A Terrorist Group "That Combines Philanthropy and Militancy"
March 18, 2005
A Terrorist Group "That Combines
Philanthropy and Militancy"
"Hamas, the Islamic group that combines philanthropy and militancy, confirmed
publicly on Saturday that it would take part in Palestinian legislative
elections scheduled for July 17, ending a 10-year boycott of the Palestinian
Authority."
- Steven Erlanger, March 13.
"Quiet Anguish" Over Wolfowitz's
"Radioactive Reputation"
"President Bush said today that he would nominate Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy
secretary of defense and one of the chief architects of the invasion of Iraq two
years ago, to become president of the World Bank. The announcement, coming on
the heels of the appointment of John R. Bolton as the new American ambassador to
the United Nations, was greeted with quiet anguish in those foreign capitals
where the Iraq conflict and its aftermath remain deeply unpopular, and where Mr.
Wolfowitz's drive to spread democracy around the world has been viewed with some
suspicion.Despite the displeasure of some diplomats who had hoped that the
administration would appoint a person without the almost radioactive reputation
of a committed ideologue, they said that they expected Mr. Wolfowitz to receive
the approval of the World Bank's board of directors in time for Mr. Wolfensohn's
departure in May."
- Original online version of a story from David Sanger and Elizabeth Becker
on Bush's choosing of Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank, March 16.
Terrorist Leader as "Heroic
Alternative"
"[Yasir Arafat] was right about at least one big thing. Arafat's core insight,
derived in the 1960's from Frantz Fanon, was to reject the ascendant pan-Arabism
of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser and to posit instead a Palestinian exceptionalism.
He believed that a distinct Palestinian nationalism would take shape through
armed struggle with Israel. After Israel humiliated Nasser and the Arab armies
in the Six-Day War in 1967, Arafat and his vision emerged as the heroic
alternative."
- Former Jerusalem Bureau Chief James Bennet, March 13 cover story for the
Times Sunday Magazine.
Bret Schundler, Neo-Nazis: Same
Thing?
"You could call a fight for the hearts and minds of the far right in New Jersey
- a state that voted convincingly for John Kerry last November - something of
a Pyrrhic victory."
- New Jersey reporter Josh Benson on former Jersey City Mayor Bret
Schundler's battle for the Republican nomination for New Jersey governor, March
13.
"Germany's Far Right Tries to Put On a Normal Face."
- Headline to a March 14 report about neo-Nazis in Germany.
Nothing Good Ever Happens in
Afghanistan
"Ms. Rice was here for a seven-hour visit during which she stressed
Afghanistan's transition to democracy at almost every stop, with little if any
acknowledgment of the many problems troubling this nation. As if to emphasize
that, at least 5 people were killed and 32 wounded Thursday in a bombing in
Kandahar. Afghan officials blamed Taliban fighters.Though Ms. Rice did not
speak about the insurgency, as a security measure she left her United States
government Boeing-757 in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Thursday morning and flew in a
relatively anonymous C-130 military transport. She is on a six-nation tour
around the world. Ms. Rice did not mention Afghanistan's drug problem until
asked. Two weeks ago, her department reported that the increasing opium-poppy
cultivation placed Afghanistan 'on the verge of becoming a narcotics state.'"
- From a March 18 story from Kabul by Joel Brinkley and Carlotta
Gall."
More Bogus "Steep Cuts"
"The House budget included steep cuts in Medicaid and other so-called
entitlement programs."
- Sheryl Gay Stolberg, March 18.
"The Senate's proposal to scale back the extension of Mr. Bush's tax cuts comes
at a time when Republicans are also feeling queasy about the White House's major
domestic policy initiative for the year, overhauling Social Security. And the
budget was not enough to mollify some Senate Republican moderates, who expressed
concern Wednesday about extending the tax cuts at a time when the deficit is at
a record high and domestic programs from farm subsidies to veterans' benefits
and education are facing steep cuts."
- Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David Kirkpatrick, March 10.
Reality Check:
"The House budget would cull up to $20 billion from
planned Medicaid spending over the next five years, a 1% reduction that would
more than double what Bush's savings are worth."
Let's Say "Corrupt Companies" As
Often As Possible
"In what has seemed a daily ritual, the Senate in the last two weeks has
defeated the most modest attempts by Democrats to curb bankruptcy abuses by
corrupt or troubled corporations and their senior executives.During the recent
debate on tightening the bankruptcy code, the lawmakers rejected a proposal to
prohibit corrupt companies from issuing huge payouts to senior executives
shortly before entering bankruptcy.Elizabeth Warren, a bankruptcy and
commercial law expert at Harvard Law School, has for many years led opposition
to changes in bankruptcy law like those now pending and has highlighted
bankruptcy abuses by the wealthy and by corrupt companies."
- Business reporter Stephen Labaton, March 10.
Ancient Anti-War Critiques
"But Michael M. Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts, saw a sweetly subversive opportunity to revive 'Mister Roberts'
in the middle of an altogether different war. Seeking a play for the center's
current festival celebrating the 1940's, Mr. Kaiser realized that this old
warhorse could have unexpected, even provocative new meaning at a moment when
overstretched supply companies find themselves in harm's way in Iraq, reservists
face extended tours of duty, and the self-same Mr. Rumsfeld squabbles with the
troops over a shortage of body armor."
- From a theatre review of a revival of "Mister Roberts" by political
reporter Todd Purdum in the March 6 Week In Review.
Those Colorful Qaddafis
"[Saddi] Qaddafi, of course, comes from a colorful family used to making
headlines. His only sister, Ayesha, is studying law in Paris and has signed on
to Saddam Hussein's defense team. His youngest brother, Hannibal, has a penchant
for speeding and getting into scuffles with the police: earlier this year he
reportedly brandished a 9-millimeter handgun after beating up a woman in a Paris
hotel. Another brother, Moatassim, was caught four years ago trying to buy tanks
and short-range missiles for his personal army brigade."
- From Craig Smith's profile of a soccer-loving son of Libyan dictator
Moammar Qaddafi, March 12.
