Exclusive: Ahmadinejad Was In Prague!

Exclusive! Must credit Blue Crab Boulevard (you wish you had our sources, Drudge!).

Blue Crab Boulevard has obtained exclusive, Reuters Quality™ photoshoppicgraphic proof that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the key driving force in getting Pluto downgraded from planetary status! He is the one who led the assault on the only planet discovered by an American! Our operative from Magic 8-Ball Photography and Roadkill Scraping, Inc. managed to get this photo of the Iranian president addressing the Iranian rubber stamp Parliament to describe his victory over the Great Disney Satan.

(We only have to worry about which planet comes next, of course).

This Way! No, Over Here!

The Washington Post has a classic example of why the Democrats have a problem. While party leadership is happily hopping down the "pull the troops out" trail, candidates in close elections are resoundingly NOT following that lead.

Most Democratic candidates in competitive congressional races are opposed to setting a timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, rejecting pressure from liberal activists to demand a quick end to the three-year-old military conflict.

Of the 59 Democrats in hotly contested House and Senate races, a majority agree with the Bush administration that it would be unwise to set a specific schedule for troop withdrawal, and only a few are calling for substantial troop reductions to begin this year, according to a Washington Post survey of the campaigns.

The large number of Democrats opposed to a strict timeline for ending the military operations runs contrary to the assertion by President Bush and top Republicans that Democrats want to "cut and run" amid mounting casualties and signs of civil war. At the same time, the decision by many Democrats to refrain from advocating a specific plan for withdrawal complicates their leaders' efforts to convince voters that they offer a clear new direction for the increasingly unpopular war.

"It is like dropping a raw egg and asking me what my plans are for putting it back together," said Chris Murphy, the Democrat challenging Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.). Murphy favors bringing home National Guard and reserve units, or about 25,000 of the 138,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, beginning next year, and leaving it to Bush's military commanders to determine the rest of the exit strategy.

Although the left-leaning activists in the party want to nationalize the election, the local candidates may be in a bind if they succeed. I suspect that a lot of average people in this country may not be happy with the war, but they would be really unhappy to see it turned into a loss because of partisan politics, too.

What Iran Did - And Did Not Do - Today

The media, especially the AP and the New York Times, are driving me up the wall today. Unfortunately, the distortions they are reporting are being repeated in the blogosphere. So let me try to clarify things a bit over what Iran did and did not do today. What they did is open a heavy water production facility. This is in no way - not even a slight bit - itself a nuclear plant or facility. It is an industrial facility to separate out the approximately 1 in 3,200 molecules in naturally occurring water that contains deuterium oxide. Hydrogen contains a proton in the nucleus and a single electron. Deuterium (or heavy hydrogen) has a neutron in the nucleus as well. This occurs naturally in very small quantities in nature.

Heavy water can be used as a moderator in a nuclear reactor - and that is what Iran plans to do. It makes a superior moderator for plutonium production because it contains that extra neutron. It is less likely to absorb a neutron. Therefore more neutrons go to actually producing plutonium (or causing a fission). The Iranians are building a heavy water reactor (the IR-40) and they are being very, very secretive about it's design, but I will be willing to bet it will contain either a uranium shroud or uranium targets to produce additional plutonium.

There can be no doubt that is what Iran plans, but that is not what they did today. There is no doubt this is a weapons program - none at all. But they did not start up a reactor, either.

But they spit in the face of the UN. That they did.

UPDATE: Pay attention here left-wingers. The Associated Press: WRONG. The New York Times: WRONG. Fox News: CORRECT. Completely correct. No conflation, no misinterpretation. They are spot on accurate.

New York Times = Completely Ignorant

This is so unbelievably stupid, I shudder to think how badly informed people who rely on the New York Times really are. Their screaming Headline (Soon to be amended, I hope):

"Iran Opens Plant That Can Produce Plutonium"

TEHRAN, Aug. 26 — Just days before it is supposed to suspend enrichment of uranium or face the prospect of sanctions, Iran continues to project an image of defiance and confidence. Its position regarding the demand it suspend enrichment remains a determined "No."

On Saturday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made a provocative, if symbolic, gesture by formally inaugurating a heavy-water plant. The plant, which Iranians say is intended for peaceful purposes, would also produce plutonium, which in turn could be used in the building of nuclear warheads.

"There are no talks of nuclear weapons in Iran," President Ahmadinejad said as he announced the opening of the plant. "And we are not a threat for any country, even the Zionist regime that is the enemy of the countries in the region."

But, he added: "We tell the Western countries not to cause trouble for themselves because Iranian people are determined to take big steps."

The action was the latest in a series of not-too-veiled threats against the West if Iran is saddled with sanctions.

But Iran's public posture has all but guaranteed that the members of the United Nation's Security Council will have to at least address Iran's violations of the resolution setting August 31 as the deadline for suspending enrichment.

Iranian's public confidence is based on three primary factors, political analysts here said: There is a strong belief that two of the council's permanent members, Russia and China, will support Iran's call for talks and oppose moving toward sanctions; that the United States is far too bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan to be willing to spark another conflict in the region; and the perceived victory of Hezbollah in its war with Israel has strengthened Iran's political capital in the region.

"After the defeat of Israel by Hezbollah forces, China and Russia should not want to leave the side that won the war, which is the Islamic world," said Hossein Shariatmadari, who is the editor of the conservative daily newspaper Kayhan.

As I pointed out before, what Iran opened is a plant to produce heavy water. That plant cannot ever produce plutonium. The heavy water can be used as a moderator (and coolant) IN a reactor that can produce plutonium. What they opened is a production plant for the water, not a reactor, not a nuclear facility. How educated are the people writing for the Times?

Not so very much, I am quite sure. That neither the reporter or the editor was educated enough to catch this should make you wonder about anything you read in the Times.

This is, quite frankly, ignorance.

Kidnapped Fox Journalists Near Freedom?

Hamas is reporting that the two kidnapped Fox News Journalists, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig may be released "within hours".

Earlier the abducted Fox News US television journalists were said to be "safe and sound" after a deadline set by their captors for Washington to free Muslim prisoners passed, the Palestinian interior ministry said.

"I hope this affair of the abduction of two journalists will be resolved in the coming hours," the premier of the Hamas-led government said.

"I am personally following developments along with the minister of interior," Haniya added. On Tuesday he gave reassurances that his government was working towards the immediate and unconditional release of the pair.

"We will continue our efforts and contacts to secure the release of the kidnapped journalists," interior ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hillal told AFP an hour after the midday (0900 GMT) ultimatum expired.

"We can confirm that they are safe and sound but we cannot give fuller details for the time being because we want our efforts to be crowned with success."

Pray for their release unharmed. At least wish them well.

UPDATE: The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Hamas has reached an agreement with the kidnappers and received assurances that the two men will be released unharmed and unconditionally.

The kidnappers of the two Fox News journalists abducted in Gaza City on August 14 have promised to release them unharmed, Palestinian Authority officials said on Saturday night.

According to the officials, the PA has managed to establish contact with the kidnappers, who promised to resolve the affair peacefully.

PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said he had personally received assurances from the kidnappers that the two, reporter Steve Centanni, from the US, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, from New Zealand, would be released unharmed and unconditionally.

PA Interior Minister Said Siam, who is in charge of part of the PA security forces, announced that significant progress had been achieved in efforts to secure the release of the men.

"There are encouraging indications that the two will be released soon," he said, refusing to elaborate.

Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled PA government, also said that he was "very encouraged" that the two would be released soon. "I believe they will be released soon because of a breakthrough in the negotiations with the kidnappers," he said.

We'll see.

2,500 Year Old Mummy Found

A team of scientists from Germany, Russia and Mongolia have unearthed a 2,500 year old Scythian mummy from a difficult to reach area in the Altai Mountains. The find is remarkably well-preserved as the area is permafrost and the burial mound was intact. A number of artifacts were also found (link has a good photo gallery).

The mummy, which is believed to be about 2,500 years old was a 30-to-40 year-old man with blond hair, and was found in very good condition, Patzinger said. It's too delicate for exhibition, but new techniques developed following other recent discoveries of frozen mummies will enable scientists to study the remains in detail. The newly discovered Altai mummy has been compared to the discovery of Ötzi in southern Tyrol in 1991 and a tattooed Siberian ice princess in 1993.

The mummy was found in a difficult to access part of the Altai mountain region at an altitude of 2,600 meters (8,500 feet) in an area bordering Mongolia, China and Russia. Scientists from Germany, Mongolia and Russia came across the intact burial mount of the Scythian warrior in permafrost ground at the end of July. The Scythians were a nomadic people who lived around 700 years BC in a region that spanned from southern Russia and the Ukraine to the Dnieper River.

The warrior, whose cause of death has not been determined, was buried in full dress. "He wore a fur coat made of marmot fur with sheep's wool lining and adorned with sable," Parzinger said. Beneath the fur coat, traces could be found of woven wool pants. The man's feet were covered by knee-high felt boots. "There could be more surprises when we remove the clothing from the partly mummified body," he added. Parzinger said researchers believe the decorations indicated he was a man of nobility.

The remains are being studied in Ulan Bator, the capitol of Mongolia.

Weather Outlook Iffy For Launch

The weather outlook has deteriorated slightly for launch of the shuttle Atlantis on Sunday. The NASA range weather officer puts the odds at about 60% for a launch, down from 70%. Concerns are for electrical storms in the area.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's chances of launching the shuttle Atlantis toward the International Space Station (ISS) Sunday have dropped slightly due to impending thunderstorms, weather officials said Friday.

Shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters said Atlantis now has a 60 percent chance of rocketing spaceward at 4:29:57 p.m. EDT (2029:57 GMT) Sunday, down from 70 percent Thursday, because of stormy weather and thick clouds expected during the spacecraft's countdown.

"We'll probably go red during the countdown," Winters said, referring the weather status near Atlantis' Pad 39B launch site.

The main concern for launch involves anvil clouds, electrically charged clouds associated with thunderstorms, could be within 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers), of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The clouds could spawn lightning during shuttle flight and must be clear of NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility should Atlantis be forced to make an emergency landing.

Weather willing, Atlantis' STS-115 astronaut crew will carry a new pair of solar arrays and a 17.5-ton set of trusses to be installed on the port side of the ISS.

As of right now, the countdown clock is still running normally, with 1 day, 2:34 hours left. They have a picture up of a lightning strike on the launch pad last night as well.

UPDATE: Launch has been pushed back 24 hours partly because of that lightning strike.

Down The Memory Hole

Wow, Bob from Confederate Yankee has caught a major smoking gun here, it would appear. Want to know why altered photos and made up news doesn't bother Greg Mitchell? Because he, or someone in his organization appears to be altering archived stories to change their meaning.

Someone substantially altered the text of the mediainfo.com story, after six different bloggers cited the article. If you type in the URL of http://www.mediainfo.com/ and press "enter" so that you could investigate who mediainfo.com belongs to, wondering how they could change such an old story so quickly, the URL will resolve to adweek.com.

Adweek is owned by VNU Business Media, the same company that runs media web sites BrandWeek, MediaWeek and–you guessed it–Editor & Publisher, where Greg Mitchell is the editor on the hotseat.

It is readily apparent that someone at Editor and Publisher has been manipulating the news a lot more recently than 1967, and if I was a corporate officer at VNU Business Media, I think I'd start my Monday morning by asking who has access rights to post and repost stories, and I'd make a thorough investigation of the server logs to see who uploaded the changes to that article Friday afternoon, sometime between 2:30 PM and 5:01 PM. I’d ask, because that someone is torpedoing my company’s credibility.

When they talk to "that person," I hope they remind him that 1967 is long past, but character flaws are forever.

Update: Ed Driscoll notes that the original, unaltered article exists on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

This is not a small matter at all.

On The Splitting Of Hairs

Collaborate: 2 : to cooperate with or willingly assist an enemy of one's country and especially an occupying force

Agent: 4 : one who is authorized to act for or in the place of another: as a : a representative, emissary, or official of a government <crown agent> <federal agent> b : one engaged in undercover activities (as espionage) : SPY <secret agent>
(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

You'll be happy to know that Carlos Alvarez is not a Cuban agent. Despite using a secret shortwave radio to communicate with Cuba, in a sophisticated code and using a secret code name, he is not an agent. By his own admission in court he is a collaborator. I, for one, am much relieved that is all cleared up.

MIAMI - A psychology professor accused of being a Cuban agent admitted Friday that he was a "collaborator" with Cuba's intelligence service, communicating with officials using a short-wave radio, sophisticated encryption techniques and a code name, "David."

Carlos Alvarez insisted, however, that he had distanced himself from the communist government by the time he confessed details of his work last year. He also denied being a Cuban agent and said he was never employed by that government.

"I was not an agent of the Cuban government. I was a collaborator, which is very different," the Florida International University professor testified.

"I was collaborating, basically, sharing insights and information with the Cuban government for some years," Alvarez said. "Information that I felt was pertinent."

Frankly, this is the kind of hairsplitting that many on the far left think constitutes a valid distinction. This is also one of the prime elements of propaganda. Making very, very fine distinctions which make no difference and insisting that they do.

Good luck with that, professor. There is another word (This word has not been used by me on this blog before today, incidentally).

Traitor: 1 : one who betrays another's trust or is false to an obligation or duty
2 : one who commits treason

Death By Numbers

In today's Washington Post, Samuel H. Preston and Emily Buzzell present a statistical study of how risky it is to serve in Iraq. Now, studies like this are of only limited use, but I think the authors are doing a credible effort to simply present straightforward analysis. The picture is not as grim as the media and the anti-war crowd would have you believe.

Between March 21, 2003, when the first military death was recorded in Iraq, and March 31, 2006, there were 2,321 deaths among American troops in Iraq. Seventy-nine percent were a result of action by hostile forces. Troops spent a total of 592,002 "person-years" in Iraq during this period. The ratio of deaths to person-years, .00392, or 3.92 deaths per 1,000 person-years, is the death rate of military personnel in Iraq.

How does this rate compare with that in other groups? One meaningful comparison is to the civilian population of the United States. That rate was 8.42 per 1,000 in 2003, more than twice that for military personnel in Iraq.

The comparison is imperfect, of course, because a much higher fraction of the American population is elderly and subject to higher death rates from degenerative diseases. The death rate for U.S. men ages 18 to 39 in 2003 was 1.53 per 1,000 — 39 percent of that of troops in Iraq. But one can also find something equivalent to combat conditions on home soil. The death rate for African American men ages 20 to 34 in Philadelphia was 4.37 per 1,000 in 2002, 11 percent higher than among troops in Iraq. Slightly more than half the Philadelphia deaths were homicides.

The death rate of American troops in Vietnam was 5.6 times that observed in Iraq. Part of the reduction in the death rate is attributable to improvements in military medicine and such things as the use of body armor. These have reduced the ratio of deaths to wounds from 24 percent in Vietnam to 13 percent in Iraq……

As I mentioned, studies like this are of limited use. Fundamentally, you are comparing apples and oranges. But it is instructive to see it spelled out this way. They also go into a number of demographic trends, the most interesting of which is this:

Identifying racial and ethnic differences in mortality is not straightforward because the Defense Department uses a different classification system for deaths than for deployments. Nevertheless, all attempts we have made to reconcile the two systems reach the same conclusion: Hispanics have a death risk about 20 percent higher than non-Hispanics, and blacks have a death risk about 30 to 40 percent lower than that of non-blacks. That low death rate appears to result from an overrepresentation of blacks in low-risk categories: For example, 19 percent of blacks in Iraq are women, compared with 9 percent of non-blacks, while 7 percent of blacks in Iraq are Marines, compared with 13 percent of non-blacks.

What they do not explain is why there appears to be higher rates among Hispanics. Are they more heavily represented in the combat arms? That would be an interesting clarification. Their other points would seem to indicate that but it is not explicitly stated.

Images Matter - Honest Images Matter Most

Susan Moeller, writing in the Washington Post, reminds us why images are important in wartime. She begins by explaining the sheer power of what is arguably the most famous photograph taken in the Second World War, the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima:

Countless publications duplicated the image. It was reproduced on a postage stamp, made into a statue, copied on untold numbers of commemorative items and turned into a Hollywood movie plot. Joe Rosenthal's photograph not only gave Americans back home an image of what was happening on the front lines, it persuasively argued that Americans were winning.

Rosenthal died last Sunday at the age of 94. When I interviewed him in the mid-1980s for a book I wrote on American war photography, he argued that he had no problem with his photograph being adopted as the icon of the war. What mattered, he said, is that the essential truth that his image captured had not been altered. World War II was the "good war." And Americans were the liberators. (Emphasis added).

Moeller goes on to describe the history of imagery in wartime. Of course such images are enormously powerful and enormously influential on public opinion. That is why it is vital the images be honest.

Images are powerful indicators of victory and defeat. The war on terrorism and the shooting wars in Iraq and Lebanon are increasingly being played out through images in print, on television and online. Blogs post photos of an angry President Bush and juxtapose them with those of a smiling Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader. Cable news programs show pictures of bleeding civilians in the streets of Iraq, which reverberate ominously after video images of British police patrolling Heathrow airport.

It's tempting to think that it's only in our brave new age of digital cameras and video phones, of 24-hour news channels and satellite uplinks, that images have mattered as much as they do — that because we can see more images from literally anywhere in real time, images somehow have gained in power relative to the humble word. It's not true.

Moeller's point is that images have become intrinsic to military strategy. Quite true. The manipulation of the imagery is where problems arise. People like David Perlmutter and the late Joe Rosenthal (I think Moeller, too) get that fundamental fact. People like Greg Mitchell do not.

The Naked And The Dead

May be going their separate ways in China in the future. Chinese authorities have arrested five strippers who performed at a funeral. Yup, strip shows at funerals may be a thing of the past.

Strip shows have been commonly used to attract more mourners to funerals, as villagers believe a crowded send-off brings more honor to the deceased, Xinhua news agency said.

But police took action after state television exposed the "obscene performances" at a funeral in Donghai county, Jiangsu province, with 200 people including children in attendance, it said.

"When the performance reached a climax, two performers started stripping and to show their charm. They even dragged audiences onto the stage to join them," Beijing News said, citing the television report.

Wealthier families in villages often employ two troupes of performers to try to draw a crowd at the funerals of their loved ones.

After the television report, the local government quickly issued an order to stop the practice and demanded that village committees have to report details of each funeral plan within 12 hours after a villager dies.

No word on whether the guest of honor enjoys the show, though. However, one can't help but wonder if this news item isn't somehow related to this one:

Chinese sex toys confiscated in Vietnam.

Police and market inspectors Thursday confiscated the illegal shipment, which included more than 10,000 tablets of Viagra, sex toys and sexual stimulants in the form of tablets, powder and liquid hidden in a truckload of onions, the Laborer newspaper said.

The newspaper quoted a truck driver Mai Ngoc Hoang as saying he was hired to transport the goods from the northern province of Lang Son bordering China to Ho Chi Minh City.

The mind boggles. Well ours do anyway.

Uh Oh….

Way back in June we brought our readers the timely warning of the Turkish Environment Minister to residents of Ankara. He recommended they stop eating kebab right away. At least until the python was found. Good news! The python has been found. Alive and un-kebabed!

The python had disappeared on June 10 after a security guard opened the hole used to feed the snake because the animal seemed to be in discomfort and walked away without shutting it.

The incident had forced the closure of parts of the zoo and led to a criminal investigation into whether it had been stolen.

An extensive search of the zoo grounds, with thermal cameras, turned up nothing and a cabinet minister suggested at the time that the snake might have ended up through a kebab merchant's meat grinder and advised against eating shish kebab.

On Thursday, zoo officials finally located the animal sleeping in the ventilation shaft of its cage when they noticed discarded snake skin outside the shaft, reports said.

Which now requires us to ask the question: What was Krazy Kemal's Kebab Korner serving exactly?

Another Fudamental Misunderstanding

Of what constitutes free speech. This time from an arbitrator, who happens to be a lawyer. One would presume he would have a better understanding. The Nebraska State Patrol dismissed a trooper in March for what they believed were very good reasons. The trooper in question had joined the Ku Klux Klan. The trooper and the union disagreed and took the matter to arbitration.

OMAHA, Neb. - Robert Henderson was not fired as a state trooper because he belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and another white supremacist group, authorities said. Instead, he was ousted because he could not uphold public trust while participating in such groups, they said.

An arbitrator disagreed, ordering the State Patrol to reinstate Henderson within 60 days and pay him back wages. The state went to court Friday to keep him off the force.

"The integrity of Nebraska's law enforcement is at risk," Attorney General Jon Bruning said at news conference in Lincoln. "The Constitution does not require law enforcement to employ anyone tied to the KKK."

In a summary of the causes for firing Henderson in March, the State Patrol said membership in the KKK "seriously compromised" Henderson's ability to do his job.

Henderson and the state troopers union appealed and, under its contract, went to binding arbitration, to get his job back.

Arbitrator Paul J. Caffera, a New York lawyer, last week overturned the firing.

He said Henderson was entitled to his First Amendment rights of free speech and that the state violated the troopers' contract, in part when it fired Henderson "because of his association with the Knights Party … and the Ku Klux Klan."

This is not a free speech issue. It is an employment issue - pure and simple. I do not think it is unreasonable to bar a public employee, especially a police officer, from being a member of an organization that promotes hate against groups of people.

More Stupid Headlines From AP

Today the headline reads: "Defying U.N., Iran opens nuclear reactor" (until they change it - which I bet they will). The article goes on to explain that Iran began operating a heavy water production plant.

KHONDAB, Iran - An Iranian plant that produces heavy water officially went into operation on Saturday, despite U.N. demands that Tehran stop the activity because it can be used to develop a nuclear bomb.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the plant, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes.

The announcement comes days before Thursday's U.N. deadline for Iran to stop uranium enrichment — which also can be used to create nuclear weapons — or face economic and political sanctions. Tehran has called the U.N. Security Council resolution "illegal" and said it won't stop enrichment as a precondition to negotiations.

Mohammed Saeedi, the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the heavy water plant is "one of the biggest nuclear projects" in the country, state-run television reported. He said the plant will be used in the pharmaceutical field and in diagnosing cancer.

The plant's top official, Manouchehr Madadi, said the facility has the ability to produce up to 16 tons of heavy water a year.

Iran has been a building a heavy water reactor near the plant for two years, but the reactor is not scheduled for completion until 2009.

If the AP would please, please, please just put a reporter and a headline writer on this story who actually knew what they were talking about, maybe embarrassments like this wouldn't keep happening.

What Iran opened is a plant to produce heavy water. This is an industrial facility. The product it produces is what is known as heavy water - this is separated from regular water where it naturally occurs as a tiny percentage. Heavy water contains deuterium oxide - all that means is that there is an extra neutron in the nucleus of the hydrogen molecule. The heavy water is useful in certain types of nuclear reactors, which are oddly enough, known as heavy water reactors. But the plant that produces heavy water is not a nuclear reactor in any way shape or form.

This is unpardonably stupid conflation of a number of different elements of a nuclear program. On the other hand it shows that Iran has absolutely no intention whatsoever of stopping it's program to build bombs.

UPDATE: The BBC has it somewhat better.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has inaugurated a new phase of a heavy water reactor project despite Western fears about its nuclear programme.

He said Iran posed no threat to other states, not even its "enemy" Israel.

Heavy water made at Arak will be used to cool a reactor being built that will create a plutonium by-product that could be used to make atomic warheads.

Observers say Iran's move aims to send a signal of defiance days ahead of a UN deadline to halt uranium enrichment.

The US says Tehran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, while Iran says it is building a reactor to supply the country with nuclear power.