This is getting to be comical. Hoping to boost Shi`ite alternatives to Hizbullah, the Bush administration arranged for a second trip by Ahmad Al-As`ad (whose popularity among Shi`ites in Lebanon equals the popularity of Rev. Wright among white Republicans in the US) to Washington, DC. The Bush administration even arranged for him to meet with the deputy secretary-general of the UN. Keep it up. I am sure you will succeed, just as you succeeded in turning Ahmad Chalabi into the most popular Iraqi EVER. Al-As`ad is even speaking at the Wilson Center. One thought better of Michael Van Dusen. He used to be an informed expert of the Middle East.