Archive for April 2, 2006
My mother does not like it when (or if) I critize `Arafat, Hizbullah, Mustafa `Aqqad, Hamas, Muhammad, and…Fayruz. I really like Fayruz (until the late 1970s with the exception of her 1st CD with Ziyad Rahbani). But her voice now makes all her songs sound alike. I just heard a segmet from her recent event [...]
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“Truth and Fiction in Elie Wiesel’s Night: Is Frey or Wiesel the Bigger Moral Poseur?”
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.”
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“Arab-owned banks holding Palestinian Authority accounts have begun trying to persuade the PA to withdraw its money, apparently out of fear that the U.S. and Western European countries will impose sanctions against them for holding terrorist funds.”
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“The Americans can’t return the three years that Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost lost, locked in a cell in Guantánamo Bay. But they could at least give back his poetry. “Please help,” said Dost, who says he penned 25,000 lines of verse during his long imprisonment. “Those words are very precious to me. My interrogators promised [...]
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“The president of the world-renowned Sorbonne University has branded French students protesting about the country’s new employment law “ignorant and stupid”.”
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“Q: What is the biggest lesson you have learned from the Iraq war? A: The ingratitude of the Iraqis for the extraordinary favor we gave them — to release them from the bondage of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny. They have rapidly interpreted it as something they did and that we were incidental to it. They’ve more [...]
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
Dalai Lama tosses another pearl of wisdom: “”This new terrorism has been brewing for many years. Much of it is caused by jealousy and frustration at the West because it looks so highly developed and successful on television…” (thanks Ali)
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
Paradis Now? Paradise Never. Not With….Sally Field. My hosts here expected me to see the movie Paradise Now to include in my talk about Arabs in recent US movies. I did not have a chance to see it before arriving in Seattle. One of my hosts was clearly disappointed as she picked me up from [...]
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
I heard a very disturbing account of a panel in which Lebanese, now an official Lebanonese, director, Ziyad Duwayri (director of West Beirut which I have not seen), appeared at the recent Sundance Film Festival. It seems that he gave an unconditional endorsement of Bush’s wars. But then again: he is now a “consultant” on [...]
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
From the Emirates News Agency: a citizen earns an MA degree. (thanks Amer)
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“MILITIAMEN from an Iranian-backed force were deliberately recruited by Britain to join the new Iraqi security services after Saddam Hussein was overthrown, the Government hasadmitted.” (thanks Amina)
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“Two years after U.S. authorities ceremoniously declared Iraq to be sovereign again, top religious leaders say Iraqis remain under military occupation, have a right to fight foreign troops and still don’t govern themselves. Their statements, made at the conclusion of a peace conference in London on Tuesday, provided a stamp of approval from Iraq’s most [...]
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
The reform that is promoted by the likes of Bush, Hariri, King `Abdullah (either of them), World Bank and IMF is a reform that I oppose. Today, the King of Saudi Arabia spoke about reform. But he said that change has to take place within Shari`ah. By Saudi Wahhabi standards, it only means that swords [...]
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to head back from her trip to northwest England after a visit which shaped up as a public relations nightmare.”
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“A senior Congressional investigator has accused his agency of covering up a scientific fraud among builders of a $26 billion system meant to shield the nation from nuclear attack. The disputed weapon is the centerpiece of the Bush administration’s antimissile plan, which is expected to cost more than $250 billion over the next two decades.”
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush’s conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.”
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“”Also, at least two false statements about me have been widely aired: One _ that I refused to travel and cooperate with the U.S. military, and two _ that I refused to discuss my captivity with U.S. officials. Again, neither statement is true.””
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“Courted as Spies, Held as Combatants: British Residents Enlisted by MI5 After Sept. 11 Languish at Guantanamo”
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad
“Former U.S. President Clinton supports dialogue with Hamas” (But who supports dialogue with Clinton? I don’t)
Posted on April 2, 2006 by As'ad