Though the wheels of God grind slowly,
yet they grind exceeding small;
though with patience He stands waiting,
with exactness grinds He all
-Longfellow

The US is attempting to persuade European governments, banks and companies to isolate the Iranian government by engaging in de facto financial sanctions, according to US government officials and advisers.

The tactics are modelled on those used for the first time last year against North Korea. That country’s financial dealings abroad were largely cut off after Washington put pressure on Banco Delta Asia, a Macau bank the US said was facilitating illicit dealings by Pyongyang.

The risk of similar reputational damage has already caused some European banks to cut their dealings with Iran, including UBS and Credit Suisse earlier this year.

John Snow, the US Treasury secretary, last week hinted strongly at the new effort against Iran, saying: “When the US is confronted with a threat that is unreceptive to diplomatic outreach and when military action is not an option, [financial] tools are often the best authorities available to exert pressure and to wield a tangible impact.”

Iran poses a far greater challenge than North Korea because it is far more integrated into the international financial system. Iran had $51bn of exports and $48bn of imports last year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, is on Monday night scheduled to meet the foreign ministers of the UK, China, France, Germany and Russia following discussions on a draft United Nations security council resolution that would order Iran to cease nuclear enrichment or face the possibility of “further measures”.

As the UN debate continues, US officials are stepping up efforts to put pressure on the private sector. Patrick Clawson, deputy director at the Washington Institute for Near East policy, said: “This is about de facto sanctions instead of formal sanctions, which can be used to whip up nationalist sympathies [within Iran]. It is a good idea to do things quietly. The Treasury is becoming even more aggressive in enforcing the rules they have. The US helped persuade [in January] two of the largest banks – UBS and Credit Suisse – to cease business in Iran.”

A senior US official said: “I think these financial institutions are very responsible for the most part, and they’re trying to figure out what kind of corporate citizens they want to be. They’re starting to look at whether they really want to do business with the government of Iran.”

Mr Clawson said the US could move to block third-party banks that process a dollar transaction involving Iranian assets through a US bank.

British documents from the 1930s show that a number of Nazi agents were sent to Mandatory Palestine in order to forge alliances with Palestinian leaders and to urge them to reject a partition of the land between the Jewish and Arab populations. Reading this made my blood boil:

German records show that the Nazis viewed the establishment of a Jewish state with great concern. A 1937 report from German General Consulate in Palestine said: “The formation of a Jewish state… is not in Germany’s interest because a (Jewish) Palestinian state would create additional national power bases for international Jewry such as for example the Vatican State for political Catholicism or Moscow for the Communists. Therefore, there is a German interest in strengthening the Arabs as a counter weight against such possible power growth of the Jews.”

The records also show that the news of increased Nazi-Arab cooperation panicked the British government, and caused it to cancel a plan in 1938 to bring to Palestine 20,000 German Jewish refugees, half of them children, facing danger from the Nazis.

Documents show that after deciding that the move would upset Arab opinion, Britain decided to abandon the Jewish refugees to their fate.

“His Majesty’s Government asked His Majesty’s Representatives in Cairo, Baghdad and Jeddah whether so far as they could judge, feelings in Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia against the admission of, say 5,000 Jewish children for adoption… would be so strong as to lead to a refusal to send representatives to the London discussions. All three replies were strongly against the proposal, which was not proceeded with,” a Foreign Office report said.

“If war were to break out, no trouble that the Jews could occasion us, in Palestine or elsewhere, could weigh for a moment against the importance of winning Muslim opinion to our side,” Britain’s Minister for Coordination of Defence, Lord Chatfield, told the British cabinet in 1939, shortly before Britain reversed its decision to partition its mandate, promising instead all of the land to the Palestinian Arabs.

Peggy Noonan basically sums up my feelings about the Moussaoui miscarriage; you should read the whole thing.

Excuse me, I'm sorry, and I beg your pardon, but the jury's decision on Moussaoui gives me a very bad feeling. What we witnessed here was not the higher compassion but a dizzy failure of nerve.

From the moment the decision was announced yesterday, everyone, all the parties involved--the cable jockeys, the legal analysts, the politicians, the victim representatives--showed an elaborate and jarring politesse. "We thank the jury." "I accept the verdict of course." "We can't question their hard work." "I know they did their best." "We thank the media for their hard work in covering this trial." "I don't want to second-guess the jury."

How removed from our base passions we've become. Or hope to seem.

It is as if we've become sophisticated beyond our intelligence, savvy beyond wisdom. Some might say we are showing a great and careful generosity, as befits a great nation. But maybe we're just, or also, rolling in our high-mindedness like a puppy in the grass. Maybe we are losing some crude old grit. Maybe it's not good we lose it.

No one wants to say, "They should have killed him." This is understandable, for no one wants to be called vengeful, angry or, far worse, unenlightened. But we should have put him to death, and for one big reason.

This is what Moussaoui did: He was in jail on a visa violation in August 2001. He knew of the upcoming attacks. In fact, he had taken flight lessons to take part in them. He told no one what was coming. He lied to the FBI so the attacks could go forward. He pled guilty last year to conspiring with al Qaeda; at his trial he bragged to the court that he had intended to be on the fifth aircraft, which was supposed to destroy the White House.

He knew the trigger was about to be pulled. He knew innocent people had been targeted, and were about to meet gruesome, unjust deaths.

He could have stopped it. He did nothing. And so 2,700 people died.

Western lon-term strategy to democratise the Arabic and wider Islamic world passes through events like this. One of the most important issues in a democracy is the clear division between political and judiciary powers and Egypt has started that path. Mubarak or not, Muslim brotherhood or not, they will evenctually succeed because once the seed of Democracy is planted, you just cannot arrest its growth.
So, with all the question marks we might want to pin on this, let’s still support Egyptian judges for their struggle is a true democratic one.
If they succeed (and they will) then, like a castle of cards, true democracy will roll!

“I am proud to be one of the early Egyptians who wrote about the new emerging revolution of the Egyptian judges back in July 2005 and the dire need for supporting them in December 2005 before the judges’ massacre started early this year. And I was right, it has started against the judges and it is taking many Egyptians on the way in mass detentions. Detentions have started last week April and rounded around 52 Egyptians.

August 2005, the honorable judges set their conditions for supervising the elections and their demands were overruled and the elections process was rigged. The demands led to a growing tension between the Judges and the regime. Following the elections’ results, the Egyptian judges were outspoken over the rigged results, something that was not so much appreciated by the Egyptian regime and President Mubarak.

In February 2006, in an apparent escalation with the judges, judges Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Bastawisi’s immunity was lifted in preparation to refer them to a disciplinary hearing for being outspoken about the right to an independent Judiciary and the irregularities that marred the last legislative elections in November and December 2005.

In March, popular rallying began in the streets of Cairo in support of the Egyptian judges demands for independent judiciary.

In April, the regime takes the chance to clamp down on Egyptians who are showing support to the demands of judges. Around 52 Egyptian protesters in solidarity with the judges were detained during the last week of April. One of them is an activist blogger called Malek.

On April 23, I went to the sit-in site in front of the Judges Club. Some Egyptian Copts joined the judges in their Easter day when they were supposed to be celebrating with families. At dawn, April 24, a security force attacked and detained the peaceful protestors destroying their signs and detained several of them. When Judge Mahmoud Hamza tried to save the protestors he was beaten and dragged in the street. Egyptian riot police stole his gun and cell while beating him.

April 27, on the day of the disciplinary hearing for judges judges Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Bastawisi, popular rallies gathered in the streets of Cairo's down town. Riot police cordoned the protesters and started beating them with sticks.

After the hearing of two judges who had accused the judiciary of helping to rig elections was adjourned to May 11, their syndicate (Judges Club) held an assembly during which they vowed to keep up the pressure on President Hosni Mubarak.

In a statement released after their meeting, the judges called for "democracy through free elections which allow a real change of regime."

They also called for "the abolition of all exception laws, including the state of emergency, and for the freedom to form political parties without any restrictions."

And here we go the swirl of violence is starting with an adequate procedure. It is battle of survival of the regime.