A report in Insight magazine today, "Baker wants Israel excluded from regional conference," caught my eye, however. Here are some excerpts:

The White House has been examining a proposal by James Baker to launch a Middle East peace effort without Israel. The peace effort would begin with a U.S.-organized conference, dubbed Madrid-2, and contain such U.S. adversaries as Iran and Syria. Officials said Madrid-2 would be promoted as a forum to discuss Iraq's future, but actually focus on Arab demands for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in the 1967 war. They said Israel would not be invited to the conference.

"As Baker sees this, the conference would provide a unique opportunity for the United States to strike a deal without Jewish pressure," an official said. "This has become the most hottest proposal examined by the foreign policy people over the last month." Officials said Mr. Baker's proposal, reflected in the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, has been supported by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. …

Under the Baker proposal, the Bush administration would arrange a Middle East conference that would discuss the future of Iraq and other Middle East issues. Officials said the conference would seek to win Arab support on Iraq in exchange for a U.S. pledge to renew efforts to press Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Golan Heights. "Baker sees his plan as containing something for everybody, except perhaps the Israelis," the official said. "The Syrians would get back the Golan, the Iranians would get U.S. recognition and the Saudis would regain their influence, particularly with the Palestinians."

Comment: If this report is accurate, Baker has latterly confirmed the hostility he was accused of 15 years ago? What happened? Being tone-deaf, as he was then, is one thing. Throwing a close ally to the wolves, quite another. (December 5, 2006)

Update: I offer my take today on the Iraq Study Group Report at "James Baker's Terrible Iraq Report."

[12/18/06]

[Jim Kouri - fellow traveler] - 12:05 am [permalink]
CAIR: The Other Fifth Column The Islamic terrorists Fifth Column in the US -- no, not the news media, the other Fifth Column -- the Council on American-Islamic Relations is once again at the forefront of mischief-making in their goal of undermining US efforts in combating terrorism.

CAIR is encouraging Muslims to file civil rights complaints and lawsuits if the "feel" they are being discriminated against by US airlines. Citing what it called the "airport profiling" of six imams removed from a recent US Airways flight, CAIR said Muslims traveling this month to the holy site in Saudi Arabia need to be aware of their rights. 
    
"Given the increase in the number of complaints CAIR has received alleging airport profiling of American Muslims, we believe it is important that all those taking part in this year's hajj be aware of their legal and civil rights," said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman. 
    
But M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix physician and chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), told the Washington Times that the announcement by CAIR "continues the tired stoking of the flames of victimization." 
    
"They are unfortunately exploiting, for purely political reasons, what should be a sacred and purely spiritual story of our faith's annual holy pilgrimage to Mecca," Dr. Jasser said. 
    
"We need new leadership and organizations which use their passions and the bandwidth of the media to lead the ideological fight against radical and political Islam rather than this tired preemption of supposed discrimination,"  he added.
    
CAIR is representing the six imams removed from a US Airways flight last month and has asked for a meeting with the airline to seek an out-of-court settlement. It maintains that police and witness reports detailing the imams unusual behavior before their removal last month were ethnically and/or religiously motivated. 
    
The imams say they were praying and did not, as the reports say, change seats and make remarks critical of President Bush and the Iraq war. 

However, according to police reports, the imams exhibited suspicious behavior such as having two imams sit at the front of the plane, two in the center and two in the rear of the aircraft. They also possessed one-way tickets and were loudly speaking Arabic as if to bring attention to themselves. Another Muslim passenger told police that the imams make anti-American comments, as well.
    
Pilots and air marshals called the incident a "PC probe" to intimidate passengers and crew from reporting suspicious behavior by Muslim passengers and are fearful the incident will set off a domino effect of lawsuits, according to journalist Sher Zieve, who's been covering radical Islam for several publications. 

A counterterrorism expert told this writer that he believes the incident was a "put up job" planned and implemented with the assistance of CAIR. The goal being to put airport and airline security personnel on the defensive.
    
Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, thinks this is a ploy to extort money from the airlines. 
    
"I think CAIR is soliciting complaints, and if they don't get it, they will make it up," said Miss Burlingame, who is also a director for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.
 
While CAIR continues to portray itself as a moderate organization, its history is filled with red flags that are ignored by the mainstream news media.

According to a report from the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland
Security: The Council on American-Islamic Relations and its employees have combined, conspired, and agreed with third parties, including, but not limited to, the Islamic Association for Palestine , the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the Global Relief Foundation, and foreign nationals hostile to the interests of the United States, to provide material support to known terrorist organizations, to advance the Hamas agenda, and to propagate radical Islam.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, and certain of its officers, directors, and employees, have acted in support of, and in furtherance of, this conspiracy, said the Senate report.

Dr. Daniel Pipes, a foremost expert on radical Islam and terrorism cites several criminal cases involving CAIR officials:

A senior staff member, Randall Royer a/k/a “Ismail” Royer, pled guilty and was sentenced to twenty years in prison for participating in a network of militant jihadists centered in Northern Virginia.  He admitted to aiding and abetting three persons who sought training in a terrorist camp in Pakistan for the purpose of waging jihad against American troops in Afghanistan.  Royer’s illegal actions occurred while he was employed by CAIR.

Their Director of Public Affairs, Bassem Kafagi was arrested by the US due to his ties with a terror-financing front group.  Khafagi pled guilty to charges of visa and bank fraud, and agreed to be deported to Egypt. Khafagi’s illegal actions occurred while he was employed by CAIR.

Ghassan Elashi, a founder of CAIR Texas chapter and founder of the Holy Land Foundation was arrested by the United States and charged with, making false statements on export declarations, dealing in the property of a designated terrorist organization, conspiracy
and money laundering.  Ghassan Elashi committed his crimes while working at CAIR, and was found guilty.

CAIR Board Member Imam Siraj Wahaj, an un-indicted coconspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, has called for replacing the American government with an Islamic caliphate, and warned that America will crumble unless it accepts Islam.

Whenever CAIR is accused of wrongdoing, their spokesmen are quick to tell Americans that its leadership have been guests at President Bush's White House and that they are regularly consulted by US officials on matters involving homeland security.

Too be sure, the Bush Administration intentionally or unintentionally provides CAIR with cover, but the officials with whom CAIR staff claim they work are usually people such as Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat serving a large Muslim population in Michigan, and a longtime terrorist and Marxist sympathizer. CAIR and other Muslim groups have funneled campaign contributions to Conyers, who in January begins his tenure as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

[12/15/06]

[Streetsweeper] 12:05 am [permalink]
Review: The Nativity Story by James Bowman A movie by the director of Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown about unmarried teenage pregnancy and young runaways fleeing the law? What new sort of sordidness and shock are we in for now, do you suppose? But wait, it's not what you might think. For Catherine Hardwicke's Nativity Story, from a screenplay by Mike Rich, is not the tale of yet another teen rebel but of the most conspicuous non-rebel in history, Mary the mother of Jesus. And what a job she's done with it! For my money, The Nativity Story is the best thing of its kind that there's been. This is because it does what The Passion of the Christ, in my view, so signally failed to do, which is to make us forget that we are watching a movie and to bring a completely foreign landscape and culture alive on the screen without ever making it seem too remote. This is no small feat when the movie's first century Jews and Romans are speaking English... [more at American Spectator]

[12/14/06]

[Julia Gorin pundit/comedian] 12:05 am [permalink]
That Intel Quiz that Reyes Flunked Everyone has by now heard that Nancy Pelosi’s incoming House intelligence chief Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas wasn’t able to answer whether al Qaeda is a Sunni group or a Shi’ite one, or able to describe Hezbollah.

In a CNN interview, the Congressional Quarterly reporter who interviewed Reyes, Jeff Stein, “said he was ‘amazed’ by Reyes’ lack of what he considers basic information about two of the major terrorist organizations,” while admitting that Reyes is “not a stupid guy.”

But the fact that anyone would find Reyes’ quiz performance appalling, least of all media folks, is itself appalling — considering that the quiz was obviously culturally biased. Toward Republicans.

And Reyes agreed, saying, “Oh come on. It wasn’t fair. Al Qaeda, Hezbollah — all that terrorism stuff — that’s the Republicans’ game. My results should be measured on a curve.” [Gorin Glob]

[12/13/06]

[Joel Rosenberg - novelist] 12:15 am [permalink]
Olmert Shocks World By Admiting Israel Has Nukes: A dangerous moment Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Tuesday stunned Israelis as well as much of the Islamic world by admitting that the Jewish state has nuclear weapons. "Israel doesn't threaten any country with anything --never did," Olmert told the German N24 new channel, according to various news reports. "The most that we tried to get for ourselves is to be able to live without terror. But we never threatened any nation with annihilation....Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?" Was it a slip of the tongue, or did Olmert mean to abandon decades of Israel's policy of "strategic ambiguity," neither confirming nor denying having nuclear warheads? It's not yet clear, but it was a dangerous development. Why? Because it gives Iran, Syria, Russia and the Islamic world the ability to accuse Israel of having a double standard for saying Iran should not have nukes when Israel already does. Also, it comes on the heels of new U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates shocking Washington and Israel by confirming in sworn Senate testimony that Israel does in fact have nuclear weapons. In The Ezekiel Option and Epicenter I write about the possibility of Russia and other nations calling for a U.N. resolution demanding a "nuclear free zone" in the Middle East, and calling on Israel to give up her weapons of mass destruction within 30 days or risk facing an international coalition to disarm her, just as Iraq faced a U.S.-led coaliton in 2002. Unfortunately, Olmert's remark -- a slip or not -- makes that prospect more likely today.

[12/12/06]

[Allan Wall] 12:02 am [permalink]
Arturo Sarukhan On Beachheads Arturo Sarukhan, former Mexican consul in New York City, is a man to watch in the new Felipe Calderon administration, epecially as it concerns U.S.-Mexican relations.

Sarukhan was foreign policy coordinator for Calderon’s campaign and transition team, and was expected to be named Foreign Minister. But instead, the Foreign Minister portfolio has been given to Patricia Espinosa.

Sarukhan has been designated as the man responsible for managing Mexico’s relationship with the United States.

In a recent interview Sarukhan had this to say about his proposed strategy:

“Certainly the only way in which Mexico can advance a comprehensive agenda with the United States is if we use the (Mexican) embassy and the network of consulates as ‘beachheads’ of lobbying for the image, the interests and the agenda of Mexico in all of U.S. territory and with all sectors of American society.”

Sarukhan plans to insist on an amnesty for illegal Mexicans working in the U.S. and also work for a guest worker program. In order to accomplish this, Sarukhan plans to work with the U.S. Congress, American governors and local assemblies.

Definitely, we need to keep an eye on what this guy’s up to.

[12/11/06]

[Laura Mansfield - author, Strategic Translations] 12:01 am [permalink]
MySpace Blogger Arrested on Terror Charges He went by the name of Salafist Mujahid when we first encountered him in May of this year on MySpace.com. He was one of several other young men we encountered while reseaching jihadist activities on MySpace.com.

Salafist was one of several young men we identified in Chicago with radical Islamist propaganda on their MySpace.com blogs. At the time, we identified him as Talib Abu Salam, who claimed to be 21, and living in suburban Chicago.

Like many of the other blogs, his MySpace blog boasted the black flag of jihad, along with images of Zarqawi, Zawahiri, and Bin Laden.

After the initial article was published.in May of this year, the blog along with several others was changed to private, and many of these were ultimately deleted from MySpace. However, at the time we archived the screen shots.

When we contacted the FBI regarding the jihadi material on MySpace, we were told that it was protected free speech.

On Wednesday of this week, Derrick Shareef of the ChicagoIL suburb of RockfordIL was arrested on charges that he planned to attack a Chicago area shopping mall with grenades on December 22 in an attempt to disrupt Christmas.

Authorities say that there are no indications that Derrick Shareef was involved with any sort of terror cell or organized group in his effort to wage "violent jihad" against Americans.

But one thing is certain. The MySpace blogger know as Salafist Mujahid was part of a large social network of like-minded Islamists communicating on MySpace.com.

I certainly hope that the authorities are taking a deeper look at his social network.

[12/8/06]

[Julia Gorin pundit/comedian] 12:05 am [permalink]
No Wonder Muslims Hate Dogs: You’ve already heard about this incident by now, but take note:

A man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after officials say they found him carrying more than $78,000 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide. Sisayehiticha Dinssa, an unemployed U.S. citizen, was arrested Tuesday after a dog caught the scent of narcotics on cash he was carrying, according to an affidavit filed in court.

And no wonder they hate Jews:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leonid Feller argued Dinssa was a potential risk to the community and federal agents want to get a warrant to search his computer more thoroughly, The Detroit News reported Thursday. U.S. Magistrate Donald Scheer approved Feller’s request to detain him.

Of course, Colin Powell would object to this guy getting hassled in the first place, wouldn’t he?

The item was called “Colin Powell: Reach Out to Arabs and Muslims,” which was his redundant advice to the Bush administration when Powell spoke at a business forum in the UAE last week.

Reach out. Good idea. How did that old AT&T jingle go? Sing along now: “Reach out, reach out and nuke someone!”

Powell said the number of Arabs and Muslims who visit the U.S. has dropped since the attacks and reflected negatively on educational institutions and leisure destinations.

Arabs and Muslims complain of heavy security searches in U.S. airports and denial of access to the country. Many Arab students, mainly from Gulf Arab states, left the United States after the attacks on fears of discrimination.

“This is bad, not good for America,” said Powell.

Will someone please get this man some stem cells?! He’s got dementia! And it gets worse:

“When students come to America for a couple of years they will understand Americans more. This is a great weapon against terrorism.”

Apparently, Powell hasn’t heard the bad news about Eurabia.

More:

“The greatest weapon against terrorism for America is to open up for the rest of the world.”

Let me phrase my response in Ali G language:

Me knows some bitches that’s open’d up for the worl’, and what happen is the worl’ lose respek. [Gorin Glob]

[12/7/06]

[Joel Rosenberg - novelist] 12:15 am [permalink]
Putin A Threat: First, an update on the KGB murder in London. The British press is saying that the deadly polonium 210 that killed former FSB Colonel Alexander Litvinenko has now been traced to Russian nuclear facilities. "The killers must have had access to the laboratories, indicating a level of state involvement, according to intelligence sources," according to one report.

Second, more is being learned about the man who was murdered. "Litvinenko was fired in 1998 from the FSB security police, post- Soviet successor to the KGB, which Putin ran before becoming president," reports a British newspaper. "He spent the next eight years trying to publicise his belief that Putin was presiding over a return to a KGB-style state. His death has highlighted the warnings of Boris Berezovsky, the billionaire who has been exiled in London since falling out with Putin, that the Russian-president was pushing his country to authoritarianism."

Third, Russia's most influential human rights activist warned yesterday that the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London last week with radioactive polonium-210 was a "new kind of Chernobyl that puts the whole world in danger"...."Like Berezovsky and outspoken reporters such as Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment last month, she believes Putin is destroying Russia's recently won democratic liberties and has fiercely criticised Putin's war in Chechnya and his stifling of media freedom. Bonner looks back with nostalgia on the pre-Putin years of rule under Boris Yeltsin. 'There was democratic freedom under Yeltsin, and a free press, and now it's all been liquidated,' she said."

Fourth, more details are emerging on the attempted assasination of Russia's former prime minister. See: Ex-Russian premier 'also a victim of poisoning'

Fifth, a growing number of Western analysts are beginning to speak out strongly against Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him a rising Czar whose tactics are brutal and whose actions threaten the U.S. and our European allies. Among them:

* Rush Limbaugh wrote a piece for his website the other day called, "Czar Putin Was (and is) KGB": "This Putin guy is former KGB, and I think the Soviet Union is coming back. I think the Russian government today is starting to reconstitute itself....Now you've got Putin sending air defense systems to Iran who's going to bail us out of Iraq, threatening Israel. You've got Putin sending missiles and rockets and warheads and helping Iran with its nuclear program, and all of this combined, then you've got the Baker report, the Iraq study group report and Chuck Hagel and a bunch of courageous, brave American Democrats and Republicans saying, 'We gotta honorably pull out of there. We gotta get out of there, we gotta turn this place over to Iran and Syria and let them show us the way out, they can quell the violence, but we have to get out.'....Snerdley was simply reminding me that when Putin was first elected president or named president or however he got there, the world was all atwitter, 'Oh, he's so urbane, and he's so sophisticated, and he brings a new face to the Russian bear.' I said, 'He's a former KGB agent. He's trouble. He's a communist, former KGB, he's trouble.' Once again, I, ladies and gentlemen, knew what I was talking about. I know communists, I know liberals, I know these people, and they do not reform. They don't reform. These guys have just been lying in wait, waiting for a chance to take their country back, and slowly but surely they're getting it done and they're doing it by wiping out some of the people that are trying to stop them from coalescing their power, and they're coming up with these worldwide alliances with troublemakers like Iran."

* Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal: "It's time we start thinking of Vladimir Putin's Russia as an enemy of the United States. This isn't simply because a former KGB agent turned Putin critic died last week in London after ingesting a dose of polonium 210, an element that usually functions as a neutron trigger in atomic bombs. Nor is it that Alexander Litvinenko's death is the latest in a series of killings, attempted murders, imprisonments and forced exiles whose victims just happened to be prominent opponents of Mr. Putin. It is because the foreign policy of Russia has become openly, and often gratuitously, hostile to the U.S."

* Richard Holbrooke in the Washington Post: "Vladimir Putin is going all out to undermine and get rid of Georgia's young, pro-American, pro-democracy president, Mikheil Saakashvili. Putin is assuming that the United States, overwhelmed by Iraq and needing Moscow's support on North Korea and Iran, will not make Georgia a 'red-line' issue and that the European Union, fearful of endangering energy supplies from Russia, will similarly play it down.Much is at stake: Putin's long-term strategic goal is to create a sphere of Russian dominance and hegemony in the vast area the Soviet Union and the czars once ruled. If he succeeds in bringing down the most independent and pro-Western leader in the former Soviet space outside the Baltics, he will have gone a long way toward his goal. Also at stake: President Bush's "freedom agenda," stability in the Caucasus and the European Union's attitude toward a small European country on the edge of the world's most volatile region."

[12/6/06]

[Mediacrity] 12:01 am [permalink]
Hamas and Hezbullah logo products: made in the USA Have you ever watched a Hamas or Hezbullah demonstration on TV and wondered where the protestors bought those nice logo t-shirts and such?

Well, you don't need to wonder any longer. We found products with the logos of these two organizations, designated by the United States as terrorist groups, on sale at CafePress.

Take a look at http://www.intifadahq.com or http://www.cafepress.com/intifadahq/

You can buy t-shirts emblazoned with the Hezbullah logo, or a shirt printed with "TEAM HEZBOLLAH You know the Score. Celebrate Hezbollah's Victory over Israel in the 2006 Lebanon - Israel war". You can also buy products with the "Hamas Shahada Flag: The shahadaa is the muslim declaration of faith. The green and white shahada is a symbol of Hamas."

You can even buy products proclaiming that you are a member of the "Nasrallah fan club".

Who is behind this website which openly sells pro-terrorist propaganda?

The website "intifadahq.com" is registered through GoDaddy.com, but the contact information of its owner is hidden behind an anonymous registration service.

The website was originally registered July 31, 2006, and the site is parked on a server in Scottsdale, AZ.

IntifadaHQ is using the content-production services of US-based CafePress to produce these logo products.

IntifadaHQ claims that the profits from the sales of these products go to "support RED CROSS / RED CRESCENT operations in LEBANON and PALESTINE", explicitly stating "We are not in any way affiliated with Hamas or Hezbollah. Neither of these groups will receive any money from the sales of these products."

However, in the past such as disclaimer has not been considered by the US government as proof that the funds are not going to support these terror groups. In fact, there have been several successful prosecutions of groups accused of funding Hezbullah or Hamas, when the defendants have claimed otherwise.

Where's the money going from the purchase of these terrorist-logo products? Shouldn't someone be trying to find out? [go to Mediacrity blog]

[12/5/06]

[Mediacrity] 12:01 am [permalink]
A Day of Joy in Moonbatland John Bolton, arguably the best UN envoy in recent history, announced Monday that he is stepping down. The National Review Online has a good analysis.

This is a happy day in Moonbatland. Let the rejoicing commence! [go to Mediacrity blog]

[12/4/06]

[Laura Mansfield - author, Strategic Translations] 12:01 am [permalink]
Current CyberTerror Threat Friday night’s warning from the US Department of Homeland Security regarding an “Al Qaeda” cyber threat to the US financial sector was based in part on a posting on the Al Firdaws forum which attempted to organize a month-long cyber attack on US banking websites.

The posting called for attackers to use “destructive viruses” and to attempt to bring down the websites and penetrate and destroy databases.

Whether or not this posting represents an actual threat by terrorists, and in fact whether or not the posting is from what I call “Al Qaeda Classic” is far from certain.

It is indisputable that individuals on the various jihadist forums are organizing “cyber attacks”, using denial of service attacks, on various targets. The postings are certainly being made on message boards that are openly sympathetic and supportive of Al Qaeda, and there is little doubt that some of the individuals posting are terrorists.

However, these attacks do not seem to be organized by Al Qaeda, at least not using the classic definition of Al Qaeda. Instead they appear to be initiated by an individual or small group of individuals acting on their own. They post the announcement of the attack on the jihadist boards and on their own websites, and wait for others to jump on the bandwagon with them.

These are basically “entrepreneurial terrorists”, individuals and small groups who are inspired and motivated by Al Qaeda but who do not receive orders or funding from Al Qaeda leadership. Instead, these individuals act on their own and without the support of the Al Qaeda infrastructure.

So far, these “attacks” have caused, at most, minor disruption and slowdown to targeted sites. The organization behind these “terrorist hackers” and their attacks just doesn’t seem to well enough developed to mount a successful attack.

In fact, the Vatican website has been the target of several of these recently, where the jihadists announced the attack, distributed the software, and then carried it out. But the effectiveness of the attack was minimal; the Vatican site has fended off several of these attacks without much difficulty.

At least one group of these “cyber terrorists” called the “Electronic Jihad Group” offer special software on their website at al-jinan.org. This group uses what appears to be a home-grown software package they have written specifically for these attacks called “e-Jihad 1.5”. e-Jihad is not a particularly sophisticated program. The user specifies the website to be attacked, and the program sends PING requests, HTTP_GET requests, and garbage packets to the website named.

Most ISPs and business websites can easily filter these requests, although in theory if enough people were using the software the website could become overwhelmed by the high traffic generated by the attack.

In the meantime, when accessing the internet it is important that both business and home computer users maintain “safe surfing” practices so that the computer does not become infected with malware that allows a remote computer to take control. (Remote-controlled “zombie” computers can be used in DDoS attacks.) Use anti-virus and spyware protection software vigilantly and make sure that the signatures for your anti-virus program are up to date.

It is also likely that we’ll continue to see an increase in “phishing” attempts, where users receive email from impersonators requesting password and credit card information, so it would be advisable to not let your guard down against these as well.

Corporate users should review their security protocols and ensure that they have not inadvertantly left any "back doors" open on databases and webservers. Most serious hacker intrusions have been the result of security holes which are overlooked and are then exploited by "hackers".

And remember that these threats are an attempt to instill fear and terror into our way of life. Don't let the bad guys win.

[12/1/06]

[Daniel Pipes - author, activist, activist] 12:01am [permalink]
"Could a New Strongman Help?" That's the title of an article by John F. Burns in the New York Times earlier this month, reporting from Baghdad, and it recapitulates themes I have been arguing for since April 2003 – that Iraq needs stability before it can make moves to build democracy. Burns begins by reporting that "in the rudderless nightmare Iraq has become," many Iraqis crave "a strong leader, able to forge a nation from the country's fractious ethnic and religious groups, and to end the current wave of sectarian bloodletting."

It is something ordinary Iraqis say with growing intensity, even as they agree on little else. Let there be a strongman, they say, not a relentless killer like Saddam Hussein but somebody who will take the hammer to the insurgents and the death squads and the kidnappers and the criminal gangs who have banished all pretense of civility from their lives. Let him ride roughshod, if he must, they say, over the niceties of due process and human rights, indeed over the panoply of democratic institutions America has tried to implant here, if only he can bring peace.

This sentiment, however, continues to be ignored in Washington.

The closest anyone with the White House's ear has come to suggesting anything short of democratic rule, let alone an authoritarian model typical of other countries in the Middle East, are leaks from the bipartisan commission headed by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, which is charged with suggesting a new American approach to Iraq; some of its members have said that the group has considered recommending that stability, rather than democracy, should become the principal objective there.

I note with special interest that Iraqis have in mind the same person I had suggested (at "U.S. Needs To Learn Patience [in Iraq]," "Iraq's Leader Asserts Strongman Powers," "Thoughts on the Forthcoming Iraqi Elections," and "Middle East Update") for this role:

The leading candidate for strongman, among secular Iraqis, at least, would be Ayad Allawi, whom the Americans named prime minister in the first post-Hussein government, in 2004. Mr. Allawi, though Shiite, has strong ties with Sunnis, and a reputation as a hard man that goes back to his time as a young Baathist enforcer.

Comment: Years later, will the Bush administration finally understand, along with Voltaire, that "le mieux est l'ennemi du bien" (the better is the enemy of the good)? Security and stability must precede the gradual move toward democracy.