Author: Mick Hartley

Well, Lance wins the final time trial and it’s all over bar the shouting. I have to say it’s been something of an anti-climax this year. No one managed to provide anything like an effective challenge, even though there were signs that Lance isn’t as strong as he used to be. His team was just so well organised – after an early scare – that the whole event turned into a procession.

Next year though….

Everyone’s saying Ullrich’s past it by now, but Lance’s retirement could provide the sort of psychological boost he needs. Maybe he hasn’t looked like a threat recently because deep down he never believed he could win the yellow jersey with Armstrong still around. He’s older and wiser, so he’s unlikely to let himself get out of shape through the winter, as he has done in the past. He knows 2006 is his best and probably his last chance.

There are the obvious other contenders, like Ivan Basso, or Vinokourov. There also enough anglophone contenders to make it interesting if you’re that way inclined – and I admit I am, sort of, because it annoys the French. Like Leipheimer, or Landis, or even George Hincapie, now that he’s freed from the chore of being Lance’s lieutenant. Or what about Aussie Cadel Evans, 8th overall?

What’s more intertesting is to see, over the next few years, if we get another of the dominant figures that the Tour seems to throw up, like Armstrong, Indurain, Hinault, Merckx, or whether it’ll just keep changing.

d together with Juma Namangani announced the creation of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

In 1999 IMU operatives detonated six car bombs in Tashkent in a failed effort to assassinate Karimov. The explosions killed 13 and wounded 128 people. The following year, IMU guerrillas based in neighbouring countries invaded southern Uzbekistan and penetrated as close as 60 miles to Tashkent before they were driven back.

So…on the one hand Karimov, a brutal hangover from Soviet Communism, on the other, the fundamentalists of the IMU….and in the middle, the Uzbek people.

Is Kabuljon Parpiyev, as Karimov claims, an extremist? He says not – but can any protest against Karimov avoid being co-opted by the fundamentalists, whether the IMU or our old friend Hizb-ut-Tahrir (“today the Guardian, tomorrow the world”) who have been implicated by Uzbek authorities? And for how long will the US continue to view Karimov as one of our bastards?

revolutionary profile has been unable to find any in Ganji’s.

Unlike other in-house critics of the regime, Ganji has succeeded in liberating himself, morally and intellectually, from his Khomeinist illusions.

Moin, for example, [the candidate of the “reformists” in the recent presidential election] pretends that Khomeinism is a pure and beautiful ideal that has been sullied in practice. Ganji, on the other hand, has no doubt that Khomeinism itself is the root cause of all of Iran’s sufferings in the past 27 years.

Moin is like Mikhail Gorbachev, who, even in the final moments when the Soviet Titanic was sinking, was trying to fool himself and others with a vision of “ pure Leninism.” Ganji, however, is like Boris Yeltsin who, although a member of the Soviet Politburo for years, at one point realized that the Bolshevik Revolution had been “ the greatest tragedy in the history of the Russian people,” and said so publicly.

Moin wants to reform a system that is unreformable. Ganji wants a new system that is as distant from the one in place as possible. All this means that while Moin is no threat to the establishment of which he remains a privileged member, Ganji is.

The regime can cope with the “if” and “but” school of criticism. The more shrewd operators of the regime, such as the outgoing President Muhammad Khatami , even encourage this kind of “lite” dissent because it helps foster the illusion that the system can accommodate a measure of debate. That illusion, in turn, could hoodwink some Westerners, including former US President Bill Clinton, into believing that the Khomeinist system is “a kind of democracy.”

When the lawyer Mrs. Shirin Ebadi was nominated as the Nobel Peace laureate for 2004, Khatami welcomed her with the admonition not to “go beyond certain red lines.” Mrs. Ebadi took the advice, and all went well for her. She devoted her acceptance speech to attacking the United States for “abuses of human rights” in Guantanamo Bay, and castigating Israel for “oppressing the Palestinians.”

Knowing her red lines she made no mention of the tens of thousands of prisoners, including some of her own friends, rotting in Mortazavi’s jails. But the “most important red line” according to Khatami, concerns the criticism of the “Supreme Guide” or the late Khomeini himself. Ganji, however, has rejected all advice from Khatami. He has insisted that the only red lines must be fixed by law in a democratic system.

Khatami is reportedly trying hard to arrange for Ganji’s release, or at least make sure he stays alive for a few more weeks. This is because the outgoing president does not want his term to end on so tragic a note. But he is asking Ganji to do things that Ganji would never do: Respecting the “red lines” that Moin, Mrs. Ebadi and virtually all other in-house critics of the regime never cross.

Another reason why the regime is so incensed with Ganji is that , unlike other critics inside and outside the system, he cannot be accused of wanting anything for himself. He is not a politician and is not gunning for office. By remaining just a “concerned citizen” he appeals to those Iranians who feel that they, too, have been let down by the system. And because he is not associated with any political group he is respected by all.

But what may have triggered the “fight to the death” between Ganji and the system is his courageous and meticulously researched exposure of the corruption and cruelty at the heart of the regime, especially during the eight-year presidency of Ali-Akbar Hasahemi, the mulla who attempted a comeback but was soundly defeated by Ahamadinejad in last month’s presidential election.

The books that Ganji published on the subject were instantly banned. But they have sold millions inside and outside Iran and remain important documents submitted to the court of history.

Buried in this article in the Scotsman, about Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Sudan, is the real reason for the recent drop in the level of violence in Darfur:

The violence, which abated this year, has driven some two million people from their homes and killed tens of thousands [hundreds of thousands, more like].

According to Andrew Natsios, a top US aid official with Ms Rice, the lull in violence was largely because most villages had already been razed.

He added that he suspected the Sudanese government was still giving material support to the militia, but that they no longer sent gunships to assist militia attacks.

They don’t need them any more.

Well, final proof that the strain is starting to tell on Londoners. I was waiting to cross by a set of traffic lights which had just turned green. There was a good long queue, at least 10-15 cars. The car at the front didn’t move, for at least 10 seconds – and no one hooted. Never seen anything like it.

Since, as both Seumas Milne and Omar Bakri Mohammed agree, 7/7 was a direct consequence of the part Britain has played in the occupation of Muslim lands, I suggest that what we saw yesterday could mark the resurgence of a new and potentially terrifying pan-Slavic movement, inspired by Al-Qaeda, protesting the occupation of Kosovo by Western forces. The escape of the bombers is thus easily explained: everyone was looking for Asian youths, allowing the Goran Ivanisevic lookalikes to make their escape. The failure of the bombs to actually cause any damage is down to the inexperience of these young Slavs, who sadly failed to live up to the glorious precedent set by Gavrilo Princip. But this is just the start.

For too long now we’ve allowed the grievances of the Slavs to fester. Interference in Slavic affairs must cease. We’ll only be rid of this new terror when all Western forces are removed from their lands, and Yugoslavia is reformed.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, on the Today programme:

He branded any Muslims who attended the Trafalgar Square vigil last week as “hypocrites and apostates”.

In an interview, Bakri said: “God forbids us from praying with Jews and Christians side by side. These are part-time Muslims or chocolate Muslims.

“I cannot be British. I cannot be English. Even if I change my colour, like Michael Jackson, I could not be English.”

Furthermore, Bakri claimed that he and fellow radicals have helped to protect Britain from Islamic extremism for two decades. […]

Asked whether he would leave if he did face a deportation order, he said: “Of course, I would never challenge the legal system. I would prefer to be in prison or to be deported.

“Unfortunately, after we have been banned from any activities, we become completely isolated from the youth,” he added. “And the youth start to go forward to somebody else abroad.

“I was able, with many radical Muslims, to control the youth for the last 20 years and hold them back from doing anything foolish or anything which is completely wrong.

“If nobody is there to guide them, who is going to give the youth direction?”

A UN report condemns Mugabe’s slum clearance:

Hundreds of thousands of homes in the country’s shanty towns have been torched and bulldozed in recent months.

Zimbabwe says the demolitions aim to clean up urban areas and ensure building regulations are followed.

But the UN report, to be released in full later on Friday, says the policy is disastrous and inhumane.

Meanwhile:

Zimbabwe has cracked down on churches sheltering victims of Robert Mugabe’s “clean-up” operation that has made a million people homeless.

Riot police in the western city of Bulawayo yesterday raided at least five churches that were sheltering about 500 people affected by President Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsvina, which translates as Operation “drive out filth”.

The authorities have also banned church officials and organisations from a government holding camp outside the city to which the displaced are being moved.

While African politicians, notably Thabo Mbeki, refuse to condemn Mugabe, Wole Soyinka has no such qualms:

One of Africa’s best-known authors, Wole Soyinka, has called for sanctions to be imposed on Zimbabwe, calling the situation there “a disgrace” to Africa.
The Nigerian writer said President Mugabe was typical of “rogues and monsters” clinging to power in Africa.

African leaders have been reluctant to criticise human rights abuses in Zimbabwe; many see Mr Mugabe as a hero of the struggle against colonialism.

Mr Soyinka said this kind of solidarity was wrong and should be ended.

He was speaking in South Africa, where he is due to give a lecture on Friday as part of the celebration of former President Nelson Mandela’s 87th birthday. […]

Mr Soyinka said that many African leaders oppressed their people just as much as colonial rulers.

“I don’t care about the colour of the foot pressing on my neck – I just want to remove it,” the Nobel laureate said.

Were the bombers trying to tell us something, in their choice of Tube stations? Commenter Dunvegan at Metafilter has it worked out:

The message/symbolism?

1. Oval (as “Oval Office)

2. Warran Street (as in “War In [the] Streets”)

3. Shepherd’s Bush (as in “Bush the Shepherd”)

Clever, eh? But what about the bus? Bethnal Green?

Hold on….it was near Columbia Road. Columbia…as in Columbia University….renowned for its anti-Israeli activists, alma mater of Edward Said…..

How long before the MSM catch up with this?

Here’s Dr. Emil Silvestru, a Romanian geologist now resident in Canada, and one of the speakers at the 2005 Creation Mega Conference:

‘Although philosophically and ethically I accepted a literal Genesis from my conversion, at first I was unable to match it with my “technical” side.’

However, email discussions with qualified creationist geologists, creationist books, Creation magazine and especially the TJ helped him realise what he calls ‘two essential things’:

1. Given exceptional conditions (e.g. the Genesis Flood) geological processes that take an extremely long time today can be unimaginably accelerated.

2. The Genesis Flood was global, not regional.

‘These factors were immensely important in my conversion and my Christian life. I am now convinced of six-day, literal, recent, Genesis creation. That doesn’t mean that there are not still some unanswered problems, but researching such issues is what being a scientist is all about.’

Jason Rosenhouse is reporting on the conference at The Panda’s Thumb.