Archive for September, 2006
Do you notice that “liberated” Afghanistan is looking increasingly like “liberated” Iraq?
Posted by As'ad at 10:58 AM 09/30/06
“University of Texas constitutional law professor Sanford V. Levinson described the bill in an Internet posting as the mark of a “banana republic.” Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh said that “the image of Congress rushing to strip jurisdiction from the courts in response to a politically created emergency is really quite shocking, and it’s [...]
Posted by As'ad at 9:22 AM 09/30/06
Gris, Juan, The Siphon, 1913.
Posted by As'ad at 11:25 PM 09/29/06
International media are reporting that a French teacher is now under protection because he received threats via emails in the wake of an article in which he attacked Islam. I mean, I receive threats regularly and that does not become an international story. Or does it all depends on who is threatening whom?
Posted by As'ad at 11:23 PM 09/29/06
“Pakistan: Human rights ignored in the ‘war on terror’”
Posted by As'ad at 11:14 PM 09/29/06
“There’s the president, who once said, “I don’t have the foggiest idea about what I think about international, foreign policy,” deciding that he’s going to remake the Middle East and alter the course of American foreign policy.”
Posted by As'ad at 11:09 PM 09/29/06
“Marwahin, 15 July 2006: The anatomy of a massacre”
Posted by As'ad at 9:10 PM 09/29/06
Why is the Independent publishing an article on Lebanon by Anthony Bourdain? Don’t think that celebrity worship is an American phenomenon. The article did not have one interesting thing to say. I wish he stuck to Shawirma talk.
Posted by As'ad at 9:04 PM 09/29/06
I noticed that people and media in UK have brought up the issue of the human rights violations in Pakistan during Musharraf’s visit (unlike her in the US). “President’s boast undermined by human rights violations.”
Posted by As'ad at 8:54 PM 09/29/06
“The United States Congress Friday approved an additional $500 million for developing joint defense projects with Israel.”
Posted by As'ad at 8:51 PM 09/29/06
“About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, a poll finds.”
Posted by As'ad at 8:49 PM 09/29/06
“It is not clear whether Mr Bush raised Mr Nazarbayev’s shaky human rights record, though he did say: “I’m looking forward to buying you lunch.””
Posted by As'ad at 8:25 PM 09/29/06
Islamist book burners of Al-Azhar are angry. (thanks Marc). They did not like a very historically accurate account of changes in verses in the Qur’an that Muhammad `Abid Al-Jabiri presented in this article. Early books on Islam talked about such matters but in the Shakhbuti era (as Yasin Al-Hafidh called [...]
Posted by As'ad at 8:17 PM 09/29/06
The fanatics that supported the fanatics: “After a conflict within the military itself, a rightwing coup backed by the United States seized power and proceeded to crush the left. In rural Java especially, the new power was enthusiastically supported by Islamists, led by the Nahdat ul-Islam grouping. A convergence between the anti-communism of the [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:56 PM 09/29/06
“But it is hard — indeed, I would say it is impossible — to reconcile Bush’s absolutism over allegedly human life when it is a clump of unknowing, unfeeling cells with his sophisticated, if not cavalier, attitude toward the loss of innocent human life when it is children and adults in Iraq.”
Posted by As'ad at 7:52 PM 09/29/06
There is something that SOME Lebanese can–or should–agree on. Why can’t those secular anti-sectarian Lebanese come together to form a movement calling for the full secularization of the Lebanese state AND society? Why can’t we make civil marriage yet again a priority among priorities, and away from demagogues like Ilyas Hrawi? Why can’t secular [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:36 PM 09/29/06
Where is my late father on all this? The other day, I had a pressing question for my mother. It has been on my mind for a week, if not more. I needed to know. It became pressing, the more I thought about it. I was wondering what my father’s [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:23 PM 09/29/06
“There would have been no established Byzantine or Roman Christianity if the faith had not been spread and maintained and enforced by every kind of violence and cruelty and coercion. To take Islam’s own favorite self-pitying example: It was the Catholic crusaders who sacked and burned Christian Byzantium on their way to Palestine—and that was [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:13 PM 09/29/06
Nawal Saadawi is to feminism what Bush is to peace. On New TV today she said: “The wife who is beaten, deserves to be hit; the one who is humiliated by her boss, deserves humiliation because she is weak.” In the West, this woman is considered a “feminist” because she does [...]
Posted by As'ad at 12:06 PM 09/29/06
Arab Orientalism: English is “the language of reason and logic.” Raphael Patai would have so approved of Edmond Sa`b of An-Nahar (the right-wing, sectarian Christian newspaper), who started his career by translating from English into Arabic American anti-communist propaganda. (thanks Amer)
Posted by As'ad at 11:46 AM 09/29/06
I have had it with the unending coverage and investigations of the assassination of Rafiq Hariri. No UN committee bothers to investigate the death of millions of poor people around the world. I really want this Hariri saga to end. Toward that goal, I have decided, in the spirit of “Christian [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:33 AM 09/29/06
“Kazakhs Shrug at ‘Borat’ While the State Fumes”
Posted by As'ad at 7:30 AM 09/29/06
“Borat, the fictional TV reporter from Kazakhstan, may have gotten under the skin of Kazakh officials but on Thursday he couldn’t get past the gates of the White House. Secret Service agents turned away British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as the boorish, anti-Semitic journalist, when he tried to invite “Premier George Walter [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:27 AM 09/29/06
Gris, Juan, Landscape at Ceret, 1913.
Posted by As'ad at 7:02 AM 09/29/06
News from “liberated” US: “At the same time, the bill immunizes U.S. officials from prosecution for cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees who the military and the CIA captured before the end of last year. It gives the president a dominant but not exclusive role in setting the rules for future interrogations of terrorism [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:01 AM 09/29/06
News from “liberated” Iraq: “Under a broad new set of laws criminalizing speech that ridicules the government or its officials, some resurrected verbatim from Saddam Hussein’s penal code, roughly a dozen Iraqi journalists have been charged with offending public officials in the past year. Currently, three journalists for a small newspaper in southeastern Iraq [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:00 AM 09/29/06
“Taliban attacks along Afghanistan’s southeastern border have more than doubled in the three weeks since a controversial deal between Pakistan and pro-Taliban militants, the US military said yesterday.”
Posted by As'ad at 5:58 AM 09/29/06
“Israel violated the UN-drawn border it shares with Lebanon on Thursday, six weeks after its cease-fire with Hezbollah guerrillas went into effect in the region, the spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said.”
Posted by As'ad at 5:57 AM 09/29/06
An American correspondent in Beirut sent me this:US ambassador in Lebanon “was at a dinner party a week or two ago and left, complaining that he was tired because he was “too busy running this country” he later burst out in complaint “i hate this country, i cant wait to leave” i think he’s getting [...]
Posted by As'ad at 10:16 PM 09/28/06
“Jerusalem Tolerance Museum Sparks Fight“
Posted by As'ad at 8:56 AM 09/28/06
“According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret. “It’s getting to the point now where there are eight-, nine-hundred attacks a week. That’s more than 100 a day. That is four an hour attacking our forces,” says Woodward.”
Posted by As'ad at 8:32 AM 09/28/06
“Israel Stealing Wazzani River’s Waters“ (thanks Emily and Karim)
Posted by As'ad at 8:29 AM 09/28/06
Ziyad Rahbani at the “Divine Victory” Rally. (thanks anonymous).
Posted by As'ad at 8:21 AM 09/28/06
“When Vice President Dick Cheney came to this oil-rich Central Asian nation this spring he expressed admiration for what he called its “political development.” Yet just a day before his visit began, the authoritarian government effectively shut down the two most prominent American democracy organizations working here.”
Posted by As'ad at 8:16 AM 09/28/06
John Stewart on CNN/Fox News.
Posted by As'ad at 10:36 PM 09/27/06
“[Israeli] Army chief makes it clear that if terror group members continue to demonstrate [on their own territory] and hurl stones at vehicles near fence, IDF will not hesitate to open fire at them.”
Posted by As'ad at 10:14 PM 09/27/06
“Christians: We’ll fight for Israel: Evangelical delegates from around the world arrive at Knesset to express ‘love for Israel”
Posted by As'ad at 10:09 PM 09/27/06
“What Is Torture? An interactive primer on American interrogation”
Posted by As'ad at 9:03 PM 09/27/06
I give Christopher Hitchens a year before he follows in the footsteps of Bernard Lewis and starts engaging in numerological predictions.
Posted by As'ad at 9:00 PM 09/27/06
“The Abu Ghraib files”
Posted by As'ad at 8:57 PM 09/27/06
” A new WPO poll of the Iraqi public finds that seven in ten Iraqis want US-led forces to commit to withdraw within a year.” (thanks Amer)
Posted by As'ad at 8:46 PM 09/27/06
“Upon Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, Lerner ostensibly condemned Israel without actually criticizing it.” (thanks Steven)
Posted by As'ad at 8:44 PM 09/27/06
“MILITARY COMMISSION BILL WOULD AUTHORIZE THE INDEFINITE DETENTION OF IMMIGRANTS – WITHOUT ANY ACCESS TO COURTS“
Posted by As'ad at 8:39 PM 09/27/06
Latest news from the “beacon of freedom”: “The legislation loosely defines “cruel or inhuman treatment” of detainees, which would constitute a war crime. The administration said the term should apply to techniques resulting in “severe” physical or mental pain, but lawmakers set the standard at “serious.” The abused detainee’s symptoms would have to include “serious [...]
Posted by As'ad at 8:36 PM 09/27/06
Gris, Juan, Landscape with Houses at Ceret, 1913.
Posted by As'ad at 8:28 PM 09/27/06
You have to read the autobiography of the American historian, John Hope Franklin. It is a delightful account by a delightful man.
Posted by As'ad at 8:25 PM 09/27/06
Cruel and unusual: “Inmates executed by lethal injection in California may have been conscious when they were administered a drug that induces suffocation and an “excruciating” experience comparable to drowning or strangulation, an anesthesiologist who has reviewed state execution logs testified today.”
Posted by As'ad at 8:24 PM 09/27/06
If you have ever read more insightful analysis than this, please let me know. Michael Husayn Young at his best: “Siniora’s tears began a process of ridding the South of Israeli soldiers.”(Next in Michael Young’s column: a feature on Saniora’s sneezes, and how they will begin a process of solving the Arab-Israeli conflict).
Posted by As'ad at 8:10 PM 09/27/06
“Zaha Hadid gets her due in Guggenheim retrospective”
Posted by As'ad at 8:08 PM 09/27/06
“This week, Newsweek magazine – motto “Our voices. Your voices. Every day” – illustrates that division by offering readers in different parts of the world different cover stories. The international edition of the magazine, on sale in Europe, Asia and Latin America, features a fearsome-looking man wearing a turban and pointing a grenade launcher towards [...]
Posted by As'ad at 8:04 PM 09/27/06
“It could take between eight to 14 months to fix a Gaza Strip power plant destroyed in an Israel Air Force strike in late June, and to restore full electrical power to the region. Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has accused the Israel Defense Forces of war crimes for bombing the plant, which has left [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:53 PM 09/27/06
“A public relations company known for its role in a controversial U.S. military program that paid Iraqi newspapers for stories favorable to coalition forces has been awarded another multimillion dollar media contract with American forces in Iraq. Washington-based Lincoln Group won a two-year contract to monitor a number of English and Arabic media outlets [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:36 PM 09/27/06
“She also asked why Israel is not cooperating with the UN in assisting civilians in areas where cluster bombs were fired to locate the bombs. A 12-year old boy was killed and three other children wounded Wednesday by the explosion of an Israeli cluster bomb in southern Lebanon. The children were playing in a [...]
Posted by As'ad at 7:26 PM 09/27/06
Bush’s Favorite Lebanonese: “IDF presence in Lebanon ‘mother of all ills’”
Posted by As'ad at 7:22 PM 09/27/06
That girl was shot by Israeli occupation troops. You will not read about her in US press. She is a Palestinian after all, and her killers are Israelis.
Posted by As'ad at 6:53 PM 09/27/06
“A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers….Another new poll, scheduled to be released on Wednesday by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at [...]
Posted by As'ad at 6:20 PM 09/27/06
Joseph Samahah on the Saudi role in Lebanon. (Would somebody volunteer to translate articles by Samahah into English to post on their website?)
Posted by As'ad at 6:08 PM 09/27/06
Since Lebanese like to rank, Ni`mat Allah Abi Nasr is probably the most sectarian agitator in the country (and there are many competitors).
Posted by As'ad at 5:34 PM 09/27/06
We need to ask Anis Naqqash this question. Did `Abdul-`Aziz Butufliqah (the current president of Algeria) receive a cut from the ransom money when Carlos (the jackal) and Naqqash and their team kidnapped the oil ministers in that famous operation? He mediated at the time. (There are people who are still looking [...]
Posted by As'ad at 4:54 PM 09/27/06
Tariq Mitri was appointed Minister by Emile Lahhud (or more accurately by his son-in-law (soon to be former son-in-law), Elias Murr); he now serves Fu’ad Sanyurah 24 hours a day.
Posted by As'ad at 4:51 PM 09/27/06
