Archive for July 10, 2007

At hotels or at centers, if there are three flags or more, one of them is always Israel. Turkey it seems needs to prove to the West its good behavior.

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

Notice how thrilled Hariri rag, Al-Mustaqbal, is with news of US military maneuvers in the Gulf. They think that the US government moves aircraft carriers in order to please mini-Hariri.

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

Some people manage to do so much in a short period of time. Do you know that Ghassan Kanafani was only 36 when he was killed with a car bomb by Israeli occupation forces? Was Muhammad the Conqueror not 21-years old when he entered Constantinople?

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

There is a new group in Lebanon. The Civic Center for National Initiative was launched yesterday. I actually read the very long statement (that took time away from my Turkish breakfast) that was issued and it really said nothing. Absolutely nothing. (There are people I respect who signed the statement–not Adonis of course).

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

Yesterday, Israeli occupation forces kidnapped a Lebanese citizen, Mahir Faris Hamdan, from Shib`a and then released him. You will not read this in the Western press.

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

“Legitimate public opinion polls are unusual in Iran, an Islamic republic where dress codes and other rules of behavior are enforced.” No, this is true. I mean how can you be wearing the veil and be able to express an opinion in a poll. You just can’t. (thanks Bernhard)

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

This is really good. “In 1976 Christopher Hitchens saw Saddam as an up-and-coming secular socialist who would transform Iraq into a progressive model for the rest of the Middle East (From The New Statesman 2 April 1976)”

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

“The operation in Jordan was planned on the following assumptions: The operational plan must ensure that its successful execution does not leave any tracks that would incriminate Israel directly. In terms of the intelligence community, it must be a “silent” operation. The possibility of failure of the operation, and its implications, were hardly addressed by [...]

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

Abu Mazen’s press office. (No, really. Notice how they explain his comments). (thanks May)

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

Lebanon is really the center of the US after all. (thanks Molly)

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

“Scottish bride Teresa Brown’s dream of a perfect wedding day probably did not include attacking the groom with her stiletto shoe and spending the weekend in a cell.” (She did not know that hitting somebody with a shoe is only offensive in Arab culture). (thanks John)

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

The “Cedar Revolution” continues: “An overseas Filipino worker in Lebanon committed suicide by jumping from the fifth of her aparment building last week, ABS-CBN Middle East News Bureau reported Tuesday.” (thanks KB)

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

There are many Arabic loan words in Persian, Turkish, Urdu and many other languages. I want those words back NOW.

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

I have been eaten rolled grape leaves (dolmas) all my life. The best I have had are at a non-fancy Turkish restaurant called Haci Baba (Again, thanks Timor Goskel for recommendation). And they are vegetarian. They were so good that I had to open them up to make sure that they have no meat. Such [...]

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

I normally don’t eat breakfast but my hotel here has a most delicious Turkish breakfast: it is similar to the Syrian breakfast that we eat in Lebanon. But my favorite breakfast is the one offered in Doha, Qatar at the Four Seasons and the Sheraton. Really good.

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

“Yet the wanton contempt for Islamic and Arab sexual taboos was almost morethan he could take. Soon, he had to stop talking.” So according to Richard Cohen, the sexual abuses in Abu Ghraib are not considered taboos in other societies. Only those Arabs and Muslims find them objectionable. What is with them? (Oh, and he [...]

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

This guy wants to be a president of Lebanon (he wrote “My friend Paul Wolfowitz” in An-Nahar): “I was, and remain, a supporter of Republican Senator John McCain’s presidential bid. During the difficult days of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, McCain was a reliable advocate of human rights as the guiding agenda for policy in Iraq. This [...]

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

“Who told them to give birth at night?”

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

In a press conference today, Abu Mazen asked the EU to help in “reducing the suffering” of the Palestinian people. He does not want to end the suffering it seems.

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad

“A story last year in the New York Sun said that Ledeen was advising Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso in his capacity as an associate at the Trout-Cacheris law firm. I checked records at the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration office and found that Trout-Cacheris had been paid $1.5 million by the Congolese government through mid-2006 [...]

Posted on July 10, 2007 by As'ad