MORNING INTELL: Senator Slick Willie and Robot Soldiers

BLOGOSPHERE NEWS:
December 2 2008



THE SCOOP:
* Senator Slick Willie?
* TIME's Tool
* Mumbai's Message
* Pentagon's Robot Soldiers
* Jihad against Civilization

---

A WORLD OF NEWS

1. OBAMA's ELECTION HASN'T ENDED TERRORISM?
   

   File this one under “Deluded Expectations.” During MSNBC’s coverage of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, daytime anchor Alex Witt seemed frustrated that the election of Barack Obama 23 days earlier — and the accompanying “global outpouring of affection, respect, hope” — had not caused an end to terrorist violence.

   
   
   We'd say: file this under the heading, "Some Obama Supporters Aren't Very Well Informed--or Anchored in Reality: MSNBC Anchor Frets: Why Hasn’t Obama’s Election Ended Terrorism?.
   
   From MSNBC's Alex Witt Amazed There Are Still Terrorists Even After Obama Won: "Congratulations, Alex. You're starting to figure out the future you've helped make for us by hyping the clueless and unqualified Obambi all the way into the White House."
   
   
2. WTF?!?: Bill Clinton mentioned for wife's Senate seat. "Senator Slick Willie" does have a certain ring to it.
   
   
   
   
3. Al Franken still isn't funny: Minnesota Recount: Franken’s Sore Loser Strategy. If Franken doesn't get enough votes, it's off to the courts--or even the Senate! Both are funny places.
   
   
4. Al-Qaida: Making some lists and checking them twice...
   "In Washington, analysts in the law enforcement and intelligence communities will be putting together "after incident reports" on Mumbai. So too will terrorists in Islamabad, Kabul and Gaza."
   Mumbai: A Message for America
   
   
5. One item of disagreement with the above story is the following:
   

   If you think about what ten terrorists in Mumbai were able to accomplish with automatic weapons, grenades, and bombs against the Indian special forces and military, you realize that a similar attack against modestly-armed American police with a few special weapons teams would create even greater havoc. Certainly, the military would be mobilized in response, but all of that takes time, especially in our multi-layered federal system with its historic emphasis on local control. In the initial hours of an attack, the terrorists would vastly out-gun the police. The police would hardly be able to contain the situation let alone bring it to denouement.

   
   We're not sure where the author, Abraham H. Miller, lives; but apparently he is unaware of the increasing militarization of America's small-town police forces. Undertaken in the name of "not wanting to be out-gunned by the bad guys", police throughout the country are using assault tactics and weapons to carry out routine duties. It's not only scary, it's a waste of money. Mumbai's message might be many things, but one thing it's not: the transformation of the Mayberry Police Dept. into a special commando unit.
   
   

---

QUICK HITTERS

• Water-Powered Car Video: GenePax Hydro Car Set for 2010: Japanese company GenePax unveils their water-powered car in this short video demonstration. It runs about an hour at 80 kilometers/hour. They hope to be in production by 2010. [video length: 1:21]
  
  
  
• Is there a bigger tool than TIME's Joe Klein? Klein can't believe that reporters are asking PE Obama "inane" questions?
  

  Watching the Obama rollout of his national security team from overseas--I'm in Europe, on my way to Afghanistan--I was struck by the inanity of most of the questions from my colleagues.

  
  For 22 months, the press asked BHO a steady stream of inane, insipid questions. Why would there be a sudden "Change"? Why is it that MSM reporters always ask questions about their total tool-ness after the fact? Memo to Klein: this would have been a real story if you'd written it in August. Now, it's just another eyebrow-chewing MSM piece written to assure readers--and the reporter--that you're "thoughtful".
  
  
• MO's Big Thank You: Michelle’s ring thing.
  MMalken: "If Michelle thinks she should receive a present for contributing to the successful Obama campaign, what gift is she getting him for winning it?"
  Sometimes, when presented with too much information all at once, the human mind shuts down. The above question makes the mind spin at the possibilities.
  
  
• Change to The British System?
  Don Surber: "The British government saves money by forgetting to treat Alzheimer’s patients." Free Health Care
  
  
• During the campaign, the ObamaBunch cut off access to those asking anything but softball questions. Doesn't look like that's going to "Change!" anytime soon. Don't say America wasn't warned: Change... Obama Continues Boycott of FOX News.
  
  

---

Michael Ramirez, IBD:

---

---

SEE ALL, KNOW ALL

1. Sounds like the Terminator to us: Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that 'won't commit war crimes'.
   Just a guess: It'd be hard to try a robot in a court of law.
   
   
2. Britain, the Land of the PC - UK: Muslim Prayer Rooms Should Be Offered in Catholic Schools .
   "Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in every Roman Catholic school, Church leaders have said. The Catholic bishops of England and Wales also want special toilet facilities in schools to be adapted for Islamic cleaning rituals."
   No word if holy water will be used in the footbaths.
   
   
3. Why do you suppose he didn't do a Gay version of the Koran? Gay Bible Set to Publish: Aida and Eve, Christian “Backlash” Needed
   
   
4. More Mumbai: Jihad: The War Against Civilization
   

---

MEATY LINK FUNK GOODNESS

• Idiots of the Week: December 1, 2008
  
  
• Thankful? Four videos that will make anyone swear off getting wrapped up in "World of Warcraft". WoW was the same game that brought the two killers in 2007's Baby Grace murder together.
  
  
• Giants are leading, Steelers, Cowboys tied for second at the moment: POLL: Which NFL Team Will Win Super Bowl XLIII
  
  
• More money down a rathole: On Bailing out an unsalvageable dinosaur industry.
  Either the bailout is about saving companies serious about saving themselves--or it's about saving some cushy jobs both in the front office and on the assembly line.
  
  

by Mondo Frazier
images: dbkp file; hot air

Dangerous World for Obama: Five Places Obama Will Be Tested

The Five Obama Foreign Policy Tests:
Obama's Not Even Sworn In Yet But
Russia, Terrorists, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran
Have Started the Testing of Obama

---

Americans were assured that the world couldn't wait until the election of a President Obama--and it was true. The world didn't wait until Obama officially takes office on January 20 to start testing the former junior senator from Illinois.

Joe Biden called it during the presidential campaign: Within six months, Barack Obama will be tested by countries around the globe if he won. [Joe Biden: Elect Obama and We’ll Have an International Crisis]

The Mainstream press didn't address Biden's comments much--other than feature numerous campaign spokesmen "clarifying" Biden's remarks. Obama's lack of experience or credentials wasn't a topic for polite MSM conversation: it was much more pleasant to write about what "Change" really meant.

Within hours of Barack Obama winning the 2008 election, Russia announced it was putting missiles next to NATO countries. This wasn't the only wake-up call for the new administration. There are other countries and groups seemingly lined up to see what the United States' response will be to global challenges.

We've picked out four of the earliest ones.

---

• Test #1: Russia and Europe
  
  From Obama's First Diplomatic Test:
  
  

  The day after Obama's election, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev publicly threatened to deploy missiles near the borders of two NATO allies to counter the Bush Administration's plans to install antimissile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Russian announcement, rolled out during an elaborate ceremony, was timed to put one of the most contentious issues between Moscow and Washington on Obama's table right away. Obama and his advisers took it as an intentional provocation aimed at testing the President-elect.

  
  
  TIME then makes an amazing statement: "In fact, Obama's biggest challenge lies not in the tone he takes with the Russians but in the substantive policy choices he makes."
  
  What is this? Won't "acting presidential" pacify the Russians? It certainly worked on the American Mainstream Media during the election. It seems a little late in the game for TIME to talk "substantive policy choices" after the election.
  
  Unlike the MSM, Russia will not be swayed by a confident Obama style only. Like their invasion of Afghanistan during Jimmy Carter's term, the Russians will be watching U.S. responses and adjusting their policy accordingly.
  
  
  
• Test #2: Iraq and Afghanistan
  
  Obama ran a relentless campaign against George W. Bush--who wasn't a candidate. But Obama will find that it was Bush's surge policy--in stark contrast to Obama's plan to beat a hasty retreat--that carried the day in Iraq.
  
  From early indications, Obama will roughly follow the Bush agenda for Iraq; no doubt disturbing his anti-war supporters who helped him secure the Democrat nomination. It's been quiet in Iraq the last several months: some want to declare victory.
  
  But the incoming Obama administration may be tested by all parties in Iraq, including the Iraqi government.
  
  Al-Qaida seems detested, dejected and defeated, but they may be lying dormant. They will monitor developments and American policy and look for any openings to test the new president.
  
  Afghanistan is a different matter.
  
  The Afghan central government is corrupt; NATO allies--with the exception of Britain--are not much good once shooting starts; and, the Taliban appears to be getting stronger as the war wears on.
  
  It's promising that during the campaign, Obama did support the war in Afghanistan. So, cutting-and-running is probably not his first option from the opium capital of the world.
  
  Obama has also said that he recognizes the situation in Afghanistan is worsening. What actions will he take in response?
  
  
• Test #3: Biological and Nuclear Terror
  
  From Panel Fears Use of Unconventional Weapon:
  

  An independent commission has concluded that terrorists will most likely carry out an attack with biological, nuclear or other unconventional weapons somewhere in the world in the next five years unless the United States and its allies act urgently to prevent that.
  
  In a report to be released this week, the Congressionally mandated panel found that with countries like Iran and North Korea pursuing nuclear weapons programs, and with the risk of poorly secured biological pathogens growing, unconventional threats are fast outpacing the defenses arrayed to confront them.
  
  “America’s margin of safety is shrinking, not growing,” the bipartisan panel concluded.

  
  
  Pakistan is a particular area for concern, with terrorists with an eye toward causing death and destruction likely to come from that U.S. ally. It's suspected that the Mumbai terrorists came from Pakistan, where they likely trained and prepared.
  
  “Pakistan is an ally, but there is a grave danger it could also be an unwitting source of a terrorist attack on the United States — possibly with weapons of mass destruction,” the report said.
  
  
• Test #4: India and Pakistan
  
  ABC News called Mumbai "Obama's first foreign policy test". From Mumbai: Obama's First Foreign Policy Test:
  

  American officials believe the terrorists may be Pakistani extremists bent on turning the disputed Kashmir region along the border with India into a separate Islamic state.
  ...
  As Obama continues to work with the current administration to prepare for a seamless transition, history shows that foreign policy and national security cannot be put on hold during presidential transitions.

  
  
  Mumbai was seen by some, including Melanie Phillips, as another battle in the worldwide Jihad now being fought.
  
  One wrong move and the world could witness the first nuclear war between the countries on the Indian subcontinent.
  
  
• Test #5: A nuclear armed Iran
  
  Iran is not going to change its headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons--or its reasons for acquiring them--because of pleasant talk, smiles and handshakes. The Islamic Republic respects one thing: power.
  
  What actions will a President Obama take?
  
  Hopefully, they'll be wiser than the policies of ex-president, Jimmy Carter.
  
  From Obama's First Foreign Policy Tests
  
  

  Successive, Democratic and Republican U.S. administrations have appeased the Islamists in Iran, starting with the catastrophic Carter administration, which secretly assisted the Islamist overthrow of the pro-U.S. Shah, a modernizing monarch, in a craven, cynical attempt to curry favor with the Ayatollah Khomeini.
  ...
  China Confidential analysts believe that Iran's Hitlerian maniac-in-chief, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (whom President-elect Obama has offered to meet in face-to-face talks) is determined to announce a major nuclear breakthrough in time for this February's 30th anniversary celebrations of the Islamic Republic.

Five tests for President-elect Obama.

The world will be watching to see how he scores.

Americans hope he gets a passing grade.


by Mondo Frazier
image: dbkp file

MORNING INTELL: Mumbai-Pakistan Link, The Left and Hate, Senator Chris Matthews

BLOGOSPHERE NEWS:
November 29 2008



THE SCOOP:
* Pakistan Behind Mumbai?
* Leaker or Whistleblower?
* Chicago: Where only the criminals have guns
* Swiss likely to approve prescription smack
* Japan, Spain Race to Join Dead Civilizations
* Senator Chris Matthews?
* Republicans Lose; We Don't have to Drink Dirty Water Anymore
* AP Doesn't Want Military Fauxtography Competition

---

A WORLD OF NEWS

1. Was the attacks on Mumbai the work of the Pakistanis? Looking more likely, it seems. India, Pakistan simmer over Mumbai attacks
   

   Indian accusations of a Pakistani link to the attacks on Mumbai that killed nearly 200 people threaten to damage attempts to improve ties between the rivals.
   
   Indian officials have said most, perhaps all, of the 10 attackers who held Mumbai hostage with frenzied attacks using assault rifles and grenades came from Pakistan, a Muslim nation carved out of Hindu-majority India in 1947.
   
   An official in Islamabad said the next one to two days would be crucial for relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Pakistan has condemned the assaults and denied any involvement by state agencies.

   
   
2. American "allies" debate how best to squeeze blood money from a financially-stricken turnip: OPEC defers new oil supply cut as divisions emerge
   
   

   OPEC on Saturday deferred a decision on a new oil supply cut amid signs that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are demanding tighter adherence to restraints put in place over the past two months.
   
   Gulf producers want to see strict compliance with recent output curbs of 2 million barrels a day before considering further reductions when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Algeria on Dec. 17.

   
   Diplomats from throughout the oil-consuming world are also debating--about the best way to say, "Kiss my ass".
   
   
3. Chicago, the Kingdom by Lake Michigan: homicides are up 41% since the gun ban was passed, but who's counting? Chicago Defies the Second Amendment
   
   

   When it comes to firearms, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is no slave to rationality. "Does this lead to everyone having a gun in our society?" he demanded after the ruling came down. "Then why don't we do away with the court system and go back to the Old West, where you have a gun and I have a gun and we'll settle it in the streets?"
   
   From listening to him, you might assume that the only places in North America that don't have firefights on a daily basis are cities that outlaw handguns. You might also assume that Chicago is an oasis of concord, rather than the site of 443 homicides last year.

   
   
   
4. It's comforting to know that when the Right half of the blogosphere publishes information damaging to the Obama administration that's leaked, the NY Times will stand up and applaud. Right? Right? Leaks: A Different Story in Great Britain
   

   We have complained for years about the fact that leakers in the CIA, the State Department and elsewhere in the federal bureaucracy have carried on a war against the Bush administration since the President's first term, a war they largely have won. Politically-motivated Democrats in the bureaucracies leak to politically-motivated Democrats at newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post, who run "exposes" of the Bush administration based, frequently, on selective use of classified documents. Instead of being prosecuted, the leakers have never been identified and the reporters have won awards.
   
   That infuriating situation is a striking contrast with what is happening in Great Britain, where one of the most prominent members of the Conservative opposition, shadow immigration minister Damian Green, has been arrested for receiving leaked information from a government official:

   
   
   
5. THE OBAMA TOUCH: Is Barack Obama: The Wile E. Coyote of Diplomacy? Obama is only the president-elect--as we're reminded on a hourly basis--but he's already mishandled relations with both Pakistan and India since his election. With accomplishments like that, the sky's the limit once January 20 gets here.

---

QUICK HITTERS

• Wonder if its part of the socialized health care plan? Swiss likely to approve prescription heroin. Wonder how difficult it is to make chocolate and watches with a prescription monkey on your back?
  
  
• What's a Libertarian to do? Does the Libertarian party still matter?
  
  "Traditionally opposed to government interventionism, libertarians are at a loss about how to respond to the economic crisis"
  
  
• NYC Mayor Rudy knew. Dutch Experiments vindicate the "Broken Windows Theory" of how disorder and crime spreads: Is Crime Contagious?
  
  
• LOVE TO HATE: The Left is obsessed with hate. Here's a leftie blog hate two-fer: Lou Dobbs doesn't want to deal with his own culpability for hate crimes and I Hate Wal-Mart
  
  
• NO HATE HERE: Meanwhile, an Obama supporter goes on an annoyed (hate seems over-used) rampage against a Doubter-of-Hope-and-change. Hope like a butterfuly, sting like a bee: I'll kill you! Spat Over Obama Sparks Beating in Florida. The color of change in Florida is black-and-blue.
  
  
• The AP apparently satisfied the U.S. military isn't muscling in on its fauxtog territory: AP lifts ban on military photos. How many fauxtography scandals has the AP been involved in? Check out Fauxtography on Parade

---

Tired of bloody revolutions and capitalistic monopolies? Mark Fiore has the answer with the economic clapper. It makes switching from one ideology to the other quick and painless with just the sound of the infamous clapper. This is exactly the radical new technology that will help improve the productivity and spped to action of our dead beat Congressional leadership.
--[for the complete animated version of the image above, see: Clap Capitalism On and Off With The Clapper]

---

SEE ALL, KNOW ALL

1. Chris Matthews Staffing Up for Probable Senate Run in 2010. The news reportedly sent a thrill, chill and spill running down the legs of Arlen Specter (R-PA).
   
   
2. History lesson for those too young to remember the breathtaking days of cattle futures, Pardongate, impeachment and Travelgate: Hillary Clinton, pseudo-centrist .
   
   
3. The Quote of the day answers the question, "How do you want to be remembered, Mr. President?"
   
   
4. The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and Man Made Climate Change: Efforts to support global climate-change falls: Poll.
   

   Less than half of those surveyed, or 47 per cent, said they were prepared to make personal lifestyle changes to reduce carbon emissions, down from 58 per cent last year.
   
   Only 37 per cent said they were willing to spend "extra time" on the effort, an eight-point drop.
   
   And only one in five respondents - or 20 per cent - said they'd spend extra money to reduce climate change. That's down from 28 per cent a year ago.

   
   Al Gore's so pissed, he's buying stock in Consolidated Coal.
   
   
5. Did we make any money this week? I don't know, I'll ask Washington.
   From Market Economy to Political Economy
   

   Even more egregious will be the directives to a nationalized Detroit. Sen. Charles Schumer, the noted automotive engineer, declared "unacceptable" last week "a business model based on gas." Instead, "We need a business model based on cars of the future, and we already know what that future is: the plug-in hybrid electric car."
   
   The Chevy Volt, for example? It has huge remaining technological hurdles, gets 40 miles on a charge and will sell for about $40,000, necessitating a $7,500 outright government subsidy. Who but the rich and politically correct will choose that over a $12,000 gas-powered Hyundai? The new Detroit churning out Schumer-mobiles will make the steel mills of the Soviet Union look the model of efficiency.

   
   The economy according to Marx, Bush, Stalin, Obama and Lenin.

---

MEATY LINK FUNK GOODNESS

• Lori Drew, the Mad Max Mom Run Amok, was convicted by an LA jury of violating the terms of service of MySpace when she participated in creating a fake cyberspace boy. Her manipulation of the cyber-guy pushed 13-year-old Megan Meier over the edge to suicide and produced a national outcry once the story was publicized. Should the Lori Drew Cyberbullying Decision Be Overturned?
  

  Young Megan Meier hung herself after she was spurned by her MySpace boyfriend. The boyfriend never existed. He was a creation of the mother of one of Megan’s classmates. The mother, Lori Drew, was found guilty Tuesday of creating a fake persona.
  ...
  According to CNN, Lori Drew was convicted of three misdemeanor counts in the case of 13-year-old Megan Meier’s suicide that came as a result of her being criticized on the Web site MySpace.com.

  
  In old Western movies, the villain would be brought to the gallows and someone in the crowd would inevitably yell, "Hangin's too good for 'em!"
  
  We'll just say, "30 days in the electric chair" and leave it at that.
  
  
• Another Hillary brick in the Obama wall: Obama Picks Pro-Hillary Communications Director
  
  
• BORED, FIREARMS-INCOMPETENT ATHLETE ALERT: Maybe he didn't like the music? Plaxico Burress Shoots Himself in the Leg' Update: Shocker! Shooting Took Place at a Nightclub . At least he's not playing for the Steelers anymore.
  
  
• Abortion Now Number One Cause Of Death In Spain: Remember when the MSM was predicting in the 1980s that the USA would soon be swallowed whole by Japan, Inc.? Mark Steyn's Lights out relates how Japan and Spain are following the Path of the Dead (Civilizations). At least the dying nations share a chapter of history: Incans, Aztecs, Japanese, Spanish.
  
  
• The Left celebrates: We don't have to drink dirty water anymore! EPA, Interior Dept. Chiefs Will Be Busy Erasing Bush's Mark and Science, common sense returning to Washington. Now, mothers won't have to be worried about non-aborted babies having their grown stunted by the environmental nightmare that was America 2000-2008.

by Mondo Frazier
images: dbkp file

UPDATE: Judge Rules Kidnapped Christian Girls Stay Kidnapped

UPDATE to: "Christians Under Sharia Law: Forced Conversions, Beatings, Rape"

An update on kidnapped 13- and 10-year old Pakistani Christian girls. A Muslim judge declared that they have converted to Islam and cannot see their family again.

The Judge never saw them.

Update about the adolescent girls who were kidnapped and forced into conversion. Seems they did so "voluntarily." "Kidnapped Christian girls, judge ratifies marriage and conversion," by Qaiser Felix, for Asian News, July 16:

The district of Muzaffargarh rules in favour of the Muslims, rejecting the request from the family that wants to bring home the two sisters - 13 and 10 years old - kidnapped last June 26. Christian associations charge that they could end up as prostitutes.
Jihad Watch: Muslim "judge" rules kidnapped Christian girls "converted to Islam and cannot return home"

What's CAIR's stand on this?

by pat
iamge: asian news

Explosion of Forced Marriages in the U.K. a Big Problem

"Miss Rawlins, I Need Help"



In 1999 the British Labour Party, in one of those boneheaded acts that the left excels at, made a seemingly minor adjustment to it's immigration policy that doomed many thousands of young girls to death, beatings, and a nightmare life. In January 2000 The Independent reported that thousands of young U.K. Muslim girls were being forced into marriages to foreigners, primarily Pakistanis. Many of these girls were third generation Brits, with only a rudimentary understanding of their new language. The groom was often a cousin, a visa seeker--or something worse. And it is not only her life that is affected. A great number of the reported kidnappings involve U.K. fiances or boyfriends.

Huge Rise In Forced Marriages

"The biggest rise came after the new Labour government, in one of its first measures last year, simplified the procedures for a British person wanting to bring their spouse to settle in Britain. They abandoned the hated "Primary Purpose Rule," which made consular staff rule on whether the main purpose of the marriage was to gain entry into the UK before issuing a visa.

In February last year, before the rules were changed, the High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, issued 255 visas to spouses. This year it issued 1,132, nearly five times as many.

Critics say the result is a flourishing trade in forced marriages, with British-born and educated women spirited abroad to lives of misery married to men they have never met. Often, they are virtual prisoners in remote villages.

Those that return to Britain while their new spouses apply for visas - which take about two months to process - often beg the Foreign Office to reject their husband's application.

'We've received 440 such letters in the past year,' said a member of the High Commission in Islamabad. 'More arrive each day. But there's nothing we can do unless the woman is prepared to go public.'"

Some girls, as young as three, are forced
into marriage in some countries, such as Afghanistan.

The U.K. Muslim community and politicians ensured that not only would the immigration policy not be changed, but anyone who challenged it would be labeled a racist, in a fine display of Muslim Grievance Syndrome.

'Jahangir Mohammed, deputy leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, said: 'There are problems in a tiny minority of marriages and perhaps they are increasing, but to force anyone into a marriage is totally un-Islamic.

'These are difficult times for the Muslim community. We see problems with crime and drugs for the first time, but we believe these are linked to unemployment brought on by racism against Muslims.

'The unemployment rate among Muslim graduates is 60 per cent. That is a much bigger problem to be dealt with.' "

Despite the joy of an Islamic community in Britain that cowed the government into inaction to protect these girls, the problem has only worsened for the women involved.



By 2005, law enforcement authorities in the U.K. received more than 5,000 complaints of which 300 were investigated. Interestingly enough, some of those calling for help--not likely to be forthcoming--were males. It seem Muslim males are no more happy to marry an unknown cousin from a rural Pakistani village; they find the proposition no more palatable than marrying their sister.

But, a male is unlikely to suffer the incredible physical beatings common to females after marriage, as well as the inevitable rape. He only gets beaten up before the marriage, which is sometimes performed at gun point.

"Britain’s Forced Marriage Unit, established in 2005, receives around 5,000 calls and deals with about 300 cases each year—figures that officials fear are just the tip of a very large iceberg."

"The cases typically involve women aged 15-24, forced under extreme physical and emotional duress to marry relatives in a culture and country they were not brought up in, with the threat of being thrown out of the family—or worse—if they do not cooperate.

But what about the plight of young men similarly forced into marriage?

Men account for just 15 percent of the FMU’s cases. Around 30 percent involve minors, including boys, some as young as 10 y

ears old."

And that is where Helen Rawlins steps in.

A diplomat's struggle against forced marriage

Rawlins travels with an armed guard. Dressed in a diplomat's suit, she awaits calls for help. She then, in a two vehicle caravan, travels through all of Pakistan, attempting to rescue child brides, grooms and women with British passports who are being forced into marriage.

The British government views forced marriages, often performed after beatings or threats of violence, as a human rights abuse--far different from arranged marriages to which the bride and groom consent.

It is Rawlins's job to stop them. In an age of increasingly fluid migration, and aided by instant communication, the British diplomat works 3,700 miles from London to help women from her own country."

An actual case:

A 17-year-old girl, born and raised in Scotland, had taken shelter in the British High Commission, as the embassy is known in this former colony.

Rawlins listened as the British official explained the details. The girl said she hadn't realized that her parents had brought her to Pakistan to marry. She wanted to choose her own life. She has a boyfriend back home in Britain.

Her mother, furious and wailing, had followed her. She was demanding to see her daughter. But the girl was refusing to talk to her, terrified her family might kill her. They had already taken her passport.

"We have to get her out of the country quickly," David, the security agent said.

The girl's boyfriend in London, desperate to stop the marriage, arranged to have friends drive her to the embassy after she sneaked out of her family's home. In retaliation, the family filed kidnapping charges with the Pakistani police, who threw the boyfriend's Pakistani father and brother in jail, a blunt tactic to force the girl to comply.

The 17-year-old Scottish girl who had taken refuge in the British Embassy was on her way to the shelter.

Her boyfriend in London -- whom she met by chance at a restaurant counter -- had already wired money for a flight. She was booked to leave for London at 4:40 a.m., in just a few hours.

Working his cellphone, David smoothed things over with the Pakistani police, arranging for release of the boyfriend's father and brother. He would personally go to the airport, despite the hour, to ensure that the girl walked safely onto the plane.

The United Kingdom is a country so terrified of it's Muslim populace that it cannot voice criticism of any thing Islamic. Indeed, such criticism is largely against the law. Yet, in the midst of all this self-abasement, a few brave souls fight back.

Realists in a country of make-believe: Ms Rawlins is one of those people.

Well-spoken, armed and dangerous, when she hears the call for help she acts instantly. Often juggling more than one case at a time, Helen Rawlins sports an incredibly high success rate.

A toast is in order.

What she wanted

A non-wedding toast, if you may.

by pat
images:
* scotland
* msnbc
Sources:
* http://www.wluml.org/english/pubsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[87]=i-87-2732
* http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/nov/07/yehey/opinion/20071107opi7.html
* http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25311065/
* http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/21/AR2008062101782.html

Someone Call CSI!

The Bhutto Assassination

Part 2 of DBKP's Prestigious Series

"Foreign Policy Views You Might Not Have Seen Elsewhere"

[NOTE: Author Marcus Wilder gave DBKP his thoughts on the Bhutto Assassination this weekend. That worked so well, we asked blogger, Blanca DeBree, to provide us with her analysis of the Bhutto Assassination and Pakistan in general.

Marcus had traveled and lived in Pakistan; Blanca has traveled and lived, also.

We're hoping Blanca contributes on a regular basis, so check out Blanca DeBree and say nice things and maybe she'll come back.

We're hoping.]

Someone Call CSI!

Don't they have CSI in Pakistan? It turns out that Bhutto didn't die from a bump to the noggin after all. It seems she was killed by some sort of projectile known as a bullet.

What kind of half-assed coroners do they have working in that God-forsaken hole they call a country? I mean any idiot watching a couple of episodes of CSI would know she was killed by a bullet.

Even I figured that out, not that I am dumb or anything. I think of myself as a pretty sciency gal. I mean I debunked Global Warming, Evolution, and Gravity all while sitting on the toilet.

I guess the real change of heart came after some video showed up actually showing the assassination. Damn that physical evidence! The smoking gun this time turned out to really be a smoking gun.

Who figured?

It was evidence so incontrovertible that even the Walrus couldn't deny it. But he still did. My God, no wonder Bush loves that mustachioed Paki. He lives in a bigger bubble than Commander Guy!

Which is which? You decide

But that's what makes me love the Decider: his steadfastness.

No matter what happens, he never shakes his beliefs. No matter how much evidence piles up against it, he continues to hold on to the same tenants. No matter how many people keep getting killed based on out-dated ideas, he just clings on, like a dog humping your leg.

So we will just have to wait and see how this plays out. Elections have been postponed. Martial Law could be right around the corner. This is going to be very interesting. Just think of it as a dry run for this country.

by Blanca DeBree
[images: blancadebree; moderatevoice; dkimages]
Source: Blanca DaBree Blog, Welcome to Blancasphere

Other articles you might enjoy from the Blancasphere include (but are not limited to): * Global Warming Snowball Swarming Secrets of Global Warming--Solved! * New Year's Resolutions Blanca resolves... * Billy's First Column The latest thing driving Liberals crazy is... On the Mondo-Meter

Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Bhutto's Assassination: Stripping Away the Romance

Bhutto was a politician, Not a modern-day Washington

Marcus Wilder, author of Naive and Abroad: Pakistan,
comments on Ralph Peters' view of Bhutto's assassination.

Ralph Peters wrote an op-ed piece in the NY Post a couple days ago about Benazir Bhutto's dark side: the side that commentators with the Jimmy Carteresque foreign policy touch either don't mention or ignored.

The assassination of the Pakistani politician was tragic, as any terrorist-caused death is, but she was not the reincarnation of George Washington as some made her out to be.

When author Marcus Wilder, who traveled and lived in Pakistan extensively, sent us the Peters piece, he wrote, "I will forward a Benazir article a Mexico City friend sent this evening."

He wondered if we'd seen it and what we thought about it.

Since we'd made a few of the same observations that Peters makes in his article, we wondered what Marcus thought. After all, he had lived and traveled in Pakistan during much of Bhutto's turbulent political career as prime minister.

He wrote us with several comments and it's interesting to see where he and Peters agree and where they differ on Benazir Bhutto--the woman Peters sees as providing Pakistan a much greater service dead than she did while alive.

FOR the next several days, you're going to read and hear a great deal of pious nonsense in the wake of the assassination of Pakistan's former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. Her country's better off without her. She may serve Pakistan better after her death than she did in life.

We need have no sympathy with her Islamist assassin and the extremists behind him to recognize that Bhutto was corrupt, divisive, dishonest and utterly devoid of genuine concern for her country. She was a splendid con, persuading otherwise cynical Western politicians and "hardheaded" journalists that she was not only a brave woman crusading in the Islamic wilderness, but also a thoroughbred democrat.

In fact, Bhutto was a frivolously wealthy feudal landlord amid bleak poverty. The scion of a thieving political dynasty, she was always more concerned with power than with the wellbeing of the average Pakistani. Her program remained one of old-school patronage, not increased productivity or social decency.

When asked about this assessment of Bhutto, Wilder somewhat differed with Peters. "Benzair was not loved, she represented hope for the future. Though deeply flawed, she was the best hope they had."

According to Wikipedia:

Bhutto was sworn in for the first time in 1988 at the age of 35, but was removed from office 20 months later under the order of then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on grounds of alleged corruption. In 1993 Bhutto was re-elected but was again removed in 1996 on similar charges, this time by President Farooq Leghari. Bhutto went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998.

As Peters reminds us:

Educated in expensive Western schools, she permitted Pakistan's feeble education system to rot - opening the door to Islamists and their religious schools. During her years as prime minister, Pakistan went backward, not forward.

Her husband looted shamelessly and ended up fleeing the country, pursued by the courts. The Islamist threat -which she artfully played both ways - spread like cancer. But she always knew how to work Westerners - unlike the hapless Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who sought the best for his tormented country but never knew how to package himself.

Ralph Peters is no misty-eyed idealist, holding up democracy as a value which trumps all others. As the War in Iraq has demonstrated, poor and rich alike value stability.

Military regimes are never appealing to Western sensibilities. Yet, there are desperate hours when they provide the only, slim hope for a country nearing collapse. Democracy is certainly preferable - but, unfortunately, it's not always immediately possible. Like spoiled children, we have to have it now - and damn the consequences.

In Pakistan, the military has its own forms of graft; nonetheless, it remains the least corrupt institution in the country and the only force holding an unnatural state together. In Pakistan back in the '90s, the only people I met who cared a whit about the common man were military officers.

Americans don't like to hear that. But it's the truth.

Benazir Bhutto may have draped the flag of democracy over her, but as she demonstrated in her first two terms as prime minister, power and money were prime considerations.

Bhutto embodied the flaws in Pakistan's political system, not its potential salvation. Both she and her principal rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, failed to offer a practical vision for the future - their political feuds were simply about who would divvy up the spoils.

What did Marcus Wilder think about the army in Pakistan? How did people see the army and President Musharraf?

"There are, it seems to me, three forces active in Pakistan. Since we
have no numbers, let's arbitrarily say each consists of one third of
the population."

"The pro-Western Benazi Bhutto third wants from government about what
you and I want from government. A member of this third wants a middle
class life, a sound education for his children, a better life for his
children, rule of law. He marries one wife."

The second third wants a non-democratic authoritarian government. This
third consists of the army, the landowners, and socially conservative
groups. These are not fundamentalist radicals, these are
anti-democratic authoritarians.

The weak spot in this group is the army. Lower and mid-level officers
are increasingly fundamentalist. As they rise through the ranks, and
as pro-Western higher ranking officers retire, the army will side more
with the fundamentalists.

The fundamentalists, especially strong in tribal areas, want to return
Pakistan to a 7th century form of Islam."

Back to Peters.

From its founding, Pakistan has been plagued by cults of personality, by personal, feudal loyalties that stymied the development of healthy government institutions (provoking coups by a disgusted military). When she held the reins of government, Bhutto did nothing to steer in a new direction - she merely sought to enhance her personal power.

Did Wilder have any close encounters with Bhutto?

"In November of 1988, Benazir was contesting the election. Her rally in Peshawar attracted perhaps 7,000. Benazir was late, but the crowd was good-natured. I did not stay for the rally because I felt if there was to be violence while I was in Peshawar, it would be an attack on Benazir's rally.

I was twenty years ahead of the tragedy."

We asked Marcus to comment on the following passage from the Peters' piece.

Nothing's going to make Pakistan's political crisis disappear - this crisis may be permanent, subject only to intermittent amelioration. (Our State Department's policy toward Islamabad amounts to a pocket full of platitudes, nostalgia for the 20th century and a liberal version of the white man's burden mindset.)

"I mention in my book a Pakistani op-ed page writer who said British policy was opium for China and democracy for India. China, he said, has recovered, but India has not. Under the British, what is now Pakistan was part of India."

Now she's dead. And she may finally render her country a genuine service (if cynical party hacks don't try to blame Musharraf for their own benefit). After the inevitable rioting subsides and the spectacular conspiracy theories cool a bit, her murder may galvanize Pakistanis against the Islamist extremists who've never gained great support among voters, but who nonetheless threaten the state's ability to govern.

As a victim of fanaticism, Bhutto may shine as a rallying symbol with a far purer light than she cast while alive. The bitter joke is that, while she was never serious about freedom, women's rights and fighting terrorism, the terrorists took her rhetoric seriously - and killed her for her words, not her actions.

The one slim hope is that this savage murder will - in the long term - clarify their lot for Pakistan's citizens. The old ways, the old personalities and old parties have failed them catastrophically. The country needs new leaders - who don't think an election victory entitles them to grab what little remains of the national patrimony.

In killing Bhutto, the Islamists over-reached (possibly aided by rogue elements in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, one of the murkiest outfits on this earth). Just as al Qaeda in Iraq overplayed its hand and alienated that country's Sunni Arabs, this assassination may disillusion Pakistanis who lent half an ear to Islamist rhetoric.

A creature of insatiable ambition, Bhutto will now become a martyr. In death, she may pay back some of the enormous debt she owes her country.

And Marcus Wilder's final thoughts?

"Our influence on outcomes [in Pakistan] is effectively zero."

Peters and Wilder: both are men familiar with Pakistan.

Both offer a sobering counterpoint to the many voices calling for the U.S. to dump Musharraf and turn the fate of the country over to the same chaotic forces that assassinated Benazir Bhutto.

[Ralph Peters (b. 1952) is a retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel, novelist and essayist.]

by Mondoreb
Sources:
* The Bhutto Assassination: Not What She Seemed to Be
* Ralph Peters - Wikipedia
* Benazir Bhutto - Wikipedia
* Naive and Abroad: Pakistan
* Interview with Marcus Wilder: "Not Only 72 Virgins, But 'Boys Like Pearls'"
* To buy Naive and Abroad: Pakistan, Travel in a Land of Mullahs








Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Pakistan: Tiger, Tiger

Michael Ramirez at IBD

Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Musharraf Condemns Terrorists for Bhutto's Death: Pakistan Planes & Trains on Hold

More violence from Pakistan in the aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. According to the The International News, PIA has cancelled all flights and railway officials have suspended the trains.

After Benazir Bhutto was killed in bomb explosion and firing in Rawalpindi, various, this, incidents of violence were seen in Karachi while shops, markets and petrol pumps were closed.

The protesters set a four-storey building on fire in Boat Basin, Clifton whereas a 30-year-old person, Abdul Qadir died in firing in Nazimabad-Orangabad.

Another person, named Ghulam Akbar was killed in firing by unknown persons in Hussain D’silva Town, Shara-e-Noorjehan.

A 32-year-old pedestrian was shot dead by unknown persons in the area of Baghdadi while more than 18 persons were injured in various areas.

Protesters came out in streets and burnt tyres to block roads in various areas including Lyari, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad, Patel Para, Quaidabad, Gizri, Punjab Chowrangi, Shirin Jinnah Colony, Boat Basin, Memon Goth, Gadap Town, Bin Qasim Town, Bakrapiri, Jehangir Road, Mehmoodabad, Dalmia, Pehlwan Goth, Surjani Town, MA Jinnah Road, Lea Market, Malir Halt, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, National Highway, Sohrab Goth and Abul Hasan Isphahani Road.

Over hundred vehicles were burnt in various areas whereas 16 banks were set on fire. These included five in Ghas Mandi, three each in Gul Bahar and Malir, two each in Gulshan-e-Hadeed and SITE and one in Korangi.

Thirteen petrol pumps were set on fire in various areas and the protesters attacked police stations in Zaman Town, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Memon Goth and burnt the office of the DSP-Sukhan.

President Musharraf made a statement to the people of Pakistan:

Speaking on state media after a suicide attacker killed the country's charismatic opposition leader in Rawalpindi, Musharraf said "this brutality is the handiwork of those terrorists against whom we are fighting."

"This is a big tragedy for the nation, which cannot be explained in words," he said. "I am deeply grieved and condemn it strongly."

"I have always been saying that the Pakistani nation faces the biggest threat from these terrorists," said Musharraf, who announced three days of national mourning.

"Today on this tragic incident, I express a resolve, and I also want the nation to get united and to cooperate, that we will not sit idle unless the terrorists are eliminated," he said.

Musharraf also prayed "may Allah Almighty protect us all and the country."

"On this occasion, I would appeal to the nation to remain peaceful and demonstrate patience and tolerance," he said.

By LGB
Source - The International News
Image [Images.google.com]

More on the Benezir Bhutto Assassinatin and Pakistan in general at Noblesse Oblige.

Back to Front Page.

Is Pakistan the Next Iran: Repeating History's Mistakes

Benazir Bhutto was released from house arrest, but it will likely do nothing to quiet the voices shouting for the Musharraf government to pack up and leave.

Bhutto was briefly placed under house arrest and the stories of outrage from Internet pundits were legion. It remains to be seen if as many stories are written about the release. Using the short quarantine as another opportunity to bash the Musharraf's government, many commentators leaped at the chance.

More on another opportunity from CNN:

A house arrest order for Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been lifted, police sources told CNN Friday, bringing to an end a day-long standoff between the former Pakistani prime minister and security forces.

Hundreds of police who had lined up outside her home Friday left after the order was withdrawn. A smaller number of police who had previously been outside her home providing security remained.

The lifting of the order came as Pakistan suffered its first deadly blast since a declaration of emergency by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

The attack, possibly a suicide bomb, at the house of Amir Muqam, Minister for Political Affairs in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan killed four people Friday, police told CNN. The minister escaped unharmed.

Earlier Friday Washington had called for restrictions on Bhutto to be lifted. Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said: "Former Prime Minister Bhutto and other political party members must be permitted freedom of movement and all protesters released. It is crucial for Pakistan's future that moderate political forces work together to bring Pakistan back on the path to democracy."

Amid the many curses heaped upon the head of President Musharraf during the state of emergency, one tries to remember where this story has been seen before.

A Middle Eastern country is ruled by a autocratic figure, but has many democratic features and the people enjoy many freedoms. Unrest occurs and the ruler cracks down to maintain order. Forces purporting to work for democracy link hands with those working to instill an Islamic state. U.S. media and government types advise that the leader "must be moderate".

The leader then, caught between increasing public disorder and U.S. calls to be a force for democracy while restraining undemocratic elements, loses control and leaves. The democratic forces working for his ouster then quickly lose control to their one-time comrades, the Islamist faction.

Pakistan in 2007 is not the United States. Neither was Iran in 1979.

by Mondoreb
[image:CNN]

Interview UPDATE: Marcus Wilder

Our sit-down with author Marcus Wilder must have attracted some attention. The Wilder interview was a Q and A session with author about his travels and wanderings in Pakistan, the people and the riveting things he observed.

Apparently, some of DBKP's readers had their interest piqued. Naive and Abroad: Pakistan, Travel in a Land of Mullahs moved up almost 90,000 notches at Amazon, where the book can be obtained.

After some of the eye-openers Marcus disclosed here this past weekend, we're not surprised. Read the interview, get the book. That's our take in the nutshell.

by Mondoreb



Back to Front Page.

India Eyes Nuclear Pakistan's Unrest: Nukes May Fall into Terrorists' Hands

Pakistan's nukes in the hands of terrorists has India--and other countries--uneasy.

Pakistanis aren't the only ones worried about the turmoil created by the state of emergency in the country. Amid rumors that the state of emergency may have been a move against President Musharaf, others are keeping a nervous eye on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

India is closely watching events unfold--as well as al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

What could turn into an opportunity for terrorists could prove to be a nightmare for India or the United States. In short, any country worried about nuclear weapons in the hands of a small group with scores to settle.

More on this from the India Express:

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is teetering on the verge of chaos after the imposition of emergency and US officials fear that the result could be every American's nightmare -- nuclear material or know-how, or even a nuclear bomb, falling into the hands of terrorists.

"If you were to look around the world for where al-Qaeda is going to find its bomb, it's right in their backyard," Bruce Riedel, the former senior director for South Asia on the National Security Council, was quoted as saying by Newsweek.

Pakistan is caught between trying to keep order while at the same time presenting a face of democracy to the rest of the world. The United States has been putting pressure on Musharraf to increase rights, step down and restore democracy in the wake of Saturday's declaration of a state of emergency.

India and Pakistan have fought a string of wars since both received their independence from Britain in the late 1940s. Both India and Pakistan acquired nuclear weapons in the last 20 years--at least once it appeared they both might use them, before tensions cooled.

So India will continue to keep a close eye on her neighbor to the west.

At least, until things quiet down.

by Mondoreb
& Little Baby Ginn
[image:awakenedwarrior]



Back to Front Page.

Same Question Today as Saturday: Is the Pakistan State Of Emergency a Coup?

We asked the question Saturday. We ask it again on Monday: Is the State of Emergency in Pakistan a coup?

Forbes has now reported what Death By 1000 Papercuts put up on Saturday (Pakistan's State of Emergency: Is This a Coup?) No one listened--except Reuters, who yesterday posted our BNN article as related content yesterday, where it was still up this morning.

Forbes asked as we did on Saturday and was answered by a Pakistani statement:

Pakistan's government on Monday denied rumours sweeping the country that the deputy army chief had placed military ruler President Pervez Musharraf under house arrest.

'This is not true. There is no truth in it. He is at Aiwan-e-Sadr (the presidential palace) and has met with foreign diplomats,' a senior government spokesman told Agence France-Presse

What we wrote on Saturday:

State of Emergency or a coup? The Constitution is now suspended: is this an Army take-over? Though the Washington Post and others are saying President Musharraf is declaring a state of emergency, other sources are saying that Musharraf is not fully in charge here. It's the Chief of Army Staff who declared the State of Emergency, not President Musharraf.

That was on Saturday. This is Monday and still, questions about who is in charge in Pakistan continue.
[NOTE: We also posted this article on Diggs on Saturday. However, their users wouldn't have known it--it was quickly buried.]

by Mondoreb




Back to Front Page.

Pakistan State of Emergency a Coup? Sources Unclear Who's in Charge

State of Emergency a coup? The Constitution is now suspended: is this an Army take-over? Though the Washington Post and others are saying President Musharraf is declaring a state of emergency, other sources are saying that Musharraf is not fully in charge here. It's the Chief of Army Staff who declared the State of Emergency, not President Musharraf.

UPDATE at 15:43 GMT from the BBC:

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has declared emergency rule and suspended the country's constitution.

Troops have been deployed inside state-run TV and radio stations, while independent channels have gone off air.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who condemned the moves, has reportedly been sacked and is being confined to the Supreme Court with 10 other judges.

It comes as the court was due to rule on the legality of Gen Musharraf's re-election victory in October.

The Court was to decide whether Gen Musharraf was eligible to run for election last month while remaining army chief.

So apparently at this moment, it was President Musharraf who's in charge and declaring the state of emergency. Events are moving fast in Pakistan. First it was the Red Mosque; last month it was an attempt on the life of candidate Bhutto. Now it's a state of emergency has been declared.

Now comes news from Noblesse Oblige that the state of emergency is coming from the Chief of Army Staff. Coup-time anyone?

UPDATE: The Chief of Army Staff declared the state of emergency, not President Musharraf — this could be a Coup in the shaping; or it could be a ploy to get the court to finish the deliberations on the challenges prior to the November 15th date when Musharraf’s holding of two offices definitely becomes unconstitutional.

The Washington Post is reporting that Musharraf is still in charge and has declared the state of emergency, but other sources dispute this. From the Washington Post:

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule Saturday, suspending the constitution amid a heavy security presence including armored personnel carriers on the streets of the capital.

Musharraf, who instituted a provisional constitution, was expected to address the nation later and cite continuing fighting in the turbulent Swat Valley as his reason.

We'll let the sources sort themselves out over the day. Major news channels are off the air, at last report, so news may be slow coming.

by Mondoreb




Back to Front Page.

After the Terrorist Attack:The Bhutto-Pelosi Comparison

[photo:socialist international]

by Mondoreb

In August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi(D-CA) released a stirring call for women's equality here.

“We must remain vigilant in the fight for equality for women. Those who came before us would expect no less.

Commenting at the time, An American Expat in Southeast Asia had this to say:

As you may recall, Nancy Pelosi is the same women that only a few months earlier naively donned a hijab and then proceeded to blaze a trail of sociopolitical destruction through the Middle East under the guise of Congressional oversight.

Exactly.

This week a bomb attempt on the life of Benazir Bhutto tried to silence a true example of someone, it can be argued, who is standing up for democracy and women's equality. From CNN:

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto has called the deadly terrorist attack on her convoy "an attack on democracy" and vowed it would not deter her political campaign or her fight for human rights.

Two women, Nancy Pelosi and Benazir Bhutto, both spokeswomen for women's equality and democracy. One talks about "remaining vigilant" while in the safety of the United States and then, while traveling in an unsettled region of the world where women are second-class citizens, covers her head in submission. The other, after an attempt on her life, speaks out in defiance and vows to go on.

Which of the two is a poseur and which is a real champion for women's equality?