I have now a couple of assignments in Spain, so excuse me if I become a little bit mono-thematic. I'm sort of becoming a Zapapundit. God help me.

This post is dedicated to Diplomad, Dear Barcepundit and, very specially, to André Breton [ Link 2 on André Breton ] . It has a serious, well, sort of, first half. And then a delirious second half on a memorable diplomatic gaffe (here's to you, André).

I mean, I never had an enormous respect for Spanish prime minister JLR Zapatero’s intellectual capabilities. And yes, I have been around long enough to know that systematically taking a politician’s word at face value is a sure receipt for journalistic catastrophe. But I really jumped off my seat, listening to Señor Mañana in front of the self-styled parliamentary Committee on the terrorist attacks in Madrid last March 11.

He was there trying to outperform his predecessor, Jose María Aznar, and, among other groovy things, he contributed this pearl to the thick Book of Political Verbal Atrocities:

• He ardently condemned the notion, which he acknoledged was held in some parts of the world, that Spain surrendered to terrorism when it voted him into office three days after the bombings.
  

"It is inconceivable that someone can imagine that the citizens of Spain bowed to the wishes of terrorists," he said.

"It is brutal, it is unacceptable," Zapatero stressed, "to call a brave people cowards."

A pity that he forgot to mention this 42-page document called "Jihadi Iraq, Hopes and Dangers" found on radical islamist websites by researchers at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (FFI). [If you speak Arabic, here you heve the original]

Let me quote the Brynjar Lia and Thomas Hegghamme, the Norwegian analysts, summarizing the document:

• The document then analyses three countries (Britain, Spain and Poland) in depth, with a view to identifying the weakest link or the domino piece most likely to fall first. The author provides a surprisingly informed and nuanced analysis of the domestic political map in each country. He argues that each country will react differently to violent attacks against its forces because of domestic political factors:


• Poland, for example, is unlikely to withdraw from the coalition because there is political consensus on foreign policy, and the country has a very high tolerance for human casualties.


• Britain is easier to force out of Iraq, because the popular opposition to the war and the occupation is so high. However, the author estimates that Britain will only withdraw from Iraq in one of two cases: either if Britain suffers significant human casualties in Iraq or if Spain and Italy withdraws first.


• Spain on the other hand is very vulnerable to attacks on its forces, primarily because public opposition to the war is almost total, and the government is virtually on its own on this issue. The author therefore identifies Spain as the weakest link in the coalition.”

The last sentences of al Qaeda’s remarkable analysis of the Spanish political situation were anything but uninteresting for a man in charge of governing Spain after Aznar:

"We think that the Spanish government could not tolerate more than two, maximum three blows, after which it will have to withdraw as a result of popular pressure. If its troops still remain in Iraq after these blows, then the victory of the Socialist Party is almost secured, and the withdrawal of the Spanish forces will be on its electoral programme.

Lastly, we are emphasize that a withdrawal of the Spanish or Italian forces from Iraq would put huge pressure on the British presence (in Iraq), a pressure that Toni Blair might not be able to withstand, and hence the domino tiles would fall quickly. Yet, the basic problem of making the first tile fall still remains."

Now, one can wonder why, how, through which particular channels, did the terrorists get the news that allowed them to write “the withdrawal of the Spanish forces will be on its electoral programme.” Could it be thinkable that some of the good-willed Socialists who participated in the anti-war agitation in Spain, (more than probably profusely funded by Saddam Hussein through the oil-for-food scam), had some idea about Mr. Zapatero’s electoral promises? Could it?

Perhaps Mr. Zapatero believes his own words and he can’t conceive “that someone can imagine that the citizens of Spain” could bow to the wishes of terrorists, but fact is that the al Qaeda analysts not only conceived it but made their point rather brilliantly and, well, their assessment that “victory of the Socialist Party is almost secured” proved very right two hundred dead Spaniards later…

I don’t know if anyone has reckoned the fact that the only one electoral promise that Mr. Zapatero has scrupulously fulfilled was to withdraw the Spanish troops from Iraq a lot faster than decorum advised. Well, you can’t make a silk purse out of sow’s ear… He was supposed (before the attacks, that is) to lose the election, so nobody in the Socialist Party really cared to come up with a normally witted and competent candidate.

The Polish Non Adventure of Señor Mañana

Talk about a newsmaker. He never rests. He now has irked the Poles, who in fact were already pretty heated at him since his heroic withdrawal from Iraq: the Spanish troops were under Polish command and he didn’t care to warn them in advance that he was letting them down.

Now, the day after his appearance in the Spanish parliament he was due in Warsaw to meet with the Polish PM, Marek Belka. But he felt exhausted after his mastery lesson in political systematic thought. So he just decided to tell Mr. Belka that please, excuse me, I’m not going. Just a little bit tired, you know… And he did that four and a half hours prior to his scheduled arrival to Warsaw, with the honor guard already in order of review. A prowess in diplomatic frankness…

PM Marek Belka Waiting for Zapatero

The Poles were astounded. But they became outright flabbergasted, when someone checked out the press kit that the Spanish ministry of Foreign Affairs had distributed to the Spanish reporters who were to cover the talks (You know, some nosey-newsy reporter curious about what those caballeros may know about us). In the kit, it was (still is) said that Señor Zapatero is (well, was) to meet with Prime Minister Leszek Millar. Biography and all. The only detail was that Mr. Miller (not Millar) isn't the prime minister any longer, the one now, happily in office since May, is Mr. Belka. Mr. Belka wasn't amused.

Polish humor sometimes reminds of English humor, only with that melancholic touch that comes from the subtle differences from Scotch to Wyborowa vodka. A Polish minister confided to journalists that knowing the Spanish Prime Minister’s record he wasn’t that surprised that Mr. Zapatero didn’t know who he was going to meet in Poland as much as of the fact that he didn’t want to meet him. Verbatim, via a friend from Gazeta Wyborcza.

To the story does belong that Mr. Belka can comfort himself with the thought that he isn’t the first one who has been left there waiting for señor Zapatero. The list grows: in June he left without warning or explanation the Istambul summit (insiders said it was because George W. didn’t want to meet him), in October it was the turn of the President of Portugal (Zapatero decided without warning to attend a party meeting instead), in November a trip to Moscow was cancelled without explanation (Putin had already the caviar on the ice) and when the Spaniard finally got himself on the plane he had Putin waiting one hour for him in the Russian winter.

The rumor mill in Madrid pretends that Señor Mañana panics when he’s to meet with someone he thinks doen’t like him or if he expects the conversation to be unpleasant…

Now, class… who’s the daftest politiko in Europe? The answer, mañana.

# posted by Juan A. Hervada @ 1:42 AM

I just read a very elegant, pertinent and relevant post at Blog SE, a Swedish blog edited by an American in Sweden. It's about the last UNICEF rapport on children going hungry... it's in English and very good, so may read it there. I'll write this entry about it in Spanish because I think that this topic is particularly absent from the debate in señor Mañana-Zapatero's mediocre Spain...

---

Bueno, la ONU, esa cueva de Ali Baba publicó el día 8 un informe según el cual el hambre en el mundo ha crecido. El hambre crónica en términos absolutos (en porcentaje de la población, de hecho, decrece) ha aumentado desde 1996.

El blogger sueco blog.se cuenta que una burócrata de la ONU entrevistada en la radio sueca corrió a achacar el problema a que la ayuda no es suficiente. Y añade Blogse: "Naturalmente, no mencionó que la miseria está ocasionada por maniacos genocidas y dictadorzuelos gobernando en demasiados países y que su organización es parte del problema",

Porque la ministro de agricultura sueca, cuando le preguntaron por las causas del hambre en el tercer Mundo identificó como causa mayor el proteccionismo de la Unión Europea en favor de sus agricultores.

A la Unión Europea le importa un bledo arruinar a los granjeros africanos para que los agricultores españoles, franceses etc. puedan seguir viviendo en un 50% de sus ingresos de la subvención. Luego, por supuesto, se mandan los excedentes en forma de dumping al Tercer Mundo y la factura a los contribuyentes europeos que la pagan con sus impuestos y a los niños de los países en desarrollo que la pagan con sus vidas.

No faltaría más, también se protege con barreras arancelarias a esos agricultores de lujo, muy sindicalizados y que saben blandir su voto como una espada de Damocles sobre los políticos.

Los políticos socialdemócratas de Suecia, el retroprogre José Luis Mañana-Zapatero en España o el conservador Monsieur Chirac en Francia comparten la hipocresía de pedir más ayuda para el tercer Mundo cuando, en realidad, esa ayuda es sólo una nueva forma más sutil de subvencionar a unos agricultores que nunca podrían competir con los del Tercer Mundo si hubiera libre comercio.

Hablar de comercio equitable, como hace la izquierda anti-globalización, es un sarcasmo. Comercio equitable es abrir las puertas del mercado europeo a los productos del Tercer Mundo y cortar de una vez las subvenciones que falsean el mercado.

# posted by Juan A. Hervada @ 1:18 AM

One of my favorite bloggers, Stygius, has a very good post that, as it happens, originated in a comment of mine to another post about the visit of Gen Musharraf to Britain. Stygius, a genuine esprit fort, has coined a very useful term to describe a hideous and very actual concept: cultural assassination. Have a look at this article that he linked to…

The closing argument of his post (again, definitely a recommended reading) says:

The cultural assassination of course has a political element to it; but I think it works to put the lie to the idea that movements such as al-Qaeda have clearly discernible ends that--if we accede to them--will allow us to one day peacefully coexist with the terrorist.

And I agree, (oh so much!) with this assessment:

(But) with the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh, our notion of assassination is being broadened, as it returns to its fundamentals of simultaneous savagery, ecstasy, and suicide…
…the possibility of a coming wave of "cultural" assassination. Its objectives are more intangible than the political assassination; more directed at an aesthetic element. The nebulousness of what it is directed at (i.e., killing a culture by killing its representatives and symbols), and what it is "defending" seems to give the cultural assassination the sense that the bloody act is itself its own end. The atrocity, in its atrociousness, is self-validating in its orgasmic excess. The murder itself is emblematic of the hopes of its practitioner.

Well, for the record I think that cultural assassination had been routinely taking place in the Basque Country, a corner of Europe where journalists have been killed, painters (even abstract painters!) had their work destroyed, university teachers and singers were forced into exile… the ETA, the continent’s oldest terrorist group, which some suspect of collaboration with the jihadists, has been using cultural assassination for over 40 years to silence criticism and force Basques into submission; they have had a large measure of success, one must say. In fact, I believe that the so called Basque Paradigm very accurately defines de logical frame of every terrorist insurgency, a form of war that is, by definition, asymmetrical but not less total.
The murder of Theo van Gogh for me inaugurates, on a continental level, the basqueization of Europe. There is now a campaign of threatening letters against politicians, artists, journalists and religious leaders going on. The message is simple: “Respect Islam (i.e. abstain from any criticism against us) or else we’ll kill you.” In the Basque Country the ETA routinely sends a copy of the key to the building door or a picture of their kids going out of school…

France and Spain: howling at the moon

The stances of Jacques Chirac and José Rodríguez Zapatero regarding terrorism prove that daftness is beyond ideology, age and national origin. Monsieur Chirac has all but forgotten why two French journalists are now the two hostages that have spent more time in captivity in Iraq. At least, he doesn’t seem to have an irresistible urge to talk about it. Instead, he had a most curious attitude during the last days in Paris of Arafat, that champion of democracy.

Señor Zapatero’s government is to pay a salary to every Islamic preacher willing to come to Spain and is also taking the steps to teach Islam in Spain’s public schools. He advocates an “Alliance of Civilizations” between the West and Islam which is actively supported by, say, the Syrian regime and Venezuela’s self-styled colonel Chavez. He also said to Time magazine that he has solved the problem of modern terrorism: the magic answer to quash al Qaeda is the equality of the sexes (verbatim).

Of course, both gentlemen dislike George W. Bush’s brand of unilateralism and harsh manners in the War on Terror, overthrowing tyrants instead of preaching moderation to them, like señor Zapatero loves to do with the Cuban Supremo. (By the way, I tend to believe the people who claim that the Castro regime has got some sort of leverage over Mr. Zapatero… call it blackmail or call it inside knowledge, but Cuban Foreign Minister Perez Roque said months ago that Spain would come crawling on its knees to Havana.)

But now the going in Europe is getting rough and rougher might it get if the Iraqi election actually takes place in January. If the situation in Iraq starts cooling down, Allawi wins and the foreign fighters leave, expect the murder of film maker VanGogh to become a repletion of things to come in Europe.

Attacking Little Satan

Pouncing upon Great Satan USA has proven a risky proposition. Chances are just too big for the pious murderer to get killed or land in a place like Guantanamo or worse.

But Little Satan Europe is different. At least in Spain –it already learned its lesson-, France and Germany, chances are that a wave of selective terror could yield some results in form of tax-money ransom and a legal separation of sorts. What a neat idea, Muslim neighborhoods under Shariah rule and heroic jihadists respected by everyone…

Perhaps the jihadists could bomb Little Satan into accepting whatever agenda the apostles of multi-culturalism would care to propose in order to appease the Holly Warriors’ vengeful wrath. Separate education, Islamic courts for Muslims, public money to pay for mosques and imams… What’s wrong with dreaming a little bit? It took just 200 Spaniards killed to get Zapatero voted into power and loads of money and respect for the (True) Believers…

Now, what should be the best tactics for the jihadists to achieve cultural (and social) separatism? I think selective terror of the cultural assassination sort may become a weapon of choice.

From multiculturalism to breaking our societies into a patch-work of self-centered, uneasily co-existing communities, the distance is not so big. And, well, the philosophical bridge across the river of democracy could very well be the moral relativism still proposed by the aging gurus of the European left.

Via Jihad Watch
Judge Awards $156M to Dead Teen's Parents


CHICAGO - Three Islamic charities and an alleged fund-raiser for the Palestinian militant group Hamas were ordered Wednesday to pay $156 million to the parents of an American teenager killed by terrorists outside Jersusalem.

A federal jury deliberated for one day before awarding $52 million in damages to the parents of David Boim, shot down at a bus stop eight years ago. U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys then tripled the damages.

But it is uncertain whether the family can collect much money from the defendants, some of whom have had their assets frozen by the government.

...

Before the trial started, the judge had found the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the Islamic Association for Palestine and alleged Hamas fund-raiser Mohammed Salah liable in Boim's death.

The jury found that the Quranic Literacy Institute of suburban Oak Lawn, a group that translates Islamic religious texts, was also responsible for the shooting.

# posted by Juan A. Hervada @ 2:00 AM

French President Jacques Chirac and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero phoned U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Tuesday to express their solidarity in the face of criticism over the U.N. oil-for-food scandal in Iraq.

Zapatero and Chirac, had a bilateral summit in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza, discussed Annan's situation over lunch and agreed to telephone him immediately.

Annan has come under scrutiny over the $64 billion oil-for-food program for Iraq, administered by the U.N. through which ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein reaped $21.3 billion in illegal kickbacks.

Annan's son Kojo got a salary, more or less for doing nothing beyond being the son of his daddy, from a Swiss firm, Cotecna, which was supposed to inspect the program and is under investigation.

The French and Spanish position can be understood.

Saddam Hussein paid hundreds of millions in bribes to scores of politicians, journalists and diplomats throughout Europe and at the UN. A sizable share of the bribes went to France and Spain.

In France, the lion’s share of the backhanders went to some   Mr. Chirac’s political friends. It is true that his ethical standards regarding public money are known to be less than stringent and only executive immunity is keeping him out of court (and out of jail!) for a string of sleazy scandals including distributing luxury flats in the best of Paris for friends and family for under $100 in rent. Some people have also wondered why the money from the oil-for-food program was systematically entrusted to French banks.

In Spain, the Iraqi regime financed the anti-war movement through a Committee for Solidarity with the Arab Cause, that funneled millions into the pockets of Spanish politicians, journalists and artists. The Havana educated general secretary of the communist party, Gaspar Llamazares was the chairman of the committee, monitored by a former Jordanian ambassador to Iraq now living in Spain. A handful of millions in bribes went to a Catalan politician referred to in the Iraqi files as Xavier Robert, who some in Spain believe to be Xavier Robert de Ventos, a prominent Socialist and defender of the Iraqi regime, although no hard evidence supporting that allegation has surfaced as of now.  

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said Annan should resign because he had to be held "accountable for the U.N.'s utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses."

Goog luck to you, senator!


Check BarcePundit The Three Amigos!



IMPORTANT COMMENT BY her ***

Hi, Juan. Here's some data about the oil for food scam:

HERE YOU HAVE THE COMPLETE LIST TO THE AL-MADA FILES of bribes handed out by the Saddam Hussein regime country by country.

The bribes are in vouchers of millions of barrels of oil.

The ones correspondig to Spain were:
Spain:

1-Bassim Qaqish/17.5 million
2-Javier Robert/9.8 million
3-Ali Balut/8.8 million

And to France:
France:

1-Adax/ 8.3 million
2-Trafigura (Patrick Maugain)/ 25 million
3-Michel Gremard (Iraqi-French Export Co.)/ 1 million
4-French Arab Friendship Association/ 15.1 million
5-Ibex/ 47.2 million
6-Charles Pasqua (former Interior minister)/ 12 million
7-Elias Al-Gharzali/ 14.6 million
8-ALTC (Claude Caspert)/ 4 million
9-Bernarde Merime (French UN ambassador)/ 3 million
10-Bernarde Merime/ 8 million
11-De Suza/ 11 million

h.e.r.

# posted by Juan A. Hervada @ 9:36 PM

Well, I’m back...

I have had one of those periods when days seem to have less hours than they should to get everything done. I spent November working like a dog, trying to figure out what future holds for the European economy (no kidding, have you seen that euro at US$ 1.35???). So, I didn’t have much time for blogging or anything else for that matter.

I had the pleasure to be stateside during the election (I got to Miami one good week in advance and stayed until Nov. 10th busy as I was pinching myself) and, well, I had that peculiar feeling of being a first row witness of something really important, some sorts of social mutation. I didn’t see it coming. When history’s pendulum goes back and passes in front of us, it always seems to catch us off-guard, busily glancing at the tip of our noses…

Then I went to Spain to spend three weeks doing some research and interviewing people about their feelings regarding the country’s economic prospects for 2005. The situation there is chaotic in more than one way, with at least a dozen of different factions vying for power within the clannish Spanish left. Zapatero [another link in English and a surprised decryption of Europe's daftest politician ever] is fast losing his shine and people start to realize that the terrorist attacks in Madrid last March maybe were some sort of coup d’état. I intend to write about that and, generally speaking, about Spain in the coming weeks, since it appears to me that it is still the weakest link in the War on Terror…

Talking about the American election, let me quote Urban Empire who has a very insightful and representative account of the day after in Milwaukee assorted of a magnificent statistical quote:

I did want to touch on the election just a bit. Throughout the day on Wednesday, there was this feeling of shock and depression in the city. I live in Milwaukee, a city which went 73% for Kerry and it was just like no one could believe it. My one Republican friend was all smiles, of course. My other friends almost immediately started distancing themselves from Kerry saying how much of a horrible candidate he was (even though they vehemently defended him whenever I made such a claim about him). Then suddenly, the blame shifted. As the fact that Bush won the popular vote by over 3.6 million votes sunk in, many (excluding myself) Kerry supporters started to blame the voters themselves. Comments such as "This is why democracies really suck" or "Stupid dumb hicks shouldn't be allowed to vote" were frequent. Then they see figures like this and the absoluteness of Bush's margin is solidifed.

3,141 counties, boroughs, and parishes in the United States
2,544 counties carried by Bush (81% of total)
597 counties carried by Kerry (19% of total) [via The Glittering Eye]

[via Montmartre] No less than 32 Spanish copycats of Michael Moore produced a documentary movie against former prime minister José M. Aznar, a staunch ally of the US and the UK in the War on Terror. It was called "Hay Motivo" (there is motive) and was to be used during the campaign for the Spanish election in Marrch, giving all sorts of reasons why Mr. Aznar was to be voted out.

Three days before election day, Islamic terrorists -by themselves or perhaps with help from homegrown elements- killed 194 people in Madrid and decided the outcome of the vote. The new rabidly anti-American government of José Rodriguez Zapatero did its best to promote the Hay Motivo movie and it went to the theaters Nov 15th.

Something is changing in Spain. According to mr. Zapatero's ministry of Cultural Affairs, the movie was seen all in all by 496 people throughout Spain (42 million ibhabitants). Believe it or not, if Montmartre has it right, the Spanish emulators of Moore will receive some money from the government. It's called socialism, folks.

# posted by Juan A. Hervada @ 4:12 PM