I was reading in my bed while O'Reilly was blasting outside in my living room. He interviewed Ted Rall (a cartoonist who has his site). I used to do political cartoon since I was 7, and have strong opinions on the art of caricature, and do not appreciate his work much. I think that Toles (formerly of the Buffalo News and currently with the Washington Post) maybe one of the most talented cartoonist today. A famous cartoonist for the French Le Monde once observed that a caricaturist has to do his sketch with least words, and least strokes. I was not that good. Ted Rall's recent strip was pulled from most newspapers (including the New York Times which prints all the "news that fit to print") because he was seen as insulting to Pat Tillman, the NFL player who quit football to voluntarily join the Army. Now if you oppose the Afghanistan and Iraq wars as Rall (and Angry Arab) does, then he obviously does not regard him as a hero. Similarly, those who volunteer to fight with the Taliban will not be viewed by Rall (or Angry Arab) as heroes either. Rall is pretty knowledgeable about the subject matter I found, but then he lost me when he went on to say that there is no evidence that Bin Laden was behind Sep. 11. Why do some people on the left say that? I do not understand it. That really bothers me and only confirms the worst view of the left as loony and conspiratorial-minded without evidence. Yes, there is evidence that Bin Laden was behind Sep. 11. I have documents (downloaded from internet Al-Qa`idah sites) in which Al-`Qa`idah takes responsibility for the Sep. 11 attacks. After Sep. 11, I was curious (before the release of Bin Laden video and other evidence) about the group responsible for the horrors. So in my first trip to Middle East, I wanted to meet somebody who would know about such matters. I decided to meet Anis Naqqash. I had never met him before, but my AlJazeera appearances (and Arabic writings) have given me good access in the Middle East: at the official, opposition, and underground levels. (The only people that I am--to be frank--scared of meeting are Bin Laden kooks, as I am guilty of so many things in their eyes, and fear for my life from them--not to make myself important). Who is Anis Naqqash you may ask? Anis Naqqash was with Carlos the Jackal when they stormed the OPEC meeting in Vienna in 1975 (they kidnapped oil ministers and later ransomed them for tens of millions of dollars--various theories about the status of the money today), and later Naqqash (after years of other activities) was convicted in France for shooting a former Iranian prime minister under the Shah. Under mysterious circumstances, he was later released from jail, and is now in the Middle East. He gave me an appointment at a cafe in Beirut. I go there, and he was nowhere to be found. I waited and looked, and he still was not there. So my sister (who helped me in setting up the meeting) called the number that was given, only to be told--by him--that he is right there in the cafe, and asked me to look again. Sure enough, in one isolated table, behind a wall, was Anis Naqqash seated. And he then was convinced that Bin Laden was responsible, although he does not believe that Al-`Qa`idah is merely Al-Qa`idah, but there are parallel networks, and I agree with that. But you cannot say that Bin Laden was not behind Sep. 11. And why are some people on the left reluctant to admit that Bin Laden was behind it? It is not that Bin Laden is some Marxist or leftist figure. And (earlier today) I heard an interview with SEYMOUR M. HERSH, and I recommend his books Price of Power and Sampson's Option. While he has written great investigative work in his career, I was very disappointed in his post-Sep. 11 patriotic phase, in which he basically called for the CIA to be allowed to engage in more dirty tricks around the world. He later sobered up, unlike those who were afflicted with jingoistic patriotism without recovering from it. We both spoke at a conference at Georgetown last year, and he was very depressed about the course of the US government. In fact, when asked what we should do (after outlining the dangerous path of the Bush team), he recommended moving to Italy. But I was disappointed today when he started engaging in the discredited racist Orientalist talk (derived from the racist book Arab Mind) about Arab culture being "shame culture" while "our culture is different", etc. And is it really that difficult for people to say Ee-Raq instead of EYE-Rak?