Archive for October 17, 2005
“Yet while his people starved, Mao feasted on specialty foods, responding to stories of peasant suffering with statements like: “Having only tree leaves to eat? So be it.” and ” ‘Oh, peasants’ lives are so hard’ – the end of the world! I have never thought so.””
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“Guantanamo medics accused of abusive force-feeding”
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“Evangelical Christians donate $40,000 to Gaza evacuees”
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“More than 100 African migrants detained by Moroccan police as they tried to get into the Spanish enclave of Melilla have been rescued after being dumped in the middle of the Sahara desert“
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“Israel redraws the roadmap, building quietly and quickly: Settler population grows as Sharon grabs more West Bank land than he returned in Gaza”
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“After almost a century, is Dada still among us?”
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
Origins of Takfir: I learned the most about Al-Qa`idah and about Ayman Adh-Dhawahiri from reading the recent memoir of Muntasir Az-Zayyat. I ran into Az-Zayyat in Beirut last summer. The book is quite interesting (albeit obviously self-serving but frank). You read this and realize what a sinister role Anwar As-Sadat had played in creating and [...]
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
From Al-Imta` Wa-l-Mu’anasah by Abu Hayyan At-Tawhidi (d. 400 AH): “It was also told that a man from the Persians performed pilgrimage and attached himself to the curtains on the Ka`bah (the Black Stone), and went about saying pleadingly: “O, you who created the ferocious lions, and the normal reptiles, and let them loose among [...]
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
Judith Miller: “In June 2003 I had just returned from Iraq, where I had been embedded with a special military unit charged with finding Saddam Hussein’s unconventional weapons.” So. Did you find them? Were they massive? (Also, notice this in the article: “During the Iraq war, the Pentagon had given me clearance to see secret [...]
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“Fraud suspected in Afghan election”
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“Al Qaeda “barber” arrested in Iraq” (he is a senior aide to Zarqawi’s hairstylist) (thanks Mounzer)
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“Deadly U.S. air strikes kill 39 Iraqi civilians”
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“Overall, the number of violent crimes, which also include aggravated assaults and robberies, fell by 1.2 percent last year. Property crimes _ burglaries, larceny/theft and car theft _ dropped 1.1 percent in 2004, compared to 2003.There were 16,137 murders in the United States in 2004, the last full year for which statistics are available. That [...]
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
My sister Mirvat reminded me (as a follow-up to my post about assassination of women in the Middle East) that the sectarian Amal militia in Lebanon assassinated Palestinian activist Nabilah Brayr during the War of the Camps (orchestrated by the Syrian regime and executed by the Amal militia and other tools of the Syrian regime [...]
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
Lebanonese Nationalism and Vancouver (and California): it is widely common in Lebanon for proud Lebanonese nationalists to brag about the qualities of Lebanon. They keep saying: “where else in the world can you find the mountains and the sea so close together?” In many places, I say. Lebanonese nationalists should visit California: we have plenty [...]
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
“Some Notes on Current Reporting on Miller”
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
Iyad `Allawi: trying so desperately to come back. This former puppet prime minister/Saddam’s henchman/car bomber/embezzler-in-Yemen has been working for months to organize a broad conference to mount a political movement. Well, this conference was held today, and…nobody showed up. Al-Arabiyya TV (his semi-official network) itself noted the absence of “significant” politcial forces, and Ghazi Al-Yawir, [...]
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
Mont Sainte-Victoire and Chateau Noir, 1904-1906. Paul Cezanne.
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad
The Damascus Declaration. How many Islamic republics will Bush establish in the Middle East? Let me count the ways. I was reading the text of the Damascus Declaration (signed by Syrian opposition groups inside Syria). The matter of inside versus outside has become important after the abysmal plight and scandalous performance of the Iraqi exile [...]
Posted on October 17, 2005 by As'ad