies increasingly subverted to Iranian (and other nasty) interests? 

Gates urged Iraq's squabbling political groups to reconcile after eight months of deadlock.

Maybe squabbling is what they like to do.

Any request to extend the U.S. military presence in Iraq would have to come from a functioning Iraqi government. It would amend the current agreement under which U.S. troops must leave by the end of 2011.

...

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House Speaker-to-be John Boehner telling ABC's Diane Sawyer that the Party of No Compromise is the Party of Principle -- I hope.

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This week's syndicated column:

The election is over, and the nail-biting begins.

Will the GOP seize its historic mandate to legislate according to conservative principles, or, mistaking weakness for magnanimity in the pink clouds of victory, will it succumb to the siren song of "compromise"?

If history is any guide -- and I hope it's not, and maybe the tea party will make the difference -- sooner or later, the GOP will again be lured by wily Democrats onto the rocks of compromise. As if congenitally crippled by more manners than necessary and a dearth of street(fighter) smarts, Republicans have traditionally been easy marks for that corny old con...

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Drudge is trumpeting the 34 US warships that Obama's gargantuan retinue will include when he pops in for his $200-million-a-day visit to Mumbai on Saturday.

Doesn't Obama ever hear those GoToMeeting.com commercials on the radio?

Do More. Travel Less. Enjoy the freedom of online meetings. No more expensive warships!

Sign up for a FREE TRIAL of GoToMeeting and discover how you can:

Demonstrate, present, collaborate – right from your PC or Mac® without ever leaving the Oval Office. Save $200 million a day with free VoIP and integrated phone conferencing. Hold as many meetings as you want for as long as you want, eliminating the need...

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US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry: "Let's make a deal!"

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Memo to the new Republican House majority via the AP (h/t Gen. Paul Vallely):

The U.S. government will spend $511 million to expand its embassy in Kabul, the U.S. ambassador said Wednesday, describing the work as a demonstration of America's long-term commitment to Afghanistan....

Long-term "committment"? How about long-term financial enslavement to people we cannot define as allies?

"We make this commitment by commemorating the recent award of a $511 million contract to expand the U.S. Embassy here in Kabul," Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said during a ceremony at the construction site that marked the formal announcement of the contract.

"We're going to get a day when that embassy's up and there's not going to be these barriers out there, there's no barbed...

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President Obama, fresh from his weird White House press conference (No, Tuesday's election was not a rejection of my policies), is now on his "See-India-and-Indonesia-on-200-Million-Dollars-a-Day" tour.

What's another several hundred million dollars in knick-knacks? The Jakarta Globe is reporting that Obama is expected to announce $700 million in aid to "help the country tackle climate change."

Compelling national interest, anyone? Can't wait till John Boehner and Rand Paul get the memo. From the story:

Saving them [Indonesia's forests] from illegal logging and unsustainable clearing for agriculture and mining could help the country meet its goals to cut greenhouse...

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A curious story from The Hill that should make us think twice:

Republicans are likely to urge the Obama administration not to shred documents as they transition to the House majority. 



Before the election, GOP officials on Capitol Hill privately discussed the issue but refrained from publicly tackling it, not wanting to assume what would happen on Election Day.

 Now that Republicans will control the House, the shredding matter will move front and center. 



No one is accusing the Obama administration of destroying documents, but Republicans are expected to try to ensure that all records — on a range of issues — are kept intact.



Darrell West, a political scientist and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said Republicans likely will formally ask the administration not to shred or delete any relevant documents that could be requested...

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Back atcha,  coming soon.

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Michael Barone puts it all into rather stunning context at the Washington Examiner:

The upshot is that Speaker-to-be John Boehner will have a workable House majority, larger than the Republicans had during the 12 years they controlled the House from 1994 to 2006, larger than Republicans have enjoyed since the 80th Congress elected in 1946 which enacted laws which resulted in enduring public policies in 1947 and 1948. The sweet spot in the House, I would argue, is around 250 seats, enough so that you can let a fair number of your member dissent on a particular vote but not so many that dozens of members feel free to ignore...

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The most stirring election headline may come from the (UK) Daily Mail: "Republicans seize control as millions of U.S. voters turn their backs on Obama". (This is what that looks like.) 

Other good news comes in from  California voters who have rejected Prop. 19, which would have legalized marijuana, and Oklahoma voters who have amended their state constitution to forbid courts to consider sharia (Islamic law) or international law in making their decisions. Numbers USA notes...

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Election Day is finally upon us.

It's up to you, America.

Every race is important.

All the best to all the best.

Special good luck to Allen West in Florida's 22nd and Tom Tancredo in Colorado.

Gates of Vienna has been posting a series of news stories and videos (and transcripts) from a remarkable free speech event in Amsterdam yesterday that an inspiring group of stalwart Europeans -- including Tommy Robinson of the English Defense League (effectively abandoned and thrown to Leftist/jihadist protestors by Dutch police), Austria's Elisabeth Sabbaditch-Wolff (whose court date for the "crime" of quoting the Koran is November 23rd)  and Paul Weston of the IFPS-England -- staged despite the shameful cowardice of the local government.

Here are a couple of the videos (see the rest and more here):









...

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I just got a look at part of  an incendiary brochure produced by the Institute of Islamic Information and Education (Chicago, Illinois) that's being made available  to military prisoners at the US Disciplinary Barracks Prison at Fort Leavenworth. What is the III&E? Judging by this website, it's the prison-outreach arm of ISNA. And what is ISNA?

As Andrew  C. McCarthy has written:

ISNA was identified by the Justice Department at the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing conspiracy trial as an unindicted co-conspirator. The defendants at that trial were convicted of funding Hamas to the tune of millions of dollars. This should have come as no surprise. ISNA...

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Beware of Islamic jihadists shipping cargo. And especially on the weekend before midterm elections.

A friend writes:

What do you think? Isn’t this new terror attack just a bit too convenient for comfort? So, the Americans were alerted by Obama’s friends in Saudi Arabia. The packages were sent to Jews in Chicago – in the certain knowledge that Obama’s popularity among Jews has been in steep decline. Need I continue? It worked in Spain.

In other words, was this a foiled jihadist attack, or a successful Islamic influence operation?

Think of it: Right before Election Day, we witness the rise of Obama-the-Protector...

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"SOLD!"

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This week's syndicated column:

Last Sunday, the New York Times described a crude scene that smacked of not exactly petty graft. There was Afghanistan's presidential plane on the Tehran airport tarmac, waiting for one last passenger before wheels up to Kabul. The missing passenger was Iran's ambassador to Afghanistan. The ambassador, Feda Hussein Maliki, climbed aboard and took his tardy seat next to Umar Daudzai, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff and closest adviser. Maliki then presented Daudzai with a plastic bag bulging with about $1 million in packets of euros.

From Iran with love.

This, the Times reported, was "part of a secret, steady stream of Iranian cash intended to buy the loyalty of Mr. Daudzai and promote Iran's interest in the presidential palace" in Kabul.

Bad enough, but it gets worse.

...

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Here is a link to a  remarkable video  that was posted by a Guardian reporter back in February 2009. It was shot at a Marine Combat Outpost in Kunar Province -- a remote and tiny installation that probably no longer exists since the US shut down many such COPs in the wake of disastrous attacks on Wanat and Keating in a shift in battle strategy last fall. The video is of an unusual quality and intensity.

Meanwhile, if the battle has shifted in any way, the strategy remains the same. The theory is, as the reporter explained in 2009,...

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I thought that if anywhere there might be some tortuously fascinating rationale to explain away Hamid Karzai's "bags of cash" comments identifying Iran (and the US) as Big Daddy to the corruptocrats of the Karzai administration, it might appear at Contentions, possibly by Max Boot. I was not disappointed.

I was, however, stunned by the following quotation. Boot is arguing against the conclusions of a column by Fouad Ajami in which Ajami bemoans the lost "nobility" of our Afghan adventure. Boot writes:

As I suggested before, I respect Ajami’s views but in this case I do not agree with him. I believe there is just as much nobility to the war in Afghanistan as to the one in Iraq. We are, after all, fighting to make good on our post-9/11 promises to drive the Taliban out of power and establish a representative...

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Vlad Tepes has posted a string of pieces collectively entitled, "The Imam Always Gets His Man: Why Royal Candadian Mounted Police Outreach Isn't Working," that tells us that the same suicidal institutional mindset we saw on display recently among Homeland Security and FBI officials here and here addles the security institutions of our neighbors to the North -- namely, the RCMP.

Specifically, the post is about a conference in Ottowa tomorrow that RCMP members have been urged to attend. According to MacLeans, organizers include:

Green Party members who call themselves the “ Ottawa Group of Four.”...

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Photo: Manas-based refueling operation over Afghanistan this month. More spectacular photos from Spokesman-Review photographer Colin Mulvany here.

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Guess what, nephews and nieces of Uncle Sucker? We're winning hearts and minds in Kyrgyzstan, too!

The 80 percent Muslim 'stan, if you recall, is the site of the US supply base in Manas, scene of that possibly, maybe, gee-ya-think Russian-engineered coup in April. We rent rights to use the base we have built for $60 million a year, even as we build all kinds of new permanent fixtures that will (Lord willing) outlast our presence  including a current $31 million runway renovation.

But that's not enough. Nothing's ever enough. "Humanitarian assistance" -- stuff, booty, bounty, jizya? -- is also part...

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Can't seem to stop thinking about this poignant story.

From yesterday's Washington Post by David A. Fahrenthold:



ON HOLLAND ISLAND, MD. The story was strange enough to be a child's fable: In an isolated section of the Chesapeake Bay, there was a two-story Victorian house that seemed to emerge directly from the water.

And, scurrying around it, there was a retiree, trying to keep the house from falling in.

Finally, the man gave up. And last week, the house did, too. Raked by a storm, it cracked at the spine and collapsed into a one-story wreck.

The tale of the house and the man illustrates the Chesapeake's problem with rising oceans and sinking land. It has already erased life on most of the bay's islands and now is threatening...

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Every now and then, I check the headlines on my favorite political races to see how "my" candidates are doing -- LTC Allen West (USA retired), for instance, who is running for Congress in District 22 in South Florida.

It looks as if Allen's doing just great, holding on to a lead both in the polls and in fund-raising as the campaign heads into the final days.

His opponent(s), however, may have the distinction of mounting not just the sleaziest attacks in the country (releasing Allen's Social Security number in an ad, for starters), but also the lamest. I refer to the recent attempt by Klein supporters, led by US Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, to depict Allen -- an officer and a gentlemen both literally and figuratively -- as, get this, being "anti-woman,"...

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Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media (AIM) took his questions and his Flip Video recorder to the DC Green Festival, which provided a forum for ever-traitors Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. Freedom of the press, right? Barely. Video of Cliff's interview with Dorhn is posted here, where, Cliff writes, he will be adding more about the Saturday event. Meanwhile, his video-taped encounter with Green Fest organizer Kevin Danaher offers a quite chilling and literally up-close look at the classic stonewall.

Update: Well, the video was on Youtube earlier. I'll repost if it reappears.

Update: Technical difficulties solved:





 





...

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Just yesterday (Friday), one of Geert Wilders' expert witnesses, Hans Jansen, posted a blog about how a judge had tried to influence his testimony for the defense at a dinner party (!) preceding his court appearance. This triggered a Dutch media and legal reaction that led to yesterday's sensational dismissal of the banc of presiding judges and a call for a new trial with new and, it is hoped, unbiased judges.

A close observer of the case in Amsterdam calls this move a "major victory" for Wilders, writing:"The case now has to start...

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From Steynonline:

So I was reading about Oskar Freysinger of the Swiss People's Party and the curious difficulty he was having in getting a hotel in Brussels when I got the news about certain, ah, last-minute changes to the venue of my speech in London, Ontario on November 1st. The front page of today's National Post leads with "Perils Of Speaking One's Mind On Islam" over mugshots of me and Juan Williams. As Adam McDowell reports:...

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This week's syndicated column:

If, as polls show, war is "off the radar" for midterm voters, it's a non-issue for midterm candidates, too. Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, show up exactly one time apiece in the GOP Pledge to America (on one page out of 48), and merely to bolster the GOP case for sanctions against Iran. Iran "worked to harm our deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," the pledge notes. That's all there is about wars that have strained the military and drained the treasury for almost a decade and counting.

Maybe for once, the political class and the people are in sync. According to a New York Times poll, only 3 percent of voters consider "Afghanistan or the war" the most important issue of the day. Given the beleaguered state of the economy, that isn't too surprising. "What is surprising," the paper points out, "is that hardly any Americans cite the war in Afghanistan at all."

...

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Next, freedom of speech goes on trial in Austria in Viennese Regional Court on November 23, 2010 when Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wollf is slated to appear on charges of speaking frankly and honestly about Islam. Austrian authorities, like Dutch authorities, NPR, the OIC, CAIR, the Bundesbank, the US Government, etc., etc., oppose this vigirous and vital practice. Given the totalitarian powers embedded in such legal monstrosities as "hate speech" laws, Austria, like the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, and other EU countries, is putting Elisabeth on trial. I have picked up the press release on her case (below), with information about donating to Elisabeth's defense fund, from Gates of Vienna, which will be covering the case...

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From the Washington Post:

Veteran journalist Juan Williams was fired from his job as senior news analyst for National Public Radio late Wednesday because of comments he made about Muslims and terrorism on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel.

NPR said in a statement that Williams's remarks - including that he gets "worried" and "nervous" when he sees people dressed in Muslim-style clothing on airplanes - "were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR."

Williams, 56, made the remarks Wednesday after the show's host, Bill O'Reilly, asked him whether he thought the United States was facing a "Muslim dilemma." "The cold truth is that in...

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I don't know if this Getty photo of Iran's  Mohammad Ali Qanezadeh was taken before or after he heard Gen. Petraeus's  " `fairly frank and in-depth' PowerPoint briefing on NATO's aims and strategy for transferring control to Afghan forces" at international talks on Afghanistan in Rome  on Monday,  as CNN reported. In either case, the man didn't want anyone to pick up on his cell phone conversation, that's for sure. 

It was Iran's first appearance at international talks on Afghanistan. However they turn out, Qanezadeh could make a fortune in Hollywood playing cold, dead-eyed and ruthless international assassins.

Trolling for ayatollahs and other Iranian support, Nouri al-Maliki popped up in Tehran this week to find Khameini and Ahamdinejad both  in fine form, railing against Western and American influence in the region. Not to be outdone ...

Maliki returned the favor by declaring that “Iraq pursues increasing relations with Iran in all fields.” According to Iran’s official English-language agency, PressTV, Maliki also praised Ahmadinejad’s recent trip to Lebanon: “During your visit to Lebanon, the Zionist regime [of Israel] was on high [military] alert, which proved they are really cowards,” he declared.

Photo: Scrapped -- both the Harrier jets and the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal

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From the Guardian:

Britain's armed forces will no longer be able to mount the kind of operations conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan, the government's strategic defence review made clear today. For at least a decade it will also be impossible to deploy the kind of carrier taskforce which liberated the Falklands 28 years ago.

Though defence chiefs said today they will still have significant expeditionary forces, they will not be able to intervene on the scale of recent years. ...

Shocking on its face, to be sure. But honestly, what did such "intervention" -- blood and treasure to the tune of a £36bn "black hole" in the British...

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Polling indicates that only 3 percent of Americans consider Afghanistan an important issue -- correction: the most important issue -- as we pull into Election Day (I don't think Iraq even made it into the question), so 97 percent of us won't care about the following reports.

From the AP:

Afghan lawmaker: Karzai in talks with Haqqani

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A lawmaker says the Afghan government has been in reconciliation talks for months with members of a Taliban faction closely tied to al-Qaida and responsible for lethal attacks on coalition forces and bombings inside Kabul.

The parliamentarian, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, says the government has been in direct contact with Jalaludin Haqqani, the leader of the Pakistan-based Haqqani network.

The New York Times reported Wednesday...

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Mohammed Enait, counselor for plaintiffs in the Wilders Trial

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The spectacle continues.

Following Friday's announcement that prosecutors in the Geert Wilders trial in Amsterdam have recommended that Wilders be acquitted, the trial of course (?) continues until November 5 when the judge hands down his or -- who knows? -- some other entity's verdict.

If the proceedings to date have resembled something out of Kafka or Koestler, we have now entered pure Waugh.

Below, Mohammed Enait, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, appears in a video via Vlad Tepes. I thought I recognized that mug, and sure enough I reported...

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Last week, I reported that Oskar Freysinger, the prominent member of the Swiss People's Party who led the successful and model campaign to ban minaret construction in Switzerland (and whom I interviewed here), had been invited to Brussels to speak about Islam in Europe only to have two hotels cancel venues out from under him in dhimmi-deference to sharia dictates against criticizing Islam.  Filip Dewinter, the prominent Vlaams Belang politician known for his campaigns to halt Islamization in Belgium and to liberate Flanders from Belgium (and whom I have interviewed and written about here), offered Freysinger what I call "asylum from sharia" inside the Flemish parliament in Brussels. There, Freysinger delivered his planned address in French. We are fortunate that Gates of Vienna has called on the services of French correspondent l’échappée belle, who delivered the fine translation below.

...

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This week's column:

All eyes on the war on free speech, the one that Dutch powers-that-be are waging inside an Amsterdam courtroom. That's where Geert Wilders is standing trial for his increasingly popular political platform, based on his analysis of the anti-Western laws and principles of Islam, that rejects the Islamization of the Netherlands. But don't stop there. There's much more to see in the trial of Wilders, whose Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom) is the silent partner in the Netherlands' brand new center-right coalition government. That camel in the courtroom is the tip off.

You haven't noticed it? I've been watching it since last year, when sometime after Dutch prosecutors announced in January 2009 that Wilders would go to trial for "insulting" Muslims and "inciting" hatred against them, Stephen Coughlin,...

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Andrew Bostom sent along this intriguing report from the Jerusalem Post:

"Israeli-Greco ties in bloom as Greek FM's arrival nears"

The newly kindled Israeli- Greek romance continues to blossom, as Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas is expected in Jerusalem on Monday, a week after a high level official from the Greek Prime Minister’s Office came to Israel to “map out fields of cooperation” between the two countries. Droustas will arrive as part of a three-day regional tour that will also take him to the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. A Greek diplomatic official said the visit is further indication of the significant strengthening of ties between the two countries.

His visit will come just four days after Greece and Israel are scheduled to conclude a four-day joint military exercise. Eight Israeli helicopters are currently taking part in the combat search-and-rescue...

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Here's a video tag to last week's musings on "intelligence" and "society's shredding fabric."

No fan of women in combat moi but the sight of American women troops suited up for combat wearing hijabs in deference to Islam is enough to make any American roar. Or should be.

From Stars and Stripes.

Headline: "A woman's touch: Engagement teams make inroads with Afghanistan's female community"

Female servicemembers are going where their male counterparts often can’t: inside Afghan homes to engage with women barred by custom from talking to male strangers.

Never mind that those customs are Islamically derived, but what else is new? Nothing. In fact, this very long story kind of writes itself:

The teams reach out to Afghan women, who typically go inside or shroud themselves in burqas when U.S. male soldiers...

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Oskar Freysinger of the Swiss People's Party and Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang outside the Flemish Parliament on October 9, 2010.

From what I can gather from assorted reports, Oskar Freysinger, the Swiss force of nature (Alpine avalanche?) behind the country's successful, lawful and democratically determined and all-around-wonderful ban on minarets, was recently invited to Brussels to speak on the dangers of Islam. Due to alleged (and wholly plausible pressure) from Socialist Mayor Freddy Thielemans, two venues successively booked to host the event were cancelled out from under him. First, the Crowne Plaza Hotel and, next, the Diamond Centre Hotel both shut their doors to Freysinger -- something for Brussels-bound travellers to remember when booking lodging.

...

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