July 30, 2005

What the Deal is on Pakistan (and an Interview with Someone Who Supports Killing Women and Children)

In a recent post, I closed with "So what exactly is the deal [with Pakistan]? Stay tuned." Details on what the deal is there are provided in this MSNBC interview, conducted by Monica Crowley, with Daniel Pipes, author of Militant Islam Reaches America, and Azzam Tamimi, director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought and a senior member of the Muslim Society of Great Britain:

Crowley: Daniel, I begin with you on the question of Pakistan. How reliable are the Pakistanis as an ally to the United States in this war?

Pipes: Well, the government of Parvez Musharraf has said the right thing, makes the right noises, but has not cracked down. And so there is a problem. And the problem is a deep problem, because in fact the forces of radical Islam are popular in Pakistan. The clip you saw with Tom Brokaw suggests, [Musharraf] would be in danger [if] he took steps against radical Islam. So, to call the government an ally is to give it the benefit of the doubt, but it is not an ally in the war. It is caught between us and its constituency of Islamists.

...

Crowley: Daniel, you mentioned earlier that Musharraf is walking a political tight rope here because his country has a huge constituency of radical Islamists who are certainly engaged in terrorist activity, he's got the fundamentalists he has to worry about, and pressure from the United States and from the west to crack down on the groups and individuals. It's amazing to me that Musharraf has been able to survive for so long. How has he been able to manage that? And is that tenable into the future?

Pipes: He has been able to survive in part through luck. There have been significant attacks on him and some people have died in the course but he has survived. I am a little surprised that Mr. Tamimi looks to socio-economic reasons and talks about dignity and the like, when he lives in London and London just some days ago had rounds of explosions killing 55 people. It had nothing to do with dignity and poverty and humiliation or lack of democracy. Britain is a democratic, rich country. The point is that the ideologues in Leeds or the ideologues in Pakistan seek to overthrow whatever government and impose Islamic order, a radical Islamic order. And they are not people who can be bought off through concessions; they are people who have to be defeated. Either Mr. Musharraf is someone who will defeat him or he is not. I think we have to put him to the test. We have not done that yet. We have accepted his good will but have not pushed him hard enough to take the steps to crack down in a way required in Pakistan.

Crowley: Daniel, do you believe the will exists in Pakistan for Musharraf to do that even if he wanted to?

Pipes: I think that if he is a supple and cautious and long-range strategic politician and general he can manage it. It won't be easy, but he needs to do it for his own survival as well as for our interests.

So that's what's up: Pakistan is a hotbed of Islamofascism, and Musharraf hasn't yet found a way to shut that down.

Monica Crowley wouldn't tolerate Tamimi's insults directed towards Pipes. The following is a message from Pipes to his email list:

Dear Reader:

Islamists have insulted me many times on television but never before has an anchor stood up on my behalf and prevented a fellow panelist from continuing - until Monica Crowley did so for me earlier this week, as seen in the transcript below. Here is an excerpt:
 
Tamimi: ... You [the U.S. media] don’t want to enlighten the American people about what actually goes on in the world. And you bring in the likes of Daniel Pipes to continue to keep the American people in the dark. You should listen for a change --

Crowley: You know, excuse me Azzam, I’m sorry I try to be respectful of all of my guests, it seems you are grossly --

Tamimi: You have not respected me from the beginning. You called my statement outrageous --

Crowley: That is because you are blanketing us with untruths and I just, I have to put a stop to it on my program. I’m sorry.

And with that, Tamimi was left speaking into a dead microphone. I am most grateful to Ms Crowley. I also plan to write a column on the subject of putting "the likes of" Azzam Tamimi, someone who has declared his own willingness to be a suicide bomber (see below for a link to his saying that), on American television.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Pipes

Pipes is not exaggerating about Tamimi's declaration of willingness to be a suicide bomber:

TIM SEBASTIAN: And meanwhile you advocate the suicide bombing. You said on an internet chat forum early in 2003: 'For us Moslems martyrdom is not the end of things but the beginning of the most wonderful of things'.

If it's so wonderful to go and blow yourself up in a public place in Israel why don't you do it?

...

DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI: Not a single person of those who bomb themselves, bomb themselves because they are desperate or poor. It doesn't happen because of this. They do it because they want to sacrifice themselves for a cause after all avenues have been closed before them. If the Palestinians today are given F16s and Apache helicopters ...

TIM SEBASTIAN: No - please come back to my question. Please come back to my question. Why if it is so glorious and honourable to do this, why don't you do it?

DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI: I would do it ...

TIM SEBASTIAN: When?

DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI: If I have the opportunity I would do it ...

TIM SEBASTIAN: When are you going to do it?

DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI: When? If I can go to Palestine and sacrifice myself I would do it. Why not?

TIM SEBASTIAN: So what's stopping you?

DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI: I cannot go to Palestine. I cannot go to Palestine.

TIM SEBASTIAN: You simply can't get in?

DR AZZAM AL-TAMIMI: No, I cannot get in.

That's the villains in this drama; they like to kill women and children. To defeat them, it's necessary to impose rigorous blow-back on the communities that give birth to the terrorist killers themselves. I discuss this most recently here.

The Case for Profiling: a Laundry List of Terrorist Actions Committed by Islamists

Circulating on the Internet:

HISTORY TEST

Please pause a moment, reflect back, and take the following multiple choice test. The events are actual cuts from past history. They all actually happened!!!

Do you remember?

In 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40

1. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:
a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

2. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

3. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

4. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

5. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and    thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davy Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

6. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly be tween the ages of 17 and 40

7. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

8. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons  ;
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

9. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

10. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of      the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

11. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


13. 2004 - Spain Railway bombings. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40


AND NOW!

14. 2005 London Railway bombings Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

Nope, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you?

So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security   screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winning and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 and 40 alone because of profiling.

Let's send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds and other  Dunder-headed attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel doubly ashamed of themselves - if they have any such sense.

As the writer of the award winning story "Forrest Gump" so aptly put it, "Stupid is as stupid does."

Come on people wake up!!! Keep this going. Pass it on to everyone in your address book. Our Country and our troops need our support and prayers

(Hat tip: Lily Steiner)

The Subject of What Appeared to Be A Far-Fetched Post, Becomes a Reality Less than Three Weeks Later

When I started posting here on July 12th, about deporting Islamofascists, I thought I was suggesting something that was good policy, but that was unlikely to be implemented. Yet now, just a few weeks later, it's happening in France.

France ejects 12 Islamic 'preachers of hate'

Imams and their followers who fuel anti-western feeling among impressionable young French Muslims will be rounded up and returned to their countries of origin, most commonly in France's case to its former north African colonies.

Mr Sarkozy also revealed that as many as 12 French mosques associated with provocative anti-western preaching were under surveillance. Imams indulging in inflammatory rhetoric will be expelled even if their religious status is recognised by mainstream Muslim bodies.

Those who have assumed French citizenship will not be protected from deportation. Mr Sarkozy said he will reactivate measures, "already available in our penal code but simply not used", to strip undesirables of their adopted nationality. "We have to act against radical preachers capable of influencing the youngest and most weak-minded," Mr Sarkozy told the French daily Le Parisien.

They're being deported in a manner similar to something I discussed in a comment:

The question of where to deport them to, may depend on the agreement of the receiving nation. One possibility may be to seek agreements permitting them to be deported to the country of their heritage—Pakistanis to Pakistan, Iranians to Iran, and so forth.

Deport enough of the people who support Islamofascists, and their society will cease to produce new killers. To stop the production of new terrorists, there must be a cost to the society that encourages them. It's not enough just to arrest or kill those directly responsible for the terrorist actions, because the society that produces them will just bring forth more of them. But impose some fairly rigorous blow-back on that society -- in this example, by deporting enough of them -- and all that will stop. This is the way to fight the Islamofascists. England and America would be well-advised to follow suit.

Update, August 5th -- England is now deporting terrorists as well. 

Update, August 16th -- Italy is expelling them now as well. 

A QUESTION TO READERS OF THIS BLOG. With all the serious stories going on around the world, that I like to blog on here, is it fun to also see occasional posts here on lighter subjects (like the one right before this on HDTV) or is it distracting? I'd be interested in any and all input, either in comments to this post, or by email. Thanks in advance to all for your thoughts.

TOP HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS AGREE ON STANDARDS FOR DIGITAL FILMS:

NEW YORK — Digital cinema, the long-awaited technology to make movies in the theater more vivid and versatile, took a big step from fantasy to reality Wednesday.

All of Hollywood's top studios endorsed a set of technical specifications defining how sharp digital films must be and creating mechanisms to fight piracy. They vowed to begin using them to offer digital versions of their new productions to theater owners as early as this year in some cases.

"It's a giant leap forward for those of us who create movies and ... for everyone who sees them," Star Wars director George Lucas, a longtime digital cinema advocate, said in a statement. "Digital cinema will increasingly become the standard and will change the way movies are made, seen and experienced around the world."

Unlike celluloid, movies in digital form won't scratch or smudge. They can include multiple soundtracks in different languages, and can easily project 3-D images.

And if that wasn't big enough news:

The new specifications, from studio-backed consortium Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), require digital movies to have at least twice as many lines of resolution as a high-definition television — and clear the way for an alternative that's four times as sharp.

HDTVs "give most of the colors of the rainbow, but not all of them," says DCI Chief Technology Officer Walt Ordway. "There is no color that appears in the spectrum that cannot be digitally represented" in the files studios will use.

That means that within a few years after everyone who wants to, upgrades their home systems to HDTV, they will then have the opportunity to upgrade yet again to this new standard. And what a standard -- four times as sharp as HDTV.