Toronto Affairs

Nov. 30 - Interested-Participant posts on the controversy over Toronto shipping our garbage to Michigan. According to the article he links from the Toronto Star, the EPA will be in Toronto to for three days touring solid waste transfer, composting and recycling facilities in Toronto, as well as in York, Durham and Peel regions. I could have saved them the trip: they'll find mountains of recyleables with no place to go because no companies are equipped to handle that much metal, glass and paper.

The program for recollecting the items was begun before a plan was made to re-direct the items. The blue box program is around 10 years old, and they still don't have a workable plan. That's how things work in Toronto.

Sadly, it is more likely that the US Congress will act long before the City Council here finishes "reviewing" the issue. The feckless Council doesn't want to take the kind of decisive action needed to find a Toronto solution to a Toronto problem, and their past actions have been to hope the problem would just go away.

The garbage issue was a point of debate in the recent mayoral race, of course. Failed canadidate John Tory had proposed building a garbage incinerator, which newly elected Mayor David Miller had rejected as too expensive and environmentally dangerous, but had no counter proposals. The paranoid faction won, even though other municipalities have incinerators with built-in safeguards that make the practice safer and cleaner than any other method of disposal.

Mississauga, our neighbour immediately to the west of here, incincerates their garbage. But they also have a strong mayor and council. Considering how fast that city has grown, you have to figure that there are more sensible people leaving Toronto than staying.

In an earlier post which featured an astonishing discovery of mixing hospital waste with garbage, Interested Participant wondered if Canadian environmentalists are of the NIMBY variety. I can affirm that they are, at least the ones in this neck of the country.

BUT anyone who reads the London Free Press will have noted columnists and letters to the editor which complain about the truckloads that merely pass that city on their way to Michigan, so in this case, at least, the NIMBY element isn't just directed at the US but within Canada as well.

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Entertaining the troops

Nov. 30 - Oliver North has been travelling in Iraq with the Army's 4th ID. He has a bit more insight than Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks or Sean Penn, and talks about celebrities that are entertaining the troops over there.

I've never been a Wayne Newton fan, but the fact that his music isn't my kind of music is irrelevant because he's my kind of American:

Two years ago, "Mr. Las Vegas" was named the chairman of the USO Celebrity Circle. I asked him how he recruits other performers to join him. "Like everything else, Colonel," said Newton, "there are those that run for the woods when times get a little tough and those that pick up the phone and say, "Hey, you're going, count me in.' Those are the kind of people we have."

We can count Gary Sinise as the kind who rises to the call during tough times, because he's one

who this year has been to Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Italy, Germany and Fort Stewart, Ga. Now he's back in Iraq, spending his Thanksgiving vacation shaking hands and talking with the 5,000 soldiers and Marines at one of the USO-sponsored events.

I never really got behind the calls to "Boycott Hollywood" (mostly because I've watched Celebrity Jeopardy) but this goes to show that the ones who make headlines are not quite as representative as the press makes them appear.

Besides, the recent California recall put numbers to those who care what celebrities think and those who think for themselves, and we know which side is the majority even in my goofy but still beloved home state.

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Building a police force

Nov. 30 - This information brings to mind concerns recently expressed by Roger L. Simon about where the money is coming from to finance the terrorism in Iraq:

A price has been put on the head of the senior British policeman seconded to supervise the restoration of law and order in Iraq by loyalists of Saddam Hussein.

Douglas Brand, a South Yorkshire assistant chief constable who is in charge of retraining the Iraqi police, has discovered that former members of the deposed dictator's Ba'athist regime have issued a contract to "do him harm".

Mr Brand, 52, said that the news was broken to him by the mayor of an Iraqi city in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" north-west of Baghdad during a recent visit to his offices at the coalition HQ in the Iraqi capital.

"The first thing the mayor said was, 'I know who you are. There are people who want to harm you'. I asked him what he meant and he said, 'People will be paid money to do so'. I wasn't quite sure if he was warning me or threatening me."

During an interview last week, Mr Brand said that such threats were becoming a daily hazard for senior coalition staff and the Iraqis who work with them. Estimates of the going rate for a successful "hit" are thought to be between $5,000 and $10,000 (£2,900-£5,800). Mr Brand, who is based in Sheffield but moved to Baghdad in July, said that 15 senior Iraqi policemen had been assassinated since he began work.

Mr Brand will remain in Baghdad to oversee what the coalition hopes will be the transformation of a demoralised, corrupt and widely hated police force into a modern security apparatus capable of tackling a front-line war on terrorism. As part of the world's biggest police training programme, up to 40,000 police officers have been recruited. The aim is for a further 35,000 to be trained up by the time the coalition cedes authority to a sovereign Iraqi government next summer.

In the meantime, car-bomb attacks and gun battles continue to claim the lives of his men almost daily: 30 have been killed and 75 injured in Baghdad alone since he arrived. Mr Brand, who has a masters degree in applied criminology from Cambridge, remains optimistic. "I always look to be positive, but actually I do think there are a lot of competent policemen out there. The absence of skill is because of a lack of opportunity.

"Last Monday, I went to a police station that was car-bombed a few weeks ago. You don't expect them to be doing cartwheels, but the commander just said, 'This is our job'. The police generally have a focus on what needs to be done and are courageous enough to go out and do it."

Some build, some destroy. It's that simple. Moral relativists who don't get that might try explaining it to Iraqis.

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Abdel Qadir Mamour

Nov. 30 - There's some background on a Senegalese cleric, Abdel Qadir Mamour, who was deported from Itay in mid-November Deported cleric 'met bin Laden' including his relationship with Osama bin Laden:

A SEBEGALESE (sic) Muslim cleric deported from Italy as a danger to state security was quoted today as telling a pan-Arab newspaper that he had met three times with Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

The cleric, Abdel Qadir Mamour, told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview by telephone from Dakar, Senegal, that he had the meetings with bin Laden in Sudan from 1993 to 1996.

Mamour said bin Laden had provided money to finance his trading in diamonds between Africa and Belgium, but did not say how much money was involved or if bin Laden was involved in the business. (Emphasis added)

[...]

Mamour angered Italian authorities by saying in an earlier interview that Italian soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq would be attacked, as well as Italian diplomats, because Italy was aiding the US-led military presence. His statement followed the November 12 car bomb at the Italian barracks in Nasiriyah, Iraq, that killed 19 Italians.

In his interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Mamour said Italian authorities deported him because they found at his home some CD-ROMs contained the wills of four suicide attackers in a bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May.

Mamour was quoted as saying he got the tapes from a fundamentalist Muslim in London so they could be distributed in Europe, but did not name the man who sent the tapes.

Mamour claims his Italian wife and five children saved him from being sent to Guantanamo, and he was interrogated for four days by Senegalese authorities.

There has been speculation about a bin Laden connection with the diamond trade, and Belguim is right at the center of it.

No blood for diamonds will undoubtably be the next slogan pushed by the anti-war groups.

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Reconstruction in Iraq

Nov. 30 - With yesterday's deadly attacks on coalition members, it is important to remember that reconstruction in Iraq remains the focus. Australia is considering a plan to deploy troops, including members of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), to Iraq to help rebuild the Iraq armed forces (NEWS.com.au | Sailors head back to Iraq (December 1, 2003).)

AUSTRALIAN sailors will be deployed to Iraq to help rebuild a local navy that Coalition forces destroyed at the outset of the Iraqi war.

A plan being considered by the Federal Government will see a team of RAN personnel establish a naval school for Iraqi seamen.

The RAN team will be in addition to a proposal to have a joint US-Australian Defence Force contingent of soldiers to train a local army.

Defence Force chief General Peter Cosgrove said the troop numbers remained unknown since the plan was still being considered.

"If it does transpire, then we will send troops specially selected to do those sorts of jobs," he said yesterday.

"I don't think it will be a particularly large contingent . . . it will essentially be soldiers. If we get involved with training the new Iraqi navy, naturally some Royal Australian naval personnel would be involved as well.

"Iraq has a coastline and it will have a smallish navy, equally that's part of Iraq's future to be able to look after its sovereignty; it will look after its own maritime approaches."

Reconstruction, for us, means turning Iraq over to the Iraqis as soon as possible with the means to defend themselves.

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Two Spanish casualties in Iraq

Nov. 29 - Seven Spanish Intelligence Officers Killed, One Injured, in Iraq in coordinated attacks on their two vehicles. They were hit with RPGs and rifle fire outside of Al Mamudiya, 18 miles south of Baghdad after a mission.

Spokesmen for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar (search) said the government won't be intimidated nor deterred from its mission of attempting to help Iraq achieve peace and democracy following the long dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and the U.S.-led invasion last March that toppled it.

"We are grateful to all the people who serve Spain and Spain's democracy beyond our borders fighting terrorism and guaranteeing freedom and democracy," Justice Minister Jose Maria Michavila said.

There are 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq. A Spanish diplomat was assasinated in Baghdad in October, and a Spanish navy captain died of injuries sustained in the UN bombing last August.

President Bush called President Aznar to express our sympathies.

In another attack, two Japanese diplomats were ambushed and killed outside of Tikrit as they returned after attending a reconstruction aid conference.

CNN has a special page dedicated to coalition casualties. There have been 509 confirmed coalition deaths, 437 Americans, 53 British, 17 Italians, one Dane and one Polish, in the war as of November 28, 2003 (and thus don't include today's Spanish and Japanese deaths.)

When this campaign first began, Pres. Bush said that coalition members would contribute in many ways, and some would not even be contributing openly. But words are inadequte to express the gratitude of the American people for the sacrifices some of these countries have made in trying to stablilize Iraq and our sympathies to the families of these brave men and women.

Police in Germany and Italy have arrested 3 men on suspicion of terrorism related activities, but the situation may be connected to Iraq:

CNN's Rome Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci said the arrests in Italy and Germany were "significant" because it had been thought that Italy had been used only for logistical purposes, such as a base for providing false documents or shelter.

But the authorities are now investigating the possibility that Italy is being used to recruit and train terrorists for Iraq and elsewhere.

In a related story, FOX reports that Iraqi police may have coordinated some of the attacks:

U.S. military officials are concerned that a few of the numerous Iraqi civilians hired by the U.S. military may have planned attacks by gleaning intelligence on troop movements and travels of high-ranking officers, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters at the Baghdad Convention Center.

UPDATE: Two US soldiers were killed and one wounded yesterday in an ambush near the border town of Husaybah, 180 miles northwest of Baghdad. They were from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

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Nov. 29 - Time to

Nov. 29 - Time to cast votes in The Truth Laid Bear: The New Weblog Showcase. It tends to take me awhile, because if I like the entry, I also read other posts on the blog.

Let's start with Politics Trumps Morals from Joe's Thoughts A lot more people not only in the US but around the world need to consider his point, especially as Iraqis are being targeted too. After all, a sizeable segment of the anti-war folks (and most especially those human shields who lit out after it looked like it might really be dangerous) claimed they were concerned about the lives of the innocent Iraqis.

Next is An open letter to Michael Parenti written on the occasion of a speech delivered in Edmonton, and which has an interesting response to non-interventionist policies. Even though he considers the US the "most dangerous rogue state," falls back to the corporate elite mantra, and fails to address the inadequacy (which translates to unwillingness) of the rest of the world to stop genocides except to believe the USA should provide the fighting force and spill the blood that Enlightened Ones won't, Nathan at Counteractually Speaking is thinking beyond a typical knee jerk responses and that's always a good thing. There's also a link to Michael Parenti's response.

BaySense suggests we re-think the approach to the environment agenda. I agree with his goal: I support many of the goals of environmentalists, but do not support their methodology and political extremism. Like too many other good intentions, this is one that has been hi-jacked for political reasons and thus the goals have been to get politicans elected (or not elected) rather than achieve anything to do with the environment. It will be interesting to see how his blog proceeds.

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Nov. 29 - Another thoughtful

Nov. 29 - Another thoughtful post from One Hand Clapping, this one on the differences between the God of the Covenant and the God of Mohammed. It does seem that there are two different conceptions of God involved.

I know I'm behind on this post (and a lot of other ones.)

Guess who has to run off to work? I hope to check in later and read my favourite blogs with appropriate linkage.

Take care, and enjoy whatever weather you have. For us in Toronto, at least it stopped raining!

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Nov. 29 - It is

Nov. 29 - It is tempting to think the British government is trying to play both sides of the streets, yet equally tempting to think that the British believe they can alter the course for Europe from that set by the French, Belguim and German governments. But the secrecy is worrisome, probably more to the British people than to the US as people there ponder the leaked information that Britain in secret EU army deal.

Britain has taken a dramatic step towards a fully-fledged European army, signing up to Franco-German proposals for a planning headquarters outside Nato, it emerged yesterday.

The deal reached by British, German and French officials in secret talks in Berlin this week establishes an "operational" command in Brussels, allowing the EU to run day-to-day battlefield missions for the first time.

The news apparently leaked before the British government advised Pres. Bush of the move, but officials hint that the deal would be rewritten if the US was adamantly opposed.

I think that fears that this new army will replace NATO should also take into account that Turkey is a member of NATO but has not yet been granted membership in the EU, and the recent terrorist attacks in Turkey highlight the worries of that discrepancy.

And if the British people are adamantly opposed?

Drat, the Sun website is down. Maybe Mark Steyn will address this one soon.

UPDATE: The Sun is calling it a sell-out:

TONY Blair has been accused of betraying Britain's defence by backing a new euro army military planning HQ.

The Tories slammed the move as “catastrophic” for the Nato alliance. The PM struck a deal with Germany and France to boost the European force.

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Nov. 29 - From the

Nov. 29 - From the Daily Telegraph (UK), it seems the German press is growing a pair:

Germany's normally tame national newspapers mounted a co-ordinated attack yesterday on the growing practice of politicians and industry chiefs to alter or veto interviews they have given.

They denounced the habit as "control mania" verging on censorship.

Nine newspapers, including Frankfurter Allgemeine, Sueddeutsche, and Financial Times Deutschland, printed critical articles on the "authorisation" system. They said that while it had long been accepted and even welcomed by the media, it was being abused.

Sheesh, the White House website publication of President Bush's speeches include his verbal goofs rather than clean up any bloopers which is why it's credible.

A small Left-wing paper, tageszeitung, filled its front page with the text of an interview with Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrat Party's general secretary, with his answers blacked out.

It explained that Mr Scholz had refused to authorise it after his representatives demanded changes to what he had said and even to the questions asked.

Another fine example of how Europeans are more enlightened than us rubes.

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Nov. 29 - Aargh! Feds

Nov. 29 - Aargh! Feds to give health council the green light. Because when something is underfunded and doesn't work, the best way to fix it is to form yet another layer of bureaucracy and red tape which will eat up more money so it can still not work but at least the budget will show they're putting more money into health care.

Martin said the health council will be key in dealing with the problems of waiting lists for medical services and providing accountability of how health care dollars are spent. Alberta Premier Ralph Klein said that he will not endorse the council unless its mandate is limited to programs, like pharmacare, home care and catastrophic drugs.

So is Alberta building a firewall or not?

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Nov. 29 - Trusty Peter

Nov. 29 - Trusty Peter Worthington. I know that if I get a certain huh feeling, Peter will often address that particular issue. Today's column addresses the way Canadian soldiers are honoured: Only the victims need apply for medals of bravery and valor.

He starts with the soldiers deployed in Afghanistan:

It's hard to escape the conclusion that soldiers the Canadian government chooses to honour are those who are killed or who are officers. It's not always been this way, but since Afghanistan that seems the case.

Prior to the four members of the Princess Pats being killed by an American "friendly-fire" bomb in Afghanistan, soldiers killed on various UN "peace" missions drew minimum reaction from Ottawa and small mention in the media.

It's different now, but for how long?

Indications are, for those who want to see it, that nasty times are ahead for Canadians on what started out as constabulary duties in Afghanistan.

Sad, true, and unaddressed. There's a freaking bounty on their heads, and plans to expand outside of Kabul will involve greater risks.

Ottawa's decision to allow the four soldiers killed by the American bomb to be awarded the U.S. Bronze Star -- the U.S.' fourth-highest valour award, which is given for meritorious service-- is a bit odd. And very political.

It's America's way of atoning for the tragedy.

It also degrades the Bronze Star, because these soldiers were merely victims.

Brave, simply by being soldiers, but hardly "heroes."

I agree with the charge that the awarding of the Bronze Star by the US government is politically motivated, and is an attempt to remove some of the sting Canadians still feel about the "friendly fire" incident (not death quotes there, but I feel the phrasing should never be part of the common venacular. Yes, it happens. No, it's never acceptable, as Gen. Pace pointed out some time ago in a DoD briefing.)

Snark time: the way the Canadian government treats the military, it is tempting to say that any Canadian who volunteers to serve is already performing above and beyond the call of duty. After all, doesn't it seem that the government actively discourages enlistment by their failure to appropriate the funds and equipment and thus respect for those who chose to serve? And if you're not bi-lingual, you won't be an officer.

Sgt. Robert Short, killed by a mine that blew up his Iltis jeep in Kabul, is to be posthumously awarded the Vance Award.

It's fair to say that all civilians and most soldiers haven't a clue what the Vance Award is.

Ouch.

(It's named after former army commander Lt. Gen. Jon Vance and goes to the sergeant who exhibits the greatest leadership qualities.)

Double-ouch. I've never heard of Lt. Gen. Jon Vance either. A quick poll reveals that neither Mark nor my college educated kids ever heard of him either. I've got a feeble excuse as I wasn't educated here, but the 4 men in this household were.

Peter then analyzes the recipients of the 26 Bronze Star, which leans heavily to non-combat soldiers, and notes that:

The five lowest honourees are the snipers who actually did feats that deserve medals.

One of the snipers --a guy from Newfoundland -- set a world sniping record when he knocked off an enemy attacking Americans at a range of some 2,400 metres -- roughly 1 1/2 miles -- with his .50- calibre rifle.

The snipers were attached to the U.S. Rakkasan brigade, in combat with the enemy.

When the American commander wanted to give these extraordinary snipers Bronze Stars in a battlefield ceremony, Ottawa balked -- too bellicose.

So someone who kills a sniper trying to kill fellow soldiers is too bellicose. Got it.

Canada gives awards for service and bravery, but few for combat, except a Mention in Dispatches.

When Ottawa put the medal to the snipers on hold, David Bercuson, director of the Centre of Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, wryly remarked: "Canadians don't kill ... the military is not sure that the government is prepared to accept -- let alone celebrate -- the fact that Canadian soldiers do sometimes end up killing people."

And that too is politically motivated.

Read the whole thing. I already excerpted more than I intended, but the attitude of the Canadian government towards awarding medals is puzzling and Peter goes into greater history and detail than I quoted.


Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the Canadian troops are heavily involved in tightening security measures for the upcoming constitutional meeting. Thousands of people will be registering in the stadium for the loya jirga which will discuss the proposed constitution beginning Dec. 10.

Commanding officer of the Canadian contingent, Lt.-Col. Don Denne, said "It's been awfully quiet, almost too quiet."

"There have been threats of vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and remote-controlled improvised explosive devices," Denne said.

"Every now and then we get a threat from a reliable source that we take very seriously."

Remember and honour those who serve.

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Nov. 29 - Cecilia Zhang

Nov. 29 - Cecilia Zhang is still missing, and despite a city-wide circulation of her picture there seems to be no information that would lead to her return. But people aren't giving up: Hire Performance Inc. has started a fund for Cecilia vowing to raise $60,000 by Dec. 23 to help bring her home. Farid Ahmad, president of the company, said he was prompted to begin this effort through discussions with clients who wanted to do something but didn't know what or how.

If the money is not claimed as a reward within a year, he said, it will be donated to Ontario Child Find and the Hospital for Sick Children.

Hire Performance, which does pre-employment checks for more than 200 clients, will donate 5% of all sales towards the fund, as well as encouraging its corporate customers to donate.

"The day we decided to do this, my son came into our bedroom and gave me $27.38 from his piggy bank," Ahmad said. "That really spurred me on even more."

Anyone wishing to donate to the fund should e-mail cecilia@hire performance.ca or call 905-946-9696.

Who in this city doesn't ache over her disappearance? (Or maybe I should say in North America, because I've received emails from concerned people across this continent with Cecilia's picture and the hot line number.)

Props for Mr. Ahmad for becoming personally involved and for the good people who want do more.

The Toronto police page dedicated to Cecilia, the hotline phone numbers and her photo are here.

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Nov. 29 - Officials in

Nov. 29 - Officials in Ankara, Turkey, say they have arrested a man they believe planned the bombing of the Beth Israel, one of the two simultaneous terrorist attacks on synagogues in Istanbul on Nov. 15. They received information that he was planning to cross the Turkey-Iran border with a forged passport, and he is believed to come from Agri in a Kurdish area of Turkey.

The 4 recent bombings in Turkey killed 61 people, (including the 4 Islamakazis) and injured 712.

Two men have been arrested for the synagogue bombings, Mesut Cabuk and Gokhan Elaltuntas.

The Fox report notes that Turkish authorities have imposed a news blackout on the investigations, but newspapers have largely defied the ban, printing a steady stream of reports about the ongoing investigation.

The CNN reports that the man was identified as the owner of the vehicle used for the bombing, and that six additional people were arrested.

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Nov. 28 - An essay

Nov. 28 - An essay from Chaos Central which must be read because all outcomes must be contemplated: Our Struggle.

Anyone else feeling a Tokienesque response to this? (The books including Silmarillion, not the movies!)

Although I'm not certain about his grounds for doubting victory, I firmly believe we will suffer more attacks on the homefronts and our resolve will continually be tested. Furthermore, fears that we (I include myself) still do not fully understand the nature of the enemy may remain our biggest weakness.

I am also certain of the path he advocates. We have no other.

UPDATE: I had forgotten a third option, but I consider Fortress America less an option and more like pulling the covers over our heads and hoping the bad guys go away. Besides, we tried that already when we attempted to stay out of WWII, and discovery of the death camps forced many Americans to consider the US delay in that war in an even worse light. I try not to do what ifs, but there's no doubt that had we gone in earlier, millions might have been saved.

On my reference to Prof. Tolkien'sworks, I hesitate to elaborate because I don't want to publish spoilers for the upcoming Return of the King and there are actually a large number of people who love the movies yet haven't read the books much less are aware of the tremendous amount of history which precedes the events of Middle Earth prior to the dawning of the Age of Man.

(Link via Ghost of a Flea.)

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Nov. 28 - Kabul --

Nov. 28 - Kabul -- In accordance with NATO urging, Canada is looking at establishing provincial reconstruction teams which will involve Canada remaining involved in Afghanistan after the mandate is scheduled to end next August.

Canada has almost 2,000 soldiers committed to peace and security efforts in Kabul. And while no one believes Canadian Forces will leave Afghanistan in August when their one-year mandate expires, Leslie said the numbers will have to be cut.

That's where provincial reconstruction teams come in.

Defence Minister John McCallum visited a U.S. reconstruction team last week in Gardez, near Kabul.

"We have not decided yet, but based on what I saw ... at Gardez, I think they have done a very good job in terms of reconstruction, notably schools and wells and other activities," McCallum said.

These plans put the committment of NATO (and Canada) far above that of the UN, which is pulling out aid workers in the parts of the country that need them most. Does the UN understand that packing up and leaving as a response to terrorism is outright capitulation? Of course they do. They just don't care.

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Nov. 28 - Cultural evolution

Nov. 28 - Cultural evolution turns Mao into a party rapper.

In a desperate appeal to China's fashionable youth, the Chinese Communist Party has approved the repackaging of Mao Tse-tung as a rap artist.

Mao's favourite exhortation - the Two Musts - is to be set to music and released alongside pop versions of all the Great Helmsman's old slogans, such as The East is Red and Serve the People.

The rap album to honour the 110th anniversary of Mao's birth next month follows another record, A Red Sun, released to mark his centenary.

Hey, what about the Gang of Four? Don't they get any recognition?

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Nov. 28 - Some excerpts

Nov. 28 - Some excerpts from an article in the Australian news Arafat's over 'billion-dollar stash':

Arafat is thought to have salted away between $US300 million and $US1.3 billion in bank accounts worldwide by allegedly plundering aid money sent to prop up the battered West Bank and Gaza economy.

Hoping to deflect mounting concern over PA corruption, Arafat appointed Salam Fayyad, a chain-smoking US-educated economist, to the post of finance minister last year.

Fayyad is winning rave reviews for his swift assault on the culture of corruption, revealing that Arafat had diverted about $US900 million from the crippled PA budget between 1995 and 2000 to a secret Arafat-controlled account managed by his loyal financial adviser, Mohammed Rachid.

An International Monetary Fund report in September, detailing PA financial mismanagement, was followed by more allegations in a US 60 Minutes TV report earlier this month. In an interview on that show, Fayyad said: "There is corruption out there, there is abuse, there's impropriety. That's what had to be fixed."

However, Fayyad can only dig where he's allowed to, according to Matthew Levitt, a former FBI analyst who tracks terrorism financing.

"Fayyad is really trying very hard in some cases to shame people into action," Levitt told The Weekend Australian. "However, (his) best efforts can only be successful as they pertain to the PA's funds. He has no jurisdiction over PLO funds, Fatah (Arafat's political party) funds or any funds that have been diverted to Yasser Arafat's (or his associates') personal accounts."

Arafat still pays the salaries of more security officers than he needs, including Palestinian naval police based in landlocked Hebron.

"The fact is Salam Fayyad does not have access to the vast majority of those funds," Levitt said. The renewed interest in Arafat's finances comes at a sensitive time for the Palestinians, who will present their 2004 budget at an international donors conference in Rome on December 12.

The West Bank war horse's image is not helped when publications such as Forbes magazine feature the 74-year-old prominently on its list of most wealthy "King, Queens and Despots".

Forbes calculates that Arafat, who comes in sixth behind Queen Elizabeth II, has a net worth of $US300billion. Some Israelis believe Arafat's personal wealth may be as much as $US11 billion, although in testimony to the Knesset last year Israel's chief of military intelligence Aharon Zeevi listed his personal assets at more than $US1.3 billion.

Washington's contribution to the PA this year is a relatively modest $US125 million, including $US20 million that, for the first time, was given directly to the PA instead of via contractors and non-government organisations. "I think we have made sure that US money is accounted for properly," Boucher said. According to Fayyad, Arafat was paying his security forces about $US20 million a month in cash.

Read the whole thing.

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Nov. 28 - Liberal MP

Nov. 28 - Liberal MP and former Toronto mayor Art Eggleton seems to make sense: Use gas tax for transit:

There's an "urban transit crisis" and a fuel tax should be used to fund improvements, former mayor and current Liberal MP Art Eggleton said yesterday. Eggleton, chairman of the federal Grits' GTA caucus, was speaking at the release of a union-funded report on subway expansion.

"There is an urban transit crisis and, in part, that's because there is a road crisis," Eggleton said. "I think the fuel tax should be used (to fund public transit)."

So is he talking about the fuel tax, or only part of the fuel tax? Or, worse, increasing the existing fuel tax?

[...]

Last week, the Toronto Transit Commission voted to approve a budget with no service cuts or fare hike in 2004 -- pending senior levels of government making up a $62-million shortfall.

The provincial Liberals promised 2 cents of the provincial gas tax for public transit in the fall campaign. But expanding the Sheppard subway to Scarborough Town Centre and the Spadina line to York University would require the equivalent funding of 5 cents a litre to cover the $3-billion cost over 16 years, the report said.

The subway report was prepared for the Universal Workers Union Local 183, which represents skilled workers across the GTA by Acres Management Consulting Ltd.

There is a letter to the editor in today's Toronto Sun from Paul Collett of Pickering who asks a very basic but as yet unanswered question:

THE LIBERALS plan on giving public transit a shot in arm with 2c from every litre of gas sold. Will this 2c come from the taxes already collected on every litre of gas, or will they increase the taxes by 2c to pay for this project?

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The (in)effectiveness of gun control

Nov. 28 - A report in today's Toronto Sun features a new study by The Fraser Institute on the effectiveness of restrictive firearm legislation in 3 Commonwealth countries: Australia, Canada and Great Britain, with results that are more devastating than even a could-be gun-totin' person like me would have thought probable.

To be honest, I chiefly oppose firearm regulation and registration on philosophical grounds: so long as I comply with the responsibilities that accompany ownership and use of a firearm, I see no reason to be restricted much less deprived of my inherent right to possess firearms. I'm pro-choice! It's not that I want to carry a gun, I just believe I have the right to choose.

This study casts that right in a different light which concludes that depriving law-abiding citizens of their rights has been accomplanied by an increase in violent crime, which was a reasonable, logical suspicion but until this report could not be proven based on actual fact. [Isn't it telling that private citizens are able to distinguish between proven and unproven yet a government cannot?]

Short version: If I am believed to be capable of defending myself, someone with ill intent is going to steer clear of me. If I am believed to be an easy target, I have just become potential prey.

That has always been a logical premise, and it seems it has been proven in the negative sense in that citizens of those Commonwealth countries studied which have restricted firearm possession have been victimized because they are indeed perceived to be incapable of defending themselves.

The report, The Failed Experiment: Gun Control and Public Safety in Canada, Australia, England and Wales, can be read in .pdf format online. The Executive Summary on that page states that

The widely ignored key to evaluating firearm regulations is to examine trends in total violent crime, not just firearms crime. Since firearms are only a small fraction of criminal violence, the public would not be safer if the new law could reduce firearm violence but had no effect on total criminal violence.

Affirmation of the adage Never bring a knife to a gunfight.

The United States provides a valuable point of comparison for assessing crime rates because the criminal justice system there differs so drastically from those in Europe and the Commonwealth. Not only are criminal penalties typically more severe in the United States, often much more severe, but also conviction and incarceration rates are usually much higer. Perhaps the most striking difference is that qualified citizens in the United States can carry concealed handguns for self-defence. During the past few decades, more than 25 states in the United States passed laws allowing responsible citizens to carry concealed handguns. In 2003, there are 35 states where citizens can get such a permit.

The upshot is that violent crime rates, and homicide rates in particular, have been falling in the United States. The drop in the American crime rate is even more impressive when compared with the rest of the world.

So violent crimes committed with knives, for example, have also been reduced in the US because the Justice System heavily penalizes those who commit such crimes not because we're vicious, but because we regard such crimes as intolerable in a civilized society.

The US government and justice system are based on the philosophy of "Social Contract." Citizens have the right to bear arms for non-criminal purposes, and that right is counter-balanced with harsh penalties when the terms of that contract are broken.

This report has special significance for Toronto because there is a mini-controversy in which the Toronto Star claims that violent crimes are down, and takes issue with Police Chief Julian Fantino's call for a public inquiry over concerns that violent crime is up (Jack is all over this one, and News Junkie Canada brushes aside accusations of being too blunt (heh) and weighs in.)

The Fraser Institute's press release not only calls the legislations "a failure", but makes what many opponents of the registry cite as the main crititcism:

Disarming the public has not reduced criminal violence in any country examined in this study. In all these cases, disarming the public has been ineffective, expensive, and often counter productive. In all cases, the effort meant setting up expensive bureaucracies that produce no noticeable improvement to public safety or have made the situation worse. Mauser points to these trends in the countries he examined: [England and Wales, Australia, and Canada.] (Emphasis added)

Good old entrenched bureaucracy. Admitting the gun registry is useless and abandoning it would mean a reduction in civil service jobs, and for them, it is deemed better to continue making the same errors than admitting failure, right? We're talking about a special interest group that never shows it's true face. Who runs these countries anyway, the Parliaments or the civil service? In who's interests are these countries run, those in the civil service who want to protect their useless jobs, or citizens, who are entitled to to protect their lives?

If we were discussing a fad treatment which made claims not only that it cannot prove but can be demonstrated to be false, wouldn't the fraud squad be called in?

The press release on the report cites that in England and Wales,

Both Conservative and Labour governments have introduced restrictive firearms laws over the past 20 years; all handguns were banned in 1997.

Yet in the 1990s alone, the homicide rate jumped 50 percent, going from 10 per million in 1990 to 15 per million in 2000. While not yet as high as the US, in 2002 gun crime in England and Wales increased by 35 percent. This is the fourth consecutive year that gun crime has increased.

Police statistics show that violent crime in general has increased since the late 1980s and since 1996 has been more serious than in the United States.

They are very critical of the confiscation and destruction of legally owned firearms in Australia, citing it cost over $500 million and the police services bureaucracy including that which oversaw the registry increased by $200 million. Armed robberies, on the other hand, have increased 166% since restrictive legislation was introduced in 1997.

The release calls Canada's gun registry "a farce."

The contrast between the criminal violence rates in the United States and in Canada is dramatic. Over the past decade, the rate of violent crime in Canada has increased while in the United States the violent crime rate has plummeted. The homicide rate is dropping faster in the US than in Canada.

The Canadian experiment with firearm registration is becoming a farce says Mauser. The effort to register all firearms, which was originally claimed to cost only $2 million, has now been estimated by the Auditor General to top $1 billion. The final costs are unknown but, if the costs of enforcement are included, the total could easily reach $3 billion. (Emphasis added.)

“It is an illusion that gun bans protect the public. No law, no matter how restrictive, can protect us from people who decide to commit violent crimes. Maybe we should crack down on criminals rather than hunters and target shooters?” says Mauser.

Now my American dander is really up. I am not a victim. I am a human being, and I have the right and obligation to defend myself and mine.

Blame it on Sept. 11 if you wish, because the fact is that one of the legacies of that day was the extradordinary actions of the crew and passengers aboard Flight 93 and the decision of those ordinary citizens to act to defend their country, their familes and themselves.

We rambled along in the 90's thinking the government should do everything we were too lazy to do, and it was a huge mistake. The blinders are off, and we have to assert that we are willing to take responsibility for ourselves as free people, including our own self-defense.

UPDATE: This should really infuriate the weasels at the Toronto Star: Chief Fantino wants the 3 young murderers of a 12-year old tried in adult court. Their weapons of choice were knives and baseball bats, and it seems these young offenders had a hit list of between 13-15 additional targets.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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