Nicholas Blanford: Nicholas Hariri. I really believe that Nicholas Blanford, who only supports those Lebanese demonstrators that he finds to be "telegenic", now writes the talking points of Hariri Inc. In fact, this article is a rehash of the pieces I read weeks ago in Hariri rag, Al-Mustaqbal. And what is his point, really? He interviewed a handful of individuals which to him represents a popular trend? If he is trying to say that there are Shi`ites who oppose Hizbullah, then of course we know that, and we did not need his investigation journalism to know that. There are public opinion surveys in Lebanon, but Blanford (who does not know Arabic) has no access to them. But some of them are available in English on my site. `Abduh Sa`d can send them to you in English. But he conveniently interviewed the handful of Shi`ite critics of Hizbullah who are aligned and salaried by Hariri Inc (Muhammad Matar is an official lawyer of Hariri businesses--not to mention the others). And why did people not interview Muna Fayyad when she was veiled, before she became a "liberal"--in Lebanon the word means "right-wing conservative" who supports Bush's wars? But why did he not interview Shi`ite critics of Hizbullah who are NOT allies of Hariri Inc? Or was the list supplied by the "central media office"? Just a coincidence, I am sure. Now we know that somewhere around 5-7% of Shi`ites are opposed to Hizbullah--and there should be opposition, and there should be more opposition but the sectarian political and social systems of Lebanon push citizens into the arms of narrow sectarian identification. But we also know that somewhere around 15% of Sunnis oppose Hariri Inc. But why was that not worthy of a piece by Nicholas Hariri, or at least an article on Sunnis AND Shi`ites who dissent from the general orientations of sectarian public opinions? But that would run contrary to the propaganda of the family of Rafiq Hariri--dubbed Mr. Lebanon by the objective reporter. Notice that he even interviewed one Lebanese who detected a conspiracy when his site was down during the war. If I want to detect a conspiracy every time my site is down, I would be a permanent paranoid. But that person also claims that his "name was included on two "lists of dishonor" circulated on the Web during the war." Oh. How scary? Was that on the web? The web. That is where Walid Jumblat once found a "document" that proves that Shib`a Farms are not Lebanese. Oh, by the way, there are some real cash prizes "on the web." Enjoy them. (thanks Peter)