Vaccines

No, this has nothing to do with foreign policy, but it is a very informative and alarming article about vaccines, how they're made and why they're not. A cautionary tale of government intervention, and a most timely one as the Congress considers gargantuan bills to take over the health care sector.

An isolated incident?

So was Major Hasan's action 'an isolated incident'? Not according to this article:

"Hasan's attack was the third incident this year in which US military installations were targeted by radicals. In September, two North Carolina men were charged for allegedly conspiring to kill US personnel at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, home of the Marines' officer training school and the FBI Academy. In June, Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, an American Muslim convert, allegedly fired at two soldiers taking a cigarette break outside a recruiting center in Little Rock, Ark., killing one and injuring the other. Authorities say the alleged shooter said the attack was retaliation for US military actions overseas."

(Thanks to Daily Alert.)

It's either Iran or Israel

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has come up with his own version of 'you're with us or against us.' In a speech in Istanbul, he said the United States must choose between Iran and Israel. (See here for the version offered by Iranian dissidents.)

Put another way, Ahmedinejad's signaling that our current groveling, as evidenced in this excerpt from a speech by William Burns, a senior State Department official, is far from sufficient: "[The United States seeks] a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interest and mutual respect. We do not seek regime change. We have condemned terrorist attacks against Iran. We have recognized Iran’s international right to peaceful nuclear power." Here's the rest of his speech; read it and wince.

Child bride in Kansas City

Here's a slightly confusing story about a mother and stepfather who 'married off' a 14-year-old girl to a 23-year-old man. The man is now charged with statutory rape. The article doesn't mention until the 7th paragraph that it was Muslim family, of course - no one could possibly want to appear Islamophobic, after all.

There is one useful quote, from Mahnaz Shabbir of Stilwell, a past president of the Heartland Muslim Council who says that Islam says followers should live by the laws of the land. That is indeed the crux of the matter - and this 'marriage' was anything but legal. (Thanks to Jihad Watch.)

Islamists and Fort Hood

One of the (dubious) advantages of an awful crime like the Fort Hood shooting is that it does reveal reality. We'll be hearing lots about Major Hasan and his motivations in the days and weeks to come, but here's a clear indication of how Islamist groups like the Islamic Society of North America see the problem.

ISNA president Ingrid Mattson said: "I don't understand why the Muslim-American community has to take responsibility for him. The Army has had at least as much time and opportunity to form and shape this person as the Muslim community." (Thanks to Islamist Watch.)

As is usual for her, it's a red herring. Hasan spent years denouncing U.S. policy in violent terms and was trying to contact Al Qaeda; people are focusing on those specifics, not his membership in the Muslim-American community. Her true goal is to obscure those facts by using the bludgeon of political correctness - the same tool that let Hasan get as far as he did.

Sorry I missed it

In a debate at Brandeis University, former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dore Gold asked South African judge Richard Goldstone, author of the new UN report accusing Israel of war crimes during the Gaza conflict, what Israel should have done differently to protect itself.

Goldstone responded that that was a decision for Israel to make, although he thought they perhaps should have conducted undercover commando raids. He then suggested someone at Brandeis write a research paper on the topic. No, I'm not making this up.

If you want to see Gold's excellent presentation, here's the video. At least he got to give his side of the story; when Eye of the UN's Anne Bayefsky criticized the Goldstone report at a UN media event, UN officials cut the mike and escorted her off the premises. Just think: our taxpayer dollars support those guys!

The Iranian expert at State

According to this recent blog entry from American Thinker, John Limbert has been named the State Department's chief expert on Iran. And he definitely has expertise - among other things, from his time on the advisory board of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). NIAC is considered by many to be the de facto Iranian lobby in Washington.

Just think: in his new job, Limbert will get to see all those classified memos, cables and reports that he only heard about before. Plus, he'll be in all discussions of any significance on Iranian policy. At least there won't be any more ambiguity in State's policy on Iran: it'll be consistently pro-Iranian.