Archive for October 28, 2007

“Saudi king’s state visit to Britain faces protests and boycotts” (although the New York Times has just declared him a non-corrupt reformer). This news item will be censored from all Arab media–I better see it in Al-Akhbar and As-Safir. But one prince explains that this is an old bribe after all: “Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

“If the French Terror had a slogan, it was that attributed to the great orator Louis de Saint-Just: “No liberty for the enemies of liberty.” Saint-Just’s pithy phrase (like President Bush’s variant, “We must not let foreign enemies use the forums of liberty to destroy liberty itself”) could serve as the very antithesis of the [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

A critique of my article on Muhsin Ibrahim.

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

This passes as a debate in Saudi media. The able (but misguided) Shadha `Amr hosted a discussion on US attack on Iran on her show, Al-Hadath on LBC-TV. To represent the Arab view, she invited Husayn Shubukji (a House of Saud propagandist–in fact, is he not one of those who cheered for Bin Laden when [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

Nahr Al-Barid Update from Angry Sister. My sister Mirvat (who does not like my red shirt–see below), sent me this (I did not edit or change): “The letter your received is so mild compared to what I saw…..I am really so ashamed to be Lebanese… Baddawi: Displaced families from Bared are still occupying classrooms in [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

The Arab internet war. This pro-Hariri site is hacked, and this anti-Hariri site is also hacked.

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

You have to read this movie review. Notice that the NYT guards the interests of Zionist aggression in every section in the paper, including in the movie and dining sections.

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

“Often the reasoning in this book is downright perverse. For instance Mr. Podhoretz contends that the continuing violence in Iraq is actually “a tribute to the enormous strides that had been made in democratizing and unifying the country under a workable federal system.”

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

““All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today,” Mr. McCain, who spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, said in a telephone interview. Of [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

Breast cancer, Saudi media, and Laura Bush. Instead of interviewing an Arab scientist who can speak in Arabic–and there are Arab scientists and physicians who are females–Saudi media don’t know that–, Al-Arabiya TV (the official propaganda outlet of the Bush administration after the demise of Al-Hurra TV) hosted Laura Bush for half an hour to [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

I heard the word “refugees” so I thought that AlArabiya TV is finally airing a report on the horrific conditions of Palestinian refugees who were displaced from the refugee camp in Nahr Al-Barid. It turned out the report was about Tom Hanks and his friends who were displaced in the Malibu fires. I kid you [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

This is how the NYT identifies a White supremacist: “Dr. Watson, who has long had a reputation for challenging scientific orthodoxy and for sometimes incendiary off-the-cuff remarks…”

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

This article by Thananassi Cambanis in the NYT about Saudi Arabia so propagandistic that it can easily be included in Saudi propaganda brochures. Cambanis does not know that there are Saudi critics and dissidents. In the US press, their idea of Saudi criticisms is a quotation from the a House of Saud journalist–Jamal Khashuqji (a [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

I have received this letter (the author permitted me to quote and to use her name):“Dear Asaad,I’m not entirely sure why I’m sending this to you but I read your blog all the time and I feel the urge to share this with you. I am a business senior at AUB; yesterday I went to [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

“Other sources of advice have been former U.S. negotiator Dennis Ross…” This is like asking Pat Robertson for advice on feminism.

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad

Jimmy Carter: a candidate for the Nobel Prize in moral and political cowardice. So I was listening to a Washington Post interview with Carter on one XM station. He was asked about the book by Mershheimer and Walt. He said that he never read the article or the book. He was then asked to comment [...]

Posted on October 28, 2007 by As'ad