Jack Lang Breaks 'Wind'

Hak Mao referred yesterday to a column by the indefatigable Nick Cohen in the Observer on the legacy of Enoch Powell's race-baiting in British politics. He has some pretty stern words for the Lib Dems:

They pose as saints while fighting campaigns which are as dirty as anything Labour or the Tories can manage — often dirtier. They shift their shape depending on which constituency they're contesting. Are they right or left? Pro-privatisation or anti? For the overthrow of Saddam Hussein if the weapons inspectors had been given more time, or against?

Answers to these questions have more to do with geography than ideology. For the duration of a campaign, the Liberal Democrats are whatever a contested constituency wants them to be.

I have long scoured the French press for an equally consistent critic of parliamentary politics. There isn't a French Nick Cohen, let alone a French Daniel Ellsberg or French Woodward and Bernstein. So there will be no one to write about it when what Cohen describes occurs in France.

For so long as the media publicizes attacks on synagogues, the Socialist Party, seeking to profit from the government's perceived weaknesses, will be whatever they think the electorate want them to be. Following the attack on the Jewish soup kitchen of rue Popincourt, the Socialist party's former education minister Jack Lang, who once said the Bush admin was "possessed of totalitarianism" (and Saddam?), is now seeking to humiliate the government. To-day, he told France-Inter that "enough is enough" and "enough pretty speeches, enough crocodile tears, enough wordy declarations. Time to act!"

This is the party of Pascal Boniface, the PS advisor who was fired for announcing that "France's Jewish community could end up the loser in the medium term" if it refused to damn Israel and that the PS should criticize Israel to court the Muslim vote. Though denouncing Boniface's words, this same party bounced euro MP François Zimeray, an outspoken partisan of Israel, from their list for the European elections last June.

Salt of the earth.

Now they want action, it seems. Though Mr. Lang doesn't do us the favor of telling us what specifically he finds unsatisfactory about the government's response. This reversal of opinion is all the more apparent given that the conventional wisdom in much of what has for some time passed for left-wing thinking in France holds that anti-Semitism in France is an annoyance or an embarrassment while anti-Arab racism is the only real problem. In his 2002 pamphlet, La Nouvelle judéphobie, political scientist Pierre-André Taguieff wrote:

It is simply false to maintain that historically "anti-Arab" or "anti-immigrant racism" has replaced anti-Semitism, the latter having largely faded away.

It is no less false to hold likewise that there has been a displacement from anti-Semitism's modes of denigration, segregation and discrimination onto "anti-Arab racism." That this false vision should be so widely held does not make it true.

The sociological and historical truth is quite other: there has been no succession but rather a coexistence between anti-Maghreban xenophobia — targeting certain categories of immigrants and their children, grand-children, etc. — and judeophobia as an attitude (negative prejudices and stereotypes), ideology (conspiracy theories, etc.) and behavior (violent acts, etc.). Neither of these two forms of heterophobia can be made to come before the other (according to a scale of "seriousness") without bias. From a universalist perspective, which I share and which is indistinguishable from the republican aim in politics, what has to be done is to combat the one and the other, the one as much as the other.

But such a clear declaration of political ideals is not to be found among any of contemporary France's political parties. If any were to commit to such plain language then betraying it later would be considerably more difficult.

This is not simply because the PS currently finds itself in flux or is unable to agree on social policy matters. Gone are the days of missions, manifestoes and party-lines that had to be toed. Political language now seeks to be suitably vague so as to paper over contradictions and permit hypocrisy. The Socialist parties of Britain and France aren't really socialist anymore and, as Cohen says, those parties further to the "left" have suffered a "manic skid to the far right [that] makes the slipperiness of the Liberal Democrats and the willingness of Labour to betray its principles appear modest changes of position in comparison."

Three of the greatest sentences George Orwell ever wrote contain a lesson for polymorphous parties like the PS: "If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. "

For Banal Skyscrapers: Off With Their Heads!

Alan Riding in London:

… architects, along with urban planners and developers, have a unique responsibility. If you don't like a movie, you can walk out; if you don't like a song, you can change radio stations; if you dislike a painting, you can even turn it to the wall. But alone among artists, architects can impose their aesthetics on the public at large. And the public rarely has a say.

True, there are structures like the Eiffel Tower that at first seemed shocking and in time became icons. But even in Paris, a city that happily escaped wartime bombing and chaotic postwar rebuilding, the 1970s permitted construction of the 56-floor Tour Montparnasse, a banal monstrosity that towers over the Left Bank and has been detested since the day it was planned. And from the 1990s, Dominique Perrault's new French National Library is hardly more loved. …

Many countries routinely shield historic buildings from the scourge of philistine developers by listing them as part of their national heritage. But in Britain, where three grades of protection of buildings already exist, a fourth — more radical — category has now been proposed: Grade X to be attributed to buildings ... that deserve to be torn down. …

"I have been speaking out against landmarkism," [George Ferguson] said from Nîmes while admiring the Carré d'Art, a contemporary art museum designed by Norman Foster and situated beside a Roman monument. "I think we are being seduced by architectural photographs and architecture magazines. I believe in making places. Urban design and master planning, including scale, are more important than architecture. That's why I am studying places."

… to the old refrain that architects cannot bury their mistakes, Ferguson's Grade X rating offers an alternative. The Financial Times, for one, finds it appealing. "Down With Eyesores," it declared in an editorial endorsing the idea. And it added: "This will strike a chord wherever brutalist buildings erected in the last 50 years have ruined the character of great cities."

French journalists will soon wake-up with the 'Mother of all hangovers'	Les journalistes franchouilles vont bientôt se réveiller avec 'la mère de toutes les gueules de bois'
Talking about a parallel universe. The French press Pravda is living in one right now. Too bad, France's hometown favorite is a liar.	Au sujet des dimensions parallèles, parlons-en. La presse Pravda franchouille y habite à présent. Dommage que le candidat préféré des franchouilles n'est qu'un menteur.

Intifada Sarcelles style	Intifada franchouille style 9-cube
Bomb belts can't be far behind. In a communiqué published on an Islamist web site, an unknown group claimed responsibilty for the arson. "A group of young Mujahideens (combattants) (...) set fire to the Jewish temple in Paris at 4 AM, states the communiqué signed Jamaat Ansar Al-Jihad al-Islamiya ("Islamic Holy War support group") The group states that the arson in a "response to racist acts (committed by) French Jews against Islam and the profanaton of Muslim cemeteries by Jews". Expect the French authorities to pin this on skinheads inspired by American web sites (because they love Americans but hate George Bush, dontcha see?).	Les ceintures d'explosifs sont pour bientôt. Un groupe inconnu a revendiqué cet incendie criminel, dans un communiqué diffusé sur un site internet islamiste "Un groupe de jeunes moudjahidine (combattants) (...) ont mis le feu au temple juif à Paris à 4 heures, heure de Paris", dit le communiqué signé de Jamaat Ansar Al-Jihad al-Islamiya ("groupe des partisans de la guerre sainte islamique"). L'attaque est "en réponse aux actes racistes (commis par des) juifs en France contre l'islam et les musulmans et la profanation de cimetières musulmans par des juifs", indique le groupe. Attendez-vous à ce que les autorités franchouilles fassent porter le chapeau à des extrémistes skinheads sous influence de sites web amérloques (car les franchouilles adorent les américains mais ils détestent George Bush, c'est pourtant clair, non?).

Masters on a Man's Soul and Life

Today is the birthday of Edgar Lee Masters, the US poet and biographer (1869-1950) who asked

How shall the soul of a man be larger than the life he has lived?

Schwarzkopf and the Iraqi Intifada

Below, Erik points out that to-day is Gen. Schwarzkopf's birthday. As I have learned more about the suffering of the Iraqi people, the subject has taken on an increasingly powerful hold on my imagination. Erik's post reminds me that Gen. Schwarzkopf played a key role in the way one of the worst of Iraq's many tragedies unfolded in 1991.

Schwarzkopf not surprisingly opposed the liberation of Iraq, along with Bush 1's former NSA, Brent Scowcroft. But the reasons for this may be more than a mere matter of opinion. As Ken Pollack wrote in The Threatening Storm (p. 48):

... at the cease-fire talks after Desert-Storm was halted, the Iraqis asked for permission to fly their helicopters to move personnel and supplies around, and General Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of the U.S. forces — acting without any instructions but trying to show magnanimity — permitted Iraq to use all of its helicopters, including armed gunships. As should have been expected, the Iraqis began using their gunships to attack the rebels, and the United States could have prohibited the Iraqis from doing so.

Before transcripts of these negotiations were made public, Schwarzkopf claimed the Iraqis had deceived him but the following exchange came to light in 1992 when the transcripts were at last made public. The WaPo's Laurie Mylroie frames the discussion between Schwarzkopf and an Iraqi delegation led by Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmed this way:

The crucial exchange began when Ahmad told Schwarzkopf, "Helicopter flights sometimes are needed to carry some of the officials, government officials or any members.... needed to be transported from one place to another because the roads and bridges are out."

Schwarzkopf then told Ahmad how to mark helicopters to avoid being shot at.

Ahmad: This has nothing to do with the front line. This is inside Iraq.

Schwarzkopf: As long as it is not over the part we are in, that is absolutely no problem. So we will let the helicopters, and that is a very important point, and I want to make sure that's recorded, that military helicopters can fly over Iraq. Not fighters, not bombers.

Ahmad: So you mean even the helicopters. . . armed in the Iraqi skies can fly. But not the fighters? Because the helicopters are the same. they transfer somebody....

Schwarzkopf: Yeah. I will instruct our Air Force not to shoot at any helicopters that are flying over the territory of Iraq where we are not located. If they must fly over the area we are located in, I prefer that they not be gunships, armed helos, and I would prefer that they have an orange tag on the side--as an extra safety measure.

Ahmad: Not to have any confusion, these will not come to this territory.

Schwarzkopf: Good

In his new preface to the 1998 printing of Republic of Fear, Kanan Makiya called (p. xxi) the helicopter gunships "that ultimate terror weapon." And whenever you hear others lament that the Iraqis themselves weren't the ones to depose Saddam, remind them of what those helicopter gunships were used to do in early 1991.

The first act of rebellion came from an Iraqi tank driver on February 28, 1991. A column of Iraqi tanks had fled Kuwait after being expelled by coalition forces and rolled into Sa'ad square in Basra. A tank commander stood atop his tank which he'd stopped in front of a giant mural of Saddam in the middle of the square. He said:

What has befallen us of defeat, shame and humiliation, Saddam, is the result of your follies, your miscalculations, and your irresponsible actions! [Makiya, xix]

The commander aimed the cannon of his tank at the mural and shot away Saddam's face.

This instantly inspired rebellion among the demoralized soldiers present. Within days, it had spread to Diwaniya, Nasiriyah, Hilla, Samawah, Kerbala, Najaf and Amarah. Iran jumped at the occasion to destabilize its old enemy and sent the Tawwabin Division (Iraqi POWs who'd stayed in Iran following the '80-'88 war) and the now-famous Badr Corps. Still reeling form the Anfal genocide Kurdistan soon joined the insurrection — they informed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that had been planning to revolt from the moment Saddam invaded Kuwait — and by March 19, they had regained control of most of Kurdistan.

At the height of the Intifada, 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces had wrenched themselves from Baghdad's control. More than even the most dire moments with the war with Iran, it would be the most serious threat to Saddam's reign until March of 2003.

Indeed, as a way of destabilizing Baghdad, the US had encouraged this rebellion. On February 15, 1991 president Bush urged the Iraqi people and military "take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein the dictator to step aside." A leaflet dropped by the coalition read "O you soldier and civilian, young man and old, O you women and men, let's fill the streets and bring down Saddam Hussein and his aides."

Needless to say, cynical Western powers hadn't actually expected it to work. Had Saddam fallen to a coup, the Sunni minority rule could have continued and Iraq would have remained a counterweight to Iran. Had the Shia/Kurdish rebellion succeeded, some feared Iraq would break apart and the sphere of Shia political influence would stretch from Iran through Iraq to Lebanon, transforming Hizballah into an altogether more powerful organization.

On June 26 of 1997, ABC news ran a special report entitled "Unfinished Business In Iraq: the CIA and Saddam Hussein." In it, Scowcroft tells Peter Jennings that he "frankly wished the rebellion hadn't happened" and that "we clearly would have preferred a coup."

When Saddam responded to the uprising, Western public opinion eventually forced the coalition to come to the aid of the Kurds. Yet even this came second to cold-hearted geopolitical considerations. WaPo's senior foreign correspondent Jonathan Randall wrote in his book After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? – my encounters with Kurdistan (p. 102-3) that an anonymous Bush administration official explained that "Frankly, we wanted to wait for the civil war to be over so that our involvement would not be seen as a decision to help the rebels, but as a decision to provide humanitarian aid."

The helicopters Schwarzkopf allowed to crisscross Iraq immediately went to work, murderously suppressing the rebellion while coalition forces sat idly by, just a few cable's lengths away in the Gulf. Soon it came time not just for the intifada's repression but for its punishment. Five elite divisions of the Republican Guard remained intact and they were sicked on the defenseless. The Hammurabi armored and al-Faw infantry divisions set out for Basra, where the rebellion had begun. In charge was Saddam's cousin, 'Ali-Hassan al-Majid ("Chemical Ali"), famous for orchestration of the Anfal genocide only three years earlier. Iraqi forces carried flags that bore the inscription, "No more Shia after today." Pollack describes (p. 50) what ensued:

The Republican Guards were ordered to act with a savagery that many observers claimed was more appalling than even the Anfal campaign against the Kurds. The Guards maimed and slaughtered thousands of people, and 'Ali Hassan insisted that the piles of bodies and severed limbs be left unburied throughout al-Basrah and its surrounding villages. On one occasion, 'Ali-Hassan demanded that residents of the city turn out in Sa'd Square to show their support for the regime, but when he arrived he pulled out an AK-47 and he and his bodyguards began firing into the crowd, mowing down scores of innocent men, women and children. He executed some captured rebels by running over them with tanks, while others were drawn and quartered by trucks.

With al-Basrah brutally subdued, the Hammurabi spearheaded a drive north along the Shatt al-Arab to clear the key roads up into central Iraq. As they moved north, the Hammurabi not only killed large numbers of rebels but razed any village that offered any resistance, massacring the inhabitants and burning their crops for good measure. On March 15, the Hammurabi captured the key town of al-Qurnah, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers unite to form the Shatt. There the regime's forces split, with the Hammurabi and several other units pushing north along the Tigris, clearing pockets of rebellion and retaking the city of al-Amarah, while the Guard's al-Faw Infantry Division and other units branched off along the Euphrates to join up with other loyal formations that had been reasserting the regime's control over central Iraq.

Meanwhile Hussein Kamel, who would later become the famous, stroke-addled defector who returned to Iraq only to be executed by Chemical Ali, led the al-Nida Armored the Army's Fourth Infantry Divisions as well as parts of the Special Republican Guard to crush the revolt in Kerbala and Najaf, slaughtering hundreds, perhaps thousands, in the tombs of the martyrs Adnan, 'Ali and Hussein and shooting holes into the mosques themselves.

Also during this time, the Hammurabi continued to Kurdistan, taking Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah. All told, this assault killed an estimated 20,000 Kurds, many of whom were civilians. In the south, estimates for the number of Shia killed range from 30,000 to 50,000.

During this time, readers will recall that there was a lot of self-congratulatory talk of having liberated Kuwait. A ticker-tape parade took place on Manhattan's 5th avenue in honor of US armed forces. While unspeakable cruelty unfoled north of the border, Schwarzkopf himself posed for TV cameras as he collected sand from a Kuwaiti beach as a souvenir from the liberated country.

Clearly, Schwarzkopf's helicopters weren't the only instruments of Saddam's bloody repression of the Intifada. However, they did kill a great many people and the fact that Schwarzkopf (who, remember, was acting entirely of his own accord) granted Saddam the freedom to use them signaled a very real US willingness to look the other way as the predictable and horrific occurred. For that reason, I view Schwarzkopf's opposition to ending Saddam's rule (and the sage advice he offers below) in a somewhat jaded light.

It is because the policy of regime change in Iraq represented such a clear-cut departure from the cold-war and its misuse of the third-world that left-wing persons such as myself were able to support it. As the delightful Hak Mao wrote back in July, "I would be perfectly happy to see any number of former heads of state, ministers, and functionaries in the dock. Do not assume that those socialists who supported the deposition of the Hussein crime family are swaying giddily in the glare of GWB's goofy grin."

Americans Are a Treacherous People, Not to Be Trusted…

When an airplane passenger collapses, the apparent victim of a heart attack, and an American passenger comes forward, offering to help because she's a doctor (she says), what's a French flight attendant to do?…

I Stand By My Story…

A couple of readers have pointed out that one exhibit in Perpignan will be including photos from the killing fields of Iraq. They make it sound like there will be just as many photos on this as on Abu Ghraib and like they will be similarly treated. So was I wrong to write that the Visa pour l'image photojournalism festival will not be showing photos of Saddam Hussein's crimes?

Technically, perhaps, it would seem that way at first. But after examining the evidence…

…I stand by my story.

And how!

Let me explain why.

Ever so often we get comments from irate readers, challenging our contention that what drives government policy in France amounts, at last partly, to (rabid?) anti-Americanism, and that the French are actually quite reasonable and willing to be self-critical. This they accompany by specific examples. Meanwhile, all sorts of people and the French media will claim that they are objective and that the lucid people they are do give all the viewpoints.

Indeed, in Le Monde, you will on occasion find columns and letters to the editor castigating France's Iraq policy while praising Bush's, or articles with content that supports the case for war against Saddam Hussein.

However, I call these token articles and token letters to the editor (here an example from Germany). As I have written elsewhere, they appear far and few between, and I have given my opinion that a ballpark figure of how often they would appear would be less than 5% of the time (and print space).

Their main purpose is not to get an intellectual discussion of any sort going, but to serve as a piece of evidence for the powers-that-be (both to others and to themselves) that they (the latter) have been fair, that they are reasonable, and that they are objective. Following that, they will not weigh the evidence or hold a meaningful discussion, but return to the usual Bush-bashing, the traditional America-mocking, and the typical expression of disgust over the latest capitalist outrage.

If you will bear with me while I briefly discuss two examples, I will get back to the issue at hand. The two examples happen to be extremely meaningful.

In the first, Rémy Ourdan introduces his Le Monde article, entitled France's position remains highly criticized by the Iraqis, with these words: "It is almost impossible, except among unseated Ba'athist officials, to find anybody who supports Paris's position in the crisis. France's policy remains highly criticized by Iraqis. Contrary to what Europeans often think, the fact of being opposed to the American occupation in no way heightens the popularity of Europe or one or another country in Iraq"…

The second example is Mouna Naïm's Le Monde article entitled The Issue of Iraq's Weaponry Is Not Clear-Cut: In the review Politique Étrangère, five experts keep the debate on the existence of WMD alive.

As I have written elsewhere, the first article basically undermines, undoes, and shatters the whole peace camp logic in favor of continued peace and dialog with Saddam Hussein (at least with regards to this position favoring — and being favored by — Iraqis); while the second undermines, undoes, and shatters the entire controversy that has been damaging George W Bush and Tony Blair with regards to their alleged lies when they mentioned the dictator's weapons of mass destruction as a reason for launching the attack on the Iraq.

However, in the first case, the article's content was mentioned just that one time — and then it was back to speaking of the humanists' great protection against the scourge of war, the growing insecurity, and Iraqis' resentment against the Yanks; and in the second, the article was hidden in a media review on one of the back pages — and then it was back to carping about the lies of the Bush camp.

So Ted Welch is right: I find this an injustice worthy of fighting against, bravely or otherwise.

Now, back to Perpignan. Just as I consider those rare pro-US articles and letters to be tokens, which are not taken into account for any other reason than to heap praise upon oneself (as objective, wise, tolerant, etc etc, etc), I consider the (few) photos in the exhibit to be tokens that serve as a smokescreen to hide Europe's anti-Americanism.

As it happens, the evidence bears me out.

Were the photos of killing fields to be as numerous and to be displayed as prominently as those of the Abu Ghraib snapshots, I would have been forced to recant. Had both groups of pictures been displayed with (hardly) any comments — just like they were on ¡No Pasarán! — I would have been forced to recant. (And to apologize.) And I would have done so.

But check the evidence:

First of all, look at the URL page of the "official festive announcement": When I first came upon it, I was moved by all those pictures of Saddam's victims, especially that stomach-churning (black and white) picture of the man cut in two at the waist — until I saw it was a picture of a Hollywood prop! Then the cell picture of the bizarre Asian-looking "Iraqis" at the top of the page made sense; it was for a story on "the alarming mental health crisis" from China to Pakistan. Even the Muslim woman behind a (prison?) fence has nothing to do with Iraq. As it happens, both the text and the photo of the killing field are in the least important place, at the bottom of the page (the text at the bottom of the first column, the photo at that of the second column).

This ties in with the expression the festival's director uses for the Abu Ghraib snapshots. The "most important pictures of the year" (as Ray D points out) concerns not the graves of hundreds of thousands killed by a dictator (some for as little as laughing about a joke of Saddam Hussein), but a couple of dozen prisoners (maybe many more, I'm willing to grant you that) forced to pose for sophomoric pictures.

Third, and more importantly, read the text of the website (followed by its logical translation):

• 'Why Mister, why?' (the pleas of an innocent before the treacherous war-mongering Yanks)
• the year America occupied Iraq (Gratuitiously, and without any reason whatsoever, Americans submitted the entire Iraqi population to a humiliating and unnecessary occupation, there having been nothing in the country beforehand to merit anything other than national satisfaction and general contentment)
• The situation in Iraq following the declaration of 'mission accomplished' represented a culture clash of rare proportions (Washington was/Americans are dumb and short-sighted, certainly not as world-wise as (say) the French)
• Geert van Kesteren was witness to what went wrong (A world-wise European hits it on the nail)
• He saw clouds of sadness coming from the mass graves created by the Saddam regime (as Ray D points out, "The focus is not on Saddam's regime or its atrocities. They simply say in one line that the Saddam regime "created" the graves… (gee I wonder how that happened). It is really more about describing sadness since the "arrogant occupying" power came to town.")
• …and Shi'ites enjoying their awakening freedom (for God's sake, do not even think of writing who got them that freedom in the first place [see more about US troops two lines down])
• He saw the occupying force of an arrogant world power (just like all lucid, world-wise beings [mainly Europeans] do)
• Embedded with US troops, he witnessed disgraceful raids on Iraqi citizens (nothing about US troops awakening the Iraqis' freedom here and nothing about the disgraceful raids of a dictator's police forces forcing themselves into houses to remove Iraqis to the jails and torture chambers [the real ones] of Saddam Hussein [more on this below])
• Citizens had hoped for a better, non-violent, future, but their hopes were dashed (Like all the wise, inherently peace-loving members of our world community, every single Iraqi wanted/wants only cooperation and understanding and love and peace and freedom, but, as usual, those dastardly violent beings, the treacherous American war-lover party, blew out that flame of hope)
• In a clear photojournalistic way… (with the inherent wisdom and lucidity of European humanitarians…)
• …Geert van Kesteren outlines why it will take a long time before the Iraqi people can enjoy a semblance of peace (a humanistic European clearly knows where to place the blame of Iraq's sorry state, i.e., on the American presence, natch)

In other words, the "most important pictures of the year" exhibit is here to heap criticism on Americans, and what some readers suggest is an exhibit on Saddam's mass graves — but which is really called the Geert van Kesteren / Focus / Cosmos exhibit and which will evidently include far more pictures castigating U.S. troops — will also heap criticism on Americans.

This, we must suppose, is what the French call "ouvrir le débat" (an oft-used phrase meaning "a serious debate must be opened"), with supposedly all viewpoints considered…

So, this exhibit I consider the same as the token letters and articles: a smokescreen.

Once one's conscience has been cleared, thanks to having let someone "with a narrow viewpoint" speak (briefly) his mind, then one can get back to the real dangers in everyday life — castigating and blaming America.

And needless to say, I won't even start going into the fact that the country's media have been talking exclusively about the Abu Ghraib snapshots (but then, there's hardly anything unusual abut that, is there now?).

So there you have it: I find this an injustice worthy of fighting against, bravely or otherwise.

Before I close, I would like to remind you again of the first token article we discussed at the opening of this post. The journalist made an amazing proposition: he actually asked those who are first and foremost concerned by the fall of Saddam Hussein and the presence of foreign soldiers in their country — i.e., the Iraqis themselves — how they felt about the war and its aftermath.

Now I would like you to ask you to take another look at the photo of the father bestowing a final kiss on the dried skull of his son. (It should not escape notice that the place this skeleton was dug up at was the burial grounds of… Abu Ghraib.)

Which pictures do you think Ghirayer Ali would deem "the most important photos of the year", Monsieur Leroy? Those showing some of hundreds of thousands of murdered Iraqi civilians dug up from the Iraqi sands, including his son at Abu Ghraib, or the snapshots documenting US troops humiliating prisoners (a good portion of which were those who murdered their countrymen in the first place)?

Before I'm accused of catering to base emotionalism, I will take back the question, and ask a more general one: which of the two groups of pictures do you think your average Iraqi would deem "the most important photos of the year", Monsieur Leroy?

You don't know it, Monsieur Leroy, but the answer (or I should say: because the answer) lies in the Rémy Ourdan article that most readers have already forgotten.

An Iraqi living in Germany adds the following on David's Medienkritik:

I often find people asking me: Was Saddam that evil ? -No, he was as evil that fantasy can't imagine. Well, this question is out of the frame because everyone knows this who just took a glimpse of Saddam's Iraq.

I can count some books about Modern Iraq which aren't translated into German because all translators are busy with Michael Moore new books and the audience doesn't want it.

Maybe the covering up of the US Press is not systemtatic or so, but until the trial of Saddam there will be no final view on Saddam's Iraq. The German Press is busy with covering up the "resistance" which is by all odds just a minority of the Iraqi people, while the majority was victim of the practices of torture and so on.

I've got a relative in Baghdad telling me that every five minutes you see in Iraq an amputed man who lost his limbs either by war or torture or by other causes. I told him they are rarely seen on T.V. here. So the press ignores that masses of disabled persons for searching al-Jazeera-like masked, coward men with a Ak-47 telling what the audience likes to hear.

Maybe the German Press took the glasses filtering all colours of the World except Blue, White and Red, so they can watch out for Americans !

Samir adds that one of the writers, who claimed that the Geert van Kesteren exhibit shows that Europeans are exceedingly fair and objective, ignored the hyperlinks he had recommended a few days earlier. (Semir finds this unjust, and so do I.)

The Iraqi Holocaust is a clearing house for information on atrocities under the Iraqi dictator and the Ba'ath party.

Iraq Center is the documental center for human rights in Iraq. Besides truly horrifying photos, it shows drawings of the forms of torture used by Saddam's thugs, a quite different form of treatment than that given at Abu Ghraib. Samir issues a warning: the pictures are horrible!

You can see more pictures if you replace the last number "1", for first picture, with "2", "3", etc, e.g. http://iraqcenter.com/bedaye/halat/archive_7/2.jpg

There are 15 pictures of torture methods available. Most of them are unknown to the German public.

And no wonder. The German media — and the French media — see no need to make anything (beyond a few token texts or photo displays) of viewpoints and pictures that undermine the peace camp's position or that supports Bush's decision to go to war.

So Ted Welch is right: I find this an injustice worthy of fighting against, bravely or otherwise.

I stand by my story.

UPDATE: The best way to find out, I figured, was to go see with my own eyes. So I filled 'er up, got behind the wheel, and drove to Perpignan. There I walked around the city, visiting the various places set up to welcome the best news photos of the year. To make a long story short, my worst suspicions — and what I wrote in this column — were confirmed…

Schwarzkopf on Character and… an Old Acquaintance

Today is the 70th birthday of Norman Schwarzkopf, the U.S. army general who said:

Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.

And concerning the man who called himself the modern-day Saladdin:

As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that, he's a great military man. I want you to know that.

Jailhouse rock	Le Rock du Bagne

Jewish Social Center in Paris Destroyed by Arson

The AFP reports:

AFP | 22.08.04 | 08h37

An arson destroyed a Jewish social center in the 11th arrondissement of Paris in the night of Saturday to Sunday, without causing injury or death, according to the Paris mayor's office. The site, about 100 square meters, located on the ground floor of 5 rue Popincourt, was set alight toward 4 AM and anti-Semitic slurs were written on it in marker, also according to the mayor's office. The fire was rapidly contained and the building was not evacuated, according to police. The Paris proescutors office has assigned investigators to the case. The mayor of Pairs, Betrand Delanoë, who is to arrive at the scene toward 9 am, released a statement expressing his "consternation and horror," adding that "the Nazi and anti-Semitic writings defiling the center are revolting."

This Photo Will Be Displayed…

…at Perpignan's Visa pour l'image, the international photojournalism festival in Southern France…

(Next photo…)

…This Photo Will Not

(Next photo…)

This Photo Will Be Displayed…

…at Perpignan's Visa pour l'image, the international photojournalism festival in Southern France…

(Next photo…)

…This Photo Will Not

(Next photo…)

This Photo Will Be Displayed…

…at Perpignan's Visa pour l'image, the international photojournalism festival in Southern France…

(Next photo…)

…This Photo Will Not

(Next photo…)

…This Photo Will Not

(Next photo…)

…This Photo Will Not

(Next photo…)

…This Photo Will Not

(Next photo…)

…This Photo Will Not

(Final photo…)

…This Photo Will Not

(Hear what expression the photojournalism festival's
director uses for his choice of photos…)

French Photojournalism Festival to Display the Most Important Photos of the Year

A town in the South of France famous for its international photojournalism festival is going to display "the most important photos of the year", says director Jean-François Leroy. What might that be, knowing they are related to Iraq? Are they photos of reknowned photographers or young professionals? Are they combat photos from the 2003 war? Photos from the fighting against the guerillas in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad? Pictures of daily life in the Sunni triangle or in Kurdistan? Or reminders of what Iraq was like during the time of Saddam Hussein?

Of course not! Perpignan's ode to the craft (and hardships) of the professional photographer is to display… Lynndie England et al's "torture" snapshots from Abu Ghraib.

Where are the photos of the prisoners who had their tongues cut out, Monsieur Leroy? Where are the photos of amputated arms and of those who had acid poured onto their faces? (Be they professional photos or snapshots taken by the Ba'ath party members who engaged in the torture?) Where are the photos of the torture chambers in Saddam's prisons, and of his mass graves? Where are the photos of Iraqi mothers and fathers digging up their sons' remains in the scorching desert, Monsieur Leroy? Where are the pictures of dozens and dozens of skeletons being laid out in long lines? Where are they, Monsieur Leroy? Where are they, you who speak out so eloquently against injustice… Where on the walls of your Perpignan museum will we get to see those photos?…

Click to see some pictures that will be
on display and… some that will not

A Slacker's Manifesto on the Sloth Ethic

Here is more on a French slacker's sloth ethic…

De Gaulle Still a Scoundrel 60 Years On

A week-long series of events began today to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Paris. Here are a few sites to visit:

60eme anniversaire de la Libération de Paris — the mayor's office has set up this site with brief histories and other info about the events of that day.

Mission du 60eme anniversaire des débarquements et de la libération de la France — The Defense ministry has set up this site which contains a program of events occuring in Paris to commemorate the Liberation. There were a number of events to-day and Sunday there will be a ceremony marking the deaths of the Francs-Tireurs Partisans who were rounded up and shot by the Germans in the Bois de Boulogne outside Paris. On Monday there will be several dedications of new street names. Ceremonies continue until the 26th.

Le Monde suggests looking at these two personal Web sites devoted to the Liberation: Libération de Paris is maintained by Gilles Primout who since 1994 has been collecting all available sources of information on those who died during the liberation of Paris. Un vent de liberté is an excellent site with historical documents and photos.

I wrote some time ago about a new interpretation of the Liberation in which the US role was minimized and qualified amid happy reconciliation with Germany. I mentioned an essay by Le Monde's former correspondent in NYC, Sylvie Kaufmann, who wrote of a television documentary that included footage of an 8/25/44 speech by General de Gaulle in which he "transformed France's defeat into a victory, without allowing even a word for the role of the allies." Le Monde has made the entire text available here. You can see a small portion of it in this medley of newsreel footage from the liberation, provided by the Gaumont Pathé archives (here and here). Here is what de Gaulle said:

Why do you wish us to hide the emotion that has seized us, men and women, who are here, in our home, in Paris, which has risen to free itself and which was able to do so with its bare hands?

No! We shall not hide this profound and sacred emotion. In it there are moments that surpass each of our poor lives.

Paris! Paris violated! Paris broken! Paris martyred! but Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by it's people and with the aid of the armies of France, with the support and aid of all of France, of embattled France, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France.

And so! Since the enemy that held Paris has surrendered into our hands, France returns to Paris, her home. She returns bloodied but resolute. She returns enlightened by such a great lesson but more certain than ever of her duties and of her rights.

Of her duties first, I say, and I shall sum them up by saying that, for the time being, this concerns duties of war. The enemy is reeling but not yet beaten. He remains on our soil. For us to count ourselves as satisfied after what happened, it is not even enough that we have, with the aid of our dear and admirable allies, chased him off. As is fitting, we wish to enter onto his territory as conquers. This is why the French front line entered Paris with canons blasting. That is why the great French army of Italy set out for the Midi [August 15, 1944] and is rapidly making way for the Rhône valley. That is why our brave and dear interior forces are equipping themselves with modern weapons. It is for this recompense, this vengeance, this justice that we shall continue to fight until the final day, until total and complete victory. All men here and all those who hear us in France know that this duty of war demands national unity. We, who have lived through the greatest moments of our History, have no more to desire than to prove ourselves worthy of France until the end.

Long live France!

In 1945, the "Information & Education Division" of the US Occupation Forces sought to ease the strained relations between US soldiers and the French public by publishing a pamphlet entitled "112 Gripes About the French." The small book discussed the economic realities of life for the French following the occupation, the black market, poverty, malnutrition, cultural differences, etc. The book largely came to the defense of the French and asked American GIs to be more understanding of the country they were occupying. However Gripe #95 was entitled, "The French act has if they won the war single-handed." The Occupations Forces' answer?

Those who do are damned fools. The French did not win this war single-handed. Neither did we. Neither did the Russians or the British or the Chinese.

If you want to form your own opinion about how much French did to help win the war, ask yourself these questions: Suppose the French army and navy had joined up with the Germans in 1940 (as Hitler tried to get them to do)? Suppose the French armies which were fighting the Germans or the Italians had been fighting us? Suppose there had been no French underground, no French resistance, no French sabotage of German military production, no French espionage for SHAEF, no French guerrillas behind the German lines, no French Maquis in Central France, no FFI inside France as we fought our way through? How many more American lives do you think we would have lost?

No public authority published any pamphlet asking de Gaulle, or the French public or anyone else what the answers to the reverse of these questions would have been. On the other hand, perhaps De Gaulle was cynical enough to know the answers perfectly well and yet to surpress them for obvious reasons. I'm not to certain of the authenticity of this quote but it seems apt: Eric Waugh of the Belfast Telegraph recently attributed the following words to de Gaulle, speaking to Churchill: "We shall stun you with our ingratitude."

He did.

On the Other Hand, When It Comes to Mocking Bush, the French Press Does Not Ignore Its American Counterparts

Unlike the UN graft scandal, strangely enough, when it comes to ridiculing Bush, then, somehow, Le Monde's reporters prove to be assiduous New York Times readers (as this example demonstrates)…

Peace Camp's and UN's Iraqi-Oil-for-Food Scandal Ignored in French Press

Unless I am very much mistaken, the news in the New York Times article that was front-page news in the IHT, requiring a boxed headline in the newspaper published in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, has not given rise to a single word in France's independent newspaper of reference.
This is probably due to the fact, see, that the French (besides wanting to prop up the United Nations) are extremely busy in their holy fight against Bush. Let's take a look…

[A report on "the systematic abuse of the program"] caused only a few ripples of consternation. There was no action, diplomats said, not even a formal meeting on the allegations…

Since the fall of Mr. Hussein, the oil-for-food program has received far more scrutiny than it ever did during its six years of operation. … Multiple investigations now under way in Washington and Iraq and at the United Nations all center on one straightforward question: How did Mr. Hussein amass so much money while under international sanctions? An examination of the program, the largest in the United Nations' history, suggests an equally straightforward answer: The United Nations let him do it.

…the official position of the United Nations office that ran the program was that it learned of the endemic fraud only after it ended. But former officials and diplomats who dealt directly with the program now say the bribery and kickback racket was an open secret for years. … The result was a paralysis that translated into acquiescence toward matters like oil kickbacks.

… Evidence of fraud passed from office to office in a round robin ending nowhere. A former State Department official who was part of an interagency committee that reviewed trade contracts with Iraq said the group detected "abnormalities in pricing that suggested fees and kickbacks." The former officials said the committee "asked why Iraq needed to import gilded tiles for palaces, or liposuction equipment" [not to mention French perfume, German limousines, and 1,500 ping-pong tables].

…The oil-for-food program was established to get food and medicine to the Iraqi people and to counter Mr. Hussein's claims that sanctions were solely responsible for the widespread malnutrition in Iraq after the embargo was imposed in 1990.

Iraq was not prohibited from buying food and medicine; it just was not using its money for that purpose. By modifying the oil sanctions, the Security Council wagered that it might gain enough leverage to force Iraq to buy more relief goods.

…Meanwhile, the United States and Britain were delaying the approval of billions of dollars in contracts that they feared would provide Iraq with material or equipment that could be used for the development of weapons of mass destruction. Those "holds" on contracts deeply concerned the United Nations officials trying to improve Iraqi living conditions, and drew objections from members of the Security Council that favored a freer flow of commerce with Iraq.

…Iraq's suppliers included Russian factories, Arab trade brokers, European manufacturers and state-owned companies from China and the Middle East. … When the United States and others wanted the sanctions committee to confront Syria on oil sales, they were blocked by Russia and France, which argued that Syria should not be singled out …

Congressional investigators have estimated that Iraq collected $5.7 billion from selling oil outside United Nations supervision, while the oil-for-food program was chronically short of money for relief supplies. …

The Hussein government demanded kickbacks on almost every contract it negotiated, beginning in 2000, according to documents from Iraqi ministries … Senior Iraqi leaders ordered ministries to notify companies that they had to pay an amount equal to 10 percent of the contract value into secret foreign bank accounts, a violation of the United Nations sanctions.

The UN was — and is — the organization (the same that threw Uncle Sam off the human rights committee, while electing countries like Libya and Syria to head it) that Chirac, de Villepin, and the rest of the French intelligentsia promised the world — and their own people — was the best means for dealing with Saddam Hussein and for bringing about a better world. No wonder France's independent newspaper does not write a single line about it…

Read more about the Peace Camp's Humanitarian Scam

Lire un autre post sur ce scandale aux
Nations Unies ignoré par Le Monde

To keep abreast of the UN scandal,
pay regular visits to Friends of Saddam

Update: When the French press does not ignore
the New York Times, it can only mean one thing…

Life in the 'New Iraq' Is Terrible:Take Le Monde's Word For It

When the independent newspaper must interview somebody, of course it must be a someone from a government-financed agency who can be counted on to spew anti-American messages ("the United States have shown to what extent they intend to remain masters of the political process", "the situation gives the impression of a deplorable waste", "the acting government being perceived as the vassal of its American godfather", "the courage" of Moqtada Al-Sadr), messages that the Le Monde interviewers (in this case, Mouna Naïm), as usual, can be counted on to repeat — and elicit — in their questions ("Isn't the 'new Irak' being built in the image of the fallen régime: nepotism, corruption, authoritarianism?").

The funny thing (so to speak) is that David Baran says many correct things, but because these truths are considered pro-American ("the parallel [in your question] would appear troubling unless one considers the arbitrariness and the brutality — which are incomparable — of the former régime", "the American intervention [although] perceived as cynical and self-serving, appeared as the only possible solution to an unending status quo; the contest was thus favorable to [Bush's military] intervention"), the (short) sentences are inevitable minimized in the following (much longer) groups of sentences to bring about a general feeling that skewers Uncle Sam.

(This is what can be called "token sentences", sentences that, like certain articles, news-gathering, and letters to the editor are added only to a periodical's print edition so that the owners and editors able to say "Oh, well, of course we are objective and allow all viewpoints to be expressed, see the evidence for yourself", although such viewpoints appear only, say, 4% of the time.)

For instance, after evoking the disorganization of Iraqi institutions, the humiliated and disappointed population, the resentment of the Iraqis, all the American faux pas, and "the heavy responsability of the United States in the current situation", the whole article (and the interview) ends with a paragraph on the "country the instability promises to be enduring. The [basic question, therefore, is the following]: For want of a pacified Iraq, how does one manage the instability while preserving the appearances of a certain progress?"

Of course, under Saddam Hussein, you realize, Iraq was stable. And there weren't any journalists to poke their noses around and sniff out the various problems, big or small, real or imagined, that Le Monde is now making such a huge fuss about. Stability in a country where policemen could come into your home, remove your husband, son, or father, your wife, daughter, or mother, and take them away to be "taken care of" in the city jails (or in the killing fields), now that was something!

Aah, for the good ol' days…

Some Wise Words from Clinton's Inaugural

Today is the birthday of Bill Clinton, the president who said that

There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.

Vot's Negst on dee Achenta?

Ogayyy… vot ist negst on dee achenta? Ja, gome in. Ah, danke, Frau Möller. Aaahhh… Mmmmhhh... Oh! Vas ist dis?

Oh Got, nein, vas hass dee Präsident Push now tun? …Oh, how ritigulous… dat man nefer vails do amace me, he really iss a cherk!... Ohhhhh (lonk tsigh)… Ach, vat kan ve to hier? bip bip bip boop bibip boobip… … … Hallo? Wolfgang? Ja, haff you rhet dee noose? Vell, ket a koby of dee noosebaper! Push vants to remofe dee Amerigan Chee Ice vrom Chermany! ... Ja, it iss drue, I shwear, it iss right hier on dee vront baiche of dee noosebayp—… Ja, vell vat kan you egsbekt vrom a man like dat?

Ja, vot are you saying? "Ve marched akainst de Yankee imberialishts in dee streets von Berlin"? Ja, vell, of kourse ve tid! Ve vanted der arrokant Amerikan tsuberbower to zhow tsome humilidy to dee vorld und vidtraw its droops vrom efry kountry dat — Hey, vait a minute, vat are you keddink at!? No… No, it's not! Ov kourse not!! It hass not'ing do to wid dat! Dey are bervektly unreladed. No, dee Amerikan trups in Chermany is a divverent madder. Ja, a divverent madder aldoget'er. Ja, vell I ton't kare, you vrite dee shtory, und… yes you to, and you dell it in a vay dat zhows how vrong-headed dis policy ist und how unvair it iss do Chermany und Europe und how shtupid Chorge Push ist. Ja, ass ushual. Egzactly. Vine. Gut-pye.

…Ach, dat Wolfgang. He nefer untershtands anyt'ing. I'fe nefer heard tso many shtupid qveshchuns from vun man…

European Humanists Make a Principled Stand Against Yankee Imperialism

(Danke zu Hans ze Beeman)

Germans plea for Bushitler to change his mind and the French play with themselves

Les schleus supplient à Bushitler de changer d'avis et les franchouilles se paluchent dans leur coin

The Krauts cry, 'If the Americans leave, we'll be wiped off the map!' They can always ask their influential friend Chiraq to prop them up. The problem is French influence is nil. If Le Monde Al-Jazeera on the Seine (Truth Commissar for the copy and pasting STDs) is reporting the France's influence has weakened then you can be sure that it's at around zero. The fudgepacking Franco-German backroom (ground zero of Zeropa) is now empty.

Les Fritz pleurnichent, 'Si les Américains s'en vont, nous serons rayés de la carte!' Ils peuvent toujours demander à leur ami Chirak, dont l'influence est si forte, de les appuyer. Le fait que l'influence franchouille est nulle pose problème pourtant. Si Le Monde Al-Jazira sur Seine (Commissaire de la Conscience Politique des cons-cons) déclare que l'influence de la Fwance s'est affaiblie, cela veut dire que le véritable niveau se situe aux alentours de zéro. Le backroom Franco-Schleu (kilomètre zéro de la Zéropa) ne trouve plus de clients.

The pause that refreshes	Mais qu'est-ce que tu bois Doudou dis donc?
Nice. Marwan Barghouti chows down.	Élégance. Marwan Barghouti se tape un gueleton digne d'un roi.

Hier Ve Ko All Ofer Akain...

Frau Möller? Bleace, gan you ket me mein kovvee, bitte... Und dee noosebaber? Danke.

Gut, less tsee vat's do to dotay. Ach ja… Bapers, bapers, more bapers… Virst ov all… vas ist dis? Ach, der Push-Kehry boll akain. Oh no…  Oh no… …Dis ist kettink oud ov hant. Vat do to, vat do to?… (Tsigh…) Bipbipbip-bupbipbip-bup… [bause] kome now, shnell, anzer dee telef… Ja, hallo, Fritz? Ja, id ist me. How are you toing? Und your vife? Ah, gut… Ja, I am vine doo. Ja, Else ist vine, alvays iss, you know her tsunny kharakter und…

Uh no, agtually you are right, Fritz, I tid not gall chust do tisguss our vifes und dee veadher. Look, somes'ing game ob, I haff a vafor to ask of you. No, chus' a liddle vafor, a liddle iddy biddy vafor… Vell, it vould abbear dat ve mus' chainch it akain. Vat? Der poll, ov gourse. Ja ja, galm town, Fritz, ja ja, ich know, it iss tirink. Put you must rememper, Fritz, Fritz, blease li — Fritz, listen do me! Rememper, Fritz, ve are tevoted to dee trut'! Dee trut', dee holle trut', und not'ink put dee trut'! Zo so lonk dat — Fritz, listen do me! — so lonk dat Kehry iss not vinnink, ve vill chainch it akain, und akain, undil… Ja? Ja, I untershtand… ja ov kourse I to… vell listen, I abbreshiate your batience und… Fritz, listen, it iss imbordant! …Okay, why ton't ve to it dis vay? Vhy ton't you take it ovv der vebside aldoget'er? Vhile in der meandime I t'ink ov vot do to. No no chus' remofe it aldoget'er, vhile I t'ink… Ja Fritz, I know, I know!, you tit it pevore, it iss a lot ov vork, aber… Ja, Fritz, ja I bromise it iss dee last dime. Ja, I bromise: dee last dime.

Ogay, Fritz, gall me pack when you haff tagen it off, vill you. Ogay… ogay… Ja, danke vielmals, I abbreciate it, pye-pye… Oh, und Fritz, rememper… I gould not to it widout you…

Lessee… vot ist negst on dee achenta?

Pardon, Monsieur, Did American Soldiers Participate in WWII at All?

Six weeks after France hosted an international celebration for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, in which Jacques Chirac managed to hold a speech in which the words "America", "Americans", and "the United States" were not mentioned once, France hosted the commemoration of the second Allied landings in occupied France of 1944.

During France 2's news story on the 60th anniversary of Operation Dragoon, "America" and related words were not mentioned once.

During France 3's news story on the 60th anniversary of Operation Dragoon, "America" and related words were not mentioned once.

During LCI's news story on the 60th anniversary of Operation Dragoon, "America" and related words were not mentioned once.

The news stories on the commemorations all spoke in generic terms ("France paid homage to the soldiers who landed" in Provence in 1944; "a total of nearly 500,000 men"; "the 450,000 men who landed to liberate France").

As for the printed press, let's see… What do we have in Le Monde?

Wow, quite a lot. A full double spread with no less than five articles and two fillers.

The main article, by Yves Bordenave, is called France honors the forgotten of the Provence landings. An article by Lilian Renard concerns the African veterans finding "a lost love" all over again. A rather surprizing article, by Nicolas Weill, concerns the fact that a French army of liberation was actually dominated by Vichy officers. Yet another, by Claudia Courtois, speaks of the Maroccan veterans' bitterness. And the two fillers concern attempts to reevaluate African veterans' pensions and the soldiers who understood orders in French, yet spoke to each other in Arabic.

Wow… that's quite impressive… In all those articles, there are only two mentions of American troops. (Not counting a paragraph mentioning the absence of President Bush.) Quite a feat, eh? But wait a minute… That's not quite true… I told you there were five articles, and in the paragraph above, and I only mentioned four. Turns out there is an article where the word "American" is mentioned throughout the text. In fact, the word keeps returning again and again. It happens to be a straight historical just-the-facts-ma'am article, replete with maps, that tells the story, day by day, hour by hour, of the Provence landings. I guess Bordenave told Le Monde's editors it would be rather difficult to pen that article without including the Yanks…

Ah, the compromises one has to make to work in the printed media…

Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you. Some 60 UMP politicians objected to the presence of Algeria's president (Abdelaziz Bouteflika), because of the tragic fate of the pro-French harki fighters during Algeria's war for independence. Foreign Minister Michel Barnier scolded the Chirac party members, retorting that it "is legitimate that, like the other heads of state concerned by this page of our history, the Algerian president should be invited to the commemoration."

Quite a different treatment than that reserved for President Bush, huh?…

Express solidarity with Israeli jail staff	Exprimez votre solidarité avec le gardiens de prison israéliens
Chow down with a delicious plate of Middle Eastern grilled grub.	Faites le nécessaire pour vous taper un gueuleton de roi avec une délicieuse assiette de boustifaille orientale grillée.
Grilled kafta with extra chili sauce.	Kafta grillé avec le plein d'harissa.

That leaves more for the humans	Ça laisse plus pour les êtres humains
Criminals of the Pali Psycho Death Cult©®™ are hunger striking in Israeli prisons. Can I have their falafels?	Des criminels appartenant au Culte Psychotique de la Mort palestinien©®™ font une grève de la faim dans les prisons israéliennes. Je peux prendre leurs falafels?

Panty-waist brown shirt censorship ...	La censure des pédaloïdes chemises brunes ...
... doesn't work. Maurice G. Dantec's latest will be out twice before the end of the year.	... ne donne rien. Un coup double signé Maurice G. Dantec sur les étagères des libraries avant la fin de l'année.

Why fight terror? Zeropeans would rather work 35 hours and navel gaze between two package holidays	Combattre le terrorisme? Pourquoi faire? Les zéropéens préfèrent bosser 35 heures et se contempler le nombril entre deux vols Framtour
Zeropean nihilism. Lie down and play dead. Al-Qaeda is not a terrorist group. It's a social mouvement according to this American psychiatrist of French background who finds a willing poodle-like mouthpiece in Libération PropagandaStaffel.	Le nihilisme zéropéen. Couche-toi et fais le mort. Al-Qaeda n'est pas un groupe terroriste. C'est un mouvement social selon un psychiatre américain d'origine française qui trouve un porte-parole toutou bien soumis chez Libé PropagandaStaffel.
Sacrificed on the altar of Zeropean humanist pacifism. Just look the other way. It's all right.	Sacrifié sur l'autel du zhumanisme pacifiste zéropéen. Il suffit de détourner le regard. Tout va bien.

At Notre Dame

Ireland Online reports:

Paris’ mayor Bertrand Delanoe said he was “saddened and sickened” by anti-Semitic graffiti, including a sign saying “Death to Jews”, found scrawled on a wall on the grounds of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Police cordoned off part of the esplanade in front of the cathedral in central Paris that draws thousands of tourists daily in the summer.

The graffiti, written in black marker, included a swastika. It was discovered yesterday morning on a low wall that runs along the side of the cathedral facing the Seine River.

You can relax

It's not me.

Don't share the same values?	Vous ne partagez pas les mêmes valeurs?
Then get bent.	Allez vous faire voir au Larzac.

Rip 'em to shreds ...	Qu'ils pissent du sang par tous les trous ...
... and then we'll buy pieces of the rubble on E-bay.	... et ensuite on achetera des gravats sur E-bay.

Making the myths	Forger les mythes
Racial violence. Le Monde Al-Jazeera on the Seine tirelessly hypes the myth of a far-right extremist conspiracy (with help from the Murcans) when the true widespread problem has already been identified and is still swept under the rug. The recent crime wave was committed by a one guy who, much to the embarassement of French authorities hot on his trail, gave himself up before he could be tracked down. How about a study of those young Muslims who beat on Jews? Too hot to handle? Pussies!	Violence raciste. Le Monde Al-Jazira sur Seine fait inlassablement de l'intox autour du mythe d'une conspiration de l'extrême droite (inspirée par les ricains) bien que le véritable fléau soit déjà bien cerné mais se trouve toujours balayé sous le tapis. La série d'actes racistes commis récemment était l'oeuvre d'un type agissant tout seul qui, pour bien faire chier la flicaille franchouille qui se la jouaient dadadirladada à ses trousses, s'est rendu avant que ces derniers n'arrivent jusqu'à lui. Et pourquoi pas une étude au sujet de ces jeunes musulmans qui cassent du feuj? Trop polémique vous dites? Pédaloïdes!

"Phineas" in Custody — Police

Jewish tombstones were scrawled with Nazi symbols and anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim slurs recently in Lyon, as part of a rash of neo-Nazi acts. — Jean-Paul Bajard/Editing Server

A man claiming to be the anti-Semitic vandal behind last week's desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Lyon reportedly turned himself in to the Police Saturday night, the AFP reports. He has been placed under observation.

Police also suspect him in the assault of a Maghreban man shortly before the attack on the cemetery in which he allegedly used an axe later found bearing traces of blood in the cemetery. The suspect is a French national born in 1980 who turned himself in at the 18th arrondissement police station in Lyon, identifying himself as "Phineas," a name left as a tag among the swastikas and celtic crosses daubed on the headstones of the cemetery.

In disgust, W recently pointed to a press account that indicated that the presence of the name might have been inspired by far right ideology from the US. The ADL has a "backgrounder" on the "Phineas Priesthood" here. The biblical character "Phineas" is described in Numbers 25:7-8 as an Israelite who catches another Israelite making love with a Midiantish woman and who kills them both with a javelin in order to stave off a plague (uh... you do the math...). Neo-Nazi followers of the Christian "Identity" movement interpret this as a summons to do violence to people who aren't white and view the act as an initiation into the ranks of the so-called "priesthood." In 1999, a 37 year-old named Buford O’Neal Furrow opened fire on a Jewish daycare center in Los Angeles, wounding three children, a teenager and an adult woman and killing a Filipino postal worker. At the time, a representative from the Southern Poverty Law Center suggested that Furrow might have been seeking initiation into the order and CNN reported that Furrow had once been married to Debbie Matthews (a great beauty!), widow of Robert J. Matthews, whose own group was implicated in the 1984 murder of Denver talkradio host Alan Berg (since dramatized by Oliver Stone).

Police believe the culprit in the Lyon hate crimes was acting on similar motives and say that the suspect in custody has told them he found French far right groups, in the AFP's words, "too tepid." The did not mention US hate groups but knew precisely who the biblical character Phineas was. Police claim they had never seen the name before it appeared in two crimes that occurred only eight days apart.

"The statements by the man in custody and by witnesses as well as the evidence gathered seem to indicated that we have the lone perpetrator of an assault in Villeurbanne and of the vandalism discovered in the Jewish cemetery of Lyon," Interior minister de Villepin said in a statement (not currently available on the Interior ministry's Web site).

With equal disdain, W also recently pointed to an excellent report by the Times' Craig S. Smith (whose work in France has earned him plaudits on this blog in the past for his keen eye for certain stories that might otherwise have gone unnoticed in the English-language media).

Smith reports on a neo-Nazi rally that recently took place in Hipsheim and his characterization of the overall situation in France is comprehensive but perhaps most importantly he includes a rare insight into the nature of Alsace:

"There was never a de-Nazification in Alsace because the region was treated as a victim," said Georges Yoram Federmann, an Alsatian psychiatrist and founder of a group that has tried to identify Jews whose bodies, preserved in formaldehyde and intended for a Nazi medical museum, were found in Strasbourg after the war.

Because France was concerned with reintegrating the region after the war, more attention was paid to Nazi conscripts than to Nazi members and their sympathizers. Fourteen Alsatians convicted of taking part in a massacre at Oradour in 1944, the war's worst atrocity on French soil, were given amnesty by the state to placate Alsatian anger. The region's former Nazis melted back into Alsatian society without the scrutiny reserved for German collaborators elsewhere in France.