Dictator Style

FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Lifestyles of the Rich and Fascist

They are quirky, vibrant, and they march to the beat of their own military drums, when they're not off committing crimes against humanity. Since time immemorial, autocrats, absolute monarchs, dictators, and less than savory heads of state have shown a penchant for the unconventional and over-the-top, in both their personal lives and political careers.
When Senior General Than Shwe was spooked by a negative astrological reading, he abruptly ordered that the capital of Myanmar be moved from Rangoon to a dusty jungle town called Pyinmana. This billionaire old-boys club has been increasingly under the spotlight as pop culture has melded with their pomp culture. Ugandan president Idi Amin's antics were chronicled in a recent film, The Last King of Scotland, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone have given despots like Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il their 15 minutes in the cartoon creations South Park and Team America. In the book Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World's Most Colorful Despots (2005), Peter York played Robin Leach to a catalog of garish and grandiose dictator homesteads from Mussolini manor to casa Tito.
As Cuban Commandante Fidel Castro, rumored to be on his deathbed, is poised to release his self-titled autobiography in early spring, and Saddam Hussein's O.J.-like trial has ended with him sentenced to be hanged by the end of next month, the fascist fascination is sure to grow. To bring you up to speed, Radar has compiled a list of ten autocrats that rate not so much for their ability to govern with an iron fist but for their personal levels of outrageousness and eccentricity. After all, there's no business like show business ... except maybe a career in totalitarian political domination.

http://www.radaronline.com/features/2006/12/autocrats.php

Here’s an interview with Al-Jazeera Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Sheikh, demonstrating why this mouthpiece for the global jihad should never be allowed to spread its propaganda in the United States. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the irrational, obsessive hatred of Jews that drives the Arab-Muslim victimhood mentality.

Who is responsible for the situation?
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important reasons why these crises and problems continue to simmer. The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems. The West should finally come to understand this. Everything would be much calmer if the Palestinians were given their rights.
Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?
I think so.
Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?
The Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.
In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?
Exactly. It’s because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West’s problem is that it does not understand this.
Mr. Sheikh, as the Editor in Chief of Al-Jazeera, you are one of the most important opinion-makers in the Arab world. What do you call suicide bombers?
For what is happening in Palestine, we never use the expression “suicide bombing.”
What do you call it then?
In English, I would describe it as “bombings.”
And in Arabic?
Literally translated, we would speak of “commando attacks.” In our culture, it is precisely not suicide.
But instead a praiseworthy act?
When the country is occupied and the people are being killed by the enemy, everyone must take action, even if he sacrifices himself in so doing.
Even if in so doing he kills innocent civilians?
That is not a Palestinian problem, but a problem of the Israelis.

Mysterious Man Arrested for Ideological Motivations

An indeterminate man of unknown origin with possible “ideological motivations” has been arrested for plotting a terror attack in Illinois. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

WASHINGTON - A man was arrested in the Chicago area on Friday for allegedly plotting to attack Rockford, Ill., over the holidays, officials told NBC News.
The plan involved a bombing and a shooting, the officials said. The man had no accomplices and was not part of a terrorist cell, sources said on condition of anonymity. He will be appearing in court later Friday, NBC’s Pete Williams reported.
A court appearance originally scheduled for 12:45 pm ET was delayed, offiicals said. They did not say when it was going to be held.
The FBI has been aware of the plot and has been monitoring him closely, Williams reported. The plan was allegedly ideologically motivated. No other details were released, but authorities said the arrest eliminated the risk of the attack being carried out.

UPDATE at 12/8/06 10:21:47 am:
More details at CBS 2 Chicago: Suspect Arrested In Alleged Chicago Terror Plot.
Law enforcement officials say the man was a U.S. citizen, and planned to commit some sort of terrorist attack in Chicago. The man had “ideas and desires, but no means,” law enforcement sources said.
A source said earlier that the alleged plot might have involved a shopping mall, but later information did not specify what the target was.
Law enforcement officials added that the alleged plot was not on the level of 9/11, and even “three rungs below” the recent Miami plot that was disrupted. That plot involved alleged plans to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower.
The man arrested Friday is considered a lone operator without ties to any known terrorist organization, law enforcement sources said.
Another case of Sudden Buddhist Syndrome?

UPDATE at 12/8/06 10:47:28 am:
CNN puts a name to the mystery man: Man arrested in mall attack plot, source says.
The man — described as a U.S. citizen named Derrick Shareef — faces charges for allegedly planning to set off hand grenades in garbage cans in malls during the holiday season.
He was arrested Wednesday, the source said.
A criminal complaint filed against him was unsealed Friday. He is to be charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and with planning to damage or destroy buildings by fire or explosion, the source said.

UPDATE at 12/8/06 10:53:07 am:
The Guardian has a tiny insignificant detail no one else seems to think is important: Man Charged With Shopping Mall Bomb Plot.
Federal officials said that in September, Shareef became acquainted with a witness who was cooperating with the FBI and confided to him that he wanted to commit acts of “violent jihad,” as well as other crimes.

UPDATE at 12/8/06 10:56:38 am:
The Smoking Gun has the FBI affidavit. Turns out Shareef isn’t a Buddhist after all.
Shopping Mall Terror Plot Foiled. (Hat tip: zombie.)
DECEMBER 8—An Illinois man plotted to set off hand grenades at shopping malls in a holiday season terror campaign that was thwarted by federal investigators. According to an FBI affidavit, Derrick Shareef, 22, told a confidential source that he wanted to “commit violent acts of jihad,” and spoke of killing judges and blowing up public buildings. A copy of the affidavit can be found below. Shareef told the snitch that he sought “to disrupt Christmas,” adding that, “I swear by Allah man, I’m down for it too, I’m down for the cause, I’m down to live for the cause and die for the cause, man.” The document does not further describe the supposed cause of Shareef, who was named today in a federal felony complaint. Shareef is quoted telling the FBI source, “I probably would have eventually ended up stabbing the shit outta some Jews or something. Just stabbing them niggers with a steak knife...Because during that war with Hezbollah, man, I had already started to look at synagogues out here...”

How did this get past the editors at the Los Angeles Times? Islam gets concessions; infidels get conquered.

When Muslims conquer non-Muslim territories — such as Constantinople, not to mention all of North Africa, Spain and southwest Asia — those whom they have conquered as well as their descendants are not to expect any apologies, let alone political or territorial concessions.
Herein lies the conundrum. When Islamists wage jihad — past, present and future — conquering and consolidating non-Muslim territories and centers in the name of Islam, never once considering to cede them back to their previous owners, they ultimately demonstrate that they live by the age-old adage “might makes right.” That’s fine; many people agree with this Hobbesian view.
But if we live in a world where the strong rule and the weak submit, why is it that whenever Muslim regions are conquered, such as in the case of Palestine, the same Islamists who would never concede one inch of Islam’s conquests resort to the United Nations and the court of public opinion, demanding justice, restitutions, rights and so forth?
Put another way, when Muslims beat infidels, it’s just too bad for the latter; they must submit to their new overlords’ rules with all the attendant discrimination and humiliation mandated for non-Muslims. Yet when Islam is beaten, demands for apologies and concessions are expected from the infidel world at large.

Today in Explosives History

And it was on this day in 1917 that an accidental explosion destroyed a quarter of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was the height of World War I, and Halifax was serving as an important port city for many of the ships carrying supplies for the battlefront in Europe. One of the ships coming into the port that day was a French warship called the Mont Blanc, carrying 200 tons of TNT, 2,300 tons of other explosives, as well as 10 tons of cotton and 35 tons of highly flammable chemicals stored in vats on the ship's upper deck.

As the Mont Blanc sailed through the narrow channel into the Halifax Harbor, it collided with a Norwegian freighter. The collision started a fire on the Mont Blanc, and the captain gave the order to abandon ship. The crew piled into lifeboats and then paddled frantically away. Unfortunately, the fire drew a crowd of onlookers along the shore of the channel. The docks filled with spectators, trams slowed down, people stood at office windows and on factory roofs to see the blaze. Then, a few minutes after the fire had started, the Mont Blanc exploded.

It was the single most powerful man-made explosion at that point in human history, and there wouldn't be another more powerful explosion until the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

The blast wave of water hit the shore, sweeping away buildings, bridges, roads, vehicles, and people. City streets split open into deep fissures. Houses, churches, schools, and factories collapsed. The entire city was showered with debris. Virtually every building in the city had its windows broken. About a quarter of the city, within a square mile of the blast, was completely destroyed.

Almost 2,000 people were killed in the blast and as many as 9,000 were seriously injured, many of them blinded by pieces of broken glass. Thousands of people were left homeless in the middle of a bitter winter. Volunteers poured in from the United States and Great Britain to help in the recovery efforts, and children who survived the blast were photographed for postcards to be sold to help rebuild the city.

Even though World War I was being fought across the Atlantic, Halifax was damaged far greater than any European city. It is the worst disaster of any kind in Canadian history.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Flatulence brought 99 passengers on an American Airlines flight to an unscheduled visit to Nashville early Monday morning.

American Flight 1053, from Washington Reagan National Airport and bound for Dallas/Fort Worth, made an emergency landing here after passengers reported smelling struck matches, said Lynne Lowrance, a spokeswoman for the Nashville International Airport Authority.The plane landed safely. The FBI, Transportation Safety Administration and airport authority responded to the emergency, Lowrance said.The passengers and five crew members were brought off the plane, together with all the luggage, to go through security checks again. Bomb-sniffing dogs found spent matches.The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal body odor, Lowrance said. The woman lives near Dallas and has a medical condition.The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane."American has banned her for a long time," Lowrance said.She was not charged but could have been. While it is legal to bring as many as four books of paper safety matches onto an aircraft, it is illegal to strike a match in an airplane, Lowrance said.