by JAMES TARANTO
Wednesday, February 6, 2002 2:36 P.M. EST

No Bail for Lindh
John Walker Lindh stays in jail. In denying the Marin mujahid's bail request, U.S. Magistrate Judge W. Curtis Sewell observed that Lindh "has every incentive to flee" because he faces such severe punishment: three life sentences plus 90 years if he is convicted of all counts. The Washington Post continues:

Sewell also noted that Lindh, who had not seen his parents for two years before his capture, has extremely weak ties to his family and this country. "While it has been stated . . . that the defendant is a loyal American, the evidence before the court belies that assertion," Sewell said.

You've gotta love that Sewell with his gift for understatement. As the New York Post notes, the indictment against Lindh, handed up yesterday, alleges, among other things:

In or about June and July 2001, Lindh remained at the al-Farooq camp and participated fully in its training activities, after having been told early in his stay at the camp that Bin Laden had sent forth some fifty people to carry out twenty suicide terrorist operations against the United States and Israel.

The New York Times (link requires registration) has excerpts of the motion Lindh's lawyers filed seeking bail:

Wounded, starved and freezing, Mr. Lindh emerged from the fort on Dec. 1, 2001. He was dizzy and numb from the events and apparently still had shrapnel or bullets imbedded in his body.

After Mr. Lindh emerged, he was taken into U.S. custody. Government agents restrained and blindfolded Mr. Lindh and drove him from Mazar-i-Sharif to a location where he was held for approximately 5 to 6 days. Mr. Lindh was held in a room with a single window that was covered with a black cloth such that Mr. Lindh could distinguish day and night only from light he detected around the cloth's edges. Armed guards stood sentry inside the room. . . .

On or about Dec. 6 or 7, 2001, Mr. Lindh was taken by airplane to Camp Rhino, a U.S. Marine outpost in the high desert zone about 70 miles south of Kandahar, Afghanistan. He was blindfolded and tightly handcuffed with plastic straps so tight that they cut into his skin and cut off the circulation to his hands. During the course of being transferred to Camp Rhino, Mr. Lindh's government custodians threatened him with death and torture.

Oh, the humanity! Somehow, though, it doesn't seem to us that Lindh's lawyers really help his case all that much by trying to paint him as a martyr.

You Say You Want a Revolution
There may be a Jersey jihadi as well as a Marin mujahid. His name is Hiram Torres, and he is (or would be) 27. The New York Times (link requires registration) reports:

In December, Mr. Torres's name, his address in New Jersey and telephone number and other personal information were found on what appears to be a list of recruits left in a house in Kabul that neighbors said had been used by pro-Taliban Pakistani militants. The undated document, found by a reporter for The New York Times, says that Mr. Torres became a Muslim 10 months earlier in Pakistan and that he is also known as Mohammed Salman.

Torres "grew up with his mother, a garment factory worker, in an apartment in a small building with a postage-stamp yard," the Times reports, mentioning nothing about a father. An intelligent young man--1350 SAT scores, studied three foreign languages as well as being fluent in English and Spanish--he had a penchant for revolution. A high-school buddy, Sachin Timbadia, says they shared a contempt for "the culture of America, the materialism of America. The mediocrity around us."

He eventually made his way to Bangladesh. "He said he liked it over there because women respect the men," his mother, who lives in Puerto Rico, tells the Times. "They didn't act that way in the States." From there it was on to Pakistan. In 1998 he called his mom to say he was studying in Afghanistan--and that was the last time she heard from him.

Hiram Torres's trail seems to have gone cold. The Times notes that the list it found puts his age at 20; if accurate, that would mean the list was seven years old.

What's Cooking, Osama?
Osama bin Laden fled to Iran, according to Haji Mohamad Akram. He's a Saudi man captured in Afghanistan who claims to have been the terror chief's chef. The Christian Science Monitor reports:

"Osama had three offers of escape," he says. "One from Iraq, one from Iran, and another from some mafia types. . . . We received a lot of Iranian currency, and the commanders distributed it to the soldiers," he says, adding that he received 700,000 rials ($1,400) for his own personal use."

The Saudi chef says he believes that bin Laden planned to go through Iran and then eventually end up in Azerbaijan or possibly Chechnya.

A piece in London's Daily Telegraph, though written by the same reporter, tells a slightly different story: that Akram said "his former leader was seeking refuge in Chechnya." The Monitor also quotes Akram as saying of bin Laden: "He is very loyal to his closest friends. He had some very good Pakistani friends, including those working in the field of atomic energy."

Dividing Iran
Some commentators have criticized President Bush for including Iran in his "axis of evil," on the grounds that this would weaken the position of "reformers" in the Iranian government. A BBC report suggests just the opposite is true:

While President Bush's attack on Iran as part of an "axis of evil" has been bitterly condemned by Iranian reformists and conservatives alike, they are far from speaking with one voice. . . .

The biggest of the reformist factions, known as the Participation Front, while condemning what it called America's drive for world domination, implicitly blamed the hardliners for providing pretexts for American intervention.

It said the Americans were seizing on the behaviour of some of Iran's internal forces to portray the country as opposed to peace in the region and to international agreements.

It added that Washington was emboldened by the feeling that the bulk of Iranians were disillusioned with the system, for which it blamed the action of entrenched hardliners blocking reforms by the elected majority.

The knowledge that America is on their side can only embolden Iranians who aspire to be free. It takes an odd combination of cynicism and naiveté not to see this.

Iranian Ex-Prez: We'll Nuke the Jews
Anyone who thinks Bush was wrong on the merits in calling the Iranian government "evil" should consider a speech ex-president Hashemi Rafsanjani gave on the occasion of "Jerusalem Day" Dec. 14. He said that the Islamic world will soon have nuclear weapons: "On that day, the strategy of the West will hit a dead end, since a single atomic bomb has the power to completely destroy Israel, while an Israeli counterstrike can only cause partial damage to the Islamic world."

In a letter to various foreign dignitaries, Shimon Peres, Israel's dovish foreign minister, blasted Rafsanjani's "bone-chilling statements." Ha'aretz quotes Peres as saying: When you smell the smell of Hitler, you must raise your voice. You need neither strategy nor tactics--you must tell the truth."

You Don't Say--I
"European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said it is likely there is a link between Iran and the Palestinian Authority over a shipload of weapons intercepted last month by the Israelis," the BBC reports.

You Don't Say--II
Saudi Arabia has acknowledged that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi citizens. "Interior Minister Prince Nayef told The Associated Press that Saudi leaders were shocked to learn 15 of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia." But Nayef says Saudi Arabia isn't responsible for their actions: "This is the truth . . . and I defy anyone to prove it."

IOC to Sept. 11 Victims: Drop Dead
"The organisers have been told by the International Olympic Committee to tone down overt shows of patriotism during the 2002 winter games' opening ceremony here on Friday and not to honour the victims of September 11," London's Guardian reports from Salt Lake City:

"These games are held in the United States and we have deep respect and sympathy for everything that has happened since September 11," said François Carrard, the IOC's director general. "But let's not forget the games is a universal event." The opening ceremony is being televised worldwide.

Citizens of some 80 countries died in the Sept. 11 atrocities. If Carrard doesn't think that's a "universal event," what is?

The Associated Press reports, however, that the IOC has dropped its objection to American athletes carrying a tattered American flag from ground zero into the opening ceremonies Friday.

Seeking Successors
"Israel's defense minister on Tuesday asked the United States to build up alternatives to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as negotiating partners," Reuters reports. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer floated the names of four possible successors to Arafat, including two who met last week with Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

But wait. Why should the U.S. and Israel be deciding who the Palestinian Arabs' leaders are? It's reasonable to insist that the Palestinian Authority hold elections (which Arafat has refused to do since 1999, when his elected term expired), and of course Israel has every right to demand that the Palestinian leaders, whoever they are, act in good faith and abjure terrorism. But who represents the Palestinians ought to be a decision for the Palestinians themselves.

Putting Descartes Before the Horse
Despite the Taliban's overthrow, there remains a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The people there need food, they need medicine, they need . . . philosophy! It sounds like something out of "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life," but Reuters actually reports that the French Foreign Ministry is sending "dashing philosopher" Bernard-Henri Levy, "celebrated in France as the thinking woman's sex symbol," to Afghanistan to "evaluate the needs and expectations of the Afghan population."

Meanwhile, the Christian Science Montior reports that France's Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine is criticizing U.S. foreign policy as "simplistic."

Stupidity Watch
Celebrating the Patriots' upset victory in the Super Bowl, Sen. Ted Kennedy declares (third item): "At a time when our entire country is banding together and facing down individualism, the Patriots set a wonderful example, showing us all what is possible when we work together, believe in each other, and sacrifice for the greater good." Facing down individualism? Teddy must've heard Osama bin Laden say something about the Koran and thought he said "Ayn Rand."

Boy Hero
An 11-year-old South Bend, Ind., boy may have saved his grandmother's life. The South Bend Tribune reports that Tony Murry was threatening the grandmother, Sue Gay, with a box cutter. The boy, whom the paper doesn't name, ran upstairs and grabbed a .45-caliber pistol:

"He hit the bottom of the stairs with the .45 and stood ready stance with the gun," said Gay with feet spread apart and her hands outstretched as if holding a handgun.

The boy shot one round and hit Murry, 27, in the chest, even though the man was shielding himself with Gay.

"I don't know how he did that. One shot and he got him. He's my little hero," Gay said of the grandson she adopted.

The fifth-grader may not have been just a lucky shot. This is a family that knows guns.

"Before his dad died, they'd go target shooting. He knows they're not toys and not something to mess with," Gay said.

Murry later died at the hospital. Police said it was a justifiable homicide.

Queen Sheila
The Weekly Standard has a hilarious investigative report on Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a literal limousine liberal: She "is routinely chauffeured the one short block to work--in a government car, by a member of her staff, at the taxpayers' expense. And apparently in violation of House rules." She also reportedly likes to abuse airline employees:

Vanity and a sense of victimhood are handmaidens to Jackson Lee when traveling. Just ask Continental Airlines, her hometown carrier.

For years, Jackson Lee tormented the airline's office in Washington that handles VIP booking. When Congress was in session, her staff would make several reservations early in the week for return flights to Houston. After the House finished its business that week, she would grab whichever flight was most convenient and scrap the others. But this kind of rule-bending put the carrier in a difficult position. Not only was Jackson Lee only paying coach fare (she was routinely bumped up to first class), but Continental was unable to sell the premier seats she didn't use.

Meanwhile, airline crew regularly complained about Jackson Lee's rudeness. Continental managers, however, feared reprisal and saw little they could do. "After medicine, airlines are the most heavily regulated industry in the United States," says a lobbyist for a Texas-based carrier. "Every airline feels they have to kiss up to Congress; they always feel their livelihood is in Congress's hands."

But in February 1998, things finally came to a head. On a flight home to Houston, Jackson Lee became enraged when flight attendants failed to produce the seafood special she liked. "Don't you know who I am?" she reportedly thundered. "I'm Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Where is my seafood meal? I know it was ordered!"

Once, irate about not being given a ride to an event, she shrieked at her scheduler--who'd been on the job a month and a half--"You don't understand. I am a queen, and I demand to be treated like a queen."

Happy Birthday, Mr. President
Ronald Reagan turns 91 today, the first former president to reach that milestone. The Los Angeles Times honors the former president with an essay by Roy Brewer, like Reagan a former Hollywood union chief, who blasts the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' efforts to whitewash communist activity in Hollywood in the 1940s and '50s. "More than 50 years ago, Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan and I were on the front lines in the war against communism with a who's who of Hollywood beside us," Brewer notes.

The academy is holding an exhibition called "Reds and Blacklists: Political Struggles in the Movie Industry," which, Brewer says, includes "no acknowledgment that Soviet communism was indeed a threat to the security of the free world or that the party was indefatigable in its goal of influencing our culture." The good news is that Reagan acknowledged it and did something about it. That's why we won World War III.

This Guy's No Bargain
Rod Barnett, who boasts that "I was in a relationship for almost 2 years," is seeking a wife. On his Web site, 10k4awife.com, he offers to pay $10,000 "to anyone that introduces me to the woman that I marry (or propose to)." If you introduce yourself to Barnett, "you don't get $10,000, but you do get me."

We're not sure this is for real, but just in case it is, we've got a great offer for all our single women readers: Send us $12,000 and we won't introduce you to Barnett.

(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Robert Salmon, Jim Orheim, Raghu Desikan, Michael Segal, C.E. Dobkin, S.E. Brenner, Michiel Visser, Joel Engel, Janice Lyons, Robert McCarthy, Troy Taylor, Greg Buete, Barry Kaplovitz, Robert Racansky, Bill Harrison, David Arredondo, Dave Finley, Christian Peck, Napoleon Cole, Ed Jasaitis, Richard Zuelch and John Meroney. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

Today on OpinionJournal:

• S. Rob Sobhani: Bush sides with the Iranian people, and they with him (link requires registration).
• Pete du Pont: Jan. 29 marked an even bigger change than Sept. 11.
• John Fund: Arizona politicians' grab for campaign cash.