On my flight from London to US, I managed to read the latest massive version of `Aziz Al-Hajj's memoirs. For those who do not know, he was a major leader of the Iraqi communist party before being arrested by Saddam's henchmen in 1969 and after a few weeks of torture, he became a loyal advocate for Saddam's regime. He even went on Iraqi TV (hosted by none other than Muhammad Sa`id As-Sahhaf--later to become the buffoon Minister of "Information" for Saddam--) and gave inside information on his comrades. He provided names and addresses of his comrades, and we do not know how many Iraqi communists were killed due to Al-Hajj's "cooperation." For his "services," Al-Hajj was rewarded by Saddam's regime and was appointed Iraqi ambassador at UNESCO. He would, by his own admission, write reports to Saddam personally, and suggest at one point that a certain book should be censored because it may damage the regime's interest. Earlier versions of the memoirs did not contain Al-Hajj condemnation of Saddam, of course. Al-Hajj continued to write reports for Saddam even after his invasion of Kuwait. Unsurprisingly, Al-Hajj is now an advocate for "human rights" and is a big champion for US war and occupation. Do you now see why the fortunes of the Arab communist left are so miserable? If you watch Arab media these days, you would think that Andalusia is about to be taken back by Arab armies. I do not understand why there is such a festival of coverage for the decision of the International Court of Justice regarding Israel's racist barrier. It is meaningless; if the US and Israel were able to ignore the (binding) resolutions of the US Security Council, it would be even easier to discard the (non-binding) rulings of the ineffective ICJ. No wonder Israel is not worried. And that fanatic propagandist B. Netanyahu is claiming in today's New York Times that the court ignored the "terrorist" threat factor. No, it did not. It viewed the detailed exposition of Israel's position, and ruled against it. These propaganda claims would be laughed at in Europe and even ME, but can only be made on the ignorant pages of US newspapers. And former Nasser (and Sadat) propagandist Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal is back. He ostensibly retired last year, but now is back through pompous weekly appearances on AlJazeera. He is the most famous Arab columnist alive, and has contributed so much poison and conspiracy theories in Arab political culture. He is one of the most widely read columnist. I cannot stand him; it takes him to say in an hour, or in 3 full pages of a newspaper, what can be said in one sentence or two. He has made millions from his past closeness to Nasser, and repeats the same anecdotes on Nasser in every book. He also is able to write about a published report in the US and tell the Arab reader that he was able to "obtain a highly secret report" that Bush will be reading in his office. I kid you not. I read him say that. I was so pleased for his retirement, and yet I now have to deal with his obnoxious appearances on AlJazeera. I offered to write a critique of him in As-Safir but he is alas very close to the publisher. There is good news, however: Thomas Friedman is on leave until next October.