NO WAR FOR OIL: More like anti-war, for oil. This article in the New York Times points out, Hussein is favoring non-American companies from countries that are currently opposing war. So they’re against war because it might interfere with their cozy contracts with a murderous dictator. Nice to see them taking a strong moral position.

A stronger moral case exists — as Steven Den Beste has pointed out — in favor of repudiating these contracts, and Iraq’s existing debts, where countries like France, Russia and Germany are concerned. There should be consequences for supporting murderous dictators, and new countries, freed of dictators, should start out free of ruinous debts, too.

And, as Bush said in a different but related context, there have to be consequences. Crossing the United States should be expensive.

UPDATE: Reader Brian O’Connor writes:

This raises an interesting point about our friends & allies, the

French and Russians …

France and Russia indeed do have heavy financial interests in

Iraq. But I doubt that this alone accounts for the strength

of their opposition to our UN resolution. After all, we could

simply guarantee that their investments and deals with Saddam

would be honored by whatever government succeeds his. Or

we ourselves could cover Iraq’s outstanding debts in exchange

for French and Russian votes in the UN.

No … it’s not just about money. And it certainly isn’t principle.

There is almost desperation in their opposition, and I’m betting

that they are scared to death that if we enter Baghdad, we’ll find

records detailing exactly what those two countries (and others

as well) have been up to with Iraq over the past 10 years.

I’m betting that there are some documents there that would prove

to be immensely embarrassing to Paris and Moscow (and perhaps

others as well), and that Saddam is simply reminding them of that

fact in exchange for their support in the UN. I think it’s a case of

international blackmail.

Interesting.

HOW MANY CHANCES TO ARREST JOHN MUHAMMAD WERE PASSED UP?

One month after Muhammad arrived on Antigua with Gianquinto, he flew into Miami International Airport. He entered the country on April 14, 2001, with two Jamaican women and a young girl. Muhammad presented a false birth certificate, and the women and the child also presented false documents, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the case.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service interrogated Muhammad, unsure whether he was a U.S. citizen. The INS contacted the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami, but prosecutors there declined to charge Muhammad, the sources said. A conviction for presenting false identification documents carries a 15-year prison sentence.

Jeez, this guy is like the old joke: he couldn’t get arrested! No wonder he was so confident in his actually rather limited criminal skills.

Here’s more on the Antigua connection. And note that the April 23, 2001 date on this document doesn’t match the story Muhammad apparently told the feds on April 14 about having just changed his name: “One source close to the case said Muhammad told INS agents that he had changed his last name after converting to Islam and that he received the phony certificate to match his driver’s license, which listed his last name as Muhammad.” Kind of embarrassing that they fell for that.

BIG STORY ON THE PATRIOT ACT in tomorrow’s Washington Post, setting it up almost as a battle between Viet Dinh and Pat Leahy. One apparent error:

In the year since the Patriot Act was approved, the government has moved quickly to take full advantage of new and existing powers.

More than a thousand noncitizens were detained without being charged last fall, and their identities were kept secret.

If I’m not mistaken, those detentions were pretty much a done deal by the time the Patriot Act took effect, and were not based on its authority.

SOMEBODY THINKS I USE THE WORD INDEED a lot, judging by my search-engine referrers.

Indeed I do.

JUST WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR! I thought we were way overrated in the preseason polls, and boy was I right.

WALTER OLSON HAS A LOT OF LINKS on the Moscow theater attack. Most interesting is this report from the Telegraph:

The Telegraph has learned that a number of Arab fighters, believed to be of Saudi Arabian and Yemeni origin, were among the group that seized control of the theatre.

“There were definitely Arab terrorists in the building with links to al-Qa’eda,” said a senior Western diplomat. “The Russians will now want to know how much help the Chechens received from bin Laden’s organisation.”

Mr Putin had claimed that “foreign elements” were involved and suspicions about al-Qa’eda’s connection deepened after the Chechens broadcast a pre-recorded message on the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television network, which is frequently used by bin Laden and his lieutenants.

Can’t say I’m terribly surprised to hear this, but it’s news nonetheless.

LOOKS LIKE IT’S NOT JUST AMERICAN IRAQIS WHO ARE SICK OF SADDAM HUSSEIN — as this article in the New York Times demonstrates:

In a country where the merest hint of dissent had been a death sentence in years past, many foreign reporters have been approached in recent days by individuals offering forbidden thoughts. Taking advantage of moments in which the official “minders” assigned to journalists by the information ministry were distracted, or briefly absent, these Iraqis burst out with vehemence against the government, and often against Mr. Hussein personally.

One man, an out-of-work engineer, sat down beside a reporter relaxing at a Baghdad coffeehouse. After initial pleasantries in English, the man, who gave his age as 58, glanced about to make sure he was not being overheard, then leaned forward and said that almost no Iraqis would support Mr. Hussein if he allowed Iraq’s dispute with the world over weapons of mass destruction to plunge the country into another war.

“We had eight years of war with Iran in the 1980’s, and all we got was death,” he said. “Then we had the war over Kuwait, and more death. Nobody here wants another war. We want jobs. We want peace, not death.” The man left without giving his name, and disappeared quickly into the crowd. . . .

“What the Iraqi people would like to hang on their walls would be banners saying, `Yes, yes, Mr. Bush. Yes, yes, America.’ There are 22 million Iraqis, and every one of them has 100 stories to tell of their suffering under Saddam.” He gestured to the secret police building and added, “If you go there, you are lucky if you live three days, maybe five.”

Hmm. Maybe those Ceaucescu comparisons aren’t so out of place after all. This conclusion sure sounds that way:

Several Iraqis said scores of Baath Party members had mailed their membership cards to party headquarters in recent weeks, apparently in a bid to distance themselves from Mr. Hussein should an American invasion come.

With a membership of about 500,000, the party has a monopoly on virtually all top positions in the government, armed forces and state security agencies — the very apparatus of fear that has kept Mr. Hussein in power. In the past, quitting the party at a time of crisis for Mr. Hussein would have been seen as treachery, and treated as such. But now, apparently, those mailing in their cards have chosen to take that risk in the hope of avoiding something still more menacing — the specter of the kind of vengeance killings that have been seen elsewhere when brutal oligarchies have come tumbling down.

The trick is, of course, that for Saddam to be deposed by Iraqis, they have to believe that the alternative is having him deposed by Americans. Somebody tell these people.

ORRIN JUDD says that Harry Belafonte was righter than he knew.

BURIED IN THE ANTIWAR COVERAGE: A true man-bites-dog story that isn’t getting much play:

All in all it’s exactly the same as every other story written to cover every other recent Iraq war protest. However, buried down at the bottom of the article is this little nugget:

About 500 Iraqi exiles came to Washington to show support for efforts to remove Saddam from power.

Tamir Musa, an Iraqi who has lived in Michigan for 10 years, said, “The war is good if it goes to kill Saddam Hussein. He has a lot of bombs. He’s terrorist number one.”

The focus of the story is on the hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters, but their presence is to be as expected as flies on a dog turd. And considering the anti-war machine has done this exact same protest two or three times recently, how is this big news? On the other hand, 500 Iraqis show up in Washington to support the war, and this isn’t big enough news to warrant more than two tiny paragraphs at the bottom of the anti-war article?

Apparently not.

UPDATE: Here’s another report on the protests, where Palestinian flags were much in evidence.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here are some photos of the Iraqi demonstrators with “Kill Saddam” signs, etc.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a firsthand blog account of the protests.

CNN WON’T USE THE “T” WORD: “The death toll suffered in bringing an end to the three-day Moscow theatre siege has risen to 90 captives and 50 hostage-takers.”

“Hostage-takers?” Jeez.

UPDATE: Reader James Davila writes:

You can give CNN feedback on their coverage at this link. I’ve just written them a note on their lack of use of the word “terrorist” in the article on the storming of

the Moscow theatre. It would be nice if a few thousand of your readers did the same.

Well, go for it if you’re so inclined.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Michele has noticed, too.

THE SNIPER LETTER appears to be influenced by an offshoot of the Black Muslim movement called the “Five Percent” movement — though the Five Percenters apparently don’t regard themselves as Muslims. The evidence seems a bit shaky to me.

UPDATE: Louis Farrakhan acknowledged today that Muhammad was a Nation of Islam member. Which means he’s not really a Muslim at all, at least in the opinion of most non-Nation of Islam Muslims. In fact, I seem to recall that the Saudis actually fund some sort of program dedicated to pointing out that the Nation of Islam isn’t really Islam.

Which isn’t to say that he sees things this way himself, or that he might not have been a Useful Idiot. Stay tuned.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Roy Innis is warning of terrorist infiltration into Black Muslim groups, especially those operating in prison.

RIAA HONCHO HILARY ROSEN debated file-trading at the Oxford Union and lost. Slashdot has lots of links and information.

AID AND COMFORT: Even the New York Times has to acknowledge it. And this quote shows the mindset of the “peace” movement:

“I don’t think there’s any way to sidestep the fact that there have been abuses” in Iraq, she said. “However I come from the United States, and my primary responsibility is to speak out against the U.S.A.”

There was a time, you know, when Americans thought they had a different primary responsibility by virtue of their citizenship, especially when in hostile foreign countries. And, actually, most still do. The rest do stuff like this.

UPDATE: Here’s an article by John Tabin on “peace” activist Kathy Kelly, who’s the speaker quoted above. It’s entitled “Evil’s Enablers.”

BILL HOBBS is a fine blogger and journalist who’s looking for work that’s a bit more full-time than what he’s doing for Corante. Somebody hire him.

DANIEL DREZNER has thoughts on Bush’s grand strategy. He says it’s more multilateralist than people realize.

I HAVEN’T BLOGGED MUCH about the “peace” protests today because I don’t have a lot to say that I haven’t said before. But this passage from a rather sympathetic report says it all:

In Washington, civil rights activist Al Sharpton addressed Mr. Bush, even though the president was at an economic summit in Mexico.

“It would have been good for you to be here, George, so you could see what America really looks like,” Sharpton said. “We are the real America.

Al Sharpton, claiming he’s the real America as he talks to a man who isn’t there. Seems about right.

STEVEN DEN BESTE RESPONDS to the anti-warbloggers. Meanwhile, Russell Wardlow describes who we’re fighting in terms that the anti-warbloggers will probably dislike.

AZIZ POONAWALLA has a long post on Osama bin Laden’s ignorance of, and misuse of, Islam. It’s well worth reading.

UPDATE: Aziz emails: “I just realized, that I think I just did my first

Fisking. Of OBL, no less :)” Heh. My favorite line in the post is this one, though: “I drive an SUV. Whether I’m killing the Earth or helping muslims do hajj depends on your point of view, I guess.” If I drove an SUV, I’d give the latter response to any green types who complained.