Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Nuhad Mashnuq. Read this piece by Mashnuq. I couldn't believe how differently he writes in his weekly column in As-Safir. With people like that, you wonder what the real beliefs are--if they exist. Who is he? Well, he started his career as an Iraqi Ba`thist writer (he wrote for Ad-Dustur magazine which was a magazine for Saddam's intelligence apparatus in Beirut). He then worked for Abu Iyad's counter-intelligence service in Beirut. He was very close to Abu Iyad during the PLO years. When Hariri came to Lebanon, he was one of the leftists and Arab nationalists who rallied behind him. He became Hariri's media and propaganda adviser. Around 1996 (if I am not mistaken with the year), the Syrian government accused him of links with Israeli intelligence. With a known loyalty to his friends, and with a known record of political courage, Rafiq Hariri immediately...severed all ties with him, and kicked him out of the country. He relocated to Paris. He returned later during Emile Lahhud's administration. He was in conflict with Ghazi Kan`an, but was very close to Rustum Ghazalah and Emile Lahhud--he claimed that he was a friend of both. He has not been close to mini-Hariri who never trusted him. He wrote critical pieces of mini-Hariri, and often heaped praise on Hizbullah and Nasrallah, and their role during the Israeli war on Lebanon. He wrote emotional tributes to Nasrallah in the summer. He claims to remain an Arab nationalist. At the Washington Institute, he could not say more than this on Israel: "Israel has not been behaving constructively in this matter either." Zionists always liked and promoted Arabs who have no self-respect; Arabs who don't mind to humiliate themselves for the amusement of the Zionists in the audience.