MUSLIM LEADERS IN SPAIN DENOUNCE BIN LADEN
Muslim leaders in Spain have taken the bold step of condemning Osama bin Laden, the instigator of 9/11 and other crimes against humanity. The Islamic Commission of Spain, the national umbrella group for Muslim organizations, issued a "fatwa," or decree, declaring that bin Laden has committed the crime of making up his own laws.

"The terrorist acts of Osama bin Laden and his organization al-Qaida ... are totally banned and must be roundly condemned as part of Islam," the edict said. It was issued one year after bombs planted by terrorists on commuter trains in Madrid killed 191 people.

The commission is an officially recognized group that has tried to smooth relations between the Spanish state and its growing Muslim community. It urged imams in Spain to denounce terrorism in their Friday prayers and thank the Spanish people and their government for not lashing out at the Muslim community in the wake of the bombings.

The Spanish fatwa is the first such decree issued anywhere in the Muslim world. Muslim clerics and political leaders have been reluctant to denounce bin Laden, partly due to his immense popularity among Muslim and widespread agreement with his aims and methods. Many also obviously fear retribution at the hands of bin Laden devotees and other Muslim fanatics. Terrorism is aimed at Muslims as much as it is aimed at the west.

Extremists killed author Farag Foda in Cairo in 1993 in retribution for his writings criticizing Islamic society; tried to kill Naguib Mahfouz, the first Egyptian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, for alleged insults to Muhammad in a novel; and are suspected in the murder of Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker who made a movie denouncing violence against women in traditional Islamic societies.

Muslim writers insist that the extremists do not represent mainstream Islam, and hopefully that is true. People in the west would believe that more readily if other Islamic councils would also denounce bin Laden and his ilk. The early going is not encouraging, however. Mansur Escudero, secretary general of the Spanish commission, said he consulted with Muslim leaders in North Africa and found that they agreed in principle. But they have not yet spoken out.

History offers many examples of people who stood on the sidelines until it was safe to cheer. The sooner mainstream Muslims feel free to denounce the extremists, the sooner Islam will join the modern world.

"COURAGE," DAN. WRITE WHEN YOU GET WORK
I knew he would say "courage." How could he not? To resurrect, at the very end, one of the most bizarre passages in a long and strange career, was vintage Dan Rather, wishing "courage" to people he never met and to untold millions who have never heard of him. Dan Rather, the greatest hurricane reporter of all time, bucking up the spirits of tsunami victims and anyone else who needs a little encouragement as he finally signed off, as isolated and lonesome as a Bible salesman at a hoot show.

Walter Cronkite, for one, was not mourning Rather's departure. "It surprised quite a few people at CBS and elsewhere that, without being able to pull up the ratings beyond third in a three-man field, that they tolerated his being there for so long," he said on CNN. Rather, of course, elbowed Cronkite aside 24 years ago, and the resentment obviously still burns in Uncle Walter's heart.

It is very unlikely that another anchorman will engage in Rather-style escapades such as donning native costume to check out the war in Afghanistan. Gunga Dan managed to find an exchange of mortar rounds between Afghan rebels and Soviet troops and stood up on a ridgeline, with flashes of shellfire illuminating him in silhouette, to narrate the brief battle as if he was standing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He raced to Florida just after Hurricane Andrew and reported ably on the human impact, laced with unexpected questions such as "Are you Catholic?" to a Hispanic man with a cross around his neck.

Dan Rather loved hurricanes. Covering a Texas hurricane got him a job at the Dallas bureau of CBS, and he was there was JFK was killed, and the rest is history.

Dan ran out of gas a long time ago, and his election-night coverage became mere rote recitations of canned Ratherisms. The last one that sounded true was in 1992, “George Bush has his back to the wall, his shirt tail’s on fire, and the bill collector’s at the door.”

Rather's reputation for the bizarre was so pronounced that no one believed him when he claimed he was beaten up by a man who kept shouting, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" The story turned out to be perfectly true; a paranoid man who thought CBS was beaming broadcasts into his head mistook him for a technician named Kenneth.

Perhaps the experience of knowing that he was right, despite hoots of derision, gave him the nerve to insist, and to continue insisting, that his story on young George Bush's military service was, in some sense, true. Recently he insisted that the report of the review panel, which most people found devastating, did not completely refute the story. So Dan goes down with his flags flying, but his reputation is as tarnished as the silver service of the old lady who hasn't touched it for forty years. So long, Dan. Courage.

BOLTON'S TRUTH-TELLING CONSIDERED NOT DIPLOMATIC
If a diplomat is a man paid to lie for his country, it's amazing that John Bolton has ever drawn a paycheck. He seems keeps committing the diplomatic sin of telling the truth.

Bolton described North Korea's Kim Jong Il as a "tyrannical dictator" who runs an "evil regime" that has imposed a "hellish nightmare" on its subjects. By all accounts, this description is perfectly true.

The UN's infamous resolution equating Zionism with racism was the "greatest stain" on the world body's reputation. A great Democrat, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, led the opposition to the resolution.

The United States is the "only real power left in the world." If not us, who? France?

Bolton has in many other ways expressed skepticism about the UN and about the efficacy of the "international community" in tackling serious issues head-on. In other words, Bolton lives in the real world, not a dream world in which the lions are lying down with the lambs.

For this, the left will oppose him vigorously and will undoubtedly enlist many unwary Democrats in a campaign to defeat him. The Dems who sign up for the anti-Bolton effort will of course be falling into a trap set by President Bush. They will be seen on television badgering a man who is skeptical of the United Nations. Trouble is, most Americans are pretty skeptical of the UN, too. Oil for food, anyone?

Perhaps the Senate debate on Bolton's ambassadorship will degenerate to the level of the Senate's consideration of his nomination as undersecretary of state for arms control. "My problem with you over the years is that you've been too competent," Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware told Bolton back then. "I would rather you be stupid and not very effective." Well, Biden should know.

COLORADO PRESIDENT TAKES THE FALL FOR ROCKY MOUNTAIN SCANDALS
Elizabeth Hoffman, president of the University of Colorado, chose to fall on her sword today, resigning over CU's football recruiting scandal and the uproar that following publication of a nutcase professor's comments comparing 9/11 victims to Nazis.

It was not immediately clear how much she jumped and how much she was pushed by the regents, but you don't need the cast of "CSI" to spot the handprints all over her back.

"It has become clear to many in the CU family that our university -- one of the most distinguished in the nation -- has suffered greatly from a series of controversies that seem to be growing, not abating," Board of Regents Chairman Jerry Rutledge said in a statement. "On Monday, President Hoffman realized the future of CU is far more important than any single individual."

Thanks for clearing that up, Jerry.

Dr. Hoffman was clearly unable to deal with the tide of bad news on the campus and had to go. One wonders who can be recruited to do better.

The last straw was probably the leaking of a grand jury report claiming that two female trainers were sexually assaulted by an assistant coach and that the football program had a slush fund created with money from Coach Gary Barnett's football camp.

Barnett's head may be the next to roll. He was suspended briefly last year for criticizing a female placekicker. His criticism that she "wasn't a very good kicker" was apparently quite true, but got him into hot water anyway.

Meanwhile, Ward Churchill, the underqualified if outspoken head of ethnic studies, gets to keep his teaching job. He gave up his position as coordinator of the program, but that tour of duty was scheduled to end soon anyway. Football coaches can be disciplined and even forced out, but not affirmative-action professors.

It is rare for anyone in the academic community to pay a real penalty for outspokenness. In this case, it wasn't even the outspoken one who paid the price -- just a nice lady who happened to be in charge while the termites were at work in the athletic department and in ethnic studies. Good luck, Buffs!