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Title: THE FEDERALIST
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19 September 2003
Federalist No.
03-38
Friday Digest
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THE FOUNDATION
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to
political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In
vain
would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert
these great Pillars." --George Washington in his Farewell Address delivered
this
day, September 19, 1796
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FEDERALIST
PERSPECTIVE
Top of the
fold...
The first full week of the third year in the war
against Jihadistan has proved full of promise, progress and setbacks. The
campaign to build an Iraqi republic -- in the heart of the Middle East --
continues to progress with measured success, despite much Leftmedia
hand-wringing and Leftpolitico Monday-morning
quarterbacking.
There are
additional intelligence reports this week supporting previous evidence
The Federalist reported in November of '02
that Iraq shipped some of its biological and nuclear WMD stores to Syria
and the
Bekaa Valley. This comes on top of last week's assessment from Israel's Mossad
that Syrian strongman Bashar Assad allowed Saddam's primitive nukes (possibly
with cores for three) to transit through Syria to a protected site in Lebanon's
heavily fortified Bekaa Valley.
Former Iraqi Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmad,
defense minister under Saddam's Ba'athist regime, surrendered yesterday to
Maj.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division. After weeks of
negotiations, Ahmad turned himself in on the condition that his name be removed
from the U.S. military's "55 most-wanted" list, meaning he will not be subject
to indefinite confinement and will possibly be shielded from prosecution. The
move to accept the former minister's surrender on these terms is hoped to quell
some of the guerilla violence that continues to threaten U.S. troops on the
ground in Iraq.
For the record, on Wednesday President George Bush
reiterated the administration's position that Saddam Hussein is not known to
have directly conspired with al-Qa'ida in the commission of the September 11
terrorist attacks, though the former Iraqi regime's ties with the terrorist
group were strong: "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved
with...September 11," said President Bush, adding, "There's no question that
Saddam Hussein had al-Qa'ida ties."
National Security Advisor
Condoleezza
Rice remarked that the administration has "never claimed that Saddam
Hussein had
either direction or control of 9/11." Dr. Rice went on to say, "What we have
said is that [Saddam] supported terrorists, helped to train them, but most
importantly that this is someone who, with his animus toward the United States,
with his penchant for and capability to gain weapons of mass destruction, and
his obvious willingness to use them, was a threat in this region that we were
not prepared to tolerate."
While Saddam did not leave a paper trail
sufficient to suggest he personally vetted al-Qa'ida's 9/11 attack on our
countrymen, here is just a bit of what we do know about Saddam's coddling of
al-Qa'ida terrorists. Under Saddam's reign of terror, Iraq provided chemical
and biological weapons training for al-Qa'ida terrorists and in 2002 provided
medical care for senior al-Qa'ida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and safe haven
for two dozen al-Qa'ida terrorists travelling with him. Facilities in northern
Iraq run by Zarqawi and terrorist network Ansar al-Islam included al-Qa'ida
poisons/toxins laboratories and planning centers for attacks against France,
Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia.
For the record,
The Federalist reiterates its standing
position: The United States deposed Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist regime in
order to prevent -- if not too late -- the transfer of nuclear and biological
WMD intent for use against the U.S. and its allies by al-Qa'ida or other
terrorist surrogates. The primary objective of al-Qa'ida and their
collaborators remains to disable the U.S. economy permanently, and thus
disrupt
its political, economic and equally important,
cultural influence around the
world.
Regarding the prosecution of our war with al-Qa'ida Jihadis, a
Spanish judge issued an indictment against 35 members of al-Qa'ida, followed by
the arrest of five of them the following day in southern Spain. Ten of those
listed in the indictment are charged with direct involvement in the
September 11
terrorist attacks, while others listed are connected with the vehemently
anti-Western Al-Jazeera Arab television network.
While our Spanish
allies
continue to combat terrorism at home, France, again offered the opportunity to
participate in Iraq's reconstruction and movement to autonomy, continues to
reject a U.S.-drafted UNSC resolution to that effect. No longer a recalcitrant
ally, France is morphing into an outright enemy of U.S. security,
democratization and global stabilization. At first demanding UN control of
Iraq, the French are -- literally within a matter of days -- now insisting on
immediate Iraqi self-rule. Prior to this, the French government prevented the
UNSC from fulfilling its own resolution to use force against Hussein's Iraq --
which owed the French billions in IOUs, not to mention France's lucrative oil
contracts with the Ba'athist regime (also in violation of UNSC
resolutions).
The latest UN draft resolution for assistance in the
reconstruction of Iraq employs the precise language and rationale used by the
French themselves to justify their incursion into the Ivory Coast earlier this
year, according to the UNSC resolution they obtained for the purpose. If the
French reject this, their anti-Americanism will be laid barer than it already
is, and Franco-American relations will have reached yet another historic
low.
Quote of the week...
"Since America put out the fires of September the 11th, and
mourned our dead, and went to war, history has taken a different turn. We have
carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to
civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its
power." --George W. Bush
Open
query...
"Do images of those fighting on the peaks of
Afghanistan or in the desert of Iraq, when juxtaposed to the rallies on our
elite campuses, suggest that a populist military is doing a better or worse job
than our privileged universities in training our youth to be educated,
well-spoken, and rational?" --Victor Davis
Hanson
The BIG lie...
"There
was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the
Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good
politically. This whole thing was a fraud." --Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-UI)
**That whole 9/11 thing was also cooked up to "be
good
politically."
On
cross-examination...
"Modern Democrats insist on confronting
thugs and tyrants with tea and sympathy. This approach was expressed indelibly
by Michael Dukakis in 1988, who, when asked during the debates with George
H.W.
Bush how he would deal with a rapist in his wife's bedroom, offered to set up a
blue-ribbon commission to study the root causes of crime. Poor Kitty Dukakis
was to be left in her nightie to deal with the brute while the little Duke
hurried off in search of ribbons." --Wesley Pruden
In other news...
Saudi
Arabia has made it known that it wants to purchase nuclear weapons. Allegedly
feeling pressured by a weakening of its U.S. relations, calling into question
Riyadh's reliance on the U.S. nuclear umbrella, combined with the threat of a
nuclear-capable Iran from the east as well as the very real threat of 200
Israeli nuclear warheads from the west, the Saudi government is contemplating
the acquisition of its own nuclear deterrent. The Saudis are also reportedly
considering two other options: The inception of a defense alliance with an
existing nuclear power, and a regional agreement creating a verifiably
nuclear-free Middle East.
The Saudis already possess a number of
nuclear-capable medium-range ballistic missiles purchased from the Chinese in
1988. Four years ago, Saudi defense officials established contact with
Pakistan
regarding its successful nuclear weapons program.
China, however,
may not
be the greatest weapons-proliferation threat -- nor, for that matter, is North
Korea. The State Department this week announced its sanctions imposed on
Russia's government-owned weapons technology company, Tula KBP. Leading up to
the second Gulf War, the firm sold thousands of Kornet antitank missiles --
capable of destroying U.S. Abrams tanks -- to Saddam's Iraq. More recently,
however, Tula KBP sold an array of advanced conventional weapons systems to
Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism, the State Department reports. The CIA
notes
that known Russian arms sales to Iran alone are valued at some $300 million
every year.
News from the
Swamp...
In the House, it was by a margin of one vote that
Reps approved a modest "parental choice" school voucher plan last week to help
poor kids trapped in the District of Columbia's failed public school system get
a better education at one of the area's private schools -- where plenty of
hypocritical Swamptsters send their own kids. While spending per student
in the
District is 50% higher than the national average, college-bound students
"graduating" from that system scored a measly 799 on their combined math and
verbal SATs in 2003. The national average was 1026. In stark contrast to these
woeful public-school numbers, the average was 1190 in D.C. parochial
schools and
1218 in D.C. independent schools.
It was Ted Kennedy and his cadre of
Sociocrat elites that opened the doors to let black kids into government
schools
– yet now he’s locked the doors and won't let them out! Rep. Tom
Davis notes, "[The Demos] have union endorsements, union money. These poor
black families don't have a PAC."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein seemingly broke
ranks with Kennedy, saying, "Based on the substantial amount of money pumped
into the [government schools] and the resultant test scores, I do not believe
that money alone is going to solve the problem." Of course, the fundamental
problem is the breakdown of families, largely the result of many years of
Leftist social engineering by Kennedy, Feinstein, et al. (Perhaps these
Leftists would support a voucher plan that helps D.C. kids find caring
fathers.)
The Senate passed the partial-birth-abortion ban 93-0,
unanimously for those in session, sending the measure to conference committee
with the House version. The Senate's bill, unlike the House's, includes
language affirming support for the 1973 Roe v Wade decision in which the
Supreme
Court insisted that the constitutional right to privacy includes taking the
lives of unborn children. Sen. Rick Santorum pledges that the pro-abortion
rhetoric will be stripped from the bill that emerges from conference. Next
stop, probably by this fall: On to President Bush for his signature ... and
then surely a court challenge before the
Supremes.
On the Homeland Security
front...
The Department of Homeland Security is worried
-- and
rightly so -- about the California Demo government's decision to issue driver's
licenses to illegal immigrants. The licenses previously were used as proof of
citizenship to border guards for re-entry to the U.S. after short trips across
the border. Congressman Duncan Hunter, who chairs the House Armed Services
Committee, is joining those proposing that Congress cut transportation funding
to states that license illegal entrants. Indeed, Hunter may back
legislation by
friend of The Federalist and Colorado Rep.
Tom Tancredo to reduce by 25% over five years highway money to these
states.
The FBI is warning that food and water are likely targets of
future al-Qa'ida attacks on our countrymen here at home, alerting that these
Jihadis are intent on hitting us here again. FBI head counterterrorism
official
Larry Mefford noted that al-Qa'ida cells remain in the U.S. and, "Our concern
continues to be what exists in the United States that we're unaware
of."
President Bush has ordered creation of a centralized master list of
terrorists, likely to contain over 100,000 names culled from lists scattered
throughout various agencies. Access to the master list would be available to
local police, airport-security officers and those issuing U.S. travel
visas.
Judicial
Benchmarks...
From the Leftjudiciary, re-warming the
tactic of
using the Leftjudiciary to decide elections (which made its grand debut in the
2000 presidential race), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has
interjected a
federal ruling that conflicts with California's state constitution in order to
cover Gray Davis's derrière. The "Circus" court gave legs to the ACLU's
claim that minority voters would be especially disadvantaged by some counties'
use of punch-card voting machines and ruled that the recall must be delayed
from
its scheduled October 7. In other words, the voting machines were
sufficient to
elect Gray Davis, but not to dispose of him.
From the "Non Compos Mentis"
Files...
"This decision is a masterpiece." --Mark Rosenbaum,
ACLU legal director, on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision delaying
California's October 7 recall election.
On
the Left...
Wesley K. Clark dropped his hat into the ring for
the Demo presidential sweepstakes, putting national-security issues back in
play
for partisan campaigning. Make no mistake, the "K" stands for and Clark is a
Klintonista through and through -- born in Arkansas, same distressing family
pathology, same academic achievement record, including a Rhodes Scholarship,
same unmitigated narcissistic drive for power, same meteoric rise under the
Clinton regime, and same degree of loathing by many of his senior officers
because of his unmitigated self-promotion rather than patriotic drive. To be
sure, Wes is no Ike. Federalist political
analysts estimate that Clark is really vying for the veepstakes -- to be
Hillary
Clinton's running mate for '04 -- uh, we mean '08.
This week's "Braying
Jackass" award: "I believe the right wing of the Republican Party is
deliberately undermining the democratic underpinnings of this country. I
believe they do not care what Americans think and they do not accept the
legitimacy of our elections and have now, for the fourth time in the fourth
state, attempted to do what they can to remove democracy from America." --Demo
presidential contender Howard Dean
This week's "Alpha Jackass" award:
"His campaign reminds me a lot of what we did 30 years ago." --Former Democrat
presidential candidate George McGovern on Howard Dean's campaign
**Oh, we certainly hope so!
From the "Non Compos Mentis"
Files...
Another Arkansan, and notable draft dodger, Bill
Clinton, was also on the stump. "The last election was tight as a tick," he
yammered to an Iowa crowd. "That election was not a mandate for a radical
change, but that was what we got." (Certainly one "radical change" from the
Clintonista reign to the Bush administration regards much-improved personal
moral conduct and better treatment and use of our military
forces.)
Clinton nattered on, "Instead of uniting the world, we
alienated
it. Instead of uniting the country, he [President Bush] alienated it."
Unfortunately for the Great Prevaricator, evidence is mounting that our
self-defensive war with the Jihadi terrorists, post 9/11, might have been
averted, had Clinton treated earlier terrorist attacks as acts of war rather
than relatively minor crimes -- and had he actively pursued Osama bin Laden
when
given chances to apprehend (or otherwise neutralize) the lead
Jihadi.
Around the
nation...
From the states, Texas voters passed a
constitutional amendment to allow the state legislature to cap damages in civil
lawsuits. Republican Gov. Rick Perry noted, "It appears Texans agree we've
become too litigious in our society. This will be a much-needed victory for
doctors, nurses or hospital employees all across the state of Texas whose
futures have been jeopardized by the skyrocketing liability-insurance
loss."
In Second Amendment matters, Missouri state lawmakers overrode
Gov. Bob Holden's veto, and that state now becomes the 45th to approve
right-to-carry permits. The House voted 115-45 to override, with the Senate
narrowly following suit in a 23-10 vote just making the two-thirds majority
cut.
The deciding vote in the Senate was cast by John Dolan, an Army Reserve
public-affairs officer, who took special leave from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in
order to attend the special session. Missouri lawmakers also overrode Holden's
veto of a bill forbidding Missouri municipalities from suing gun manufacturers.
Who couldn't predict this one! Apparently Bush administration handlers
have forgotten January of 2000 when Clintonista Janet Reno's thugs deported
Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban refugee, whose mother died in their
struggle to escape Fidel Castro's tyranny and reach the shores of freedom,
where
she and Elian would be reunited with family members. Last month, the Bush
administration sent 12 Cuban refugees back to Havana after they were picked up
by the U.S. Coast Guard on a Cuban mapping boat, prompting exiled Cuban leaders
in Florida to protest. On Monday, 13 Republican state legislators,
including 10
Cuban-Americans, demanded in a letter that Mr. Bush make "substantial progress"
on the Cuban-American agenda against Red tyrant Fidel Castro, or "we fear the
historic and intense support from Cuban-American voters for Republican federal
candidates, including yourself, will be jeopardized."
Topographical
nomenclature is on the verge of a great new era, as the New Hampshire state
legislature prepares to name one of the tallest peaks in the White Mountain
Range in honor of President Ronald Reagan. Mount Reagan, standing at 5,553
feet, will stand alongside the peak named for President George Washington, and
joins the others named in the state's prestigious Presidential Range --
Presidents Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Monroe, Pierce and Eisenhower. In naming
the peak for Mr. Reagan prior to his death, New Hampshire is violating a
federal
law which mandates that a president must be deceased for a minimum of five
years
before a mountain can be named in his honor. (We at
The Federalist were just wondering where
within the Constitution is the language that grants mountain-naming
authority to
the central government.) The state legislature voted to simply "ignore" the
federal law, however, and we're certain President Reagan would be pleased with
New Hampshire's pro-federalist stand.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The best news we
heard from the states this week came from Illinois and Michigan, where we added
two little Federalists to our ranks! The
wife of our Associate Technical Administrator Joshua Murray gave birth to a
son,
and the wife of our Content Editor Gustavus "Gus" Andrews also gave birth to a
son. Moms and babes are healthy and doing great -- which is more than we can
say for the dads! And to those moms, we say Ooorah!
In business/economic news...
Though not much of a surprise, last Sunday's
collapse of
the World Trade Organization free-trade talks in Cancun, Mexico, came as a
great
disappointment. Though by definition a trade-regulation apparatus, the WTO's
objective is to dismantle global trade
barriers by January 2005. If the Cancun talks are any indication, this worthy
aspiration is DOA, giving the proponents of protectionism a significant boost.
In the case of Cancun, there is plenty of blame to go around: Blame goes to the
European Union for its hypocritical stance regarding its trade barriers and
politically motivated farm subsidies -- subsidies that in essence keep
sub-Saharan Africa in perpetual poverty. The U.S. role at Cancun leaves it to
blame for profligating the same economically-crippling protectionism and
subsidization (though not hesitating to cynically point out
Europe's hypocrisy). Finally, contrary to
popular opinion, blame also goes to the Third (often-dubbed "Developing") World
for its stubborn resistance to open-market concessions of the kind they
demanded
from the industrialized nations.
The tragedy of Cancun is, of course,
that all parties would benefit from the reduction or elimination of market
barriers. If the U.S. is serious about our own economic prosperity, the
elevation of the Third World and security through global stabilization,
there is
only one course of action: unilateral free trade. Though such a transition
could be painful, in the absence of a generally accepted WTO free trade plan,
such a move would ultimately prove a great leap forward into an era of
capitalist prosperity and democratic security.
The
Wall Street Journal editors note: "From a
free trader's view, after all, the World Trade Organization is a protectionist
device. It allows countries to justify, on grounds of treaty reciprocity,
limits on trade that otherwise make no economic sense. Perhaps it's time for
the U.S. and other countries that benefit from open global markets to begin
once again practicing unilateral free trade. ... Such a policy kept Britain
rich for decades in an earlier era, and it would do the same for us now. And
the example for the rest of the world would do more for free trade than all the
Cancun conferences from here to the next century."
On the frontiers of junk science...
Senator James Inhofe, Chairman, Committee On
Environment
And Public Works, had a few words recently on the "junk science" undergirding
efforts by Leftists, ostensibly concerned for the environment, to increase the
power and control of centralized government: "Recently, 46 leading climate
experts wrote an open letter to Canada's National Post on June 3 claiming that
the Kyoto Protocol 'lacks credible science.' Many other scientists share the
same view. Over 4,000 scientists, 70 of whom are Nobel Prize winners, signed
the so-called Heidelberg Appeal, which says that no compelling evidence exists
to justify controls of anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions. I want to
repeat
that: over 4,000 scientists, 70 of whom are Nobel Prize winners, signed the
so-called Heidelberg Appeal, which says that no compelling evidence exists to
justify controls of anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions. I also point to a
1998 recent survey of state climatologists, which reveals that a majority of
respondents have serious doubts about whether anthropogenic emissions of
greenhouse gases present a serious threat to climate
stability."
Around the
world...
The Israeli cabinet has decided to "remove" head
Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat one way or another. The UN Security
Council
on Tuesday responded to this self-defensive plan to remove an obstacle on the
so-called road map by trotting out a resolution calling for Israel to reverse
the decision to oust Arafat -- which the U.S. ambassador to the UN, John
Negroponte, promptly vetoed. Negroponte pointed out that the measure failed to
condemn the terrorist acts that moved the Israelis to the decision.
And
remember when we had that tiff with the Red Chinese holding our downed aircraft
and crew? That seems so long ago, pre 9/11, at April 1, 2001. Released
information reveals that the crew failed to complete destruction of classified
materials before the emergency landing on Hainan Island, so that the Chinese
Reds may have gotten their hands on some prime secret info.
Jose Maria
Aznar, Prime Minister of Spain and one of the few staunch U.S. allies in
Western Europe, is set to step down from office next year in keeping with his
1996 promise of a self-imposed two-term limit. Why is this significant? Aznar
will be the first Spanish head of state to leave office without revolution or
coercion since the abdication of Charles V in 1556. In so doing, Sr. Aznar is
restoring credibility to Spanish democracy, just as he restored credibility to
Spanish conservatism following the fascist tyranny of Franco and the subsequent
backlash to the Left. Aside from these monumental accomplishments, Aznar has
introduced fiscal policies contributing to the creation of four million new
jobs
in a nation of 40 million, he has worked for the stabilization of Central and
South America, he has pressed for a strengthening of the trans-Atlantic
relationship, and he has provided an effective counter-voice to the rampant
anti-Americanism of France and Germany. When asked about French President
Jacque Chirac's use of the term "la résistance" to denote Islamic
terrorists operating in Iraq, Aznar said with a smirk, "It's a very French
position."
And
last...
Upstaging even Michael Moore's "documentary"
propaganda, to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (AKA "North" Korea), Pyongyang hosted an 8-day film festival
featuring the "immortal feats" of Kim Il Sung and the political charisma and
statesmanship of recently "re-elected" Kim Jong Il. Among the documentary
films
dedicated to Il Sung were "The Leader Is the Great Father of Our People" and
"The Fatherly Leader with the Working Class." Other films dedicated to the
exploits of Kim Jong Il include "Having the Great Brilliant Commander," "Care
Shown to Make Their Lives Shine" and "Legend of Love Created on the Road of
On-Site Guidance." Other cinematic feats debuted at the festival are "My
Country," "The Birth of a New Government" parts 1 and 2, "The Nation and
Destiny" and "People of Jagang Province" parts 1 and 2.
Lex et Libertas
-- Semper Vigilo, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for the
editors and staff. (Please pray on this day, and every day, for our Patriot
Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty,
and for the families awaiting their safe return.)
-- PUBLIUS --
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