Archive for August 21, 2005

Bush had wanted to make Iraq as an exemplary Middle East state. He has. “British officials are seriously concerned about the level of corruption in the Iraqi defence ministry, after the embezzlement of vast amounts of money earmarked for the country’s security forces. Officials from the British Ministry of Defence had already warned US and [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

Bush had promised to restructure the Middle East: he has. “The United States has eased its opposition to an Islamic Iraqi state.”

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

“Under US noses, brutal insurgents rule Sunni citadel”

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

I don’t understand the Saddam personality cult that still afflicts some sectors in Jordan. Al-Quds Al-`Arabi is reporting that pictures of Saddam are sprouting at Ba`thist meetings there, and even the father of the Jordanian soldier who died from the bombing in `Aqaba two days ago was a senior leader of the Ba`th Party. There [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

In her silly introduction to her silly show, Gizelle Khuri today said that Lebanon is “full of geniuses.” She did not explain what kind of Lebanonese geniuses. Did she mean geniuses in civil war savageries and brutalities?

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

Do you want to know the secret of the commercial formula of success for LBC-TV, the TV of the Lebanese Forces militia–and it looks like the release of LF war criminal Samir Ja`ja` will return ownership back to LF command? Well, it is simply a Lebanonese melange of vulgarism, sleaze, misogyny, tackiness, and bad taste. [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

Why was US journalist, Steven Vincent, Shot in Iraq? The Iraq correspondent of the Hariri newspaper Al-Mustaqbal has the most comprehensive and detailed account of the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Steven Vincent. It is based on an interview with a human rights activist in Basra, and it confirmed what we have heard before. [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

Al-Hayat newspaper is reporting that US investigators are interrogating the detainees in Jordan. Also, do you know that the Jordan state convicted a person in the attack on the US diplomat in Jordan 2 years ago, while Lebanon (in a different trial for the same case but with a different scenario) convicted another person in [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

Senior Hariri advisor told me this: when Fu’ad As-Sanyurah was forming his cabinet, he went to see Parliament Speaker Nabih Birri. He told Birri: “I plan to close down the Council of the South.” Birri said: “Only if you close down the Fund for the Displaced People.” (Both of them have become cash machines for [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

A major Lebanese political leader was asked by a well-known journalist (who told me this story) about the status of his alliance with the Lebanese Forces. The leader said: “very good, as long as they remain under my shoes.”

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

This passes as balance in the New York Times. First, you have the poseur Elie Wiesel who, every time he opens his mouth, insults the memory of the victims of the holocaust for the way he has commercialized and exploited the holocaust, and who lies here when he claims for the first time that he [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

In Jummayzah.

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

Inside `Imad’s 250-year old house in Jummayzah.

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

Angry Candidate? No way. I had made a cryptic reference to this. Peter Camejo of the Green Party asked me 2 weeks ago to consider running for the US Senate in 2006 against Sen. Diane Feinstein. Today, I sent him this letter: “Dear Peter: I owed it to you, and to the progressive movement that [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

A Palestinian watching as the armed occupiers leave his land.

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

Mega-Tabbulah: Maybe I have been too harsh on Lebanonese political culture. I have mocked Lebanonese casual and bizarre references to a “Lebanonese civilization”. But this changed my mind. Here, Lebanonese in one Lebanonese village (Juba`), make the biggest Tabbulah ever (sufficient to feed 2000 people they say), in the hope of getting into the Guinness [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

News from Israel: “Worshippers found a pig’s head Friday in the yard outside the Hassan Bek mosque, between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Mosque employees alerted the police, and officers launched an investigation. The pig’s head was wrapped in a keffiyeh with the word Mohammed written on it.”

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

“Italy’s wealthy north plunders south’s ancient olive trees” (Zionists have been specialists in plundering olive trees)

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

Let me say this nicely to Daniel Barenboim: it is not better music that the Palestinians are after. They want their homeland, OK?

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad

When US officials speak about Lebanon in their efforts to disarm Hizbullah and Palestinians there, they often feign outrage: “there is no state that allows armed groups within its borders,” they often hectre. Oh, no there is. Iraq: “Shiite and Kurdish militias, often operating as part of Iraqi government security forces, have carried out a [...]

Posted on August 21, 2005 by As'ad