Category: News

Cairo ‘Barely’ Held Arafat’s Ceremony
Zaman
11.13.2004 Saturday
Due to a lack of organization, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s funeral
ceremony ended as fiasco in Cairo yesterday.
A Finnish Representative, an Arab Foreign Minister and top levels of
a Turkish delegation including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP) leader Deniz Baykal as well as Organization of Islamic Conference
(OCI) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Islamoglu had trouble entering the
tent set up for the ceremony. After a hustle, the dignitaries were
finally let in. Delegates from Germany, Malaysia and Armenia missed
the ceremony altogether due to heavy airport traffic.
Slovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan, who was visiting Turkey, was also
included in the Turkish delegation to Cairo. The Palestinian Ambassador
to Ankara, Fuat Yasin, also missed the funeral ceremony. Yasin
expressed his sorrow saying, “This is a big scandal. This is such a
bitter thing.”
While Turkish top levels were lucky ones to gain entrance to the
ceremony, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fisher missed the ceremony,
as his plane was kept waiting in the air for an hour. Similarly,
Armenian delegation also missed the ceremony due to airport traffic.
The Finnish Representative, meanwhile, was not permitted to enter
the ceremony since he “did not have an identity tag”.
When the Egyptian protocol, caught unprepared by the funeral, forgot
accreditiation, protocol officials of guest delegations and their
chief bodyguards were not let into the ceremony. World leaders in
the procession who had followed Arafat’s casket for nearly 400 meters
were surprised when they were told, “the ceremony is over here.” Some
leaders waited in the cars while others chatted in groups.
11.13.2004 Cumali Onal Cairo

Former Burbank truck driver arrested
San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Nov 13 2004
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Burbank truck driver was arrested in
Armenia and returned to Southern California four years after a vicious
freeway road-rage killing in Universal City.
Shahen Keshishian, 32, one of the FBI’s most-wanted, was arrested this
week by Armenian authorities at his apartment in Yerevan, authorities
said Thursday. FBI agents and Glendale police in Armenia on unrelated
business located Keshishian.
Armenian authorities made the arrest, for overstaying his visa,
and Keshishian was immediately handed over to U.S. authorities.
“I am just so elated,” police homicide Detective Martin Pinner said
after returning Wednesday with Keshishian. “This arrest, I do believe,
came as a result of policemen talking to policemen, and massive
cooperation with other agencies in two different countries.”
The FBI said the arrest was a warning to criminals who have fled
the country.
“This arrest should send the message to individuals who flee to Armenia
and other countries that it’s not a safe haven,” FBI spokeswoman
Laura Eimiller said.
Keshishian was charged with murder for allegedly running down freelance
film editor Michael Craven, 44, of suburban Canoga Park with a black
Chevrolet Suburban on April 29, 2000. The killing came after a road
rage confrontation along the Hollywood Freeway.
Craven had been driving on the freeway after dinner with a friend
when the Suburban pulled up and eggs were thrown. One of the drivers
had apparently cut in front of the other.
Authorities say Craven pulled to the side of the freeway just south
of Barham Boulevard to confront the suspect, and the Suburban driver
stopped behind him. A passenger in the Suburban then threw a beer
bottle at Craven’s Jeep.
Craven was then run over.

DefenceTalk.com
Nov 13 2004
Defence & Strategic
The Division of the Balkans and the Black Sea Region
Willard Payne
Nov 12, 2004, 15:45 |
An Invitation to Invasion
With the decision, led by the Organization of Security and
Cooperation in Europe, headquartered in Vienna, to recognize the
division of Yugoslavia and the newly independent states and the
creation of Moldova with the break-up of the Soviet Union, all done
in the name of the “New World Order”, it set in motion a chain
reaction which will lead to further instability and conflict beyond
what the world has seen already. One of the few dissenting voices was
that of the then US Secretary of State James Baker, who stated
publicly in 1991, that he refused to recognize the independence of
Slovenia, “under any circumstances”. There was also the Belgian who
was Secretary- General of NATO in 1990 I believe his name was Willy
Claes, who mentioned that the threat to the West and to international
security was Islam. Within a year he was removed by a scandal never
to be mentioned again, as if he never existed. I always suspected it
was arranged by those in the OSCE who wanted the staged crisis in the
Balkans as a showcase for the New World Order which I assume they
thought could be solved by a diplomatic show, something Vienna loves
to orchestrate. And there was a British expert who observed, with the
willful division of Czechoslovakia, that Eastern and Central Europe
are in danger of descending into tribalism. There is no greater abyss
to march into.
There was another interested party in these proceedings, Islam. In
the first half of the 1990’s, the initial phase of the Balkan front,
during one of the winters when there was a pause in the fighting due
to the weather, an article mentioned Serbia having the best weapon
contacts in the region. This is the factor Vienna failed to take into
consideration, being so caught up in the illusion of their grand
design. The impact of weapon dealers and outside influences and in
this instance representing a region which also has long festering
disputes with the West and would immediately realize the convenience
of using the Balkans and Black Sea region to keep the West busy which
in turn would reduce the West’s military presence in the
Mediterranean not to mention Central Asia, the main front. An article
stated Serbia was receiving weapon support from Libya. Iran also
evinced an interest by establishing formal relations with Croatia in
1992 and announcing since then that Croatia was their entry into
Central Europe. Some in the West realized the hidden meaning. Germany
has since sent to Poland Leopard tanks and the US helped Poland to
upgrade her air force. Iran has also established a very busy embassy
in downtown Sarajevo, which puts them in an extremely strategic
position to monitor and assist the Islamic fighters, who have arrived
there to do more than just help Bosnia and to assist in coordinating
the Islamic war effort with nationalistic forces. A few months ago
Iran’s, extremely eager Defense Minister Adm. Ali Shamkani paid a
call on Warsaw most likely to look over Poland’s new equipment. His
visit is an indication Iran views everything from Macedonia to
Moldova and beyond as up for grabs and that a lot of groups,
nationalists, are readily available, from any religious ritual, to
express their hatred not only of Vienna but also those who support
Vienna. This may partly explain Iran and Saudi Arabia’s reason for
using Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in their current threats
against Rome.
Unfortunately Europe has a long Imperial history of promoting wars in
the Balkans to use as a military playground, a display of
international prominence. This has kept the entire region in a cross
fire of conflicting spheres of influence and now is showing signs of
alienating the people the OSCE attempted to impress and manipulate.
When NATO decided to use Pres. Slobodan Milosevic once again, as they
did in 1994, when Milosevic’s support of the Bosnian Serbs helped
justify the NATO bombing campaign that year, the year I believe World
War III began, NATO marched further into the abyss with the bombing
of Serbia/Kosovo in 1999. NATO simply ignored the UN which gave a
further indication this was not the same organization that was
established 50 years previously to convince nations in and around the
north Atlantic to no longer go to war with each other, as Europe had
been doing for the 1,000 years since the death of Charlemagne.
The bombing alienated Greece, which for centuries had close relations
with Serbia since the two follow the same Orthodox ritual. There is
also regional identity, which may explain why a year or two later,
Greece and Turkey conducted a joint peace mission to the Middle East.
It was now Southeastern Europe as opposed to the rest of Europe
welcoming the invitation from Islam under Persian direction.
It was either late in 2000 or early 2001when the news mention Turkey
and Iran were comparing intelligence information but the announcement
did not say about where. During February a six-month ethnic Albanian
rebellion began and nearly defeated the Macedonian government. It was
admitted in the news the Macedonian military was little more than
well-armed policemen who were no stranger to corrupt privileges. The
head of state was actually on the phone, in a panic, to the head of
the European Union. During the fighting, the former British
negotiator Lord David Owen stated publicly NATO should leave the
region. What was so significant about his statement is that he used
to be one of Britain’s lead negotiators in the early 1990’s during
the first part of the Balkan crisis and now he seemed to realize the
trap NATO and the West had fallen into. The US dispatched its new
National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice to the Ukraine on a
non-agenda crisis trip because the Ukraine was eager to arm Skopje
with virtually anything, which could have widened the conflict.
Articles admitted Ukraine was actually controlled by a weapons mafia.
Though mountainous and poor, with only two million people and an
average monthly salary of $155.00 per person, Macedonia sits astride
a strategic crossroads on the Balkans peninsula encompassed by
neighbors on all sides who ruled it in the past or coveted its
territory. Throughout its history it was occupied by Greeks, Romans,
Bulgarians, Byzantines, Serbs and Islamic Ottoman Turks, who ruled
for 500 years, but never eradicated Christianity. Its disintegration
along the ethnic fault lines, that are only to clear on the map
today, could trigger a new carve-up of the Balkans, propelling the
one-third Albanian majority towards union with Albania to the west or
Kosovo to the north.
The Macedonia majority, a family of southern Slavs, would be tempted
to seek shelter for their abbreviated state in the protection of
Serbia or Bulgaria, larger societies whose language and religion they
share. As “domino” theory predicts, the ethnic Albanian majority of
Kosovo and reluctant Serbs in Bosnia would see any failure to knit
together a multi-ethnic society in Macedonia as justification to
seize their own destinies back from the hands of Western powers.
Such a chain reaction, the European fears, would mean a reversion to
the Balkan cauldron of the early 20th century, an unstable
nationalist jigsaw of disputed borders and latent conflict, a recipe
for seething anarchy requiring permanent supervision. Preserving
territorial integrity has been the foundation of Western foreign
policy since Yugoslavia began its violent breakup in 1991, but a
policy often in retreat. This is why Iran and Turkey decided to help
the West find reasons to remain committed because it is a drain on
military resources.
When Macedonia declared independence its choice of name so angered
EU-member Greece, whose northern province carries the same ancient
label, European recognition, was held up for three years. A Greek
blockade of petroleum and other supplies showed how easy it was to
bring the dependent, landlocked country to its knees. Recent violence
and demonstrations have shown that the issue of stability is far from
settled and no one stands to benefit more from further instability
than Iran and the Jihad.
Moldova, formed in 1992, with the collapse of the Soviet Union into
15 nations, Moldova was part of the second group of Soviet successor
states. It comprised the nine that formed part of non-NATO Europe.
This also included four Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Do not be ashamed to be
confused, they are in a constant state of flux and they are by no
means by themselves though I suspect that is what they preferred.
Individual international recognition controlling what was left of the
state economy and a thriving undeclared underground black economy.
This is basically what virtually every nation that has surfaced after
the Soviet Union became and in Moldova’s case history Russia had to
establish regional peacekeeping forces, the 14th Army under Lt. Gen.
Alexandre Lebed to limit the fighting between Moldova and the
breakaway trans-Dnestr region, mostly inhabited by ethnic Russians
and Ukrainians. Russia provided arms and troops to the insurgents,
helping them to defeat the Moldovan army in several battles, notably
that for Bendery in June 1992. A cease-fire was signed the following
month by Pres. Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Moldova’s Pres. Mircea
Snegur.
For the next 12 years international efforts to resolve the crisis
have failed with the current controversy revolving around a language
and now energy dispute with the usual cycle of regional interest.
What has enlarged the conflict is the greater war against terror in
other words Islam. The US and other nations adjacent to Moldova have
provided military facilities for operations in the Middle East so
stability is obviously of paramount importance while at the same time
Iran has been signing substantial economic agreements, memorandums of
understanding, with every nation in the Black Sea region. The
economic dimension of the Jihad will be felt very heavily here. If
Iran has enough military successes in the region the entire economic
dialogue will be dictated by Tehran.
International initiatives have encountered withering criticism from a
range of international and local analysts and Moldovan
nongovernmental organizations fearful that the OSCE plan would turn
Moldova into a satellite of Russia. Prospects for a breakthrough
appear slim. The Transnistrian authorities are reluctant to lift
their authoritarian controls or abandon lucrative smuggling
activities that have left Transnistria isolated but for its lifeline
to Russia and its leaders banned from traveling to Western countries.
Meanwhile, a significant exodus of adult Moldovans is taking place
owing to endemic corruption at the elite level and the contraction of
the economy. The country’s population is a scant 39.5% of the size it
was in 1990. Many people swapped professional jobs at home for menial
ones in Western Europe in order to earn enough to support their
families.
With the corruption at the top and the serious regional rivalry
around them the chances for these countries surviving from Macedonia
to Moldova, under their current boundaries, or any other, is
virtually non-existent. Moscow probably concluded a long time ago
that peaceful solutions to the arrogant, self-contained nationalities
exist only in a dream world. The nightmarish consequences, which will
become more apparent before the end of the year, will result in the
re-establishment of the Russian hegemony whose hard currency of
financing comes from, as always the West, principally Berlin. The
Berlin-Moscow spectrum and the serious industrial concern behind it,
realizes this crescent of crisis can only be solved militarily.
During the war reliable local leaders will assert themselves and if
they have enough local military support will survive to represent
their provinces in the post-World War III climate.
Of course the post-war climate will not be one of universal peace but
one of militaristic stability. The Jihad would have run its course. I
cannot see more than two years of all out fighting starting with this
one. When Tehran realizes it cannot defeat Moscow they will make a
deal which will end at least most of the fighting. They will probably
call it a new partnership with Moscow being the most prominent.
About the author: Willard Payne is a consultant and analyst in
international affairs, specializing in extreme situations. He is a
member of US Naval Institute and President’s Circle of Chicago
Council on Foreign Relations. Willard holds a degree in history from
Western Illinois University and currently he is running Night Watch
Information Service, a broad range news-analysis service.
URL of this article:
–Boundary_(ID_de1synzvgIZ0uPBSzbJAvA)–

Ve3d.com
IGN Insider
Nov 13 2004
The Pirates of Pirates!
Part two focuses on William Kidd and Jean Lafitte.
November 12, 2004 – If you checked in with us yesterday, you saw the
kickoff of our Pirates! feature. In it we detailed Stede Bonnet and
Blackbeard, two of the pirates you’ll be sharing the seas with when
Firaxis and Atari ship Pirates! later this month.
We continue the feature today by taking a look at pirate/pirate
hunter William Kidd and Jean Lafitte.
William Kidd
Captain Kidd’s story serves as a cautionary tale, warning of the
dangers of privateeringand of the blurry line between that occupation
and outright piracy.
In December, 1695, a privateering vessel named the Adventure Galley
was launched at Deptford, England, on the Thames River. The ship was
to sail around Africa and destroy pirates operating in the Red Sea
and to harass French shipping there. She was commanded by William
Kidd, an experienced captain and privateer.
The Galley’s maiden voyage was beset by ill luck and delay. Upon
departure Kidd promptly lost almost half of his crew to the English
navy’s press gangs and was forced to make up the missing men by
recruiting the dregs and scum of New York harbor. It took five long
months for Kidd to make the voyage around Africa, and on arrival he
immediately lost another fifty men to a tropical disease.
By the time he reached the Red Sea the surviving crewmen were almost
in open mutiny and Kidd was ready to resort to almost any means to
keep them in line. Unfortunately, most of the French shipping had
been driven out of the area, and all Kidd encountered were neutral
vessels. But Kidd was desperate, probably fearing for his life, and
he attacked and captured a number of neutrals, believing (or hoping)
that ambiguities in their ownership and papers made them legitimate
prizes.
On January 30th of 1698, Kidd encountered the Quedah Merchant. Owned
by Armenians and flying under false French colors, the Merchant was
one of the richest prizes ever taken at sea. Kidd was enormously
pleased with his good fortune – until he discovered that the Merchant
had an English captain, which made his attack an act of outright
piracy. In horror, Kidd ordered that the ship be freed, but his crew
angrily refused. Instead, they sailed the ships to the African island
of Madagascar and divided the plunder (surprisingly, they gave Kidd a
full privateer captain’s portion of 40 shares). Then all but a
handful of men deserted Kidd for another pirate in the area.
Convinced that he was an innocent victim of the actions of his
mutinous crew, Kidd took the remainder of his men back to New
England, where he hid some of his treasure before reporting to the
local authorities. The authorities made Kidd reveal where he had
hidden the treasure, then shipped him back to England in irons.
After rotting in prison for a year, Kidd was put on trial. He was
quickly found guilty of piracy and sentenced to be hanged.
Even then his bad luck didn’t desert him: the rope broke and it took
his executioners two tries to kill him.
(Incidentally, this is the only known instance of a pirate burying
any substantial amount of treasure. Most everybody else spent their
loot as quickly as they got it.)
Jean Lafitte
Jean Lafitte was born sometime around 1778. He and his older brother,
Pierre, went to sea at an early age; somewhere off the west coast of
Africa the two quarreled with their captain, and began new careers as
privateers. An extremely brave, skilled, dashingly-handsome and
personable young man, Jean Lafitte quickly earned himself a
captaincy. After a good run in the Indian Ocean, the Lafittes moved
on to the Caribbean, where they established a base of operations on
Grand Terre, an island in the mouth of the Mississippi. Lafitte ran a
tidy little criminal empire in the Louisiana bayous. His men ranged
far and wide over the Caribbean while he and his brother fenced much
of the loot in New Orleans, where they became something akin to folk
heroes.
When the US took possession of New Orleans, the new Governor tried to
have the rogues arrested, but without success. With intimate
knowledge of the swamps and bayous of Louisiana – as well as the
enthusiastic support of the locals of New Orleans – the Lafittes were
virtually untouchable.
In 1812 the US declared war on England. An admirer of the United
States, Jean Lafitte offered his services to the US Governor in
return for full amnesty for him and his men, but the Governor
declined the offer. When the British invasion was imminent, the
Governor launched a surprise attack against Grand Terre, driving
Lafitte and his men into the dismal swamps.
Lafitte’s men wanted to join the British to exact revenge against the
Americans, but Lafitte stood firm. Staking his freedom and his life
on one last throw of the dice, Lafitte decided to meet in person with
General Andrew Jackson, the newly-arrived commander of New Orleans’
defense.
A former Tennessee lawyer and politician, “Old Hickory” was known as
a brilliant soldier and an honest, straightforward man. Much to
everyone’s surprise the general and the pirate got along famously,
and Jackson quickly accepted Lafitte’s offer.
The events of the Battle of New Orleans are well-known. Lafitte and
his men acted as guides for the US forces, allowing them to launch
surprise attacks against the approaching British, delaying their
advance until the American defenses were in place below the city. In
the final battle Lafitte led an independent force of sharpshooters
against a regiment attempting to outflank the American position,
while his other men worked the American artillery, earning Jackson’s
admiration for their coolness under fire. The American position was
unassailable, and the British Army was driven back with heavy losses,
securing New Orleans for the United States. General Jackson was true
to his word, and Lafitte and his men received full pardons.
— Firaxis

NBC4.TV, CA
Nov 13 2004
Four-Year Manhunt Leads To Suspect In Road Rage Case
Police Find Suspect In Armenia
POSTED: 6:16 pm PST November 12, 2004
UPDATED: 6:47 pm PST November 12, 2004
LOS ANGELES — An investigation into the death of a motorist four
years ago took Los Angeles police to the other side of the globe.
Michael Craven was 44 years old when he was killed in a traffic
incident. His death came six weeks before his son, Jesse Craven,
graduated from high school.
“The person who was always there isn’t,” Jesse Craven said. “He was
the person (who) was always there filming my games. He was at every
event.”
Police said an enraged motorist ran over Michael Craven after
stopping on the side of the 101 Freeway in April 2000. Police said
the suspect fled to Armenia.
“It was disconcerting to think that he could be out there hurting
someone else,” said Jesse Craven’s mother, Kathleen Barich.
The family was notified Thursday night that authorities had tracked
down the suspect.
“My view of law enforcement — United States justice and the West
Hollywood Division — has completely (increased),” Jesse Craven said.
The suspect, a commercial driver, was taken to the Mid-Central Jail
in downtown Los Angeles. Bond was set at $1 million. A court
appearance was scheduled for Nov. 24.

Jews, Scots, Armenians, Dutch
by Gary North
Lew Rockwell, CA
Nov 13 2004
You have heard this phrase: “He can buy from a [ ], sell to a [ ],
and make a profit.
Here are the most likely choices:
Jew
Scot
Dutchman
Armenian
Why? What do these seemingly disparate groups have in common, other
than money?
Let’s begin with the least known group.
THE ARMENIANS
In 1962, I had a Jewish roommate, Roger Hartman. I didn’t know much
about Judaism back then. Roger had grown up in the area around
Fresno, California – not exactly a cosmopolitan region. His family
had later moved to San Francisco, as I recall. He told me why: “When
the Armenians moved in, the Jews moved out.” I don’t know if he
really meant this specifically about his own family, but the phrase
was obviously common among Jews in the area. Armenians are highly
competitive in commerce. They are famous as rug merchants, but their
skills go way beyond importing rugs.
I knew less about Armenians in 1962 than I do now. I’m now married to
one. But I never did forget Roger’s comment. There was, and is, a
large Armenian population in the Fresno area. The most famous
Armenian-American author, William Saroyan, was born in Fresno in
1908. My father-in-law grew up in Kingsburg, not far from Fresno.
Side note: Armenians are easily identified by their names – more
easily than any other national group. Their names usually end in -ian
or -yan. My father-in-law was an exception: Rushdoony, not
Rushdoonian. He told me why. His family had roots back to royalty in
Armenia. When the Turks conquered the country nine centuries ago,
they forced a name change on everyone, so that they could be easily
identified. They added the -ian sound. My father-in-law’s family
escaped the restriction because of the family’s royal lineage.
Anyway, that’s what he told me. As someone who read a book a day for
60 years, he knew about such things.
The Armenians are the entrepreneurs of Western Asia. This has been
true for centuries. I found it interesting that in the old “Upstairs,
Downstairs” series, when the script writers wanted to portray a rich,
aggressive, unscrupulous, social-climbing businessman, they chose an
Armenian. It may have been too politically incorrect to select a Jew,
but the decision was nevertheless believable. The character was
looked down on by the upper crust. They referred to him as a Jew, he
said. This upset him; he was proud of his Armenian heritage.
In the Soviet Union, Armenians were called the Christian Jews. There
was considerable hostility and discrimination in Moscow against
members of both groups. But, like Jews, Armenians climbed their way
to the top of the Communist Party’s hierarchy. Anastas Mikoyan was
the most prominent of them. He was the Commissar of Food Supply and
then Minister of Trade under Stalin. He was elected president in
1964, a ceremonial post. He survived. He never missed a trick. He
introduced Eskimo Pie into the USSR – one of the more productive
things ever done by a senior Soviet bureaucrat. His brother Artem
designed the MiG jet fighters. Under Gorbachev, Abel Aganbegyan
served as senior economic advisor. Yet Armenia was the smallest of
the Soviet republics, both in population and geography.
There is another shared feature with Jews. In 1915, the Turks
committed the first genocide of the twentieth century. They killed
about a million Armenians. This policy was systematic. Most people
have never heard of this event. (On the persecution, see the great
but little-known 1963 movie by Elia Kazan, America, America.)
Because World War I was going on, the Armenian genocide received
little publicity. It was concealed because the Germans and the Turks
were allies. Word did not get out, except for survivors’ accounts.
War news dominated the Western press. Also, Turkey was crucial
internationally because Turks controlled the Dardanelles, the narrow
access to the Black Sea. The Turks could seal off access from the
Russian Navy’s only warm water port. British foreign policy had long
been favorable to the Turks because of this geography: the balance of
power. So, there was no outcry from the West after the War, despite
Turkey’s former alliance with the Germans. The lesson was not lost on
Hitler, who wrote:
I have issued the command – and I’ll have anybody who utters but one
word of criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does
not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical
destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head
formations in readiness – for the present only in the East – with
orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion,
men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus
shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after
all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?
The famous British historian Arnold Toynbee did much of the research
on the Armenian genocide for Lord Bryce’s 1916 collection of
survivors’ accounts. My wife’s grandfather, who had a photographic
memory, has two articles in the book. It was an official publication
of the British government, but it had no political effect.
THE DUTCH
When we think of the Dutch, we think of “Dutch Treat.” This term
applies to dates in which the woman pays her share of the evening’s
expenses. Whether the practice originated in Dutch-American circles,
I do not know, but the phrase has stuck.
The Dutch are frugal. They are legendary for this frugality. They are
good farmers, especially dairymen. They are not equally famous in
commerce, although there are highly successful Dutch-affiliated
companies. The Herman Miller Company is dominant in business chair
manufacture. The Dutch are regional: Grand Rapids, Michigan, is an
urban enclave.
In the seventeenth century, the Dutch rivaled the British in world
trade, yet their country was tiny, dug out of the sea by means of
dikes and windmills. They had money, and they had great artists. They
were also ruthless colonialists in Indonesia. They took no guff. They
fought a naval war with Cromwell’s England: two Calvinist powers
going at each other with fleets. The war continued under Charles II.
New Amsterdam became New York City in 1664.
It is one of those historical anomalies that they arrived, seemingly
out of nowhere, in the early seventeenth century. They were masters
of commerce. Their central bank actually preceded the Bank of England
(1694). They had a well organized stock exchange. They also had help
from Jews, who had been kicked out of Spain by Queen Isabella in
1492, and had fled to Antwerp and Amsterdam, where there was greater
religious liberty for them.
The Dutch reputation for frugality as consumers is an extension of
their former reputation as hard-bargaining traders. The same
legendary frugality is associated with the Scots.
THE SCOTS
In the eighteenth century, the Scots replaced the Dutch as the
world’s traders. While the English gained this reputation, the Scots
had the edge. Union with England came in 1707. From then on, the
Scots took advantage of the British colonial empire. Again, like the
Dutch a century earlier, they came out of nowhere. In 1650, Scotland
was poor, a backwater of Europe. By 1750, the Scots dominated trade
and philosophy. David Hume, Lord Kames, Adam Smith were Scots. By
1850, Scots around the world dominated invention and
entrepreneurship. From James Watt to Andrew Carnegie, the Scots
pioneered manufacturing and mass production. Arthur Herman’s book,
How the Scots Invented the Modern World (2001), tells this remarkable
story.
By 1950, the Scots were still influential as individuals, but not as
a self-conscious, well-connected group. Ronald Reagan was one of
them, and he attended a traditional Presbyterian Church, as a good
lowland Scotsman should. But we do not think of Reagan as a Scot.
While Sean Connery represents them, they are not organized
sufficiently to be represented.
THE JEWS
Like the Dutch in 1600 and the Scots in 1700, Jews in 1900 came out
of nowhere – or its cultural equivalents, Russia and Eastern Europe –
to dominate the movie industry and radio in the first half of the
century, and the economy in the second half.
The Rothschilds made their fortune under Napoleon, and other banking
houses of the late nineteenth century were Jewish-owned. But the
Morgan network was dominant in America in 1890, not Jewish investment
banks. The Rockefellers became competitors by 1910. Kuhn Loeb was not
in this league. The only Jewish-owned commercial bank of any
consequence in New York City was the Bank of the United States, which
went bankrupt in the Great Depression when the gentile bankers who
ran the Federal Reserve System refused to bail it out. The other big
banks were protected.
Jews are not legendary as tight-fisted consumers. They are not Scots
or Dutchmen. Jewish extravagance has in fact elicited envy in Europe,
especially before and after World War I. Two phrases tell the story:
“He Jewed me down.”
“A Jewish brother-in-law deal.”
Both phrases reflect retailing. “He Jewed me down” is the complaint
of a gentile wholesaler trying to sell to a Jewish retailer. “A
Jewish brother-in-law deal” reflects the consumer’s quest for a
discount. Thus, we return to the original phrase: “A Jew can buy from
a [ ] and sell to a [ ], and make a profit.”
If someone said, “He Jewed me up,” it would sound strange. That would
be the complaint of a consumer against a retailer who charged too
much. But Jews are not famous for charging too much. They are famous
for the Jewish brother-in-law deal.
Here, we see the entrepreneurial flair at work: “Buy low, sell
higher, but lower than the competition.” Recently, I bought a new
Sony digital voice recorder from Abe’s of Maine. The shipping box had
a New York City return address. Now, Abe may be a clever gentile
cashing in on a group reputation, but when it’s Abe’s of Maine, the
public gets the idea that wherever you go, you can get a Jewish
brother-in-law deal. Except in Fresno.
Jews are prominent in academia, law, and medicine. This has long been
the case in medicine. Jews for centuries served as physicians for
Christian and Muslim rulers. “My son, the doctor” was basic to Jewish
family advancement and even survival. Similarly, when the Czar opened
up residence in Moscow to members of the state’s symphony orchestra,
Jewish children all over Russia were seen carrying violins. A violin
was the ticket out of the ghetto.
Jews are famous for comedy. This is an odd fact about modern Jews.
Humor was frowned on in Orthodox Jewish circles for many centuries.
(“Orthodox” was a pejorative term applied to Talmudic Jews by liberal
and secular Jews in the early nineteenth century. A Talmudic rabbi
and scholar, Samson R. Hirsch, decided to accept the term and run
with it in the mid-nineteenth century.) Yet by the days of
vaudeville, Jews were prominent comedians. The most famous Russian
comic in America, Yakov Smirnoff, is a Jew. But he did not know he
was Jewish until his parents told him, when he was 13, in 1964. They
were afraid of persecution. (“What a rotten country!”) They emigrated
in 1977. Somehow, in less than half a century, Jews became
professional comics. I have never seen a book on how and why this
happened. It was as if Jews have a humor gene that had to be
suppressed by the rabbis, and when the rabbis’ influence waned, Jews
started making people laugh.
By the way, in the collection called The World’s Shortest Books,
Famous Jewish Farmers has to be included, right next to Famous
Gentile Violinists.
WHAT’S THE CONNECTION?
Half a century earlier in each case, it would have been impossible to
predict the group’s imminent dominance.
All four groups have this in common: a strong sense of the covenant.
The covenant is an Old Testament idea: Abraham’s covenant with God,
marked by circumcision. Membership in the religious community is
basic to the survival of the group.
Family and cultural ties are common to most groups, especially prior
to the Industrial Revolution. But the covenant ideal meant that God
had singled out a group to represent Him, and that He promises to
make it prosper if members obey Him. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28
are the central passages.
The lowland Scots after 1550 were Presbyterian Calvinists if they
were anything. This meant the doctrine of predestination and also a
vision of world expansion, a theology called postmillennialism. But
it took 150 years for this outlook to produce the Scottish
transformation. Why so long? I have no idea. Herman’s book begins in
1697, which is too late to answer the question.
The Dutch did not call themselves Presbyterians, but the church
structure and the theologies are so similar that it takes a
specialist to distinguish them. In the seventeenth century, there
were more Dutch postmillennialists than there are today (i.e., more
than none).
Both theologies rested on the idea of God’s covenant, which
encompasses family, church, and state. Both theologies produced an
outlook of “them vs. us, and we can beat them.”
One of the best short books on business leadership is Max DuPree’s
Leadership is an Art (1989). DuPree ran the Herman Miller Company for
many years. His father founded it. DuPree actually uses the word
“covenant” to describe the business’s key factor. He does not mean
contract. While I think the use of “covenant” is misused here,
because covenants in the Bible relate to family, church, and state,
his main point is correct: contracts are not enough.
Covenantal relationships enable participation to be practiced and
inclusive groups to be formed. The differences between covenants and
contracts appear in detail in “Intimacy” (p. 25).
The Armenians are not covenant theologians. Their tradition is that
of Eastern Orthodoxy – more mystical than judicial. Armenia was the
first nation to adopt Christianity, in either 301 or 303. They were a
warrior people for a long time, standing in the gap in 451 A.D. to
repel the Persians. The battle of Avarier is not as famous as an
anti-Persian battle in the way that Thermopylae is, but it was
important. They were invaded again and again, and they lived for 900
years under the Turks, except for the thirteenth century under the
Mongols. (My father-in-law told me that his father told him that in
the margin of the community’s heirloom Bible, there was a notation:
“Today, the Mongols passed through.”) Persecution held them together.
They have had a sense of religious solidarity, and this persisted
even after they arrived in Protestant-secular America.
Their economic success is more difficult to explain than the success
of the other three groups. This may be for lack of interest on the
part of historians and economists: fewer books on them.
The Jews were traders for centuries. Religious ties made possible a
network of international communications and transactions. They also
had their own courts and legal precedents, called “responsa.” Owning
land was difficult except in separate communities. Capital in
diamonds or gold was portable, unlike land.
The Dutch had to learn other European languages in order to trade.
They also became skilled sailors. The country is tiny. It has few
natural resources. If they wanted to prosper, they had to trade. They
did. But they had a sense of destiny about them, which led them to
fight the Spanish in the late sixteenth century, gaining independence
in the early seventeenth. In 1689, after their defeat by the British
Navy, one of their rulers, William III, became the king of England.
“If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” His wife inherited England for
him. Maybe this was the original Dutch Treat.
There is another factor: separation. This means cultural separation,
but it can also mean confessional. In America, the Dutch still set up
parent-run private schools that are formally Calvinistic. When I
lived in the border town of Lynden, Washington, in 1976, there were
more children enrolled in the Christian schools than in the public
schools. The Dutch pay for their cultural and confessional
separation. Theology was sufficiently well defined that, at the
border on Sunday morning, you would see Dutch-American Calvinists
heading to Canada to worship, and Dutch-Canadian Calvinists heading
for the U.S. They were polite, hard-working, well-fed people on both
sides of the border. And on both sides, we “gentiles” labeled their
mentality: “If you aren’t Dutch, you aren’t much.” On neither side
was it wise to mow your lawn on Sunday. On the American side, only
one gas station was open for business, on a rotating basis with the
competition, to serve the needs of gentile tourists.
CONFIDENCE ABOUT THE FUTURE
Members of all four groups have seen themselves as hand-picked by God
to dominate trade. They have regarded themselves as possessing an
advantage over everyone else, either in brains, trade, or the ability
to prosper under the radar. This outlook came earliest to Jews, then
the Armenians, then the Dutch, then the Scots. Their sense of group
solidarity was not unique, but their sense of participation in a
covenant that promises economic success has been unique.
The Dutch and the Scots have lost their sense of inevitable
covenantal victory, but not their sense of frugality. They have
transferred to thrift what they once attributed to God’s covenant.
Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations (1776) as a manifesto of this
theological shift.
Innovation, uncertainty, cost-cutting, new markets, profit and loss:
here is the program of personal success for the entrepreneur. When
you belong to a group that will help you when you fall, which will
provide start-up capital to get you going, you have an advantage. The
Koreans have this outlook and group support in the United States. The
Koreans, more than any Asian immigrant group, are Christians:
specifically, Presbyterians. It is interesting that the dairy farming
Dutch in Southern California have sold their land to developers, who
in turn sold new homes to the Korean children of the family-run,
drive-through dairy stores of 1960. The Dutch then moved to Lynden.
That relocation process has been going on for three decades.
Without confidence in the future, the entrepreneur cannot function.
He becomes at best an investor in bonds or other fixed-income
ventures. He accepts statistically insurable risk in place of
unpredictable uncertainty. He becomes frugal, advancing himself by
means of the steady excess of income over outflow. He does not change
society through innovation.
CONCLUSION
If you can buy from a [ ], sell to a [ ], and make a profit, your
future is secure. Most people can’t.
As the free market erodes family ties, group solidarity, and
persecution, members of many groups can get in on the cornucopia. It
is clear that the Japanese have a similar mindset as the four groups,
but without the doctrine of the covenant. The Chinese are now
adopting it. The freedom to compete breaks down the barriers to
entry. But, as the free market moves westward, those who belong to
subgroups that have the same outlook as the Big Four enjoy an initial
advantage. Group solidarity fades in the face of open competition,
but this takes time. When an innovator has confidence in the future,
which includes confidence in the safety net of his family or his
confessional group, he has an advantage: less fear of failure.
Faith is then transferred to the free market itself. In Europe and
America, faith in the twentieth century was transferred from the free
market to the welfare state. The reverse process is true in Asia.
This is why Asia now has an advantage over the West: social and
racial solidarity coupled with increasing faith in the free market
and declining faith in the state, whether Communist or Fabian
socialist.
In the interim period, in between the coming of the free market and
the erosion of social and racial solidarity, confidence is on the
side of the family-based small enterprise. Asia is booming because of
this. China seems to have the unique combination. We shall see what
happens when the boom turns into recession after China’s central bank
stops creating fiat money like a drunken (non-Dutch) sailor.
November 13, 2004
Gary North [send him mail] is the author of Mises on Money. Visit

Eradicating terrorism among Russia’s priorities in Caucasus
ITAR-TASS, Russia
Nov 13 2004
VENICE, November 13 (Itar-Tass) — Russia’s State Duma first deputy
speaker Lyubov Sliska said the eradication of terrorism and extremism
was Moscow’s priority in the Caucasus.
Speaking at a session of NATO’s parliamentary assembly on regional
security in the Transcaucasia on Friday, Sliska said, “Russian society
is watching events in the Caucasus with apprehension. … The resolution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia-Abkhazian and Georgian-South Ossetian
conflicts is also among Russia’s priorities.”
“The elections in Abkhazia are important for Russia primarily in
terms of their impact on further negotiations,” she added.
Sliska urged NATO officials not to focus on the legitimacy of the
elections in Abkhazia. “It is necessary to prepare for continued
negotiations with the new leadership to be elected in this unrecognised
republic. Russia will move in this direction together with the United
Nations,” she said.
On the situation in South Ossetia, the first deputy speaker expressed
concern about the growing number of attacks on peacekeepers in this
republic.
Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, she stressed, “The main
role in this process belongs to the OSCE”.
“It is necessary to make a full use of the existing negotiating
mechanism and the mediation of the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk
Group on Nagorno-Karabakh,” she said.
In her words, “Other co-chairmen of the Group – the United States
and France — share this approach”.
Russia hopes that after the latest meeting between Armenian President
Robert Kocharyan and Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev in Astana,
Kazakhstan, the sides will continue negotiations and use the positive
arrangements made during four rounds of ministerial consultations,
Sliska said.
“We hope that the NATO Parliamentary Assembly will support the
peacemaking efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen,” she said.
Sliska also urged NATO policymakers to exercise “extremely cautious
policies in the Trans-Caucasian area” and to establish “transparent
cooperation with Russia there”.
She warned the alliance, saying: “Any actions of such a powerful
political bloc are risky in that they can stir up old conflicts there”.
“The situation in the Caucasus, a region with a high risk of conflicts,
requires maximum caution and carefulness,” she said.
Sliska indicated at the same time that Russia could not but watch
with concern the direction that its NATO partners would channel their
efforts into.
“We advocate stability and peace in the Caucasus and oppose revisions
of the strategic balance of forces there, nothing to say of the
attempts to compel us to withdraw from that region,” Sliska said,
adding that Russia is open to cooperation with all states and
international organizations seeking peace settlement in Northern
Caucasus, too.
She called on NATO and Russia to establish the contacts marked by
credibility and account for the interests of all countries.
“It’s essential that our cooperation with NATO in the Caucasus be
transparent and predictable,” Sliska said.
–Boundary_(ID_wo9xSGAflzLsObOoEcK7Ww)–

Richmond Times Dispatch, VA
Nov 13 2004
Diplomats discuss efforts to end terrorism
Envoys from 5 Eastern European nations speak at VSU event
BY OSITA IROEGBU
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 13, 2004
ETTRICK – One student at an international conference on terrorism at
Virginia State University yesterday wanted to know why certain acts
are considered terrorism and others are not.
“Why is it that any mention of terrorism involves focusing on bombs
being strapped to someone’s body who wants to blow something up but
someone going in a room and shooting at a whole family or school
isn’t?” the VSU senior asked a group of foreign diplomats.
The auditorium thundered with applause as the student urged the
speakers to treat any act of violence as a threat.
Five ambassadors from newly formed Eastern European nations didn’t
answer the student’s question directly, but the panelists discussed
their resolve to end terrorism.
Ambassadors from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Moldova
all addressed their countries’ diplomatic and military efforts to
fight terrorism during an international conference at Virginia State
University yesterday.
This was the first time VSU had hosted such a discussion on global
affairs and terrorism. University officials said it is important to
inform the student body about what some call “an unfamiliar part of
Eastern Europe” and the global war on terror.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the region struggled to
form independent democracies and enact economic and political reform.
Fifteen newly independent countries that emerged from the Soviet
Union’s dissolution are now fighting to end international terrorism.
Some ambassadors said factors such as high-density population and
high unemployment rates could serve as a breeding ground for radical
thoughts and separatist groups.
“In order to stop terrorism, we have to get to the root of the
problem,” said Hafiz M. Pashayev, ambassador from the Republic of
Azerbaijan to the United States. “Radicalism may lead to groups and
factions to achieve terrorism goals.”
Pashayev said issues such as economic strife could lead to increased
terrorists acts and weapons-trafficking throughout Eastern Europe.
“We are striving to eliminate unemployment and keep the inflation
rate low,” he said.
The diplomats called for more diplomatic attention from international
groups such as the United Nations, NATO and the European Union to
curb the formation of terrorist groups in the new nations.
“There is a strong fight against aggression in my country but the
international community must turn their attention to international
aggression,” Pashayev said.
Arman Kirakossian, Armenian ambassador to the United States, said
the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the terrorists attacks that
followed a decade later in the United States created a new situation
in his region.
“The events of Sept. 11 dramatically reformed our direction,”
Kirakossian said. “We must develop an action plan” to fight terrorism.
The ambassadors said they hope to continue partnerships with the
United States to combat terrorism. For instance, some of the countries,
such as Georgia and Armenia, have deployed troops to Iraq, they said.
Levan Mikeladze, Georgian ambassador to the United States, said
that region wants to help fight the threat of terrorism and the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
“We must build a political system and government that is based on the
grass roots of democracy,” he said. “The U.S. has played a critical
role in strengthening Georgia’s security and we will continue to
fight corruption.”
Panelists, including former U.S. Ambassador to Moldova Pamela Hyde
Smith, urged Russia to help with the fight.
“One key is Russia’s engagement as part of the solution instead of
part of the problem,” Smith said, calling the formation of the new
independent countries “one of the most important areas of interest
in the post Cold-War period.”
Ceslav Ciobanu, a VSU scholar and professor, served as ambassador
to the United States from Moldova. Ciobanu and other officials urged
students to increase their interest in foreign and world affairs.
Calling the conference a “milestone” event at VSU, Weldon Hill, dean
of VSU’s School of Liberal Arts and Education, said “It is absolutely
necessary for our students to be globally astute, particularly during
this era of substantive shifts in world affairs, including the war
on terror and political change.”

Grand Junction Sentinel, CO
Nov 13 2004
Family buys time i n asylum attempt
By GARY HARMON
The Daily Sentinel
Four members of an Armenian family hoping to avoid deportation have
filed for visas as victims of trafficking, a move that forestalled
any immediate action to return them to their native country.
The four, however, remain in custody in a federal holding center in
Aurora, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau.
The four members of the Sargsyan family — Hayk, a senior at Ridgway
High School; his brother, Gevork, a chemical-engineering student at
the University of Colorado; their sister Meri; and father, Ruben —
were taken into custody last week after an immigration hearing in
Denver.
The eldest sister of the family, Nvart Indinyan, said she feared that
her brothers were due to be deported immediately because their
photographs had been taken while they have been in custody.
The applications for so-called “T visas” freezes the process until a
decision is made, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for Immigration and
Customs Enforcement.
Decisions on T visas are made out of the agency’s Vermont service
center, said Sharon Rummery of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, another Homeland Security agency, and there is no deadline
for them to act.
T visas were established in 2000 for victims of human trafficking;
they allow victims to remain in the United States if they are deemed
to be in danger of extreme hardship or severe harm if they’re
returned to their home countries.
They also are expected to cooperate with investigations into the
trafficking that resulted in their arrival in the United States.
Victims of human trafficking may apply for permanent residency after
three years.
Indinyan said she feared her family would be harmed in Armenia by
people there who were defrauded by her ex-husband.
Other avenues for the Sargsyan family have been exhausted, Kice said.
They arrived in the United States on student visas and no longer have
the right to remain in the country, she said.
Taking the family members into custody was necessary, she said. There
are 350,000 to 400,000 people in the country who simply ignored their
final-removal orders, Kice said.
“It’s a serious problem,” she said.
The Sargsyan family’s popularity in Ouray County is admirable, but
not a factor in whether they should be allowed to remain, Kice said.
“This is not a popularity contest,” she said. “No one is above the
law. Everyone wants to see the law enforced, except when it comes to
someone they know.”
Other Armenians have waited a long time to get to the United States
by legal means, Kice said, and those cases also should be remembered,
she said.
Ridgway High School students planned to demonstrate today in Denver
in support of the their classmate and his family.

Boutique lets you shop for goodies, help Balkan kids
San Ramon Valley Times, CA
Nov 13 2004
CANDY CANE BOUTIQUE TODAY. It’s never too early to shop for the
holidays … so, while you’re out and about today, stop by the
Creekside Community Church in Alamo and stock up on collectibles,
gift baskets, dolls, toys, jewelry and more.
You’ll find lots of wonderful items at the Candy Cane Boutique and
leave knowing that you’ve also helped the people in the Balkans.
Baked goods will also be available for purchase along with raffle
prizes. I spoke with Dee Thompson, who explained that the boutique
will benefit the Macedonian Outreach, a nonprofit Christian charitable
organization to help the children of the Balkans.
Vula and Haig Rushdoony head up the Macedonian Outreach. They started
it 15 years ago after their children were grown and they were ready
to retire. The Rushdoonys live on the Alamo and Danville border and
run the program out of their home, stocking up on supplies to send
to the children of Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Macedonia. They
have family, and other personal ties, in Greece.
I spoke with Vula, who came to America from Greece at the age of 16.
She recalls what it was like to be cold and hungry.
“My father was killed in the war when I was 5 and my mother had no
income. We barely survived,” Vula said. “However, there were days when
we had a slice of raisin bread and a cup of hot chocolate provided
to us through the Marshall Plan the United States set up after World
War II,” Vula said.
She explained that the civil war continued in Greece, and America
continued to help the Greek people. She sent her mother money and
finally sent for her seven years later to join her in America.
Haig’s family survived the massacre of Armenia at the turn of the
century and fled to America, where Haig was born.
When the Rushdoonys retired, they decided to reach out and help,
just as America had helped their countries.
“We felt that America had done so much for us and Haig and I wanted
to give back some of the blessing this country had given us,” Vula
told me. “The greatest thing for Haig and me is freedom. When I hear
people talk against this country I become a lioness. I earned the
right to be an American. We are lucky to live here.”
She said the Outreach has been highly successful, and that people
from all over the community participate in gathering supplies for
Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and the former Yugoslavian states
of Bosnia, Croatia, the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia and
Serbia-Montenegro. Vula and Haig travel each year, along with other
volunteers, to deliver the much-needed goods to the Balkan Peninsula.
When they began this mission, Vula decided to sell some of her china
and jewelry, and urged friends and neighbors to do the same. Thus
the Candy Cane Boutique was born.
Each year the boutique offers lots of interesting “vintage” items,
as well as numerous new gifts for the holidays. Vula said the gift
baskets and baked goods are “over the top” fabulous.
The boutique is located at 1350 Danville Blvd., and runs from 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Dee told me that the boutique is a success because of the
generosity of the community and efforts of the volunteers.
Since 1992, the Macedonian Outreach has also brought more than 50
children with life-threatening medical problems to the United States
or Europe for treatment. The organization also provides food, clothing,
monetary aid and spiritual guidance.
Vula explained that although the unemployment rate is high, and people
are cold and hungry, she has been told time and again that they would
rather be in this condition because it means they are free.
For more information about the Macedonian Outreach, visit their
Web site at or call Vula and Haig at
925-820-4107. See you at the boutique.
Have a great week!