The Scrutinator

Time for another round of Know Thy Enemy:

• Shiite holy shrine bombed.
• Terrorists target hairdressers and liquor stores.
• [3/2] And, of course, lots and lots of indiscriminate civilian mass murder.

Ponder your opinion of these people's actions.

Previously: Suicide Bomber Kills Iraqi Children.

By The Scrutinator @ 12:06 PM  ::  1 comments

Space is so limited that some use their car for storage. This car is so full of stuff there's no room to drive it. Packed literally to the ceiling, parked right on the street. Bonus: the high-rise's reflection.

By The Scrutinator @ 11:58 PM  ::  0 comments

The Hound of Scrutiny licks its chops.

Grrr!

By The Scrutinator @ 8:31 PM  ::  0 comments

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is studying 12 hours of audio recordings between Saddam Hussein and his top advisers that may provide clues to the whereabouts of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
...
"I still believe there are key individuals who have not been debriefed and there are key sites that have never been investigated. I know there are 35,000 boxes of documents that have never been translated. I am frustrated," Mr. Hoekstra said.
...
"I am trying to find out if our postwar intelligence was as bad as our pre-war intelligence, " Mr. Hoekstra said.

Interesting. But didn't Sean Penn definitively answer this question already?

Update, 2/15: Jack Kelly summarizes the evidence to date that Saddam sent his WMD to Syria.

Perhaps related: Jordan, Syria's neighbor, sentenced 11 terrorists, including Syrians, over their attempted chemical weapon attack. No word on where they got the chemicals (and no journalistic interest, either). "After the sentencing, the convicted men turned on one of the acquitted, a Syrian, and accused him of being an informer."

Update, 2/16: A new blog tracks updates: PJ's WMD Files.

Update, 3/14: Saddam Had WMD: The Missing Dots:

President Bush has ordered the vast quantity of documents and tapes captured by U.S. forces in Iraq to be made public. Based on what has been revealed already, a lot of people owe him an apology.

...President Bush has ordered the release for public analysis of more than 3,000 hours of audiotapes of Saddam Hussein

... in the 12 hours of tapes revealed so far is documentation that Saddam had active WMD programs and conspired to deceive weapons inspectors, hiding them and then spiriting them out of the country with Russian help.

In short, they are a damning indictment of the "Bush lied" crowd and a total justification for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The recordings released so far show how Saddam was hiding his WMD from weapons inspectors. They also show the Iraqi dictator discussing previously unknown plans for enriching uranium.

3/20: Saddam's Secrets, by Georges Sada.

By The Scrutinator @ 10:59 PM  ::  1 comments

In case you haven't heard, a series of cartoons critical of Islam, published in a Denmark paper, are causing outrage around the militant Islamic world.

What we're seeing is the clash of civilizations. Western civilization values (supposedly) free speech, and allows disagreement and criticism without bloodshed. Barbarism doesn't.

Which do you choose? What are you willing to pay for that choice?

Many are upset with the US State Department for saying, essentially, "we don't want any trouble, ok?"

Many, like blogger Atlas Shrugs, have been sounding the clarion for some time. Her tagline: Western civilization hangs in the balance. ... Get your heads out of the sand and Fight the Great Fight. The Jew may be the canary in the coal mine, but you my friends will be the next. If you're not part of the solution, you are the problem. See her reporting.

Blogger Gates of Vienna: At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war.

Way too much to read, but here's a smattering.

• Michelle Malkin leads the pack covering the story. Asks us to buy Danish.
• Muslim double-standards. Tim Blair: "Odd that this concern over maintaining the peace doesn’t limit Muslim commentary on other religions or communities." Atlas Shrugs shows us a few of the anti-western Arabic cartoons that run daily. Brit Hume via Michelle Malkin.
• Published in September/October: why the rage now? And how did all the Danish flags suddenly materialize for burning in Gaza and elsewhere? Powerline points us to answers.
• Silence and hypocracy of the political left. Michelle Malkin, Tiger Hawk.
• Via Michelle Malkin: The real cartoons not quite bad enough? Make up a few.
• Powerline points us to perspective on free speech.
• CNN suddenly respects all religions Islam. (2/8: More.)
• Apparently, it's not just any depiction of the Prophet Mohammed that draws holocaust threats.

Update 2/8: Apparently, the cartoons were printed in an Egyptian paper back in October: "during Ramadan, for all the egyptian muslim population to see, and not a single squeak of outrage was present."

File under double standards: NPR's Daniel Schorr: "Maybe a cartoon that may inflame millions should be described but not shown." (From the intro page: "In times of tension, First Amendment rights may give way to other interests.") Really? Where was his voice of caution when the Abu Ghraib photos, meeting his criteria, were being published?

The MSM excuses round-up, courtesy National Review's Media Blog.

Update, 2/12: Glenn Reynolds:

My beliefs are offended when gangs of ignorant thugs burn embassies, and where is the respect for my beliefs? Do I need to burn embassies to get respect for my beliefs? Because that's the message CNN sends. The message they send is, We will reward violence. And you're going to get more of what you reward, that's how it works.

Update, 3/29: Check out this T-shirt.

Update, 4/13: Comedy Central wins a new name: Cowardly Central.

By The Scrutinator @ 1:15 PM  ::  0 comments