Anyone making the argument that Ahmed Chalabi single-handedly let the Bush administration by the nose into war apparently didn't know about his comrade-in-info, the President of Russia.

Putin: Russia Gave Bush Iraq Intelligence

Russia gave the Bush administration intelligence after the September 11 attacks that suggested Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was preparing attacks in the United States, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

"After Sept. 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services, the intelligence service, received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests," Putin said.

Of course that wouldn't make him want to take pre-emptive action to stop the potential attacks.

Putin said the intelligence didn't cause Russia to waver from its firm opposition to the war.

"Despite that information about terrorist attacks being prepared by Saddam's regime, Russia's position on Iraq remains unchanged," Putin said.

I guess that's why I didn't hear a big thank you from Putin to Ronald Reagan last week for helping bring about the situation that led him to power.

Although it's not a common occurence, I can pretty much expect to be "witnessed to" every once in a while here in the heart of Southern Baptism. But shouldn't there be a zone of exclusion somewhere in the world where Jews have a right to leave in peace?

Not for these excited Dallasites who "witnessed to" an Orthodox minyan near the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

On this amazing Gospel outreach to the Jewish people of Israel, the Lord indeed “did awesome things we did not expect” (Is. 64:3). One powerful example of this happened in Jerusalem while we were witnessing for the Messiah to the Jewish people there. After morning prayer, we felt led by the Spirit to pray at the Western Wall and then walk through the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

Our stop at the Western Wall was a distinct display of the providence of God; while we were praying, an Orthodox Jew approached us to ask us if we were Jewish. He asked because he wanted us to help him make a minyan in the synagogue adjacent to the Western Wall so that he could say formal prayers from the Kiddush (the official prayer book of Judaism).

A minyan in Jewish law is required to have a prayer service and is a group composed of ten men above Bar Mitzvah age (13 years old) who must be present before a prayer or synagogue service can occur. We jumped at this opportunity because we knew this was a golden opportunity from God to witness to these Orthodox Jews. So, through an interpreter, I told this gentleman that we were Jewish in our heart by virtue of the fact that we have Jesus, the risen Messiah, living in us.

Dan Rather states the obvious:

Rather described Clinton as "remarkably candid," both in the book and in several hours of interviews in Arkansas and Chappaqua, N.Y. "For someone to publicly be this introspective, reflective and critical of himself is pretty remarkable and rare," he said. "I don't think I could do it."

But more importantly speaking about Rather's interview with Clinton:

The interview also covered the war in Iraq, which was not mentioned in yesterday's excerpts. Rather said Clinton was "supportive" of President Bush on Iraq and that "it will surprise some people."

The NY Times publishes it's expected opinion about the lack of a connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda - The Plain Truth.

It's hard to imagine how the commission investigating the 2001 terrorist attacks could have put it more clearly yesterday: there was never any evidence of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11.

Now President Bush should apologize to the American people, who were led to believe something different.

Of all the ways Mr. Bush persuaded Americans to back the invasion of Iraq last year, the most plainly dishonest was his effort to link his war of choice with the battle against terrorists worldwide. While it's possible that Mr. Bush and his top advisers really believed that there were chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq, they should have known all along that there was no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. No serious intelligence analyst believed the connection existed; Richard Clarke, the former antiterrorism chief, wrote in his book that Mr. Bush had been told just that.

Nevertheless, the Bush administration convinced a substantial majority of Americans before the war that Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to 9/11.

First of all, the Times is confusing three separate issues here. Was Iraq tied to 9/11 specifically? Was Iraq ties in any other way to Al-Qaeda? Was Iraq tied to terrorism at all?

I especially like the comment about President Bush convincing the people about Saddam being tied to 9/11. As if everyone doesn't get the administration's views filtered through the media first! If the people are too stupid to separate links to Al-Qaeda in general from the specific 9/11 attack, that's not Bush's fault.

At least the Times finally admits that it's conceivable for someone to have thought that Iraq had WMDs. That's very big of them.

As for Richard Clarke, who I thought would have been fully discredited by now, he claimed that Iraqis were helping Bin-Laden at the chemical factory Clinton bombed in 1988. From the Washington Post of January 23, 1999:

Clarke did provide new information in defense of Clinton's decision to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles at the El Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan, in retaliation for bin Laden's role in the Aug. 7 embassy bombings. While U.S. intelligence officials disclosed shortly after the missile attack that they had obtained a soil sample from the El Shifa site that contained a precursor of VX nerve gas, Clarke said that the U.S. government is "sure" that Iraqi nerve gas experts actually produced a powdered VX-like substance at the plant that, when mixed with bleach and water, would have become fully active VX nerve gas.

Clarke said U.S. intelligence does not know how much of the substance was produced at El Shifa or what happened to it. But he said that intelligence exists linking bin Laden to El Shifa's current and past operators, the Iraqi nerve gas experts and the National Islamic Front in Sudan.

Is there really no way for the U.S. forces in Iraq to stop these car bombs? Hasn't someone figured out that it's a bad idea to have people stand in line virtually unprotected outside a military compound? These are our most vital assets we're losing here!

I don't blame the U.S. for the actions of the killers here, but there must be more we can do to protect these people.

Car Bomb Kills at Least 31 Outside Iraqi Army Base

There are however some interesting unanswered questions given that this is far from the first time something like this has happened.

- Why do these Iraqis keep showing up? Is it for the job, or for their country?
- What do the families think? Are they blaming the U.S, or do they consider their now dead relatives martyrs or Iraqi patriots?
- Why isn't someone keeping a running count of Iraqis killed by these "insurgents"?

Are the Hasidim being priced out of Williamsburg? Is everyone being priced out of Williamsburg? Not certain celebrities, that's for sure.

HEATED HASIDS (How could you not love that headline?)

A sea of black was seeing red in Williamsburg yesterday as local Hasidim protested the skyrocketing prices of housing in Brooklyn's hippest neighborhood.

"We've been living here for 40 or 50 years, we've invested tens of millions of dollars for institutions, schools, synagogues," said protester and real-estate broker David Heimlich, 38.

"We used to pay a maximum of $250 per square foot, now they are selling apartments for $500 and up per square foot. They're starting to build for the luxury types."

"I've been a little bit annoyed with the reaction to the yuppies and artists coming in here," said Charles Thomas, 40, a painter who says he was kicked out of the Gretsch to make way for the likes of rapper Busta Rhymes and actress Annabella Sciorra.

Is the Sharon government really going to perform major evacuations from Gaza on Tisha B'Av? I doubt it.

Gaza Evacuation Set For 9 Av 2005 As Settlers Prepare For Showdown

How did this Israeli Jew get so screwed up by 30 years old that he decides to support Hizbollah?

Israeli charged in scheme to send Hezbollah high-tech goods

The head of a Canadian shipping company and an Israeli citizen were indicted Wednesday for a scheme to ship the highest level of night-vision equipment to Hezbollah.

Naji Antoine Abi Khalil, 39, chairman and general manager of New Line Services, a shipping company based in Montreal, and Tomer Grinberg, 30, an Israeli citizen living in New York, were named in the indictment filed in Manhattan federal court.

Khalil, who holds dual citizenship in Canada and Lebanon, is charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist organization and attempting to contribute goods to a specially designated terrorist.

He and Grinberg are both charged with conspiring to export sensitive military night-vision equipment out of the country without first obtaining licenses from the U.S. government.

Do these two count in the list of Paul Krugman's list of John Ashcroft's non-existent terrorism convictions?

I love Roger Ebert. He is the only movie critic that I agree with almost 100% of the time.

I went to his page at the Chicago Sun-Times website to see what review, if any, he had posted for Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11". It turns out that he did write a review last month after seeing it in Cannes.

The review itself seems reasonable (if I can comment as someone who has only heard about it). However, it is obvious from the review the even Roger Ebert allowed Michael Moore to lead him down the garden path of Bush hatred.

Ebert writes, "The official story is that Bush was meeting with a group of pre-schoolers when he was informed of the attack on the World Trade Center and quickly left the room. Not quite right, says Moore. Bush learned of the first attack before entering the school, "decided to go ahead with his photo op," and began to read My Pet Goat to the students."

However, President Bush's leaving right away was never the official story. Here is how the President's morning was described in the NY Times on the day of the attacks - 9/11/01.

"Mr. Bush was informed that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in a telephone conversation with Ms. Rice shortly before walking into a second-grade classroom at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla. White House officials said he knew only that it was a single aircraft and not necessarily a terrorist attack."

As Ebert's words about the "official story" are his own, I am of the belief that this is what Michael Moore said was the official story and Ebert bought it hook, line and sinker.

Furthermore, Ebert suggests that the Bin Laden family was flown out of the country while U.S. airspace was still closed. (This is also a "liberal legend" as they left the country no earlier than 9/14 when airports were re-opened.) However as the NY Times reported on April 14 of this year:

"Independent commission investigating Sept 11 attacks finds that six chartered flights that rushed scores of Saudi citizens out of United States after Sept 11 attacks were handled properly by Bush administration; flight on Sept 20, 2001, carried 26 passengers, most of them relatives of Osama bin Laden; but all 142 passengers on flights, mostly Saudi citizens, were screened by law enforcement officials."

When I was a little boy growing up in New York in the early 70's, there was nothing more exciting than a trip to the United Nations building. It was like being able to see the entire world all at once without having to leave my hometown. And what child of that place and time did not consider UNICEF to be one of the best charities in the world? I would get such a thrill from being able to buy stamps or collect money on their behalf.

Things at the U.N. have changed. And not for the better.

U.N. PROBER IN GRAFT SCANDAL

WASHINGTON - The United Nations was rocked by a new scandal yesterday when reports surfaced that the diplomat in charge of rooting out corruption in the world body is himself facing allegiations about unethical conduct.

Fox News reported yesterday that Dileep Nair, the undersecretary general in charge of the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight, has been accused of demanding kickbacks and sexual favors in return for promotions inside his office. Nair, a native of Singapore, also has been accused of attempting to thwart the probe into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal, although his role in that probe remains unclear.

For better or for worse, I believe this to be true. From the WSJ, 'Under God'

Statistics say America is not only a religious nation but also a Christian one. Up to 85% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Brian Cronin, who litigated against a cross on public land in Boise, Idaho, complained, "For Buddhists, Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians in Boise, the cross only drives home the point that they are strangers in a strange land." Like Mr. Newdow and the Ninth Circuit judges, Mr. Cronin was on target. America is a predominantly Christian nation with a secular government. Non-Christians may legitimately see themselves as strangers because they or their ancestors moved to this "strange land" founded and peopled by Christians -- even as Christians become strangers by moving to Israel, India, Thailand or Morocco.

As much as some would like to believe that the United States was created under the guise of moral relativism and multiculturalism, the fact remains that it was not. Even if you believe that everyone from the Pilgrims to the founding fathers were extremely welcoming of all religions, it would be hard to make the case that they considered those religions (or atheism) equal to their own. They didn't even hold black people to be truly equal and in many cases they were treated as potential co-religionists.

I do also think that Christian people have the same right to have countries of their own, where their own cultural mores dominate, as do Jews, Hindus, Muslims, etc. This can be done without the establishment of a national religion which is all the constitution prohibits. Believing in God is not a religion, it's a principle.

This just turns my stomach on so many levels, but mostly for what it says about the people that would do this to children.

2 Palestinian girls nabbed on way to suicide attack

Two 15-year-old girls were arrested overnight Wednesday in the West Bank city of Nablus for allegedly planning to carry out a suicide attack together with their fathers, Army Radio reported.

According to the report, the four were recruited by an Al-Aksa activist. IDF sources told the radio that the same activist recruited Husam Abdu, 16, of Nablus to carry out a suicide bombing at the Huwara checkpoint south of the West Bank city.

This is scary.

Iran massing troops on Iraq border

But I doubt it's true.

And even if it is true, the Iranians can't be so stupid as to think we wouldn't fly in there and devastate their troops in the open desert if they were ever to invade Iraq.

It WAS the economy, stupid.

National - U.S. hiring plans near boom levels

New York - New York Outpaces U.S. Economic Growth

Paul Krugman concerns himself today with John Ashcroft who has never put a criminal in jail and only lives to punish the innocent outside the bounds of our constitution. At least that's the feeling you get in Travesty of Justice.

One of the arguments he uses is that there has been an "absence of any major successful prosecutions" in the War on Terror. Blogger Michelle Malkin was able to come up with more than 20 names just based on news reports.

I also like the way Krugman uses the word "major". What is a "major prosecution"? Maybe he means exciting prosecution. Somehow I didn't think the Justice Department is going to make many arrests of terrorists while they have their fingers on a bomb trigger, or already sitting at the controls of a 737. Nor do I want them to wait until then.

Since I don't believe in jinxes, I will mention that it has been exactly 1,008 days since the last "major successful" terror attack on United States soil.

I'm too tired to read all of this now - but it looks absolutely fascinating.

Off the Face of the Earth

IT WAS THE ONLY REFUGE THEY HAD LEFT. In 1942, as the Nazis intensified their hold on Eastern Europe, several Jewish families disappeared into the vast underground labyrinths of western Ukraine. The group ranged from grandmothers to toddlers, and for the next year and a half they lived, worked, ate, and slept in caves directly under the feet of those who would send them to their deaths. Their story is one of history's most remarkable epics of survival. And yet it was almost forgotten until an American caver came across the remnants of their underground asylum and set out to find the survivors of PRIEST'S GROTTO.

Link courtesy of Nextbook.

I didn't see this news - IDF axes 40 roadblocks to ease Palestinians' lot - as a subheader to the NY Times story of the day on Israel - Israelis to Extend Barrier Deeper Into West Bank.

The funnier thing is that the removal of roadblocks has already begun while the extension of the barrier is still under discussion.

What do Mel Gibson and Kevin Spacey have in common?

a) They are both among the most accomplished actors of their generation
b) They have both nominated for, or won, Academy Awards
c) They both have fathers that were anti-Semitic, holocaust denying Nazis
d) All of the above

If you chose "d" you guessed right.

Kevin Spacey's Family Secrets Are Out

Years ago I was told by a confidant of two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey that his father, Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, had been a member of the American Nazi party.

"He had Nazi memorabilia everywhere, and was completely devoted to the party," said the source.

Now my old friend, journalist Sharon Churcher, has published an interview with Spacey's older brother Randy Fowler about their father in the British newspaper the Mail on Sunday.

Thanks to Yada Blog for the link.

I hear that in Israel you can get the freshest pork in the world. Since we Jews try to be the best at everything, I don't see why this is such a stretch given today's Supreme Court Ruling.

Religious groups denounce pork ruling as not kosher

The Supreme Court's ruling that cities may allow the sale of pork in neighborhoods where there is no significant opposition has raised the ire of religious groups.

My belief is that it should be OK to sell pork and just as OK to denounce people who do (if you're religious). If religious Jews can't denounce pork eating in Israel, where can they?

I congratulate the NY Times on calling the "wall" that Israel is building what it actually is, a "barrier". This is the best descriptive noun, because as the last paragraph of the article states:

In most areas, the barrier consists of an electronic fence accompanied by razor wire, trenches and guard towers. Some sections include concrete walls more than 20 feet high.

That is probably the most fair description I've read in the press in a long time.

It's still interesting though how the words "wall" and "fence" are used throughout the article by various people. Agree or not if you will, but understand what it is you're arguing about.

Read it all here: Israel to Begin Controversial Phase of Barrier Construction

In part, this controversy reminds me of a visit to the NY City area made by a friend from Minnesota (this was about 20 years ago). After driving just a few minutes north of the city, she commented on how she had no idea there were mountains and so much green in New York. You could write it off to ignorance, but the fact is that much of what you get in the media regarding New York is concrete jungle. The vast majority of photos that you see of the Israeli "barrier" are the wall parts and not the fence parts because it doesn't "tell the story" as well. My personal understanding is that 90% of the barrier is made up of fence and not concrete.