Google bait in Beirut

The photo above shows on the ground a Lebanese teenager, Mohammed Al-Chaar, who was injured and later died in the car bomb attack -- likely instigated by Syria -- on the convoy of  the politician Mohammed Chatah.

There appears to be a consensus in online news sites to run headlines and references to the teenager and his friends having taken a "selfie" photo immediately before the attack e.g. headline picked up by numerous outlets: Teenager in Beirut bombing 'selfie' dies.

Is there a mandate from editors to use the buzzwords of 2013 in all articles to drive up hitcounts? Leaving aside that Mohammed al-Chaar (a) did not take the selfie (it was a group photo) and (b) is dead in (c) from an attack with major regional implications, how is the selfie meme at all relevant?

Photo: Al Arabiya.

Bear arms but not names

From the Hartford Courant article on the Connecticut state's final report on the Sandy Spring atrocity --

Records show that the four guns he carried to the Sandy Hook school that day were all legally purchased by Nancy between March 2010 and January 2012. The report redacts the locations where the guns were purchased. The Bushmaster used in the shootings was bought in March 2010.

Why do the gun stores get anonymity? 

Impunity kills

With the bomb attack in Beirut today, the current Syria policy of urging the opposition to go to Geneva and talk to that nice man Mr Assad is surely beyond any viability. If Syria and Hezbollah got away before with car bombs outside the Phoenicia hotel -- the one that killed Rafik Hariri -- why should do they do any differently now given the lack of will to confront them? Maybe Russia will offer to investigate the Chatah killing and Barack Obama will eagerly accept.

Photo: Reuters.

Roots of Turkish corruption scandal revealed!

Bertie Ahern meets Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2003 and assures him he's read the Turkish government's national program line by line.

Actually there's a broader point here, prompted by this New York Times article about the frustration in Bulgaria that EU membership hasn't changed politics or corruption after 6 years. The Irish case shows that it could take nearly 40 years.

Happy Christmas!

Great milestones in cultural change

Steely Dan, "Deacon Blues," 1977 --

I'll learn to work the saxophone
I'll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel

Pajama Boy, 2013 --

Wear pajamas
Drink hot chocolate. 
Talk about getting health insurance. 

Our man in Damascus

It hardly needs pointing out, but the Bashar al-Assad use of barrel bombs seems to have increased just as his chemical weapons were taken away. Same terror, different delivery. No word of any Seymour Hersh investigation of who's dropping the barrel bombs. But Bashar seems to have found ever-gullible securocrats who think he's the bulwark against the real terrorists.

Is the Pope Catholic?

National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru writes in Bloomberg News opinion --

Much of Francis’s economic thought, though, seems to rest on the identification of free markets with extreme individualism. A generation ago, the writer Michael Novak and others were instrumental in persuading many American Catholics that markets could instead enable a creative form of community. The pope’s remarks suggest that this type of evangelizing still needs to be done.

It was not so long ago that Novak was being sent to the Vatican to explain why they were wrong about Iraq.

Keeping these turbulent priests in line with Republican theology is a tough business.

Not a selfies crowd

With the VIPs and the unvetted schizophrenic sign language interpreters long gone, Gerry Adams as part of the honour guard for Nelson Mandela's final send off today.

All In

Writing in the Financial Times, historian Roy Foster posits that one reason why Irish protests about austerity have been so muted is that the trades unions are now part of the establishment.

Now?

Above is Bertie Ahern regaling an audience in 2007 with his view that doubters on the economy should consider suicide.

The audience was trades union officials.

Over-eager editor

Good New York Times article on Ireland's bailout exit --

The austerity was squeezing most people Mr. [John] Donovan knew. “The government, in a moment of madness, has burdened every man, woman and child with a debt we may never escape,” he said. “We are on our backside.”

Unfortunately the background explanation for his remark appears to have been cut, so to be clear, he's referring specifically to the September 2008 no-bondholder-left-behind bank guarantee, rather than some specific decision on austerity.

We can remember it for you wholesale

David Brooks writing in the New York Times contemplates a future where technology causes huge income disparities --

Economizers. The bottom 85 percent is likely to be made up of people with less marketable workplace skills. Some of these people may struggle financially but not socially or intellectually. That is, they may not make much running a food truck, but they can lead rich lives, using the free bounty of the Internet. They could use a class of advisers on how to preserve rich lives on a small income.

Serious question: is this a vision informed by actual analysis or simply an extrapolation of dystopian sci-fi films that he's seen?

Everyone has their blinkers on

Seymour Hersh has an extensive article in the London Review of Books alleging that Barack Obama lied to set up a war that he never wanted in the first place. It all makes sense to Seymour Hersh and his numerous unnamed sources. Just one example of the contentious style of argument in the article. There's a discussion of how the USA has secret sensors all over Syria near chemical weapons sites and --

The sensors detected no movement in the months and days before 21 August, the former official said. It is of course possible that sarin had been supplied to the Syrian army by other means, but the lack of warning meant that Washington was unable to monitor the events in Eastern Ghouta as they unfolded.

On the other hand, regarding the casualty counts --

The strikingly precise US total was later reported by the Wall Street Journal to have been based not on an actual body count, but on an extrapolation by CIA analysts, who scanned more than a hundred YouTube videos from Eastern Ghouta into a computer system and looked for images of the dead. In other words, it was little more than a guess.)  

Note the logic: when his unnamed source tells him that super-duper technology didn't detect preparations for an attack, that's taken as part of his case that there was no government attack. But when photo/video analysis technology is applied to the actual images of the attack and comes up with an awkward number, that's dismissed as a "guess." Consider also the levels of insinuation in this method: Assad didn't do it, and if he did, it didn't kill that many people. Hersh's fans no doubt see heroic debunking, but that style of argument is the plain old multi-step denial program.

In terms of who Hersh and his sources think did it, he's weirdly obsessed with the Al Nusra front, which is just one of numerous Islamist groups, albeit one of the most effective against the Assad forces. The cui bono question should apply to everybody running around with unnamed sources and leaks, shouldn't it?

UPDATE: One of Hersh's insinuations relies on an apparent non-update of a New York Times story about the range of the rockets used in the attack. The story has since been updated. It doesn't change the expert assessment that the attack was most likely carried out by Assad forces.

Obama's ears were burning

How long before we hear "leaked" complaints about US foreign policy coming from this meeting on 4 December in Riyadh of John McCain with Saudi interior minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef?

Photo: Saudi Press Agency

We have no opinion on your border dispute with Turkey

New York Times on American reaction to the rising strength of militant Islamist groups in Syria -- to which American inaction on Syria has contributed:

“We need to start talking to the Assad regime again” about counterterrorism and other issues of shared concern, said Ryan C. Crocker, a veteran diplomat who has served in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. “It will have to be done very, very quietly. But bad as Assad is, he is not as bad as the jihadis who would take over in his absence.”

Doing deals with a Baathist dictator who has used chemical weapons against his own people ... what could possibly go wrong?

Denial by association

The Smithwick Tribunal has found that there was a mole in the Irish police in the 1980s whose information led to at least 2 murders and probably more. The specific incident being investigated happened in 1989, but unfortunately that's about the time lag involved in finding the truth about anything in Ireland. Among the issues discussed by the judge is the culture of denial at the top levels of Irish politics. One example cited followed a 1987 case where again there was circumstantial evidence of a mole. The government's policy was to say that anyone making such an allegation was trying to disrupt cooperation between the police forces north and south of the border (page 46):

In regard to the allegations of moles for political advantage, on 28 April 1987, the late Mr Brian Lenihan T.D. standing in for the then Minister for Justice in reply to a question on the Gibson murders said in the Dáil;

“Allegations of a leak to the IRA from within the ranks of the Garda Síochána by those who could have no evidence to support them are regrettable for several reasons, one of them being that they play directly into the hands of those, like the IRA, who would wish to reduce the level of security co-operation between the two forces.”

Nobody, of course, can fully disprove an allegation of this kind unless the people actually responsible are detected. What is quite clear, as I have said, is that the allegations were made without a shred of evidence. Accordingly, the least that can be said about them is that they reflect seriously on the judgment of those who made them.

That last sentence could be applied to all of Official Ireland, and not just about mole-hunts, but on the broader diseases of insiderism and corruption.

No true Catholic

Conservative Catholic intellectual George Weigel rushes to the Wall Street Journal op-ed page to package Pope Francis as People Like Us despite the Pope's obvious critique of conservative capitalism --

The pope is passionately concerned about the poor, and he knows that poverty in the 21st century takes many forms. It can be found in the grinding material poverty of his native Buenos Aires, caused by decades of corruption, indifference, and the church's failures to catechize Argentina's economic and political leaders.

So if Argentina's leaders had gotten proper religious uplift, the bad economic outcomes in Argentina would not have happened.

But it looks cool from the top of the Burj Khalifa

Tom Friedman is in the Gulf. He writes about it in his Sunday New York Times column. The first part is not bad, noting the expanding space for social media in the Gulf, but not mentioning the limits for criticism of the ruler or perceived blasphemy. He goes astray in the 2nd part, apparently lost in the haze of presentations by government officials and an eagerness to say something nice about his hosts. Hence ..

in Dubai, the government has set a strategy for 2021,

There is no particular Dubai strategy for 2021. That's for the federal government. Now it's an understandable mistake because the same Sheikh Mohammed that he writes about favourably as ruler of Dubai is also PM and VP of the UAE, but of course if you start asking why one man has all those titles, you're getting more into the politics of the UAE than he might want.

and each of the 46 ministries and regulatory agencies has three-year Key Performance Indicators, or K.P.I.’s, they have to fulfill to get there, ranging from improving the success of Dubai 15-year-olds in global science, math and reading exams to making it even easier to start a new business. All 3,600 K.P.I.’s are loaded on an iPad dashboard that the ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, follows each week.

You might note here that somewhere along the way, the meaning of the word "Key" has been lost, since a city-state of around 2 million people somehow needs 3600 of them. The most likely explanation is that whatever consulting firm came up with them was being paid by the indicator.

Again, this is not about democracy. It’s about leaders feeling the need to earn their legitimacy. But when one leader does it, others feel the pressure to copy. 

Which of course raises the question of what they would copy.

There is also a mistake which reveals the perils of pop-in journalism. He attributes a cartoon to the "Saudi newspaper" Al Sharq al Awsat. That pan-Arab paper is in London. The online version correctly attributes the cartoon to al Sharq.

Low inflation is like Cristiano Ronaldo

Speech by Jörg Asmussen, a member of the Executive Board of the ECB,at the  Martinsgansessen Nordmetall, Hamburg, 27 November 2013. He's addressing the claim that Germany's strength in trade makes it harder for other Eurozone countries to adjust --

Monetary union is a team sport - and when a teammate is in good shape, everyone benefits.

As Paul Krugman explains, in a monetary union, it's easier for the team to look good when everyone slacks off a bit.

Game, set, and match

Good word choice from the New York Times on the inexplicably protracted Newtown, Conn. massacre report, a report dumped into the Thanksgiving getaway news cycle --

The long-awaited report does not suggest a motive for Mr. Lanza’s actions, even as it offers a glimpse into his strange, troubled life. It comes nearly a year after the shooting set off a national discussion about gun control, mental health and violence in American popular culture.

The word being discussion when the journalistic habit would have been debate.

There is no debate about gun control. It's long lost. 

Near abroad and nearer

A representative piece of reporting, from the New York Times, on Ukraine's decision to put off sealing an association agreement with the European Union --

The Ukrainian government on Thursday said it was suspending plans to complete the agreements and would instead pursue improved economic relations with a competing trade bloc led by Russia. The decision upends the European Union’s top foreign policy initiative, an effort to draw in former Soviet republics and promote Western-style political and economic overhauls.

It appears that while EU leaders were happy to hide behind Russian obstructionism on Syria, they never extrapolated that to how Russia might behave regarding a really close country, like Ukraine.

Party of Lies

This Wall Street Journal tick-tock on the Bashar al-Assad chemical weapons attack in August is a must-read for a variety of reasons (this link should find a free version) but among the revelations is that Hezbollah knew once the attack unfolded that it was the Syrian government -- because their own fighters had not been warned in advance and got caught up in it, so they had to phone in a request to stop it.

4 months later, none of the phalanx of bloggers who weighed in against US intervention in Syria has anything to say about Syria. We told you so.

Message by omission

Saudi Press Agency --

Riyadh, Muharram 17, 1435, Nov 20, 2013, SPA -- An official source stated that the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia strongly denounces and condemns the cowardly terrorist bombings in the Lebanese capital Beirut yesterday. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia extends condolences to the families of the victims and the Lebanese government and people, wishing all injured a speedy recovery. The source added that the Kingdom reiterates its stance towards condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, whatever its origin or motivation. --SPA 

You'd never know from that statement that the bombing targeted the embassy of Iran. It probably didn't help that Hezbollah blamed Saudi Arabia for the bombing, unwilling to recognize the blowback and asymmetric response created by its own actions in Syria. 

More Bombay than Berlin

Writing in the Saturday Wall Street Journal, Dan Hannan MEP uncorks another bottle of that trusty brew, the view that the "Anglosphere" -- a select group of English system legacy countries -- provides the epitome of state-citizen relations. Towards the end, some musings about whether India is in da club:

In India, governments come and go as the result of elections, without anyone being exiled or shot. The armed forces stay out of politics. English is the language of government and of most universities and businesses. Property rights and free contract are secured by a common-law system, which remains open to individuals seeking redress. Shared values lead to shared habits. When, in the aftermath of the tsunami 10 years ago, the U.S., Australian and Indian navies coordinated the relief effort, they found an interoperability that goes beyond even that found among NATO allies. If India were to take its place at the heart of a loose Anglosphere network, based on free trade and military alliance, the future would suddenly look a great deal brighter. Of course, to join such a free trade area, the U.K. and Ireland would have to leave the EU. But that's another story.

Perhaps it's flattering that he thinks Ireland is such an integral part of the Anglosphere that any meaningful grouping would have to involve it. Not very clear is what would be in this for Ireland, which, for example, already seems to have a level of tax integration with the UK and US that it can handle. It's also worth mentioning that David Cameron letting the genie out of the bottle with his EU membership referendum may be bringing the realities of such a decision for Ireland closer than people think.

Equal Opportunity

RTE website in the last hour. Underlying story -- which appears to involve an inexplicable concentration of sensitive information in one place. 

Wait till the Qataris see his impersonation of the Emir

FIFA President Sepp Blatter meets the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim, today. The official statement gives no hint of the, er, hot, topics that needed to be discussed.

Hamlet Without Polonius

Saudi Press Agency --

Riyadh, Muharram 1, 1435, Nov 4, 2013, SPA -- The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud received at his palace here today U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the accompanying delegation. At the outset of the audience, the U.S. Secretary of State conveyed to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques greetings of U.S. President Barack Obama. In turn, the King sent his greetings to the U.S. President. Then, they discussed aspects of cooperation between the two countries, the developments of the Palestinian cause and the situation in Syria in addition to the regional and international latest developments and the two countries' stances towards them. The audience was attended by Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense; Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Second Deputy Premier, Special Envoy of and Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques; Prince Meteb bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Minister of National Guard; Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Interior; Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Chief of the Crown Prince's Court and Special Advisor to the Crown Prince; Adel bin Ahmad Al-Jubeir, Saudi ambassador to the United States, and Timothy Lenderking, U.S. Charge D'affaires in Riyadh. --SPA

One person is conspicuously absent from that list of attendees: Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who has been leading the rhetorical charge against the US hands-off policy on Syria.

A side note about the meeting. Note that King Abdullah had no objection to an unveiled female interpreter.

Photo: SPA.

If we call him the Bahraini Jon Stewart, people might care

Statements from Bahrain News Agency (1st and 2nd)--

An investigation is underway to probe the violations which marred the licensed rally which was held yesterday , Central Governorate Acting Chief Prosecutor Hamad Shaheen Al-Bouainain said. A notification submitted by The Central Governorate police directorate prompted the public Prosecution to launch the legal inquiry. “The violations amount to crimes which are punishable by the law as they contravene the law governing rallies and protests”, Mr. Al-Bouainian. He pointed out that participants in the rally chanted humiliating slogans which represented an affront to public order, moral decency and contravene the laws governing rallies ...Al-Wefaq Society secretary-general  (Sheikh Ali Salman) has been summoned to appear before the Public Prosecution tomorrow (Nov3, 2013), accused of humiliating the Interior Ministry. In a statement tonight, Minister of State for Information Affairs and Government’s Official Spokesperson Samira Ibrahim bin Rajab said that Al-Wefaq secretary-general is accused of denigrating and disparaging the Interior Ministry. The association organized an event showcasing models, miniatures and drawings alleging policemen’s systematic use of inhuman practices and human rights violations. Al-Wefaq Society secretary-general and other members delivered instigative speeches packed with lies and allegations at the opening of the event, which represented an affront to the status of police.

Is that east or west of the Bann?

The UK Treasury report into the options for RBS introduces a new phrase that is sure to catch on:: "Core Ulster." This is the least bad part of Ulster Bank, which apparently is still bad enough that more of it will get dumped into a new internal bad bank. As usual of course, the term "Ulster" is prone to mislead, since a huge part of the bank's overall problems are in the Republic of Ireland. 

Bank Rule before Home Rule

From Bank of England governor Mark Carney speech marking the 125th anniversary of the Financial Times -- The preoccupations of 1888 were not very different than today. Editions of the FT 125 years ago contained stories on economic development in China, the health of Spanish government finances, and the state of Irish banks.

What would they do without America to complain about?

European Union policy on Syria -- get outraged only when US might bomb Syria.

European Union policy on migration -- get outraged about alleged US snooping. As a Wall Street Journal news story notes:

It was just two weeks ago that European leaders expressed shock at the tragedy just miles off the Italian island of Lampedusa, where hundreds of African migrants died in a shipwreck. The loss of life in European waters drove home the sheer desperation that brings migrants from North Africa to Europe on precarious, life-threatening boat journeys. But it also exposed the problems faced by countries on the borders of the European Union. The migration issue was set to be discussed by EU leaders on Friday in Brussels on the second day of a two-day summit. But for the four countries that are the main gateways for migrants to Europe—Greece, Italy, Malta and Cyprus—the extent to which the issue was overshadowed by new allegations of U.S. spying on its European allies was likely jarring. EU leaders arriving at the summit Thursday mostly spent time criticizing the U.S. for its alleged spying, rather than commenting on the need to prevent such tragic losses of life in the Mediterranean. It's "surreal," said Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.