CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Iraq's Draft Constitution Dominated By Islam

The Associated Press reports that Iraq's draft constitution is dominated by Islam:

The draft states no law will be approved that contradicts "the rules of Islam" a requirement that could affect women's rights and set Iraq on a course far different from the one envisioned when U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

"Islam is the official religion of the state and is the main source of legislation," reads the draft published in the government newspaper Al-Sabah. "No law that contradicts with its rules can be promulgated."

Of course Iraq's constitution will be heavily influenced by Islam. But I am heartened by Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, saying that Iraq would never become an Islamic state, but would enshrine federalism, democracy and pluralism:

"Human rights and individual liberties, including religious freedom, will be at the heart of the new Iraq," the president said at his residence in Baghdad.

In another report, the Associated Press indicated that because the draft constitution gives Islam such a major role in Iraqi civil law, women could lose rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance.

Most worrying for women's groups has been the section on civil rights in the draft constitution, which some feel would significantly roll back women's rights under a 1959 civil law enacted by a secular regime.

In the copy obtained by AP on Monday, Article 19 of the second chapter says "the followers of any religion or sect are free to choose their civil status according to their religious or sectarian beliefs."

Shiite Muslim leaders have pushed for a stronger role for Islam in civil law but women's groups argue that could base legal interpretations on stricter religious lines that are less favorable toward women.

The New York Times reports that the U.S. will work to guarantee the rights of Iraqi women:

With less than three weeks to go before the country's permanent constitution is supposed to be completed, the new ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, indicated that the United States would play an active and, if need be, public role in brokering what he called a "national compact" among the country's ethnic and sectarian groups.

In remarks at his residence inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, Mr. Khalilzad spoke twice of the need to avert a civil war, a possibility that Iraqi and American officials speak of here with growing frequency. To reach an accommodation, he said, it would be necessary for each of the main ethnic and religious groups to "accept less than its maximum aspirations."

[. . .]

In his remarks, Mr. Khalilzad said he expected Iraq's new constitution to enshrine the principle of "equality before the law for men and women." Those remarks seemed an admonition to the Iraqi drafters of the constitution, which in one recent version allowed issues like marriage, inheritance and divorce to be governed by strict interpretations of Koranic law, known as Shariah. That would almost certainly result in a curtailment of some of the rights long held by women here.

Mr. Khalilzad left little doubt what he thought of proposals to turn over family matters to religious law. "A society cannot achieve all its potential if it does things that prevents - weakens prospects of - half of its population to make the fullest contribution that it can," he said.

I'm sure that when it is finally put before the Iraqi voters there will much that some of us won't like about Iraq's new constitution. We have to keep in mind that Iraq's population is nearly entirely Islamic. We can provide the Iraqis the opportunity for freedom. What they choose to do with it has to be left up to the Iraqis. We can't force our ideas of separation of church and state and Jeffersonian democracy on others in the name of freedom.

While I may wish some things were different about the new constitution drafted by the Iraqis, I take some satisfaction from the fact that the terrorists dislike the draft constitution more than I do.

According to the Associated Press, on Tuesday "Iraq's most feared terrorist group warned Sunni Arabs against taking part in the October referendum on the constitution, saying their participation would make them infidels and therefore subject to the same treatment as occupation forces."

Discovery Returns To Space

Discovery rocketed into the sky this morning returning the space shuttle to space for the first time since the loss of Columbia.

UPDATE: FoxNews reports that video of Discovery's launch shows the shuttles may still have debris problems:

Video showed what appeared to be a large piece of debris flying off the external fuel tank two minutes into the flight. The object did not seem to hit the orbiter. Footage also showed what might have been at least two light-colored objects flying off Discovery as the shuttle cleared the launch pad.

Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale raised the possibility that the light-colored objects were harmless pieces of paper that protect Discovery's thrusters before launch. But he insisted it was too soon to say what the cameras may have picked up, and he gave assurances the multitude of images will be examined frame by frame in the coming hours and days.

Right: An unidentified piece of debris is visible (Centre L) near the external tank and below the bottom of the space shuttle Discovery in this view from a television camera mounted on the external fuel tank after solid rocket booster separation.

Radio Host Says Islam 'A Terrorist Organization'

The Washington Post reports that a Washington D.C. talk show host, WMAL-AM's Michael Graham called Islam "a terrorist organization" that is "at war with America."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), asked the radio station to reprimand Graham and urged American Muslims to "contact the station's advertisers to express their concerns about the host's Islamophobic views."

WMAL backed Graham, with Operations Director Randall Bloomquist, saying that Graham's comments were "amped up" but justified within the context of the program.

According to the Post, the kerfuffle started during a discussion of the Muslim community's response to recent acts of terrorism:

Graham suggested the fault lies with Muslims generally because religious leaders and followers haven't done enough to condemn and root out extreme elements. "The problem is not extremism," Graham said, according to both CAIR and the station. "The problem is Islam." He also said, "We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam."

In his weekly column, Graham makes no apologies:

THE TRAGEDY OF ISLAM:

I take no pleasure in saying it. It pains me to think it. I could possibly lose my job in talk radio over admitting it. But it is the plain truth:

Islam is a terror organization.

For years, I’ve been trying to give the world’s Muslim community the benefit of the doubt, along with the benefit of my typical-American’s complete disinterest in their faith. Before 9/11, I knew nothing about Islam except the greeting “asalaam alaikum,” taught to me by a Pakistani friend in Chicago.

Immediately after 9/11, I nodded in ignorant agreement as President Bush assured me that “Islam is a religion of peace.”

But nearly four years later, nobody can defend that statement. And I mean “nobody.”

[. . .]

Another fact about the state of Islam is that a majority of Muslims in countries like Jordan continue to believe that suicide bombings are legitimate. Still another is the poll reported by a left-leaning British paper than only 73 percent of British Muslims would tell police if they knew about a planned terrorist attack.

I wouldn't call Islam a terrorist organization but I don't think Islam has done nearly enough to condemn terrorism. CAIR should follow the example of the Islamic Commission of Spain and issue a fatwa against the terrorists. Links to both the original Spanish version and an English translation of the Islamic Commission's fatwa are available here.

Discovery Ready For Launch

Discovery is scheduled to be launched at 10:39 a.m.

Fueling has been completed and the crew is on board.

The errant fuel gauge that caused the launch to be scrubbed two weeks ago tested was reported to be working after filling the external tank was filled with 526,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen. It's good the troublesome gauge is working because NASA seems willing to bend rules to launch Discovery even though the sensor malfunction is still unexplained:

NASA had the paperwork ready to go in case the equipment trouble reappeared and the space agency's managers decided to press ahead with the launch with just three of the four fuel gauges working. That would mean deviating from a rule instituted after the 1986 Challenger explosion.

"It's an acceptable risk and actually it's quite a low one," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in an interview with The Associated Press late Monday afternoon. If the same fuel gauge problem occurs, "we would be good to go," he said. "If we see some other signature than what we saw before, then we're not going. We're absolutely not going."

The fuel gauges are designed to prevent the main engines from running too long or not long enough, in case the fuel tank is leaking or some other major breakdown occurs. An engine shutdown at the wrong time could prove catastrophic, forcing the astronauts to attempt a risky emergency landing overseas, or leading to a ruptured engine.

[. . .]

Only two gauges, or sensors, are needed to do the job. But since NASA's return to space in 1988, the agency has decreed that all four have to work.

Go Discovery!

Things Fall Apart : Teamsters and Service Workers Leave AFL-CIO

Reuters reports that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union made good their threat and broke away from the AFL-CIO today. The two breakaway unions represent 3.2 million workers.

The Teamsters and the Service Workers are only two of a seven union dissident group that want a greater focus on organizing workers:

"We have been disappointed over the last 10 years with the decline in membership. The AFL-CIO idea is to keep throwing money at politicians. We say no," Teamsters president James Hoffa said. "We are going to do something new."

According to Reuters, other unions, including Laborers International of North America, UNITE HERE (the textile, garment, hotel employees), the United Food and Commercial Workers, and the United Farm Workers, may also secede from the AFL-CIO in the coming days. The Carpenters and Joiners International, broke away from the AFL-CIO four years ago.

The AFL-CIO's falling apart is bad news for the Democratic party, which relies on unions for money and manpower.

Illinois' Democratic Senator Durbin urged the AFL-CIO convention to maintain its unity:

Business interests may think the divide will make organized labor vulnerable.

"We have news for them. It's not going to happen," he said to cheers. "Our unity is our strength. We will stand together and fight for working families."

I have a hard time taking seriously anything Defeatist Democratic Senator and Democratic Whip Durbin says after he suggested the treatment of Guantanamo detainees is equivalent to atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and former Cambodian leader Pol Pot, even if he sort of apologized a week later. Nevertheless, in the long run, more competition for organized labor may well breath new life into a dying institution.

Liberals Are Fighting The Wrong Battle

In today's New York Times Magazine, Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University, advises liberals that they should reconsider their fearful irrational overreaction to President Bush's opportunity to reshape the Supreme Court.

The court is far from all-powerful and all-determining. And for this reason, it may be unwise for liberals to spend tens of millions of dollars to fight largely symbolic Supreme Court confirmation battles that they will probably lose in the end. Instead, they should be preparing legislative campaigns to protect abortion rights and religious neutrality and devoting their energies to recapturing the two branches that really govern America: namely, the White House and Congress.

Professor Rosen, apparently writing before President Bush announced his choice of Judge Roberts, says that even the transformation of the Supreme Court by the appointment of "hard-core conservatives in the mode of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas," would not be the doomsday scenario the liberals claim.

What's more, if the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade or its school-prayer decisions tomorrow, abortion wouldn't become illegal across America, and prayer wouldn't become mandatory. Instead, the states and Congress would have the power to regulate abortion or to allow prayer if they chose to do so. That means that the most controversial questions in American life would ultimately be settled in the court of public opinion, regardless of what the Supreme Court says.

[. . .]

But even if the court voted to strike down affirmative action in higher education, it is hardly obvious that affirmative action would end in a dramatic stroke. When the court, with O'Connor's blessing, questioned the constitutionality of affirmative action in public contracting in 1995, political support for affirmative action in the Clinton and Bush administrations and in Congress ensured that many federal contracting set-asides continued anyway, with only slight revisions.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the over-the-top emotional rhetoric about Judge Roberts was toned down and there was a calm rational debate about Judge Roberts' qualifications? Don't hold your breath.

Traveling

No posting before Sunday. We are off to visit our daughter at camp.

Four Explosions Confirmed On Tubes and A Bus

MSNBC Reports London's police chief Ian Blair told reporters there were four explosions or attempted explosions. The explosions were reported at three subway stations and a bus:

Police announced they were sending emergency teams to the Warren Street, Shepherds Bush and Oval stations after reports at lunch time of unspecified incidents. One witness told Sky TV that another subway passenger told him a backpack exploded at the Warren Street station and there were reports of smoke.

Sky TV, quoting a police source, said the reported explosions were detonators rather than bombs themselves. However, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair later referred to the explosions as bombs smaller than those used on July 7.

Prime Minister Tony Blair canceled his afternoon appointments as the developments unfolded.

The BBC is now reporting that Police chief Sir Ian Blair appealed to Londoners to stay where they were and said the transport system was effectively being shut down:

One person was injured at Warren Street. There were reports the injured person may have been holding a rucksack containing the detonator.

[. . .]

Police said armed officers had been deployed to University College Hospital after an incident.

The whole of the Northern Line has been suspended, along with the Victoria Line and the Hammersmith and City line.

[. . .]

A number of other stations were closed including Westminster tube station, Waterloo tube station and King's Cross Thameslink. There were also reports that St Paul's tube and Oxford Circus tube station were closed.

Tony Blair cancelled events in the afternoon and will be attending a meeting of the Cobra committee along with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

more at The Command Post and Wizbang.

3 London Underground Stations Evacuated

There are reports that three London Tube stations have been evacuated and an incident on a bus in east London:

The BBC:

Emergency services have been called to three Tube stations after "incidents", Scotland Yard said.
Police confirmed they had been called to Warren Street, Oval and Shepherd's Bush stations.

There have been reports of smoke coming from two of the stations and all three have been evacuated.

The whole of the Northern Line has been suspended, along with the Victoria Line and the Hammersmith and City. There are no reports of any casualties.

Police also confirmed that emergency service personnel have responded to reports of an incident on a route 26 bus in Hackney Road.

[. . .]

Sosiane Mohellavi, 35, was travelling from Oxford Circus to Walthamstow when she was evacuated from a train at Warren Street.

"I was in the carriage and we smelt smoke - it was like something was burning.

"Everyone was panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking."

The Associated Press:

On Thursday, the Warren Street, Shepherds Bush and Oval stations were evacuated. Emergency services personnel were called to the stations, police said.

"People were panicking. But very fortunately the train was only 15 seconds from the station," witness Ivan McCracken told Sky news.

McCracken said he smelled smoke at the Warren Street station, and people were panicking and coming into his carriage. He said he spoke to an Italian man who was comforting a woman after the evacuation.

"He said that a man was carrying a rucksack and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack," McCracken said.

"The man then made an exclamation as if something had gone wrong. At that point everyone rushed from the carriage."

Michele has more at The Command Post.

UPDATE: Reuters:

London's entire underground network was reported to be closed down and streets were cordoned off near the incidents.

But a source at the underground transport company said one nail bomb exploded at Warren Street underground station. There were also unconfirmed reports of a shooting.

One witness said he was told by a fellow passenger that a small explosion blew apart a rucksack on one underground train.

Space Tourism - Open for Business at Kennedy Space Center

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Space Adventures Ltd., a privately held company that helped send two civilians to the international space station for $20 million each, has five consultants working in the Kennedy Space Center for. Space Adventures hopes to send tourists to space for regular suborbital flights:

"We're in the infancy stage of program development," company spokeswoman Stacey Tearne said Monday. The goal is to start commercial suborbital flights -- high enough to qualify for a trip to outer space, but not a complete orbit of the earth -- in 2008 or 2009.

The company allready provide other space-oriented adventures, such as on-ground "spaceflight training" in Russia and "zero gravity" flights on airplanes flying out of Fort Lauderdale.

Space Adventures has more than 100 reservations for future suborbital flights. The cost is $102,000 each and requires a $10,000 deposit.