Totten on jerks. A heart-warming affirmation of the right of Judeo-Christian expression by an atheist.

NEWSFLASH: Saddam Taps Nidal -- And Then Taps Him For Good

AN ATTA BOY WHOOPS

Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.

Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

Hat tip Charles. And as Charles points out, this might be more than a little germane to the "mysterious" death of Abu Nidal in Baghdad in 2002...

But don't worry -- there's still no evidence! You can sleep easy at night. Safely bet your last dollar. First born. All of that. You betcha...

It's also true that Saddam never held a grudge against anyone. Absolutely not. Well not other than his assassination attempt against Bush 41. But surely that's irrelevant isn't it? (Soft crinkling sounds in the background ... Fade back to deep unconsciousness... )

UPDATE: And you need to read this too.

And now for the body slam while you're down on the mat:

But even if ailing, a veteran terrorist like Abu Nidal ought not to have needed to empty his magazine in order to end his life. If Iraqi security services helped him out, the question is why?

The official explanation could well be true. Saddam, like Nidal himself, does not require much evidence to take action against a suspected traitor.

But there is another plausible explanation. Nidal's specialty was airplane hijacking and sabotage. At least two Iraqi defectors have said Saddam maintained at Salman Pak, a military base 21 miles from Baghdad, a Boeing 707 on which "Islamicists" practiced hijackings.

Ziad Jarrah was at the controls when United Flight 93 crashed in Somerset County. He had come to Germany as a student in 1996, where his apartment was paid for by his great-uncle, Assam Omar Jarrah. Assam Jarrah has been identified by German intelligence as an operative for both the old East German secret police and the Abu Nidal organization. Assam disappeared two months before Sept. 11.

Could Saddam have been eliminating a piece in the chain of evidence linking him to the 9/11 attacks? Stay tuned.
[Emphasis added.]

Move along folks. Nothing to see here. Nothing at all. Just plug your nose and pretend that nothing has happened...

The only problem is that us rural folk distrust people who reinvent themselves.

Wretchard on being "Flat Broke". He's on a roll -- this one's pretty thought provoking too...

When not corruption, then this...

The Thunder Run

Are you kidding, sir? (login: laexaminer, password: laexaminer)

Proof positive that fiction can't match reality. And why Baghdad Bob's lies were a very, very stupid idea -- never ever get Americans really motivated against you...

Where are all the well adjusted suicide bombers?

And check out Pilar Rohola on combating Euro Judaeophobia. Orianna Falaci and Bridgette Bardot are not alone after all... (Hat tip Simon)

Pilar Rahola The most absurd thing is to watch leaders of the left today greet and celebrate Arab leaders, even when they are fundamentalists. For example, in the debates that followed the attacks of September 11, we heard an anti-American discourse here, pooh-poohing the victims, something which is in and of itself terrible ! And there were those who tried to downgrade—with that tawdry third-worldism which characterizes some circles of the left—the danger embodied in individuals like Bin Laden, who is, in fact, an authentic fascist. I believe that for the moment the world remains blind to the biggest totalitarianism of the twenty-first century, which is Islamic fundamentalism. Now we must prepare ourselves seriously to face this danger : For me, this totalitarianism is without any shadow of a doubt comparable to Stalinism and Nazism, the biggest scourges of the twentieth century.

Part Deux

from Julie. She starts like this:

In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr published his Letter To An Anti-Zionist Friend: "Anti-Zionism is inherently anti-semitic, and ever will be. What is anti-Zionism? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the globe. It is discrimination against Jews... because they are Jews. In short, it is anti-semitism." MLK - what a mensch! A saint in the street; a superman in the sack. And this being so, no reason at all to be envious of the Jews.

and it just gets better and better... (Hat tip Simon.)

Hitchens weighs in with an update...

And part 45781 "hardly exists".

I Am Your (Inanimate) Master -- You Feel Bad

And that should trump all other considerations. And maybe we will finally stamp out classicism once and for all while we're at it! (Hat Tip AnalPhilosopher.)

And part 45780.

Zionism reversed Jewish historical passivity to persecution and asserted the Jewish right to self-determination and independent survival. This is why anti-Zionists see it as a perversion of Jewish humanism. Zionism entails the difficulty of dealing with sometimes impossible moral dilemmas, which traditional Jewish passivity in the wake of historical persecution had never faced. By negating Zionism, the anti-semite is arguing that the Jew must always be the victim, for victims do no wrong and deserve our sympathy and support.

And we insist that America be a victim also. And what makes you think that 3,000 dead in the heart of your largest city gives you the right to respond? Victims have no rights...

Anti-Semitism Reprise (Part 45779)

It turns out that Pejman has identified that ala Nietzsche, there is "much stupidity to forget" regarding anti-semitism and Brian Leitner is working on a monopoly:

It is amusing that Leiter, a devoted Chomskyite, apparently forgets that Chomsky is, by training, a linguist. As such, one cannot help but think that if Chomsky really wanted to set up a relative comparison in his comment, he would have had the sophistication with language to do so. All of this makes Leiter's whitewashing of Chomsky's statement quite laughable, and reading a "comparison" into Chomsky's statement where Chomsky didn't even bother to set up a comparison himself is the height of either (a) dishonest rhetoric, or (b) an inability to read, and comprehend English.

Perhaps even this doesn't convince Leiter as to the holes in his logic. So let's try a thought experiment, courtesy of the debate engaged on this issue by the worthy and masterful Enthymeme (follow the first link in the post). Supposing that I said the following:

Anti-black prejudice scarcely exists now, though it did in the past.

Now, I have no doubt that Leiter would scream with rage at this remark. But what if my comments were defended by faithful Pejmanesque acolyte Nairb Retiel, who--eager to play Luke Skywalker to my Yoda-- blithely explains that compared to the past, which included black slavery, Jim Crow laws, "separate but equal," and lynchings, my statement is true? Would that satisfy Leiter? Doubtful. Nor should it--of course there remains prejudice against blacks, and what's more, I didn't set up a comparison or a relative statement in my hypothetical remarks. It would be thoroughly disingenuous for Nairb Retiel to do so, and to therefore whitewash my remarks. [Emphasis added]

A thing of beauty, no? DEFINITELY A RTWT...