From http://OpinionJournal.com

Best of the Web Today - November 23, 2001
By JAMES TARANTO
Our Friends the Pakistanis  http://rediff.com/us/2001/nov/23ny8.htm

A series of reports from the Indian press reminds us of the degree to which America's Pakistani allies may have been culpable in the attacks of Sept. 11. The Indo-Asian News Service quotes an Indian intelligence official: "According to reports based on information from the Northern Alliance, up to 300 Pakistan Army regulars could be holed up in Kunduz. There are reports that Pakistani officers of the rank of colonel are still in Kunduz," the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan.

Earlier, the Press Trust of India reported that  a pair of Pakistani helicopters  http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/nov/22ny7.htm  had evacuated a group of Pakistani military officers, including two brigadiers, from Kunduz. Indian intelligence officials "said these forces were part of Pakistani army units, seconded to Taleban ranks for command and control operations," PTI reports, adding:

*** QUOTE ***

Defence experts in Delhi wondered how Pakistani choppers could have entered Afghan air space and landed in Kunduz with the US Air Force having tight control over the Afghan skies.

They said the operation could not have been carried out without a nod from the US.

"It has to be done with US connivance and, therefore, poses vital questions about America's aims and objectives," they added.

*** END QUOTE ***

According to another PTI report,  the country formerly known as Burma  http://rediff.com/news/2001/nov/23pak.htm  has "granted sanctuary to two Pakistani nuclear scientists following a request from Islamabad." The scientists, Suleiman Asad and Mohammad Ali Mukhtar, helped develop Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program and are suspected of having ties to the al Qaeda terrorist organization. Islamabad assured authorities in TCFKAB "that the duo were not involved in any terrorist activity," PTI reports.

All this bolsters our  Tunku Varadarajan  http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/tvaradarajan/?id=95001492 's observation that it would be a mistake for America to view Pakistan's dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, as a true friend. He is, rather, an ally of convenience, doing Washington's bidding lest he be destroyed. At least Musharraf is smart enough to know which way the wind is blowing: The Associated Press reports Pakistan has  closed the Taliban's embassy in Islamabad  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011123/ts/pakistan_goodbye_taliban.html , and the IANS adds that Pakistan "is planning to open a mission in the eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad in a virtual recognition of the Northern Alliance."

Our Friends the Spanish  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20011122/ts/attack_spain_extradition_dc_1.html

Spain may refuse to extradite eight suspected al Qaeda members to America, because America has the death penalty. Spain has been a democracy for barely a quarter century after more than three decades of military dictatorship, but its leaders are imbued with such a sense of moral superiority that they feel free to dictate domestic policy to the United States. Does anyone know the Spanish word for "chutzpah"?

Somali Internet Shut Down  http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1672000/1672220.stm

Somalia's only Internet service provider, the Somalia Internet Co., has been forced to shut down after appearing on the U.S. list of terrorist sponsors, the BBC reports. Barkaat, a Somali telecom company, has also been shut. Seems to us the Beeb buried the lead, though. The real news here is that Somalia even had Internet access.

Unforgettable  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2246-2001Nov22.html

Have the Taliban been taking advice from Bill Clinton's old spin doctors? The Associated Press reports from Spinboldak, Afghanistan, that "a Taliban spokesman said the world should move on and forget about the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States." Here's the quote, from Syed Tayyab Agha: "You should forget the Sept. 11 attacks because now there is a new fighting against Muslims and Islam, and the international and global terrorists like America and Britain, they are killing daily our innocent people."

In response, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz says: "We are moving on, and I think before long the world will forget about the Taliban."

The Taliban have got to be the most ridiculous bunch of barbarians the world has seen in a long time. Last week, recall, top Talib Mullah Mohammad Omar  vowed to destroy the U.S.  http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001470 , then said he'd  leave Kandahar  http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001486 . This week he decided to stay put because of a  "prophetic dream."  http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001494  Now his underlings want us to "forget" an unforgettable atrocity. What can one do but laugh?

Even Sept. 11 is hardly evidence of the Taliban's fearsomeness. After all, the Taliban didn't blow up the World Trade Center; they merely rented out their country to the terrorists who did. That's enough to justify destroying the Taliban, but not enough to justify taking them seriously.

'Zoo Time'  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001530005-2001541922,00.html

The Times of London reports on the Taliban's treatment of the eight international aid workers they kidnapped:

*** QUOTE ***

Cruel games with a gun, maggoty food and regular parades of the women before their guards were part of life behind bars for the captives.

The women prisoners were a source of fascination for the jailers and their commanders. Every evening members of the Taleban Foreign Ministry, accompanied by a clutch of bearded strangers, would visit the cells and demand that the women stand by the bars. Wordlessly, they would stare at the women from head to toe. The prisoners--who were never touched or abused--called the session "zoo time".

The youngest of the German prisoners, Kati Jellinek, 29, was blonde and of particular interest to the Taleban. When she was arrested, five men with Kalashnikovs demanded that she pack, unpack and repack her underwear.

*** END QUOTE ***

Meanwhile, the  Associated Press  http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/11/20/gen.kabul.zoo.ap/index.html  reports Afghans don't treat actual zoo animals much better. Marijan, the lion at the Kabul zoo, has only one eye (just like Mullah Omar). Here's how it happened:

*** QUOTE ***

During the roaring '90s, after the Russians left, an Afghan guerrilla showing off for his friends jumped over the guard rail into the den and teased the lion. Marjan ate him.

The next day, the guerrilla's brother applied the Afghans' strict code of revenge. He tossed a hand grenade at the lion. Marjan, expecting food, pounced on it.

The blast put out his eye and nearly killed him.

On another black day, a different Afghan guerrilla amused himself by firing a rocket-propelled grenade at the elephant.

*** END QUOTE ***

No word whether the Taliban asked the elephant to forget about that indignity.

Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself  http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/11/23/war23.xml&sSheet=/portal/2001/11/23/ixport.html

The headline of a London Telegraph piece on the standoff in Kunduz proclaims: "US Fears Massacre of Foreign Fighters." Sure we do. About as much as the foreign fighters feared a massacre of U.S. civilians back in September.

An Enemy Surrenders  http://www.preventafghanwar.org/

The Web site PreventAfghanWar.org, set up to urge America to surrender to terrorism, has itself surrendered:

*** QUOTE ***

This web site was intended as a place to gather and focus the opinions of American [sic] who believe that going to war with Afghanistan, in an action like Desert Storm, is not the way for the United States to respond to the destruction of the World Trade Center and the other terrorists [sic] acts of September 11, 2001.

On October 8 the military action began. Then it was not clear if this is an American verses [sic] Afghanistan war or has evolved into a coalition of countries against terrorists based in Afghanistan. The situation changed significantly by November 14, 2001.

Events have seemed to render the purpose of this web site moot. War and now the displacement of the Afghanistan government by the Northern Aliance [sic] is becoming a fact. Therefore this web site is being taken down, at least for the time being.

*** END QUOTE ***

Our Friends the Oregonians  http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/21/national/21PORT.html

We  noted on Wednesday  http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001498#portland  that the Portland, Ore., police department is refusing to cooperate with the U.S. Justice Department's efforts to investigate terrorism. An article in the New York Times (link requires registration) offers a clue as to the motivations of Portland's acting police chief, Andrew Kirkland:

*** QUOTE ***

Mr. Kirkland, who is black, said his own background had also played a role in his decision. "I grew up in Detroit," he said, "and I hated the police with a passion. They were always stopping and bothering me."

*** END QUOTE ***

What kind of city would put someone who hates the police in charge of its police department? What's next, a commander in chief who loathes the military?

Stupidity Watch  http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4303746,00.html

One Humera Khan offers the following pearl of wisdom in London's Guardian:

*** QUOTE ***

While the Taliban were imposing their beliefs and reducing freedom on one side, the same can be said of the male-dominated and often misogynistic fashion industry on the other. The question of which is the more ruthless form of persuasion, the lashes of the Taliban or the multimillion-pound advertising flashes of the fashion industry, remains a moot point.

*** END QUOTE ***

'Extremist Relations'   http://www.time.com/time/asia/news/daily/0,9754,184955,00.html

The Asian edition of Time magazine carries a charming report on post-Taliban sexual liberation in Afghanistan. Najib, a 20-year-old Mazar-e-Sharif man, is waiting for his "one true love" to return; her family fled to Uzbekistan when the Taliban took over:

*** QUOTE ***

The pair used to meet regularly, sometimes holding hands, and once just before the Taliban came Shabnam spent the night with Najib at his home. "She wanted to have extremist relations," he explains. "But I controlled myself. I told her I was not ready. She was very upset, but then I pampered her and she began to smile again. In the end, we just embraced." He muses over Shabnam's voracious sexual appetite. "Women are very strange--you cannot understand them." When they meet, Najib says, they would just look at each other and shake hands. "Islam does not permit kissing," he pauses, "but maybe I won't be so holy one day."

*** END QUOTE ***

Less liberated are the U.S. Navy women on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, who, the  Washington Post  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A852-2001Nov21.html  reports, are complaining about a visit by six Miami Dolphins cheerleaders aimed at boosting the morale of the ship's men. "It's good for the cheerleaders to see an aircraft carrier. But it's not good for the men," gripes Shenandoah Hawkesworth. "They've been at sea for close to 65 days, and their hormones are definitely on high."

John F. Who?  http://www.interglobal.org/weblog/archives/00000155.htm

InstaPundit.com cites fellow Web logger  Rand Simberg  http://www.interglobal.org/weblog/archives/00000155.htm 's observation that, as InstaPundit puts it, yesterday "is the anniversary of JFK's assassination, and nobody seems to have noticed. He's right; I'd forgotten it myself. This seems to be of deep social significance." Actually, the  Washington Post  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1206-2001Nov22.html  noticed, but it seems to have been alone.

The D.C. Police, Hard at Work  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64342-2001Nov21.html

The Washington Post's "District Crime Watch" column yesterday carried the following report:

*** QUOTE ***

Sixth St., 1600 block, 2:40 a.m. Nov. 5. Despite being told to stop, a man fondled a female acquaintance sleeping in a bed with him.

*** END QUOTE ***

It's good to know that even in this age of terrorism, the police in our nation's capital are as vigilant as ever about serious crime.

(Thanks to Russell Lewis, Christian Peck, Michiel Visser, Shelley Taylor, Brian O'Donnell, Steven Wallach, Reid Collins, Amanda Stoermer, C.E. Dobkin, Richard Miniter and Ian Gilbert. If you have a tip, write us at  Review & Outlook  mailto:opinionjournal@wsj.com : American colleges don't require history (link requires registration).
- Peggy Noonan  http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=95001505 : What we've learned since Sept. 11.
- Daniel Henninger  http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/dhenninger/?id=95001501 : Now, onto Christmas.

And on the Taste page:
- Review & Outlook  http://opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=95001509 : How the tax code makes it hard to feed the hungry.
- Melanie Kirkpatrick  http://opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=95001511 : Thanksgiving during wartime.
- Amy Finnerty  http://opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=95001508 : Have yourself an ambivalent little Christmas.
- Tony & Tacky  http://opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=95001510 : Shrinks get religion, Flight 93 heroes get a memorial.
- Francis Rocca  http://opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=95001512 : Muslims, Catholics improve their relations.
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