The John Batchelor Show

Monday 29 April 2013

Air Date: 
April 29, 2013

 

Photo, above:  Daghestani women.  See:Hour 3, Block C, Anna Nemtsova, Foreign Policy, on Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and Daghestani mothers of disappeared sons, kidnapped by Russian security forces.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 1, Block A:  Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD;  Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re: Taliban promise suicide assaults, 'insider attacks' in this year's spring offensive  The "Khalid bin Waleed spring operation" will include the use "special military tactics," "collective martyrdom operations," and "insider attacks," against Coalition personnel.  Also: Details emerge on suspects in Canadian terror plot  Canadian authorities attempted to deport Raed Jaser in 2004, and Chiheb Esseghaier is said to have visited Iran sometime in the past two years.

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 1, Block B:  Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD;  Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re:  A civilian American cargo plane near Bagram air base in Afghanistan has crashed this morning. No word on casualties, and no definitive word on cause, but the AP reports that the aircraft crashed from a low-altitude soon after it took off, around 3 p.m. Afghanistan time. A Pentagon official told Situation Report that emergency responders are on the scene now assessing the situation and more information will be available soon.

The incident follows a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan over the weekend that killed four Americans. That crash, of an MC-12 surveillance craft, did not appear to be the result of Taliban violence. It killed four airmen, the Pentagon announced: Captain Brandon Cyr of Woodbridge, Virginia; Captain Reid Nishizuka of Kailua, Hawaii; Staff Sergeant Daniel Fannin of Morehead, Kentucky; and Staff Sergeant Richard Dickson of Rancho Cordova, Calif.

NYT: "With bags of cash, the CIA Seeks Influence in Afghanistan." The NYT has a page-oner this morning about the money the CIA has given to Afghan President Hamid Karzai almost monthly over the last 10 years. The lede: "For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan's president -- courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency." One American official, to the NYT: "The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan was the United States." Read the story here.

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 1, Block C: . Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board; Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Lara M Brown, Villanova, in re:

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 1, Block D:    Jess Bravin,  WSJ, in re: the Fifth Amendment comes from 1781.  The Public Safety Exception to Miranda rights: Supreme Court has ruled in favor of this in certain circumstances. Immediate danger to public safety, or trying to help police solve crimes?  Padilla case. Hamdan case.   Is Tsarnaev an "enemy combatant"?  Even if so, he doesn’t lose First Amendment rights or those under the Geneva Convention. Supreme Court: certain provisions of Geneva apply in all cases. Here, prisoner seems to be allowed to challenge the procedure used.

Hour Two

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 2, Block A:  . David M Drucker, Roll Call GOPpers column, and John Fund, National Review Online, in re:  Chairman Bob Goodlatte, former immigration lawyer, drew up a bill, as did ___, hardliner from Texas, whose bill is an e-verify mechanism. "Time to pull up your socks" to the House Gang of Eight. The we'll decide what gets a mark-up. "Market-friendly and agriculture-driven."   Right now, farmers paying illegal immigrants less than would be so if the workers were legal.  Gosnell case is so dangerous because many states have filth and unsafe abortion clinics. NYT said that a Bronx clinic advise women: if you give birth at home, flush the baby down the toilet. Planned Parenthood of Delaware close its Wilmington clinic:" an abortion mill, unsafe, a threat to women's health and safety."  There have been complaints against this clinic for years.  "The reason the complaints were ignored was abortion politics."

THE MEDIA Evading Gosnell, Still   Media coverage of the case is only sporadic.  The press benches are filled now, but this case is a "puzzle" to the press; 41% saw media bias; 17% found it too grisly. 

"Yuk it up media and pols. While America is buried in taxes and a fight for our rights, the permanent political class in DC dresses up and has a prom to make fun of themselves. No need for that, we get the real joke."-- Sarah Palin, writing on Facebook, about the White House Correspondent's Dinner last night.

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 2, Block B:  . David M Drucker, Roll Call GOPpers column, and John Fund, National Review Online, in re:   FAA furloughs: Dems say  it's all the Republicans's fault; GOP says the furloughs were bogus.  Result: a common-sense solution – 360 to 41 vote ("looks like the Gulf of Tonkin vote"). It was so nakedly political. I've never before seen an Administration try to punish the American people in order to secure sort-term political advantage - which in any case flopped. President swore up and down he wouldn't allow an exception here; and then was obliged to. Is this a model of what'll happen to the Affordable Care Act/ Probably no – republicans have no incentive, now that it's here and look problematic. CAC hip away and bruise it, or jus let it implement itself, have the public see how bad it is, and then demand total recission?  Think of this as a giant Rube Goldberg contaption – pull out one safety pin and it'll collapse.

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  Larry Johnson, NoQuarter, in re:  They know who killed   . . .   recruiting, training, funding, and shipping Cyrenaicans sent to Syria. On 11 Sept 2012, they turned their guns on us.  US mil, CIA, Ste, ad C IA contractors – Special Acces Programs were sequestrd from each other. Fvox news has info on  what happened that evening; State rport: on ht jnigh, Clinton deliberately excluded Satate Bureau of Counterterrorism. (FAST, terrorism support team incl State, FBI, intell personnel) from having any involvement.  Hillary Clinton deliberately stonewalled. (And now Kerry is stampy-footy: "I don’t want to spend my next year on the Hill talking about this.").   CIA was recruiting and training foreign fighters (surrogate forces} & shipping them to Syria; and Special Ops were doing the same thing for ops inside Libya; was also involved in multiple weapons programs taking arms from old Gaddafi stocks, sending them to Syria to the jihadists.   Knew six months ahead that Ansar al Sharia was planning the 11 Sept attacks, and the US, Brits, French and Turks all had names.   Info is available that will show that the people involved in that attack were identified – and the Obama Administration refuses to find them .  State has ignored  the advice of professionals (a House report from last week showing that State had been adequately warned, that he security threat was so great that specific actions need to be taken – and were rejected specifically by Hillary Clinton. All cables are reviewed by relevant persons and, in this instance, were seen by top staff and probably the Secretary of State.  the cover-up goes up to and includes the president; four officials at State and CI have retained lawyers; this story will only mushroom.

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: Gross domestic product in world’s second-biggest economy expanded 7.7 percent in the first three months of 2013 from a year earlier, down from 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter and trailing the 8 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Royal Bank of Scotland and JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their estimates for full-year growth to 7.8 percent after the GDP (CNGDPYOY) data were released April 15. That would be the same pace as 2012 which was the weakest in 13 years.

Xi Jinping attacks symptoms of Communist Party ills.   Let's see if he's as enthusiastic in dealing with the fundamental problems.

 China’s Military Says No Plates for Porsches      (Does the word irony exist in the PLA glossary?) Xi needs the support of flag officers who have hundreds of millions in their bank accounts, their homes in Hawaii, so he'll slap their fingers for six months or so.  Massive, complete, brobdingnagian corruption.

Hour Three

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Arab League backs land swaps; Qatari endorses. JPost: "1967 borders & 2002 peace initiative" discussion in Washington. Secy Kerry endeavors to enlist some addtl Arab support, to pressure Palestinians & supply cover to Abbas, if he wants it.  Sheikh Hamid al Thani. Met with Biden and others today. Shootings between tribes; Lebanese drone last week; nations drop out of talks on nukes – every day, the "new vision" is challenged.   Missile fired out of Syria at a Russian plane with 159 passengers – cutthroat jihadis and cutthroat Alawites.  Russians continue to support Assad despite impossible situation. Israel has to prepare for the vacuum on its border: oviallage one day is under one side's control, next day on the other side. Victims keep crossing into Israel for urgent medical treatment.  Biggest question: the chem. weapons in Syria. PM just escaped from his car, which was blown to bits.  Sarin used? Perhaps, in a limited way; no forensic confirmation that sarin was used, certainly esp not in the notorious 19 April attack. 

Faced with mounting pressure, the United Nations finally reversed course.At 12:07 pm, speaking at the daily press briefing, Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman announced: “The Secretary-General rejects Mr. Falk’s comments [which] undermine the credibility and the work of the United Nations.”  Now the story went viral, with global headlines from the Associated Press and Reuters: “U.N. CHIEF SCOLDS ENVOY [Richard Falk] FOR IMPLYING U.S. POLICY SPARKED BOSTON ATTACK.”

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 3, Block B:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  George Gilder points out, "You can’t do bz with someone who routinely asserts that he hates Jews. Hitler was speaking with Hilbert: How's math going at Gottingen now that we've got rid of the Jews?"  "There's no math there now that you've driven the Jews out."  No state relations possible with such a crew. Ergo, who'd so bz with Morsi, who'd invest money there?    When Hamas trains yong children I using AK47s to kill Jews, and suicide bombing and murder are extolled, you vcent; have any enduring agreement, In Iran, the mayor of Teheran criticized Ahmadinejad  Holocuast denial – doesbn;t help us, why are you doing this?" Hatred of Jews is not a cause – it's a symptom of something larger. Morsi represents the diseas of Naziism; he;s not rational, he;s not trustworthy, Egypt is 80 mi people; what  happens nesxt/ Total chaos?  Th people don’t nbecessarily subscribe to this hatred, although we see it against Copts, and even agains the same sect. Once hatred is unleashed it nknows no limit and everybody ultimately pays the prce. Egypt needs to address he economy whre 50% of the population lives on les than $2 aday – and theMuslim Brotherhod says "It's the Jews."

 (J von Neumann)

  • The British Mission blasted Falk’s “antisemitic” remarks, highlighting it was the third time they had to do so.
  • Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird slammed Falk’s “mean-spirited, anti-Semitic rhetoric” and called for him to be kicked out of the UN. “The United Nations should be ashamed even to be associated with such an individual,” he added.
  • The U.S. Congress is circulating a letter, authored by Rep. Mike Kelly (R–PA), calling for Falk to be removed. Condemnatory letters have also been sent to the UN by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ).

Falk’s defenders have now begun to rally, lashing out against UN Watch in angry manifestos. UN Watch crafts the smoking gun,” screams a headline on Mondoweiss, a leading anti-Israel website.   A propaganda news site of the Chinese Communist Party insists Falk did nothing wrong, saying he was condemned because of a “lie” told by “the Zionist 'UN Watch'.

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 3, Block C:  . Anna Nemtsova, Foreign Policy, in re:  "We are 1,000 mothers of sons who have been tortured [by the Russians] or disappeared." Russian practice of kidnapping boys; mothers are traumatized and desperate.  Over 20 ethnic groups; Sufi majority, Salafi minority. Radically different practices, obviously.  Temurlane went to the Salafi mosque; went at 3AM in summer to pray. Parents denied that he did; father later confirmed that in 2012 his son attended the Salafi mosque.  On Kortrova(?) Street, famous mosque.

 MAKHACHKALA, Russia — Zubeidat Tsarnaeva sat down on the soft rug in her bedroom and grabbed my hand. She was shivering slightly under her long, conservative dress. An Islamic ring tone buzzed on her phone. I noticed the sharp, precise line drawn very carefully on her eye contour -- impressive, especially to somebody who has never been good with an eye-pencil. Her skinny face was framed by a tight black hijab. The ring tone went off again on her phone -- no doubt another Western journalist asking for an interview with the "mother of terrorists."

Contrasting emotions ran through Zubeidat like light shadows on a windy and cloudy day. One moment she shouted at a reporter who dared to use the word "Salafi" to describe her sons. The next moment she hugged her guests.  And a few minutes later, she seemed to enjoy praising her sons with a coquettish smile -- especially the older one, Tamerlan, who was clearly was the biggest, most passionate love of her life. The way he hugged her, the way he kissed her, the words of love her son used with his "little mommy," as he called her, were her fond memories.  Did she feel any affection for her husband Anzor? "No, I hated my husband! We drifted away from each other when we lived in America," she said with a smirk. But her sons? They were perfect for her: "gentle, loving, and tender, like girls." She blamed the FBI for setting up her "innocent children."

It was true that she hated America with all her heart. After all, it was the land that took her only sons from her. Did she say she felt sorry for the people in Boston, the injured bodies, ruined lives?  She did not mention it, at least not to the small group of journalists who interviewed her Thursday.

In the past week, the mother of the two young men accused of carrying out last week's bombing at the Boston Marathon has become a globally known figure. But here in Dagestan, being the mother of suspected terrorists hardly makes one unique. "There are over 1,000 of us," Zhanna Ismailova, 45, told me the other day. Last year, Ismailova's sons, Rashid, 27, and Ruslan, 32, were kidnapped, allegedly by Interior Ministry special services, soon after bombs blew up at a checkpoint called Aliaska outside Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, killing 13 people and injuring around 100 others. Zhanna found Ruslan in a prison hundreds of miles away, in Vladikavkaz, where he is still waiting for his trial. But her youngest boy, Rashid, is still missing. "Of course it was the FSB and the [Interior Ministry's] Center Against Extremism who hung all the blame on my son," Zhanna says. Today, Ismailova's once happy and full house feels quiet. But she is ready to feed her sons Dagestan's traditional dumpling dinner any moment should they walk in the door.

According to the regional news site Caucasian Knot, 1,089 people were killed by violence in Dagestan between January 2010 and March 2013. A senior officer from the local branch of the Interior Ministry told me that there are dozens of distinct insurgencies in Dagestan with differing goals and ideologies. Many young religious men yearn for the "forest," the euphemism for the guerrilla lifestyle in the forested hills, romanticizing the war as righteous resistance against the corrupt, unfair, and often violent authorities. Do mothers justify their sons' actions? "Not a single mother of a suspected terrorist would ever admit that her son had done something bad," Serazhudin Datsiyev, human rights activist with the NGO Memorial, says. [more]

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 3, Block D:   Anna Nemtsova, Foreign Policy, continued

Hour Four

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 4, Block A:   John Bolton, AEI, in re:  Obama Put America in a Red-Line Box on Syria      His edict on chemical weapons was an unforced error. Now Iran will watch closely to see what America does.

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 4, Block B:  Bud Weinstein, Bush Institute, SMU, in re: America's highways and bridges are in desperate need of repair. According to the National Transportation Research Group, 33 percent of the nation's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and 26 percent of bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The estimated cost of bringing this infrastructure up to standards exceeds $3 trillion.

At the same time, revenues from the federal gasoline tax - currently 18.4 cents per gallon and the primary federal source of highway funding - have been declining as miles driven have plateaued while cars and light trucks have become more fuel-efficient. Consequently, for the past several years it's been necessary to transfer sizable general revenues into the Federal Highway Trust Fund to keep it functioning. [more]

Monday 29 April 2013 / Hour 4, Block C:  Liz Peek, The Fiscal Times, in re: Republicans are deep into self-criticism.  Stung by November’s losses, GOP elders have released a report pushing the party to escape its “ideological cul-de-sac” and to “learn from successful Republicans on the state level.” They should add, “Don’t blow your advantage in the states.” While the GOP struggles to win national elections, it has grabbed 30 governors’ mansions and state legislatures. Buoyed by helpful redistricting, state candidates have sold Americans on Republican principles of limited government and free-market capitalism. At the same time, deeply red legislatures are now pushing the kinds of social issues that have alienated voters on the national scene. If opposition to abortion and immigration reform can lose national elections, such policies could also threaten GOP  gains at the local level. [more]

Monday  29 April 2013 / Hour 4, Block D:   Sid Perkins, Science, anent austrolapithicus sediba; overall, in re: a large package of new analyses of  an Australopithecus (Au. Sediba) from Africa . This creature was an odd blend of australopithecine and early human features. Very close to base of human family tree, probably the closest known relative yet, but not necessarily a “direct descendant”

..  ..  ..

Music

Hour 1: Spartacus

Hour 2: Game of Thrones; The Good German

Hour 3: Spartacus

Hour 4: Spartacus

 

 

MAKHACHKALA, Russia — Zubeidat Tsarnaeva sat down on the soft rug in her bedroom and grabbed my hand. She was shivering slightly under her long, conservative dress. An Islamic ring tone buzzed on her phone. I noticed the sharp, precise line drawn very carefully on her eye contour -- impressive, especially to somebody who has never been good with an eye-pencil. Her skinny face was framed by a tight black hijab. The ring tone went off again on her phone -- no doubt another Western journalist asking for an interview with the "mother of terrorists."

Contrasting emotions ran through Zubeidat like light shadows on a windy and cloudy day. One moment she shouted at a reporter who dared to use the word "Salafi" to describe her sons. The next moment she hugged her guests.  And a few minutes later, she seemed to enjoy praising her sons with a coquettish smile -- especially the older one, Tamerlan, who was clearly was the biggest, most passionate love of her life. The way he hugged her, the way he kissed her, the words of love her son used with his "little mommy," as he called her, were her fond memories.  Did she feel any affection for her husband Anzor? "No, I hated my husband! We drifted away from each other when we lived in America," she said with a smirk. But her sons? They were perfect for her: "gentle, loving, and tender, like girls." She blamed the FBI for setting up her "innocent children."

It was true that she hated America with all her heart. After all, it was the land that took her only sons from her. Did she say she felt sorry for the people in Boston, the injured bodies, ruined lives?  She did not mention it, at least not to the small group of journalists who interviewed her Thursday.

In the past week, the mother of the two young men accused of carrying out last week's bombing at the Boston Marathon has become a globally known figure. But here in Dagestan, being the mother of suspected terrorists hardly makes one unique. "There are over 1,000 of us," Zhanna Ismailova, 45, told me the other day. Last year, Ismailova's sons, Rashid, 27, and Ruslan, 32, were kidnapped, allegedly by Interior Ministry special services, soon after bombs blew up at a checkpoint called Aliaska outside Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, killing 13 people and injuring around 100 others. Zhanna found Ruslan in a prison hundreds of miles away, in Vladikavkaz, where he is still waiting for his trial. But her youngest boy, Rashid, is still missing. "Of course it was the FSB and the [Interior Ministry's] Center Against Extremism who hung all the blame on my son," Zhanna says. Today, Ismailova's once happy and full house feels quiet. But she is ready to feed her sons Dagestan's traditional dumpling dinner any moment should they walk in the door.

According to the regional news site Caucasian Knot, 1,089 people were killed by violence in Dagestan between January 2010 and March 2013. A senior officer from the local branch of the Interior Ministry told me that there are dozens of distinct insurgencies in Dagestan with differing goals and ideologies. Many young religious men yearn for the "forest," the euphemism for the guerrilla lifestyle in the forested hills, romanticizing the war as righteous resistance against the corrupt, unfair, and often violent authorities. Do mothers justify their sons' actions? "Not a single mother of a suspected terrorist would ever admit that her son had done something bad," Serazhudin Datsiyev, human rights activist with the NGO Memorial, says. [more]

As for Zubeidat, before she converted to what she calls her "new beliefs" four years ago -- in the United States, not Dagestan -- and began wearing the hijab, she lived in a different world. She wore bright colored suits and open-collared shirts. Her hair was made up. She took English courses at a college. "She was always devoted to beauty, professionally. She had a job of a cosmetologist in America," Patimat Suleimanova, the wife of Zubeidat's brother, told me. The family enjoyed their life in Boston. They drove their comfortable Mercedes to shop in malls. 

Shopping was something of a passion for her, one she shared with Tamerlan, who favored pointed crocodile leather shoes. When she moved back to Dagestan last year, escaping a shoplifting charge, her collection of her fashionable clothes, accessories, and jewelry traveled with her. Some velvet and silk designer skirts and shirts were hanging on the laundry dryer in the corner of her bedroom. To Dagestan's conservative Muslim women, Zubeidat still looks a secular Western lady. She wears silver ballet shoes and carries a most probably fake Louis Vuitton purse. "She never forgets that she is a woman," says Kheda Saratova, a human rights defender from Grozny who is representing the family.

To hear Zubeidat tell it, her life has been a series of persecutions by vindictive governments. "Anzor and I have been footballed around Chechnya, Kalmykia; we went everywhere together, as we were young enthusiastic Komsomols [Communist youth]. We even lived in cold Novosibirsk," she says. They were always right. It was the system that was wrong. The Russian state sent bombs and destroyed their family house in Chechnya; Kyrgyzstan did not give her daughters passports so now they cannot come to visit her in Dagestan; and Americans "set up" her sons and even blame her for encouraging terrorism. "I do not know what a terrorist operation is!" she shouted at a recent press conference, waving her hands in a theatrical manner.

But Tsarnaeva rarely cries -- she can turn her emotions on and off as if she had a remote control for her own feelings. Somewhere deeply inside her, the realization that her entire life is ruined is ticking like a slow bomb. A crash is coming. Her cancer-stricken husband, Anzor, feels worse and worse. On Thursday, he said he was going to America to bury their son and "investigate the truth" about the attack on the marathon, but today, Friday, he is in sick, as pale as paper, shaking under a blanket. The couple has decided to escape from journalists and stay with his family in Chechnya for a while. "She most probably has been always hysterical but the loss is a serious trauma that can drive her, like other Dagestan mothers, into serious neuroses," says Yan Goland, a Russian psychiatrist specializing on women's post-traumatic stress.

Even with one of her sons dead and the other severely wounded and facing a possible death sentence, Tsarnaeva denies that the conservative strain of Islam to which she and her sons recently converted had a bad influence on her family. She speaks fondly of a red-bearded Armenian man who came to their house and shared knowledge of what she describes as pure Islam. Misha was "a crystal-clear and intellectual man" who gave her family a positive example, she recalls. (Other members of the family have blamed Misha for "brainwashing" Tamerlan.)

Does she have anybody to guide or protect her now? It's difficult to know whom to trust. She believes that an American lawyer who has been on the phone with her ever day is unreliable -- "What if she lies to us?" - and that the crowds of journalists hunting her around Makhachkala "have their own interests." She admits that her moods constantly go up and down. "There are moments when I am completely out and moments when I take control of myself," she says.

"Yesterday I wanted to die but today I think I should live for my other children who are still alive," Zubeidat told me on the phone late at night after many hours of being questioned by Russian and U.S. officials. She is, after all, still a mother.