Tuesday, February 13, 2007

This account of the birth of UNSC 1559 is advertised as an exclusive scoop in the Saudi newspaper, Al-Hayat. The writer, a Lebanese journalist with very poor command of the Arabic language, is quite loyal to House of Saud. That is the only required job qualification in Saudi media, you see. The readers of this story are not told that this same account, with more details and insights, was in fact published in the French daily, Liberation, TWO YEARS ago. Former Lebanese Minister, Michel Samahah, has told it several times on Lebanese TV. But it was curious that she did not mention what initiative the French envoy asked Al-Asad to undertake? She implied as if the initiative was about Lebanon, when the French envoy--trying to please the US--asked Bashshar Al-Asad to travel to Jerusalem and to "do what Anwar Sadat did." Where is your scoop, o Randa Taqiyy Ad-Din?