STEPHEN SCHWARTZ WONDERS why so little attention has been paid to a massacre by UN employees in Kosovo:

In the days since the first reports of the crime were received, more details have emerged, which make what was already a scandal for the United Nations in Kosovo even more alarming. First and most disturbing is that the dead assailant, Ali, is being investigated for connections with Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization. Second is that the same Ali had visited the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, home of the Wahhabi Islamic sect that produced al Qaeda, only a month before he was sent to Kosovo in March.

More thorough descriptions of the incident are horrendous. The group of Americans, along with some Turkish personnel, were leaving a prison in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica when the attack began. It was their first day on the job. According to the Associated Press, they were “trapped between a locked gate and Ali’s assault rifle.”

The Palestinian carried an M-16, from which he apparently discharged 400 rounds, leading NATO investigators to examine whether his four colleagues in a Jordanian detachment assigned to guard the prison had helped him by feeding his weapon as he fired. All four were detained after the bloody events, but three have now been released, while one of them, whose name has not been disclosed, remains under arrest as a possible accomplice, and his immunity from prosecution has been revoked.

Bad news about the UN just somehow doesn’t get reported. If an American had killed Arabs this way, we’d be hearing it.

BLACKFIVE EMAILS:

LtCol Michael Strobl, the Marine Officer that escorted Marine Chance Phelps’ remains home, is scheduled to be interviewed tonight on ABC World News Tonight (May 3rd).

Read this to see why it matters.

THEY’RE NOT ANTIWAR: They’re just on the other side.

Sadly, a continuing series.

EVERYBODY WAS EMAILING ME LINKS TO A TED RALL CARTOON that had them upset, but when I followed the link it didn’t seem any worse than his usual stuff.

That’s because MSNBC took down the original one, attacking Pat Tillman. Here it is, if you want to see what you missed.

Rall’s so predictable. A troll gone to seed.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan: “Tillman was a true patriot, a quiet hero, an American to his core: of course Rall had to smear him. Tillman represents all that the far left hates about America, and fears might be true.”

They fear that ordinary Americans might be their moral superiors. And, of course, that is true.

ANOTHER UPDATE: MSNBC explains why it pulled the Rall cartoon.

Meanwhile Commentary Page wonders why MSNBC carries Rall anyway.

JUSTIN KATZ has an interesting roundup on the Thulfiqar Army, which has reportedly been killing Al-Sadr’s followers in Najaf.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON offers some perspective on Iraq — but unfortunately in a pay-only WSJ column. Steven Bainbridge has excerpts and a summary.

It’s also worth reading these comments by Connie du Toit:

It isn’t about Iraq. It isn’t about Afghanistan. And it won’t be about Saudi Arabia, Syria, Indochina, North Korea, Iran, and Liberia. It’s about making it unattractive to go up against the Great Satan.

So, when Ted Koppel decided to spend an episode of Nightline reading the names and showing the pictures of the soldiers who had died in Iraq, it felt wrong immediately.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Here’s the full text of Hanson’s piece, available at this free link.

NEAL BOORTZ:

Despite some media efforts to downplay the escape of American hostage Thomas Hamill as being “freed, released, or discovered,” make no mistake, this guy made a daring escape that is the stuff of Hollywood movies. He would still be captured or dead had he not taken action. He chose not to be a victim, and wasn’t going to take anything laying down.

Late Sunday morning, Hamill was sitting in the house where he was being held and he heard a military convoy go by. At that point, he made a decision: do I sit here like a sheep and wait to be executed, or do I make a break for it? He chose the latter, and pried open the doors and ran a half-mile to catch up with the convoy. After identifying himself, the convoy went back to the house where he was being held, surrounded it, and arrested two of his Islamic terrorist captors. Hamill was flown to Baghdad, where he received medical treatment. A happy ending for sure.

But there is more to this guy’s story. Thomas Hamill was a dairy farmer in Macon, Mississippi, and apparently the dairy farm business wasn’t working out too well. Needing to pay off some debts, he sold his cows and signed up to go to work in Iraq as a truck driver for Kellogg, Brown and Root, a Halliburton subsidiary. It was a high-risk job, but it paid well and he needed the money for his family. He didn’t sign up for government assistance, he went out and got a job. This should be an inspiration for all those loser types on welfare feeding at the government trough. Of course, liberals have already been saying that people are “forced” to go work in Iraq, because there aren’t any jobs here. What a crock.

And so what did Mr. Hamill want to do after his escape? According to U.S. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, “He has spoken to his family. He is now ready to get back to work.” That’s the American spirit. The rest of the world should take note.

Just another one of those “mercenaries” whose fates are of no concern to some.

OLIVER WILLIS TAKES THE BOEING: Or maybe, in this case, the Volvo. Either way, congratulations to another blogger getting a paying gig.

I still think that Oliver is made for TV, though.

HERE’S AN INTERESTING PERSONAL TAKE ON MICAH WRIGHT, the “ex-Ranger” turned peace activist who turns out to have lied about his military service:

I could have told Kevin Parrot, WaPo, and Wright’s publishers that I knew Wright hadn’t been a Ranger during the American invasion of Panama.

Because I was dating him in Tucson, Arizona at the time.

In light of that firsthand experience, apparently, his being unmasked as a fraud came as no surprise.

MORE ON UNSCAM — and a prediction:

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, Michigan Republican, told a House International Relations Committee hearing last week that the U.N. oil-for-food scandal reminded him of down-home political influence-buying and corruption in his Wayne County district.

“In many ways, we are seeing a political machine that is accused of doing something wrong and the tactics that the machine uses to defend itself are quite similar,” he said.

“There will be confusion, distraction and an internal investigation controlled by the machine, the results of which may or may not be for public consumption. And it is all to defend the institution.”

Yes, they’re in full damage-control mode. And, writes Arnold Ahlert in the New York Post, they’re getting help:

Why? Because the truth about France, Germany and Russia’s opposition to the war in Iraq might not be helpful for Democrats in the 2004 elections. The party and their presidential candidate, who worship at the altar of “U.N. solutions” for world problems (including terror) might be forced to admit that the object of their continuing affection is a cesspool of anti-American, bribe-taking liars. Liars who are perfectly willing to stonewall any investigation – apparently with the blessings of certain Democratic committee members.

Will the press keep digging? And, given how unpopular the U.N. is with American voters, will Democrats really want to line up behind it? I’m disappointed in Tom Lantos’ comments, but I can’t believe that they represent a Democratic strategy rather than personal disappointment.

UPDATE: Madhu Dahiya is writing her local paper asking why it isn’t covering the oil-for-food scandal. She emails:

I intend to keep e-mailing every single day until I receive a response! (Well, the ombudsperson did send me back a reply saying she/he? would forward my e-mail to the foreign affairs desk, but nothing yet!). Actually, it’s kind of fun to keep e-mailing into the air this way. Kind of all zen and stuff.

Made up (not actual) examples:

1. Nice article on Friends….where’s the UN oil for food article?
2. Nice article on the Bosox….where’s the UN oil for food article?
3. Nice article on windsurfing…..where’s the UN oil for food article?

Heh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Kevin McCreavy emails:

Just wanted to let you know – I have emailed the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer 3 times regarding their lack of coverage of the Oil for food fiasco. I let the know that if the name Halliburton or Enron had popped up in the lists of those taking bribes then they probably would’ve covered it. Anyway, after the first letter, they said they were considering it for publication, but of course that never happened as far as I can tell. And since then, no response.

Inquiring minds would love to know why the silence.

Indeed. And the Halliburton/Enron point is surely true.

MORE: Josh Marshall is suspicious that Chalabi is behind this whole thing, but notes: “Let me be clear, I don’t think any of this means that these allegations are not true. I figure that most of them are.”

Well, I don’t know if they’re true — though given how guilty Kofi Annan, et al., are acting, I, too, figure that most of them are. What’s most interesting to me, though, are the flexible standards of fairness that let the most absurd Halliburton-related charges fly across the wires, while people exercise meticulous care in other circumstances. And does anyone doubt that if these documents contained accusations that Halliburton got money from Saddam, it would have gotten an entire episode of Nightline?

A WONKETTE VIDEO INTERVIEW, courtesy of the Washington Post. And she owes it all to the Rittenhouse Review!

UPDATE: Hey, she was on Reliable Sources, too, and gets a good review from Slithery D.

And who wouldn’t want one of those?

BLOWBACK FOR CASTRO?

Mexico City (AP) The Mexican government, accusing Cuba of meddling in its internal affairs, gave the ambassador of the communist-run island his walking papers and said it will call its own ambassador home immediately. . . .

Derbez and Creel said three incidents led Mexico to its decision: recent remarks President Fidel Castro made regarding Mexico’s recent human rights votes against Cuba; comments by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque about an ongoing political scandal in Mexico; and unauthorized activities carried out by visiting Cuban Communist Party members who failed to notify Mexican officials of their presence.

(Emphasis added.) Hmm. What could that mean? (Via Half the Sins).

THIS SEEMS LIKE BAD NEWS FOR THE KERRY CAMPAIGN:

Hundreds of former commanders and military colleagues of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry are set to declare in a signed letter that he is “unfit to be commander-in-chief.” They will do so at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday.

Read the whole thing.

PHOTOBLOGGING: I’m impressed with the pictures that the Nikon D70 is producing, but in a way I’m more impressed with the high quality prints I’m getting from my rather-cheap Epson Stylus 900 printer, which I originally bought for its ability to print on CDs and DVDs, not its photo quality. The 8X10 prints it produces, though, are quite good.

For bigger prints, unfortunately, a fancier printer like the Canon i9900 is necessary, but it’s kind of expensive. But I ordered some prints via the Exposure Manager site, and I’m really impressed. The 11×14 print of this picture, for example, made from a 3000×2000 jpeg, was outstanding — tack-sharp, and with better highlight and shadow detail than shows on the screen, or on the 8×10 print I made at home. And it was only $3.95. That may cause me to put off printer-buying for a while.

WHAT AMERICA DOES WITH ITS HEGEMONY: Oxblog has an email report from Baghdad — read it there, as it is not likely to make the major media.

ROBERT TAGORDA NOTES that Kerry is changing his tune on the economy.

UPDATE: Steven Bainbridge has a related post on Kerry and the business community.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE CAPITALISTS is up, with business- and econo-blogging from all over.

I NOW HAVE A BIG STACK OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW EXAMS TO GRADE. Blogging may be less frequent, and will probably be less cheerful, until that task is done.

ALPHECCA’S WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF GUN BIAS IN THE MEDIA is up. It’s an especially good one.

THIS ARTICLE on Kerry’s veep choices contains the following bizarre bit:

One Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a group supporting Kerry’s candidacy recently convened a focus group in Ohio and the participants literally sat on the edge of their seats as the group ran test ads explaining the senator’s background.

“Outside Iowa and New Hampshire, some people don’t even know he was a veteran,” the Democrat said of Kerry, a decorated combat veteran in the Vietnam War.

I realize, of course, that most people don’t pay nearly as much attention to political news as bloggers do, but can there really be many people who don’t know this?

NO, I DIDNT DO ANY CATBLOGGING this weekend. But if that’s what you want, check out the Carnival of the Cats for all your cat-blogging needs.