Rif`at Al-Asad returns to Damascus:It is official now. Rif`at Al-Asad, Bushshar's uncle, will return to Syria after living for 20 years in Europe, and with a fortune of $300 million according to previous press reports. Rif`at almost overthrew his brother in 1984; there is a classic suspenseful account of the scene of the confrontation between the two brothers in Patrick Seale's Asad--how pathetic is Arab politics. From the 1970s until his expulsion from Syria, Rif`at built his own praetorian guard, and his Defense Detachments terrorized Lebanon during the war years. I saw Rif`at once when I was 14 years old. It was 1974. We were spending the summer in the town of Sawfar in Mount Lebanon, when Rif`at's convoy, and Rif`at in a white suit, comes down the road with a huge entourage. He wanted to say hi to my father, he said. He spent several hours, and did not leave before giving my father a "special gift." It was a very fancy AK-47, with a lot of accessories and special bags and carrying cases. His troops were the most thuggish and the most brutal in the civil war in Lebanon, and they were the ones who demolished Hamah in 1982 during the revolt of Hamah. More than 10,000 Syrians were killed. Do you know that Rif`at nows speaks about democracy and reform? He promised promised to work for the "society of justice, freedom, and peace." But then again, so does Bush.