Archive for June 1, 2007

“Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, with no known foreign policy expertise or even interest (unless you count his “mission” to France after college, trying to convert the French to Mormonism)…”

Posted by As'ad at 9:44 PM 06/1/07

“The fighting has created a humanitarian crisis for the camp’s inhabitants, thousands of whom remain trapped inside. U.N. officials say only 5,000 of the 6,200 families registered in Nahr al-Bared have officially evacuated. Camp residents estimate that 10,000 people remain there.“The bombing hasn’t stopped all day long. Bombs are falling everywhere,” Milad Salameh, a nurse [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:36 PM 06/1/07

Shadow Government by Syrian poet Muhammad Al-Maghut (my translation):
“My mother is Arabismand my father is struggleand my sister is unityand my uncle is positive neutralismand my [other] uncle is non-alignmentand my brother-in-law is steadfastnessand my mother-in-law is the Arab Leagueand my grandfather is [Arab] Joint Defenseand my children are the streetsand I call for an [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:27 PM 06/1/07

Jalal Talbani seems to have solved the sectarian problem in Iraq. He spoke to Al-Arabia TV and insisted that Sunnis will have an “active role” in Iraqi political life. He said that although Sunnis will have separate drinking fountains, they will have the same quality of water fountains that Shi`ites and Kurds have. [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:15 PM 06/1/07

It must a great learning experience to study the Arab world at an Israeli university. Take this for example: “He was speaking at a conference on the empowerment of Arab women at the Hebrew University’s Shasha Center for Strategic and Policy Studies, which he now heads.” Do you know who he is? The [...]

Posted by As'ad at 8:21 PM 06/1/07

Suha `Arafat has spoken. She protested a new Jordanian TV series about `Arafat. I thought that she was protesting the content of the program, but apparently she was merely complaining about licensing issues.

Posted by As'ad at 8:16 PM 06/1/07

“The Destruction” of Nahr Al-Barid (by `Umar Nashshabah)

Posted by As'ad at 8:13 PM 06/1/07

The Lebanese Communist Party sent a delegation to the Lebanese Army commander-in-chief to congratulate the army on its heroism. If the oxygen masks don’t drop from my ceiling in two minutes, I will yell out obscenities in Arabic. Beware.

Posted by As'ad at 7:36 PM 06/1/07

Barham Salih (puppet prime minister in Iraq), who thinks that he is an intellectual because he wears glasses (tell him that Larry King wears glasses too), was on Al-`Arabiya TV. He acknowledged that there is discrimination against Arabs in Kurdish areas, and that they can’t live there unless they obtain a “Kurdish guardian” document, [...]

Posted by As'ad at 7:33 PM 06/1/07

If US soldiers are relying on google translations for Arabic when they write graffiti (as part of some highly funded psychological operations, please use real life translators. Above, for example: It says…”li-sha`b al-`Iraqi.” That does not read write (I meant “right” as one reader corrected me–how dare you correct me. Apologize [...]

Posted by As'ad at 7:29 PM 06/1/07

It will be remembered that Hizbullah took to the streets (and staged a months-long sit in in downtown Beirut) to demand an increased cabinet share for the opposition. For Nahr Al-Barid, Hizbullah did nothing.

Posted by As'ad at 5:03 PM 06/1/07

Does the Lebanese government remember that after black September there was…Black September?

Posted by As'ad at 4:54 PM 06/1/07

Do you know that the Lebanese Army has special “elite forces”? Oh, yeah. They even call them “maghawir”. The task of those elite forces is to carry Hummus cans for those behind them.

Posted by As'ad at 4:51 PM 06/1/07

My aversion to the pet causes of rich kids at private schools only increases with time, perhaps because I teach real people at a state university–and I say that knowing that am the privileged products of private elite and elitist schools since infancy. But I read that students of Lebanese American University staged a [...]

Posted by As'ad at 4:45 PM 06/1/07

This is one of those stories that I usually read in An-Nahar newspaper, but this one is from As-Safir. A paralyzed Lebanese child was able to walk. How did the miracle happen? He says that he suddenly heard the Virgin Mary talk to him and tell him: “Throw the walker, and walk on [...]

Posted by As'ad at 4:39 PM 06/1/07

As-Safir published a public opinion survey of the Lebanese people. It showed that 77% of Druzes, 67% of Shi`ites, 85% of Sunnis, and 80% of Christians support the invasion of of the Nahr Al-Barid camp by Lebanese Army. Don’t ever trust the Lebanese “sects.”

Posted by As'ad at 4:24 PM 06/1/07

You will not read this in the White Man’s press: A Syrian worker in Lebanon, Rahil Husayn Al-Muhammad (24), was injured in Haruf near Nabatiyyah by a cluster bomb that Israel left behind in Lebanon.

Posted by As'ad at 4:22 PM 06/1/07

Today, Israeli occupation soldiers did what they do regularly. They killed Palestinian children.

Posted by As'ad at 4:20 PM 06/1/07

Here, Lebanese Army showing its heroism by bombarding the Nahr Al-Barid refugee camp. The Lebanese, or most of them, are cheering widely. For the first time, they feel that they may have a homeland. Don’t disabuse them of their delusions.

Posted by As'ad at 3:51 PM 06/1/07

No Racism. (thanks Maryam)

Posted by As'ad at 3:47 PM 06/1/07

“Iraqi Army or Mahdi Army?” (thanks Amina)

Posted by As'ad at 2:01 PM 06/1/07

“The university’s planners plan to make Mr. Makiya’s documentary project the core of the humanities department. Mr. Alwash, an environmental scientist, has said he will use the university as a base for his research project, which is about rejuvenating the southern marshlands. Other prominent intellectual and political figures, many of whom supported the American [...]

Posted by As'ad at 12:32 PM 06/1/07

“The payments, up to $2,500 per incident, are given as a token of sympathy or remorse toward a victim or victim’s family for death, injury or property damage. U.S. officials say individual payouts are based on local customs, and are not considered an admission of legal liability or fault.”

Posted by As'ad at 12:26 PM 06/1/07

When people were counting the victims of Stalin, they let Robert Conquest do the highly inflated calculations. Another fabrication of numbers is now happening in the case of Darfur victims. Estimates are that some 100,000 died in Darfur. Yet, you read the US press, and the number keeps jumping. This article [...]

Posted by As'ad at 12:15 PM 06/1/07

“Two Palestinian boys have been shot dead by Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources say. The children were estimated to be between eight and 13 years old. They have not yet been identified.” But this is the Israeli occupation army’s explanation: “An Israeli army spokesman said the army had [...]

Posted by As'ad at 12:03 PM 06/1/07

“Detailed plans for the new U.S. Embassy under construction in Baghdad appeared online Thursday in a breach of the tight security surrounding the sensitive project. Computer-generated projections of the soon-to-be completed, heavily fortified compound were posted on the Web site of the Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm that was contracted to design the massive [...]

Posted by As'ad at 10:38 AM 06/1/07

On the same day that Ash-Sharq Al-Awsad conceded that there are Saudis among Fath-Al-Islam fighters (see below), Al-Hayat denies that there are Saudis among them. Of course, the latter is lying but this could be a conflict between Prince Sultan and Prince Salman (Sultan (through his notorious son, Khalid, owns Al-Hayat and Salman owns [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:59 AM 06/1/07

This just in. Lebanonese nationalists take pride in your army. New TV’s correspondent in the North, Firas Hatum (who has distinguished himself with propaganda propagation on behalf of Lebanese Army) reported that the Lebanese Arm is advancing slowly against the Fath-Al-Islam gang. So the 40,000 strong Lebanese Army is now making progress [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:57 AM 06/1/07

“He has called me a moral pervert, a Nazi and commissioned a cartoon showing me masturbating in ecstatic joy to dead Lebanese civilians.” Boo hoo hoo. (link just below)Dershowitz reached a new low by calling Israel Shahak (who was sent by the Nazis to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with his mother, and did not win [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:48 AM 06/1/07

“It is always intriguing to see just how far Alan Dershowitz will go in his efforts to conceal the fact that Norman Finkelstein exposed him as a vulgar and fraudulent apologist for Israeli human rights violations–carefully, judiciously, with extensive documentation (“Taking the Bait,”, May 21). Knowing that he cannot respond, Dershowitz [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:43 AM 06/1/07

“In a BBC interview last week, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora openly linked Fatah al-Islam to Syrian intelligence.” Oh, really? So it must be true because you can rely on the account of Fu’ad Sanyurah because as everybody knows he is not tied to any political group, and is independent of the Hariri family, and has [...]

Posted by As'ad at 9:33 AM 06/1/07

Anwar Raja of PFLP-GC told New TV that Fath-Al-Islam is a “Lebanese Al-Qa`idah” and that the Haririr run, Intelligence Apparatus of the Internal Security Forces was behind the formation of the group.

Posted by As'ad at 7:52 AM 06/1/07

“Alan Dershowitz, one of America’s leading lawyers, has promised he will personally visit legal and financial ruin on any UK academic supporting a boycott of Israeli academe. The Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard University revealed his intention to The Times Higher ahead of the University and College Union’s [...]

Posted by As'ad at 7:08 AM 06/1/07