Making friends

Arab journalist Hussain Abdul-Hussain explains in the Huffington Post blog what's actually going on with U.S. policy towards the Mideast: "As Bush went out recruiting allies, and making enemies, Obama lost America's friends while failing to win over enemies."

Abdul-Hussain provides a sad litany of former friends, like the pro-democracy Lebanese, who have decided they'd better make peace with Syria because the United States won't back them up.

As for Iraq: "after losing more than 4,300 troops in battle and spending $700 trillion since 2003, America today cannot find a single politician or group that would express gratitude to Americans for ridding Iraq of its ruthless tyrant Saddam Hussein, and allowing these politicians to speak out freely.

On the contrary, shy of making their excellent backdoor ties with Washington known since they fear Obama will depart Iraq and never look back, Iraqi politicians started expressing dissatisfaction with the United States in public."

Nor has the United States fared better with its enemies: "Apparently, the benevolent Obama failed to impress America's number one enemy, Al-Qaeda.

Between September and December, the group sent a suicide bombers into New York and Michigan. The first was foiled, the second luckily failed."

Unfortunately, there are no signs that our policy toward the Mideast or the Muslim world is likely to change. (Thanks to Barry Rubin.)

Dubai assassination

I've been waiting, for weeks now, for some analysis that makes sense about the January 20 assassination of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Since that doesn't seem to be forthcoming, here are my outstanding questions:

-- Why would anyone want to send in 26 people to kill one guy in his hotel room? The Dubai authorities have released a graph, which you can see here, of all the people they think are involved.

-- The Dubai authorities are 99% sure that the Israeli Mossad mounted the operation. But I cannot believe that Mossad would engage in such shoddy work as forging European passports with the wrong number of numerals or letters. I also find it difficult to believe that Mossad wouldn't have known about all the hotel cameras, etc. After all, I watch crime shows on TV and I know all about them!

-- What about the two suspects who fled to Iran? Not the usual safe haven for Israelis and the people who cooperate with them.

-- A friend of mine has also wondered if the assassination actually occurred, since the usual reaction to such a death has not occurred.

Hamastan

British journalist Melanie Phillips provides excerpts here from a new report, by the Intelligence and Analysis Information Centre in Tel Aviv, arguing that London has become the European center for Hamas.

Various Hamas activists, according to the report, are involved in such efforts as building support for the UN's anti-Israel Goldstone report, or filing lawsuits against Israeli political and military leaders for alleged war crimes.

So how does Hamas, which the EU as well as the United States blacklists as a terrorist organization, manage to do this? Among other things, its members hide their affiliation: they "are careful not to identify themselves formally as Hamas activists, preferring to appear as supporters of the Palestinian cause."

Shining the light of day on Islamist activity is extremely helpful; too bad it seems to happen so rarely.

So it was true after all

Rashad Hussain, a 31-year-old deputy associate counsel in the White House, was recently appointed U.S. special envoy to the Organization of Islamic States (with 57 members, the most important Muslim organization).

Soon after his nomination it emerged that Hussain, while still a law student, had complained publicly about the 'politically motivated persecution' of Sami Al-Arian, at that time a cause celebre of the left and Islamists. Al-Arian was subsequently convicted of assisting a terrorist organization. (The comments were made at an event organized by the Muslim Student Association, an organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.)

Hussain denied having made such statements, and they were mysteriously censored from an article about the meeting. The White House backed up his claim until - you guessed it - a recording turned up. Now, Hussain says his comments were 'ill-conceived or not well-formulated.' But not to worry, he continues to enjoy the White House's confidence and has been dispatched to his new post in Jeddah.

Hussain was reportedly involved in drafting President Obama's Cairo speech to the Muslim world. He is a dreadful choice to represent the United States to the Muslim world, but it's probably safer to have him there than inside the White House.

Reverse lawfare

I've referred in previous posts to the threat of 'lawfare': lawsuits launched against people who criticize Islam or Islamic organizations. The suits are designed to intimidate, bankrupt, or otherwise silence any voices of opposition.

Security expert David Harris, writing in The Ottawa Citizen, suggests a remedy for this problem: "Passengers and others victimized by terror threats should be encouraged to sue airlines and other entities that have failed in their duty to safeguard passengers’ well-being." It's certainly an idea!

A brighter note

For those of you who have noticed that (1) even the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency has admitted Iran is on its way to building nuclear weapons and (2) the Obama Administration clearly has no plan for stopping this, the Israelis apparently want to show that they at least are working the problem.

On February 21, the Israeli air force 'unveiled' a very large drone (in fact already used during last year's Gaza conflict) that can fly for 20 hours, up as high as 40,000 feet. It can "provide surveillance, jam enemy communications and connect ground control and manned air force planes." Will the drone be armed? Palestinians have alleged that it has been, but Israel has never confirmed that capability. (Thanks to Daily Alert.)

Nothing like an old grudge

You may have heard that Germany is stepping in to prevent a Greek default that could do grave damage to the euro. But don't for a minute think that their reception is all sweetness and light. This from the John Mauldin Report:

"Greek opposition lawmakers said on Thursday that Germans should pay reparations for their World War Two occupation of Greece before criticizing the country over its yawning fiscal deficits.

"How does Germany have the cheek to denounce us over our finances when it has still not paid compensation for Greece's war victims?" Margaritis Tzimas, of the main opposition New Democracy party, told parliament."

This was during a debate in the Greek parliament on how to handle the Greek debt. And it was echoed by both the left and right political parties. Somehow they forgot about the German government paying 115 million deutschmarks in 1960, not a small sum back then. It seems that many Greek politicians are still in the denial stage of dealing with this crisis."

Oh well, sometimes you just can't win!