Author: Brian Carnell

OpinionJournal.Com Pokes Fun at Al-Jazeera with OBL Transcript Parody

OpinionJournal.Com’s Christopher Buckley pokes fun at Al-Jazeera with a parody transcript of the recently released tape of Osama Bin Laden,

Osama bin Laden: I had this dream.

Sheik Sulayman: Me too [inaudible] episode of “Baywatch.”

Osama bin Laden: Not that kind of dream. I was in Neiman Marcus, the satanic department store, trying to buy a white player piano. And they wouldn’t take Visa. Fortunately, I had the American Express Platinum Card.

Sheik Sulayman: Allah be praised. So what have you been up to lately, O Evil One? Kidding.

John Stebbins — War Hero to Convict

The film Black Hawk Down–based on Mark Bowden’s excellent book about the deadly standoff between American troops and thousands of Somali militiamen in Mogadishu–opens soon. One of the odd differences between the book and the movie is that the soldiers were given fictional names for the movie.

To my knowledge, USA Today is the first to suggest that the reason for doing so may have been due to issues beyond creative and legal ones. It turns out that one of the outstanding heroes of the Somalia engagement, Spec. John Stebbins was court-martialed by the Army and plead guilty to raping and molesting his teenage 6-year-old daughter. He is currently serving a 30-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, but is appealing the case (USA Today does not say what part of his case he is appealing).

Stebbins received the Silver Star for his incredible act of heroism that day–he was shot several times and had to literally be dragged to safety due to his injuries.

Personally, that sort of story would be more interesting as a movie than simply doing a film of Bowden’s excellent book. Never having been through a war (or any sort of deadly violent personal conflict), it is hard to imagine what someone like Spec. Shawn Nelson has had to deal with. He was an M-60 gunner, and Bowden makes it very clear in his book that although Nelson initially tried to shoot selectively at combatants and avoid hitting civilians, as huge throngs of people surged toward him, he was forced to fire indiscriminately into the crowd.

Now an exploration of that would make an interesting movie.

Update, 6/6/2018: Per one of the commenters below, Stebbins was apparently released from Federal prison on March 26, 2018.

Zimbabwe to Take Final Step Toward Police State

Zimbabwe, which just a few years ago was on its way to fulfilling its destiny as an African economic jugernaut, is now detouring into a full blown police state with the introduction of a bill that would end all pretenses that the country is anything but Robert Mugabe’s personal fiefdom.

According to SMH.Com.AU, the bill would make it illegal to “excite people or express dissatisfaction with the president, the government or the police.” This will effectively outlaw all opposition to Mugabe and put a rubber stamp on his roundup of journalists and opposition politicians.

The chairman of Lawyers for Human Rights, Tawanda Hondora, is quoted by SMH.Com.AU as saying that this bill is far more extreme than anything that either European colonialists or the apartheid regime in South Africa ever tried to impose on African nations.

Zimbabwe is likely to be a living hell for years to come.

Source:

Liberty and speech stifled in laws ‘as bad as apartheid.’ Peta Thornycroft, SMH.Com.AU, December 20, 2001.

Are China’s Data on Fish Stocks Reliable?

The BBC recently reported on a dispute between Canadian researchers and China over China’s official fish catch figures.

The Canadian researchers published a study in Nature recently suggesting that world fish stocks were likely much lower than previously estimated, largely because the researchers contended that China’s figures on its annual fish catch were unreliable and exaggerated.

Over the past ten years, the Chinese fish catch has steadily increased which the researchers claimed was “unrealistic.”

For its part, China responded by claiming that the statistics are in fact. Chinese official Yang Jian told the BBC that fishing was such a small part of the Chinese economy that there wouldn’t be any incentive for local officials to falsify data.

On the other hand, exaggerating data seems to be endemic among Chinese bureaucrats, so they might just be exaggerating such data out of sheer habit.

Source:

China says ‘fake’ fishery statistics correct. The BBC, December 18, 2001.

OPEC Finding It Difficult to Control Oil Prices

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, demand for oil dropped causing the price of oil to bottom out. In late November, the price for a barrel of oil reached a two-year low of only $16.65 per barrel. Despite its best efforts, however, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has had little luck raising the price of oil — today a barrel of crude oil goes for $18.40.

OPEC called a special meeting of both OPEC and non-OPEC countries to try to hammer together an arrangement to reduce oil production to boost the price of oil. OPEC’s leaders think they might have enough countries on board to cut oil production, but whether those countries will follow through on their pledges (and for how long) remains to be seen.

In November, for example, OPEC nations agreed to cut oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day beginning in January 2002, but oil prices were barely affected. And that is on top of a 3.5 million barrels per day cut in production that OPEC nations had already agreed to earlier in the year.

At some point, the advantage of higher prices will be offset for some member countries by the marked decrease in production. Given the current soft demand for oil, it is highly doubtful that OPEC will be able to prop up oil prices.

Sources:

OPEC calls special oil price talks. The BBC, December 16, 2001.

Oil’s tumultuous week. The BBC, November 23, 2001.