Archive for July 26, 2005
From the poem Twenty Thousand Dead…Old News by Iraqi poet Baland Haydari (my translation):“Alone I amand tomorrow I die with the herdAloneand I drag my extinguished nightAloneMy head is hereand my foot is thereand my hand presseson my hand…horrible painand I feel the yearningfor the spring inside medyingOh for the destructionand from thereand from thereOh [...]
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
Al-Arabiyya TV versus Al-Jazeera. Just to show you the extent of the bitter political rivalry between those two stations. They both covered the comments made by Tony Bliar yesterday, in which he referred to Saudi Arabia. Al-Jazeera covered the remarks as if they he was criticizing Saudi Arabia, while AlArabiyya covered the remarks as if [...]
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
There was an item in a few Lebanese newspapers about a faxed threats to Shi`ite leaders in Lebanon by a Zarqawi-linked group known as Qa`idat Al-Jihad fi Bilad Ash-Sham. It named some 9 Shi`ite leaders in Lebanon and accused them of…whatever those groups accuse whoever they randomly kill. There was not much public reaction to [...]
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
`Abdullah `Azzam: the one who gave birth to Bin Laden. If there is one person who has done so much to spread and popularize fanatical Wahhabi thought in the Middle East, it has to be `Abdullah `Azzam. `Azzam, a Palestinian by birth, was–just like Bin Laden after him–much more involved in the propagation of fanatical [...]
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
Historically speaking, there is so much foolishness in Lebanese political and popular cultures. This is a culture in which crackpots, like the gifted poet Sa`id `Aql, and “mawkishly sentimental” writers (as Amin Rihani described the writings of Jubran Khalil Jubran who I intensely admired as a child), and mediocre “musicians” like Mansur Rahbani are treated [...]
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
Various news from my Lebanon trip: The presidential palace in Lebanon, in comparison to the only other “presidential palace” I know, the Qatari royal palace (see my post from February of 2003 titled the Amir and I), is quite modest. I had visited it back in the late 1980s when my father took me to [...]
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
Tyre, again and again.
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
The sea off Tyre.
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
The best beach in the world: Tyre.
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
This is a wide view of my grandfather’s house in Tyre with the part destroyed by Israeli bombing in 1982 visible to the left.
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
Husni Mubarak is blaming them for the bombings in Sharm Ash-Shaykh.
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
“Dubai is a chimera to be Sheikhdom’s future promises excess, sin and sadistic violence”
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
Shooting an innocent man in London: “Senior police officers said guidelines giving armed officers specific instructions on how to deal with suspected suicide bombers were circulated secretly for the first time, though never published, in 2003. A Met team had visited Israel and Sri Lanka and produced a confidential report on tackling an al-Qaeda threat [...]
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
Israel spends millions on propaganda efforts in the US (like you I was first surprised when I first read that). I assumed that Israel does not need to spend a penny here given the roles of US Congress and media. Here is an example from the New York Times on how US media need to [...]
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
Another company to boycott: “Intel Will Build a $4 Billion Plant in Israel”
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
A War Criminal (the notorious Samir Ja`ja`) is Set Free in Lebanon: Lebanese Patriots Rejoice. One of the worst and most notorious war criminals in Lebanon, a man convicted of blowing up a former prime minister, Rashid Karami–among many other crimes including the blowing up of a church, although he was later “acquitted” of that [...]
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
Zarqawi AND US occupation are killing Iraqi civilians. US newspapers don’t mourn Iraqi civilians when shot by US troops. “Shots to the Heart of Iraq: Innocent civilians, including people who are considered vital to building democracy, are increasingly being killed by U.S. troops.“
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
This is Zionism: Israeli force against brave Palestinian civilians.
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
“The vetting of recruits to Iraq’s police force is so poor that many who join up have criminal records, are barely literate, or are members of the insurgency, a new US government report has concluded.”
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad
“Terror shifts Muslim views”
Posted on July 26, 2005 by As'ad