I saw Ma`n Bashshur on LBC-TV. I have to say this first. Bashshur belongs to a group of sincere secular Arab nationalists: there are people like Ma`n Bashshur and Kamal Khalaf At-Tawil who don't belong to sects or to narrow sectarian groups. These are people who you only know as Arabs and not as members of sects or Qutr. At the personal level, Bashshur is one of the nicest, funniest, amicable, civil, democratic, friendliest, and charming people. Even if you disagree with him--as I often do especially when he writes tributes to Saddam, you can't meet him and not like him. You would disagree with him and he would disarm you with his likable personality. Last time I saw him in Beirut, I was expressing my displeasure at a show he did with Joseph AbuKhalil in which he appeared uncritical of the latter. He said: you like eggplants. Let me tell you when Saddam Husayn would wink at me about eggplants. And he would proceed to recount a most entertaining story. But today Bashshur said, to the effect, that it is uncharacteristic of Saudi Arabia to interfere in internal Arab affairs. Come on. You know about the contemporary Arab history more than I do, and you have lived it. Has Saudi Arabia ever stopped in interfering (in money and arms) in the affairs of every Arab country since at least the 1950s?