The jury in the Farah Khan trial was expected to begin its deliberations yesterday. Her mother and stepfather are accused of killing and dismembering the little girl in 1999.
Instead, the judge granted a jury request to delay deliberations until tomorrow, so that jurors could catch game seven between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators before they are sequestered.
Little Known Facts
The World Show
I left last Tuesday morning – more than 24 hours later I arrived in Rio for the FCI World Dog Show. The 2 shows covered 4 days, and with three days taken up in travel, it was a whirlwind experience.
The Exposition Center is absolutely huge, with the show occupying three gigantic buildings. I regret not taking a photo of our benching area – approximately 4,000 sq feet for several handlers, owners and around 40 dogs. My host has the top winning Mini Schnauzers in Brazil. (I sold him a dog a few years ago and was there as his guest.) There were two full time kennel men who did the heavy lifting, much of the grooming and all the basic care, errands and cleaning. The dogs loved them – a sign of how well they did their jobs. Labour costs are extremely low in Brazil – I was told they were paid around $50 US a month. In Brazil’s heavily class-divided society, they are unlikely to ever achieve their goal of becoming full fledged handlers – they’re black. Each benching area had tents in which they slept at night, so that the dogs were supervised 24 hours a day.
In addition there was a third employee – an armed guard who doubled as a driver. (The drug wars were not that far from the site, and there were armed guards at the gates as well). As it turned out, having high placed “connections” at the show afforded me the luxury of VIP status for the group and best in show judging. We had the comfort of lounge chairs and waiters, free beer, cola and coffee and finger food – and fans – while the rest of the spectators crammed several deep like sweating sardines, and dared not leave for losing their view.
The event was heavy with ceremony – the national dog of Brazil, the “Filas”, were serenaded by a full choir, backed up by an orchestra. There were dancing girls in spectacular costumes. At the conclusion of each group a swarm of press photographers surrounded the winners’ stand. Large overhead screens were up at each end of the main ring those who couldn’t see the judging itself. (Unfortunately, the flash function on my digital camera decided to unfunction, so I didn’t get as many shots of the dog show that I know the curious back at home would have liked to see. )
(Click on the thumbnails for full sized photos)
But, apart from the spectacle and hospitality, the overall experience was deeply disappointing. The quality of most of the breeds that made it to group was poor to mediocre (terriers were an exception), and judging was abysmal. Organization was poor and the venue itself was dreadful. Unseasonably hot, there was no air conditioning – cooling consisted of dozens of ceiling fans that blew intermittent mists of water down on the dogs and people below (in the benching building only – the other 2 exhibition buildings had nothing at all). Temperature inside the show buildings must have been close to 100F – combined with high humidity and a crush of people, it was truly dangerous for the dogs. One top winning Golden Retriever died the first night. I immediately trained my own to lie on an ice pack until it was time to go to the ring.
“Carlos” recieved an “excellent” rating, which is the highest, though no placement. I was prewarned that the judges for our breed were not well thought of. Under the Spanish judge, for example, it came as no surprise when a Portuguese dog recieved top honours. Overall, there was great disappointment about the heavily political nature of the judging all weekend – that coming from judges on the panel as well as exhibitors. At World Shows in the past, host country dogs have had a distinct advantage – in Italy, an Italian dog won Best In Show, the same in Germany, and so forth. Brazil turned out to be no different.
However, when the Brazilian owned Pug was announced as Best In Show, applause was drowned out by booing from the crowd, due to an alleged “set up” that had led to the win. Negative crowd reactions such as this are virtually unheard of in the sport – a contraversial moment that will be talked about for years. But perhaps a necessary one, given the charades of previous World Shows.
Balancing the disappointment of the World Show (I doubt I’ll ever attend another) was the generosity of my hosts. The Brazilians are wonderful people, generous and helpful – I speak no Portuguese and my host no English, so we spoke only through his friends who spent all weekend as translators. It was virtually impossible to pay for anything, and after selling a little artwork, I left the shows with more money than I came with, along with a suitcase full of gifts.
In the few hours before I left on Monday a friend of my host (a professional tour guide) took me on the Reader’s Digest tour of Rio – we went part way up to Sugarloaf, drove past the main beaches and had lunch with him and his housekeeper in his very colourful little “hole in the wall” apartment in Copacabana. I did regret not bringing my Minolta and zoom lens. The shantytowns that cover the hills have to be seen to be believed.
It’s difficult enough to take photos from a moving vehicle – nearly impossible in Brazil, where drivers seem hell bent on mutual destruction. But I have a few more. Visit this directory to see them – the file names are fairly self explanatory.
Directory of photos
Now, I must get some sleep.
Hit Pause
I’m off to Brazil tomorrow morning, so blogging here will resume in a week’s time.
You kids in the comments section down there – play nice while I’m gone.
“Israel Behind 9/11”
Via the Shotgun:
The Mossad and the CIA infiltrated “Islamic combatant groups” in Afghanistan and were the forces behind the attack on Sept. 11 in New York and Washington, D.C., Imam Mohamed al-Asi said at York University last week.
Al-Asi was part of an event titled “From Ground Zero to Islamophobia: Who Are the Victims?” that was hosted by seven different campus organizations, including the Muslim Action Network, the Muslim Student Association, the Middle Eastern Student Association, the Pakistani Student Association and the Pakistani Student Federation.
Some of the juicy bits:
“The Israeli Zionist [sic] are the true and legitimate object of liquidation. A new generation of death-defying youth are motivated by Islam, and Islam alone, to challenge and destroy the racism and nationalism of Tel Aviv’s politicians. Israel is running out of time and all the politicians know it.”
Last night headstones at a Jewish cemetary in Kitchener were vandalized. That made national news. Yet, this hasn’t. But wait – there’s more!
The other main speaker of the evening, Zafar Bangash, director of the Toronto-based Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, also spoke about 9/11. The institute is described on its website as “an intellectual centre of the global Islamic movement.”
…
Bangash spoke about several conspiracy theories, including allegations that Canadian corporations defrauded Canadian taxpayers out of $2.5 billion in order to make banks Y2K compliant.
“Now this happened in Canada. You can imagine what goes on in the United States,” he said.
Bangash also complained about the lack of leadership in the Muslim community in Toronto.
“Any screwball can get up … [and] give their two-bit opinion about Islam.”
Apparently.
Photoblogging
Click on the thumbnail for the larger version.
Journalist “Kidnappings”
I mentioned this observation from The Belmont Club earlier, in reference to the two NYT reporters who were “captured” and released – he now has three such stories that suggest a special forces unit is targeting western journalists in a disinformation campaign. Not coalition special forces – someone elses’.
A team from a writer or newspaper respected by conservatives is captured on the road. The journalists are taken to a picturesque location where they are first greeted with hostility, then granted surprising liberty. A sense of shared danger bonds them with their captors. Scenes are provided to lend color. Due to a surprising coincidence, the captured journalists stumble on information every Western intelligence agency wants to know. The preparations to defend the Golden Mosque, the fate of the missing German counterterrorism agents. Then, as quickly as they were captured, they are released. Not for them is the long and slow incarceration of Terry Waite, but a hearty goodbye, encumbered only by the promise that they will tell the world the truth, on their word as Americans or Englishmen.
Kyoto Nailed To Perch
Canadian media and Liberal party response for the past year on the failure of Russia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol: “La la la la, I can’t hear you, la la la la, I can’t hear you”
Colby Cosh;
Kyoto is deader than Abe Lincoln, and has been, really, for more than a year. This is not exactly a secret. But there appears to be a — what? A conspiracy? A gentlemen’s agreement? — not to mention it. The elderly guest has expired in the parlour, but his teacup must be kept full, despite the gathering flies. It’s like a protracted and even less funny version of Weekend at Bernie’s.
Canadian Identity
A great deal of hand wringing has gone on about the prospects of democracy in the Middle East, and how the current situation in Iraq is likely to shake out. We have lost a sense of scale, a recognition that there is no way to measure success or failure from the perspective of a month or a year – that such questions are answered through the efforts of decades. Having finished the war the UN would not allow his father to complete, today George Bush is taking on Jimmy Carter’s failure to confront Iran. Seeding concepts of freedom and democracy takes time, and often fails to stick on the first try – but ultimately, it is the only hope for long term stability in the region. If this war fails to achieve it, another will follow.
We also make the mistake of assuming that violent struggle is an impediment to the process of stabilization and democracy. Very few countries emerge as stable democracies without bloody, gut-wrenching political upheaval, or a struggle for their survival from threats without – it has a maturing effect on nations, transforming populations into peoples.
And over the past year or so, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is at the core of Canada’s problem in achieving a “national identity”.
We’ve yet to fight for our country in a life or death struggle. The US has been through two cataclysmic wars at home – the American Revolution and the Civil War – American patriotism springs from this history. Pearl Harbor and 911 occurred on American soil. The British Empire grew out of centuries of armed conflict and invasion. And while an empire no more, there is no national debate about British identity – “Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!”
A few days ago the anniversary of Vimy was noted – now nearly 90 years in the past, and the closest Canadians have come to a sense of common nation, common achievment – and yet, even that was from behind the safe distance of the Atlantic. Our troops fought for freedom and against the Axis in WWII – but not here. Canadian schoolchildren were not sent to the country to protect them from German bombs. Our parents suffered no mornings picking through rubble for loved ones. Today, we pride ourselves on “peacekeeping” – that is, staying out of the way until the hard fighting is done.
It’s sadly revealing – and to our discredit – that when asked, most Canadians cite a government entitlement (public health care) as the defining feature of Canadian identity. Most of the rest list differences between ourselves and “the Americans”, not understanding that identity is not something that one receives from “the government” or that exists “relative to”.
Today, unwilling to face fully the threat of Islamism – or to acknowledge and honour that those who do are spilling their blood to secure our way of life as much as theirs – I do wonder if this unusual gap in our history has been our undoing. Having skipped over the part where we expelled the barbarians, with no fundamental shared Canadian experience to cement us as a nation, I suspect our passivity is now terminal, and the beginning of an inevitable slide towards de-Confederation.
But no fear – it will be a negotiated settlement.
Higher Learning
The classic stereotype of the con man as smooth, crafty and clever just took a hit.
[the] former Harvard University instructor of medicine who was arrested on Tuesday for conning friends, colleagues and Internet acquaintances out of $600,000 was himself duped when he trusted other swindlers with the money, police said.
Weidong Xu, 38, quickly lost his ill-gotten loot by investing it in a dubious Nigerian business offer he received by e-mail. The spam message promised gains of $50 million, police said.
But, what does it tell us about Harvard professors?
Kerry Hosting
Kevin Aylward noticed thatthe John Kerry Campaign had a nifty idea – hosting free webpages for those who want to endorse his campaign!
Scott Boone got busy capturing screenshots. It was over 4 hours before someone noticed and pulled them down.
Selective Intelligence
James Joyner distills current Bush administration criticism down to the bare essentials: “Damned if You Do…”
Watching several of the Sunday morning talk shows, I’ve noticed two themes:
The Bush Administration didn’t do enough with sketchy pieces of intelligence that al Qaeda was going to do something, somewhere, at some time and is therefore responsible for not preventing the 9/11 attacks.
The Bush Administration relied too heavily on now-discredited intelligence that Saddam Hussein was ramping up WMD production and used it to launch a war before we were attacked.
But of course, this is far too black and white an analysis.
A more sophisticated president would have understood the complexities of the history and culture of the Middle East, and made reparations for past insults to Islam.
A true diplomat would have negotiated the peaceful retirement of Saddam, with seats on the UN Human Rights Committee for his sons, and disarmed and rehabilitated the Fedayeen. This would have freed the Iraqis from the chokehold of the “US” sanctions, removing their troops from Saudi Arabia and the no-fly zone, thereby avoiding intelligence altogether.
See? Is that so hard?
Heartstrings
This sad story today courtesy Colin Freeze at the Globe and Mail :
Canada, the country of his citizenship, has never been home in any meaningful way for Karim. He was a young boy when he first met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. At age 11, he watched U.S. bombs rain down as his family became part of the exodus of al-Qaeda-affiliated Arabs who fled the U.S. invasion to go to the tribal areas of Pakistan.
Forced from their homes, with nothing but the Kalashnikovs on their backs, they were.
There, he watched his father and seven other militants die last fall in a fierce battle with government forces. Karim, who was caught up in the battle, emerged partly paralyzed.
Caught at the extreme end of crossfire, so they say.
The towering 6 foot 3 big brother, 21-year-old Abdurahman, embraced Karim. They had not seen each other since being separated in Afghanistan.
Abdurahman’s life has also been eventful since the fall of 2001. He returned to Toronto a few months ago to speak publicly of his capture in Afghanistan, the time he spent as a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the international spy work he says he did for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Quote from his news conference – “We were an Al Queda family”.
Increasingly comfortable as family spokesman, he stood alone to address a battery of cameras to say he’d like to see the return of Omar, a 17-year- old brother still held in Cuba on suspicion of killing a U.S. soldier.
Abdurahman said he would like the rest of his family – his 23-year-old brother, who is a fugitive terror suspect in Pakistan, and his two sisters, one of whose wedding was attended by Mr. bin Laden – back here as well.
Can they travel by urn?
One politician, MP Stockwell Day, says it’s outrageous that some members of the Khadr family have been allowed to return to Canada. But onlookers in the arrivals area of the airport were non-judgmental.
Traumatized crippled little boy. Flashes peace sign, carries flowers.
Big, bad US bombs.
Warm embrace from reformed brother.
Reformed from past association with CIA.
Mean judgemental conservative politician.
Kind forgiving Scottish grandmothers.
Oh Canada, The True North Diverse And Non-Judgemental.
Bizarro News From The Future
You know that favorite gag in futuristic science fiction movies – Schwartzenegger battles his roboto killer wife while a nifty projected television screen hovers in the background, the newscaster reads out bizarro future news –
“Mars shuttle pilots enter third day of strike, stranding passengers at Moonport” … “Genetic Savings And Clone announces new cat cloning production line” … “Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell named to official list of History’s 50 Greatest Leaders”.
Then the station turns back to prime time Thunderdome action, or a grey haired Oprah interviewing a wise Klingon poet….
Except that, I heard two of those three stories on the radio today.
History’s Greatest 50
National Geographic magazine has released a list of their picks for history’s 50 most influencial leaders. Drum roll, please:
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Alexander the Great Atilla the Hun Benazir Bhutto Bilqis, The Queen of Sheba      Simon Bolivar Napoleon Bonaparte Kim Campbell Catherine de Medici Catherine the Great Charlemagne Chiang Kai-shek Sir Winston Churchill Cleopatra Charles de Gaulle Elizabeth I Fu Hsi Indira Gandhi Genghis Khan Hannibal Emperor Hirohito Adolf Hitler Isabella of Castile Empress Jingo Julius Caesar John F. Kennedy |
William Lyon Mackenzie King Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Abraham Lincoln Sir John A. Macdonald Nelson Mandela Moctezuma I Benito Mussolini Jawaharlal Nehru Nero Pericles Eva Peron Chief Pontiac Ramses II Romulus Franklin Delano Roosevelt Shanakdakhete Joseph Stalin Raden Suharto Suleyman the Magnificent Margaret Thatcher Getulio Vargas Queen Victoria George Washington William the Conquerer Mao Zedong |
I think maybe National Geographic should just stick to photo-essays on big shiny bugs and painted tribespeople.
From Tet To Guernica
The Belmont Club is one of my regular reads. This analysis illustrates why so many people are turning their backs in disgust at the “mainstream media”. The two NYT reporters mentioned didn’t seem to know they were being used. That’s forgivable under the circumstances.
The bigger question – when reporters on the ground become an integral part of the enemy’s strategy, are the editors who approve the reports aware of what is being done? If they aren’t, are they incompetent – and if they are, is it complicity? Too storng a charge? I don’t think so.
Judging by the frequency that the media outlets places negative headlines over content that is tilted towards the positive for the Bush administration – my suspicion is that the more likely answer is the second.
In hindsight, it was possible that CENTCOM arranged for its troop “rotations” in Iraq with the end in view of increasing the available forces under the cover of regular replacement. When the Blackwater contractors were murdered in Fallujah, an operation some speculated was organized by Syrian Special Operations, US commanders probably saw it for the signal that it was. They had arranged media coverage of the outrage for a reason. It was followed by Shi’ite attacks on coalition bases, one attack per ally and a wave of kidnappings. Then Moqtada al-Sadr conveniently seized one of the holiest sites in Shi’ite Islam, the Golden Mosque and proclaimed he was going to die there. Two New York Times staffers were kidnapped and conveniently held in the Golden Mosque, an incident described in Belmont Club’s The Time Traveller. There, they were allowed to glimpse preparations for the final stand. The script written for CENTCOM to follow was probably this (what follows is speculation). Small Marine units would rush into Fallujah to recover the Blackwater corpses and trapped themselves. The Marines would mount a desperate rescue which would create heavy civilian damage. In the meanwhile, Sadr would attack the coalition partner’s bases and flee to the Golden Mosque, where his presence would be confirmed by newsmen who just happend to be to imprisoned there and later released to tell the tale. CENTCOM would destroy the mosque from which he had ‘just left’ or perhaps only occupied by a double. Catastrophe would follow on catastrophe, necessitating the postponement of the June 30 transfer of power.
But CENTCOM refused to sing from the sheet. Sanchez lagged the Fallujah operation and then when the traps had staled, attacked on his own terms. With a keen awareness in the operational limitations of Sadr’s men, he let them strike their impotent blows, then picked them up piecemeal. Within 72 hours, CENTCOM had essentially deflected the Syrian/Iranian offensive and regained the initiative. In the coming days, it will be important to see whether Sadr and the Hizbullah lackeys can maintain their tempo. If they cannot, then the next moves are CENTCOM’s. It seems that Sadr rapidly went to Plan B, leaving the Golden Mosque for Najaf� without finding any takers at CENTCOM. He must be looking at Plan C. President Bush has been on the telephone with key coalition heads of state, bringing them up to speed on the current situation. Syria and Iran have dished out their best shot and landed it on CENTCOM’s arm. Now it’s our turn.
and further down the page:
The pitiful accounts of the battle of Fallujah should put paid to the silly press suggestions that the US military is “overwhelmed”. The problem is that the terrifying combat efficiency of the Marines may in fact lead to the literal extermination of enemy forces. US authorities, with a longer term end game in mind, are balancing the political outcomes of letting the Marines continue, even in their restrained mode, and taking more US casualties from holding back. When the media learns the full extent of enemy casualties in Fallujah, Kut, Ramadi, Saddam city and elsewhere, the image of the US military will be switched from “hapless” to “bullying” in a millisecond.
Hapless to bullying? Try “Tet” to “Guernica”.
Alternative History
Greg Easterbrook points out the obvious, and does a masterful job of it.
On August 7, 2001, Bush had ordered the United States military to stage an all-out attack on alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Thousands of U.S. special forces units parachuted into this neutral country, while air strikes targeted the Afghan government and its supporting military. Pentagon units seized abandoned Soviet air bases throughout Afghanistan, while establishing support bases in nearby nations such as Uzbekistan. Simultaneously, FBI agents throughout the United States staged raids in which dozens of men accused of terrorism were taken prisoner.
Reaction was swift and furious. Florida Senator Bob Graham said Bush had “brought shame to the United States with his paranoid delusions about so-called terror networks.” British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused the United States of “an inexcusable act of conquest in plain violation of international law.” White House chief counterterrorism advisor Richard Clarke immediately resigned in protest of “a disgusting exercise in over-kill.”
Read it all. It will make you laugh – and cry .
Spring In Saskatchewan
I’ve been away most of the day – dog show in North Battleford. I took a winding country highway, a favourite route this time of year. There is no good way to describe prairie light and colour, but some of these come close.
The route from Asquith to Maymont winds through farm country that has never seen prosperous times. Rocky, alkali, and frequent drought. But it’s a photographer’s dream – a lot of ambandoned farmsteads and wildlife. I tried four times to capture a pronghorn I encountered, but he was a little too far away to register on the digital camera. Saw the first meadowlark, lots of ducks and Canada geese.
The church parking lot at Arelee was full of cars. You’d never know that this old church was still in operation, driving by any other day of the week. It sits at the edge of town in a wooded, overgrown lot. The town, obviously, isn’t, though a handful of people still live there. Quite typical of the hundreds of small villages that once dotted the province.
The ice is still coming off the rivers – this is from the Maymont bridge.
Hope you enjoyed this little slice of back road Saskatchewan. Not all farming areas are this desolate, but it’s not atypical, either.
I’ve put the full sized images in the extended entry to save bandwidth. They are worth checking out. The thumbnails don’t really display the full colors – and these are true, not photoshop enhanced.
Bring Our Al Qaeda Home!
Two members of Canada’s First Family of Al Qaeda are back in Toronto. The Canadian authorities issued them “emergency passports”.
Apparently, Pakistan has no doctors.
Rice: Testimony Manipulation
Just after the Rice testimony had concluded, the local talk-radio station had their usual hourly news blurb. They’re a CNN affiliate – I will assume this was a CNN feed. update – In an email from the station’s news director, I am told they use both CNN and ABC – so the post has been edited to reflect that.
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The Fox transcript portion: BEN-VENISTE: Did you tell the president, at any time prior to August 6th, of the existence of Al Qaida cells in the United States? RICE: First, let me just make certain… BEN-VENISTE: If you could just answer that question, because I only have a very limited… RICE: I understand, Commissioner, but it’s important… BEN-VENISTE: Did you tell the president… RICE: … that I also address… (APPLAUSE) It’s also important that, Commissioner, that I address the other issues that you have raised. So I will do it quickly, but if you’ll just give me a moment. BEN-VENISTE: Well, my only question to you is whether you… RICE: I understand, Commissioner, but I will… BEN-VENISTE: … told the president. RICE: If you’ll just give me a moment, I will address fully the questions that you’ve asked. First of all, yes, the August 6th PDB was in response to questions of the president — and that since he asked that this be done. It was not a particular threat report. And there was historical information in there about various aspects of Al Qaida’s operations. Dick Clarke had told me, I think in a memorandum — I remember it as being only a line or two — that there were Al Qaida cells in the United States. Now, the question is, what did we need to do about that? And I also understood that that was what the FBI was doing, that the FBI was pursuing these Al Qaida cells. I believe in the August 6th memorandum it says that there were 70 full field investigations under way of these cells. And so there was no recommendation that we do something about this; the FBI was pursuing it. I really don’t remember, Commissioner, whether I discussed this with the president. BEN-VENISTE: Thank you. |
The edited taped testimony: BEN-VENISTE: Did you tell the president, at any time prior to August 6th, of the existence of Al Qaida cells in the United States? RICE: First, let me just make certain… BEN-VENISTE: If you could just answer that question, because I only have a very limited… RICE: I understand, Commissioner, but it’s important… BEN-VENISTE: Did you tell the president… RICE: … that I also address… (APPLAUSE) It’s also important that, Commissioner, that I address the other issues that you have raised. So I will do it quickly, but if you’ll just give me a moment. BEN-VENISTE: Well, my only question to you is whether you… RICE: I understand, Commissioner, but I will… BEN-VENISTE: … told the president. ***** RICE: I really don’t remember, Commissioner, whether I discussed this with the president. [end] |
Another update My complaint to the station yields results – in the lastest broadcast, the local news director Kurt Leavins interrupted the tape in the portion that was edited out, with brief verbal commentary that went something to the effect of “Rice finally gets around to answering the question”. The missing testimony was not reinserted or mentioned, (probably not possible), but the voice interruption is an improvement.
The overall suggestion that Rice was avoiding the question remains intact, though – Leavins being an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, no surprise there. It would have been more reassuring had he chosen to paraphrase the missing segment, instead of editorializing a news item.