December 30, 2003

Heads may roll over Hutton, BBC admits Guardian - UK - Senior BBC executives may be forced to resign when the Hutton inquiry reports, a corporation director admitted in an unusually candid radio interview last night. Caroline Thomson, the BBC's director of policy and legal affairs, said the Today programme report that led to Lord Hutton's judicial investigation fell short of the "truth and accuracy" that are the "gold standard of the BBC". She said the concessions made by the BBC during the inquiry had been "spectacular". 2:40:00 PM

Sources: Nation of Islam Aiding Jackson (AP). AP - Members of the Nation of Islam have begun playing a role in Michael Jackson's affairs, The Associated Press has learned, although the controversial group denies having any official part in the pop star's life. [Yahoo! News - Entertainment] 2:34:28 PM

OPINIONJOURNAL: The Road to Damascus Syria, a member of the U.N. Security Council, turns out to have been more active than anyone realized in helping Iraq violate U.N. sanctions, the Los Angeles Times reports: A Syrian trading company with close ties to the ruling regime smuggled weapons and military hardware to Saddam Hussein between 2000 and 2003, helping Syria become the main channel for illicit arms transfers to Iraq despite a stringent U.N. embargo, documents recovered in Iraq show. The private company, called SES International Corp., is headed by a cousin of Syria's autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, and is controlled by other members of Assad's Baath Party and Alawite clan. Syria's government assisted SES in importing at least one shipment destined for Iraq's military, the Iraqi documents indicate, and Western intelligence reports allege that senior Syrian officials were involved in other illicit transfers. Iraqi records show that SES signed more than 50 contracts to supply tens of millions of dollars' worth of arms and equipment to Iraq's military shortly before the U.S.-led invasion in March. Sounds as though Assad ought to be sharing a cell with fellow Baathist Saddam Hussein. 2:27:57 PM

The Rise and Fall of the City of Bam. Amir Taheri offers some interesting background on recent real-estate development in Bam. After numerous destructive quakes in Bam in the 20th century, Taheri writes, Iran declared an end to construction in the city. Then came the Khomeini revolution. "The revolutionary turmoil of 1978-79 provided racketeers with an opportunity to seize large chunks of land in Bam and use it for poorly designed and badly constructed houses and shops. The racket was backed by a group of powerful mullahs who, in exchange for a cut in the proceeds, issued fatwas (religious opinions) that canceled government orders that banned house-building in the city. "The mullahs claimed that the shah had wished to keep Bam empty because of a secret plan under which the city would be turned into a Zoroastrian center. They also dismissed warnings from the National Seismological Center in Tehran that opposed the repopulation of Bam. The mullahs claimed that the Hidden Imam would protect the new inhabitants of the city against all disasters. "Thus," according to Taheri, "more than half of those who died in the earthquake could be regarded as victims of a racket ran by mullahs and their associates with the help of religious prejudice and superstition." [Hit & Run] 2:25:00 PM