Anthrax Hits the Capitol
The office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has received a letter containing anthrax. "The letter was field-tested, and the staffers that have been exposed are being treated," President Bush says. The letter was reportedly postmarked Trenton, N.J., as was an anthrax-laden letter NBC's Tom Brokaw received last week.

Richard Butler, a former United Nations weapons inspector, tells CNN he suspects Saddam Hussein: "What we've got to be certain about above all is whether it came from a country supporting these terrorists as a matter of policy, such as Iraq, which we know has made this stuff. And there's a credible report not fully verified that they may indeed have given anthrax to exactly the group that did the World Trade Center." Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence reports: "It is known that Iraq obtained anthrax cultures . . . quite legally--from the American Type Culture Centre (ATCC) in the 1980s at a time when the West tacitly supported the regime. No questions were asked."

Let's Kill All the Lawyers
Seymour Hersh reports in The New Yorker that an unmanned Predator reconnaissance aircraft operating near Kabul during the first night of the American attack on Afghanistan identified a convoy carrying Mullah Omar, the top Talib, as he fled the capital. "The Predator is armed with two anti-tank missiles, but under the rules of engagement in effect Sunday night," no strike could be ordered, the magazine reports. The article is not available online, but a press release describing it says:

Although the precise sequence of events could not be fully learned, Hersh reports, General Tommy R. Franks, the commander in charge at the United States Central Command in Florida reported that "my JAG"--Judge Advocate General, a legal officer--"doesn't like this, so we're not going to fire." . . . Reaction in Washington to the failure to strike immediately was fierce, Hersh reports. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was "kicking a lot of glass and breaking doors," one military official said. "But in the end I don't know if it'll mean any changes."

Hmm, maybe Dick the Butcher was right after all.

National Perfidy Radio
Loren Jenkins, senior foreign editor of federally subsidized National Public Radio, tells the Chicago Tribune's Steve Johnson that he'd report on U.S. troop movements, apparently without regard for whether it would hurt the war effort:

"The game of reporting is to smoke 'em out," he says. Asked whether his team would report the presence of an American commando unit it found in, say, a northern Pakistan village, he doesn't exhibit any of the hesitation of some of his news-business colleagues, who stress that they try to factor security issues into their coverage decisions.

"You report it," Jenkins says. "I don't represent the government. I represent history, information, what happened."

Hmm, maybe Newt Gingrich was right after all.

Our Friends the Saudis
Saudi Arabia's interior minister, Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz, says his country disapproves of America's attack on the Taliban, Sky News reports. "We wish the United States had been able to flush out the terrorists in Afghanistan without resorting to the current action . . . because this is killing innocent people," Naif says. "We are not at all happy with the situation."

The Los Angeles Times reports that Saudi Arabia "has provided little if any assistance to investigators hunting the friends and finances of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terror network." Robert Baer, a former CIA officer in the Middle East, tells the Times the kingdom has been "completely unsupportive." Adds Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of counterterrorism operations for the CIA: "We're getting zero cooperation."

At least publicly, President Bush seems to be letting the Saudis off the hook. On Thursday night he pronounced himself "pleased with the actions of Saudi Arabia."

Our Friend Cynthia McKinney
Last week New York's Mayor Rudolph Giuliani turned down a $10 million donation from another Saudi prince, Alwaleed bin Talal, because it was accompanied by a statement from Alwaleed demanding that America "re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause." Now, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia has written "a letter of apology" to Alwaleed. The letter--you can read the full text here--begins by agreeing with the Saudi's anti-Israel views, then goes on to describe America's social problems in a manner reminiscent of old Soviet propaganda:

Your Royal Highness, there are many people in America who desperately need your generosity. People who have been locked out, marginalized from America's mainstream. All of those people are poor and too many of them are people of color. A black baby boy born in Harlem today has less chance of reaching age 65 than a baby born in Bangladesh. Your Royal Highness, the state of black America is not good.

It is painfully visible in Washington D.C., where, just a few hundred yards from the White House, one can find black man after black man huddled in bus shelters, doorways, over subway ventilation shafts, sleeping on the street, thrown away like trash. Ironically, many of them are Vietnam veterans who, having served this nation with distinction in Vietnam, now find themselves without adequate care and accommodation. Unfortunately, this same scene is repeated in each and every one of our major cities here in the United States.

It turns out, though, that all this is a pitch by McKinney to get her hands on Alwaleed's money:

Although your offer was not accepted by Mayor Giuliani, I would like to ask you to consider assisting Americans who are in dire need right now. I believe we can guide your generosity to help improve the state of Black America and build better lives. My office can provide you with a list of charities who labor under the most difficult circumstances to try and improve the lives of the people they serve. I hope you will consider reaching out to our charities and to our people who are in need. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have.

Islam's Ku Klux Klan
Kanan Makiya, writes in London's left-wing Observer that "it is now up to Arabs and Muslims to draw the line that separates them from the Osama bin Ladens of this world just as it was up to Americans to excoriate, isolate, outlaw, imprison and eventually root out the members of the Klan from their midst":

Arabs and Muslims need today to face up to the fact that their resentment at America has long since become unmoored from any rational underpinnings it might once have had; like the anti-Semitism of the interwar years, it is today steeped in deeply embedded conspiratorial patterns of thought rooted in profound ignorance of how a society and a polity like the United States, much less Israel, functions. Attribution of all of the ills of one's own world to either the great Satan, America, or the little Satan, Israel, has been the driving force of Arab politics since 1967. As a powerful undercurrent of Arab culture and politics, it has been around much longer than that. After 1967, however, it became the legitimising cement upon which such murderous regimes as Saddam Hussein's Iraq were built.

Some Muslims are doing the right thing. The Associated Press reports Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatari scholar, and four colleagues, three from Egypt and one from Syria, have issued a fatwa, a religious decree, holding that America's attacks on terrorists are moral and that American Muslims can participate in military action.

And an American Muslim scholar of international relations, Muqtedar Khan, pens a tough-minded "memo to American Muslims":

It is time the leaders of the American Muslim community woke up and realized that there is more to life than competing with the American Jewish lobby for power over US foreign policy. Islam is not about defeating Jews or conquering Jerusalem. It is about mercy, about virtue, about sacrifice and about duty. Above all it is the pursuit of moral perfection. Nothing can be further away from moral perfection than the wanton slaughter of thousands of unsuspecting innocent people.

Our Friends the Egyptians
In an interview with Israel's Channel 1 television, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak calls the Jewish state a "dictatorship" and says that although he supports America's attacks on the Taliban, he would oppose any action against an Arab country. "If they attack Arab countries, do you know what they will say? They will say that Israel, or the Jewish lobby is the reason." Has Mubarak hired Pat "Amen Corner" Buchanan as a speechwriter?

Arizona Man Indicted
A federal grand jury has indicted Faisal Michael al Salmi of Tempe, Ariz., on charges of lying to the FBI. Al Salmi allegedly "falsely told the FBI during an interview that he had no knowledge or association with Hani Hanjour, identified as one of the hijackers on board the plane that hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11" and "that he hadn't spoken to a man named Rayed Mohammed Abdullah about an interview Abdullah had with the FBI." Attorney General John Ashcroft calls the indictment "a reminder that the Department of Justice will bring the full weight of the law upon those who attempt to impede or hinder this investigation."

The Unrecognized Taliban
Writing in Canada's National Post, Jonathan Kay makes an excellent point against those who claim America's attacks on the Taliban violate international law:

For consistency's sake, those who dress their criticism of the United States in legalistic garb must look to the United Nations to identify Afghanistan's rightful government. It is not the Taliban, whose rule is recognized by only one other nation (Pakistan). Rather, it is the Northern Alliance, the rebel force fighting the Taliban in Northern Afghanistan. The Alliance actively supports the U.S. bombing. So on what basis can international lawyers oppose it?

Bush's Blunder
Joseph Shattan writes in National Review Online that President Bush's endorsement of a Palestinian state "has played into Islamist hands":

To the Arab "street" it will seem obvious that a cause-and-effect relationship exists between the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, on the one hand, and the President's initiative, on the other. Throughout the Middle East, Osama bin Laden will be blessed for forcing America's hand and bringing the replacement of Israel by Palestine a step closer to realization. Thanks entirely to the president and his team, the jihadist David appears to have wrested yet another major victory from the superpower Goliath--and the campaign to defeat the Islamist challenge has gotten off to a singularly inauspicious start.

Nat Hentoff sounds a similar note:

In order to facilitate the coalition, the administration's most persistent pressure has been on Israel to engage once more in negotiations with Yasser Arafat. I have long been for an independent Palestinian state; but for President Bush to summon this "vision" at this point in the war on terrorism without first notifying Israel, is to reward Mr. Arafat. We have increased pressure on Israel to trust a negotiating partner who has initiated new violence from his side every time there is a cease-fire, or has not effectively punished the terrorists.

Straw Berry
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission, last seen suppressing a dissenting report on the Florida election dispute, has set up a hot line "for Arabs and Muslims to report hate crimes and discrimination." But the Washington Times reports the commission refuses to forward information gathered from the hot line to the Justice Department for investigation.

"The hot line doesn't hold itself out as a problem solver," says the commission's chairman, Mary Frances Berry. "We have made that very clear. And everyone that I've spoken to is very grateful. I think we ought to be proud to be doing this, rather than consider if it is helping anybody." Is there any reason for this commission to continue to exist?

So Much for the Energy Crisis
In sharp contrast with past Mideast crises, this one has seen a striking decline in oil prices--partly because of the slowing economy; partly, perhaps, because the market expects America to win the war; and partly, according to Larry Kudlow, because the Russians have stepped up production. Result: Average gasoline prices have declined nearly 20 cents since Sept. 11. In some states gas prices have dropped below $1 a gallon.

'Boys! Boys!'
One Barbara Kingsolver weighs in with the following analysis of the war:

I feel like I'm standing on a playground where the little boys are all screaming at each other, "He started it!" and throwing rocks that keep taking out another eye, another tooth. I keep looking around for somebody's mother to come on the scene saying, "Boys! Boys! Who started it cannot possibly be the issue here. People are getting hurt."

I am somebody's mother, so I will say that now: The issue is, people are getting hurt.

Such inanity would be wholly unworthy of comment, except that it appeared in the Los Angeles Times, a fairly prestigious newspaper. Don't they have editors out there in L.A.?

Hillary's Entourage
News 12 Westchester, a local cable TV channel, reports that a vehicle in Sen. Hillary Clinton's entourage " tried to bypass a mandatory check point at the airport" in White Plains, N.Y., injuring a county policeman who tried to stop the car from getting through. The headline on the News 12 report: "Clinton OK After Airport Incident." What a relief.