Very casually, the Israeli government has decided to resume its killing rampage against the Palestinian people, as if it ever stopped.

"UN nuclear watchdog: Iran may be months from nuclear bomb" (Angry Arab: Israel is not months from nuclear bomb. Israel HAS THE BOMB. Did you hear me?)

"Propaganda and bribery"

See why I keep calling for the restoration of conspiracy theories in Middle East analysis? "A retired US ambassador has reignited the debate about one of south Asia's greatest whodunits, the death in 1988 of Pakistan's president General Zia ul-Haq, by saying that Israel was responsible."

"Veiled ode to George Bush deleted from Pakistani textbooks"

Another outrage. "UN: Saddam's trial 'not fair'". But this UN finds US war and occupation "very fair."

"The United States has rejected Israel's demand to pressure Lebanon to fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1559 with regard to the deployment of the Lebanese Army in the south of the country and the disarmament of Hezbollah and the Palestinian militias." (thanks Laleh)

One of the worst symptoms of Lebanese politics today is the Hariri Inc-produced "talking points." They all read from the same script, and they all use the same expressions, and they use the same phrases, and they all sound alike. Just as the Syrian era produced its own talking points, the new US-Saudi era produces its own talking points. The irony is that almost all the talkers are the same in both eras.

When the star of the Lebanese "democratic" opposition, Walid Jumblat, has questions about "democracy", he seeks answers from the King of Democracy in Saudi Arabia. It makes sense.

Please, speare me Lebanonese "moral" outrage. Lebanonese fake outrage. I can't stand it when I see Lebanonese sanctimoniousness especially on issues of moral nature. Today, the Lebanonese politicians are taking turns expressing outrage at the news of the mass grave in the Biqa`. I mean, do the Lebanese think that the world has not noticed their most savage civil war in Lebanon? I mean, if they want to talk about mass graves, let them start digging in the mountain area. That is where most mass graves exist due to mass killings at the hand of Lebanese against fellow Lebanese during the war of the mountains (which witnessed some savage killing of civilians by both sides although I still hold the Lebanese Forces responsible for instigating the war).

So Who is Al-Qa`idah's Number 3? Take your guess. Today, not to my surprise, I saw news reports refer to Abu Hamzah Rabi`ah as the number of 3 of Al-Qa`idah. Does anybody scrutinize the propaganda claims of the US government? Do people keep tabs? Do they in the media at least compare notes before they are fed government lines that they reproduce verbatim with the faithfulness not seen since the last book by Bob Woodward? Abu Hamzah is NOT number 3. And did you forget that the US government in the past claimed that Khalid Shaykh Muhammad was number 3? Did they not claim that Abu Layth Al-Libi was number 3? Did they not claim that Abu Zubaydah was number 3? All these claims were in fact made. And how could Abu Hamzah be number three when he was an aide to Abu Layth Al-Libi? I personally think that these numbers do not mean much. There is no rigid ranking as in a corporation in Al-Qa`idah. But if I were to designate a number three, it would be not Abu Hamzah but Sayf Al-`Adl, who is still at large (most probably in Iran).

Wait. Really. Bush found a way to win the war in Iraq. He simply hired a new speechwriter. That should do it.

I heard John Updike use the expression "Angry Islam" in an interview. What does that mean? Do people talk about Happy Judaism and Merry Christianity and Depressed Buddhism? Notice how Islam becomes one person. Very much typical of those ideologies of hositility. For anti-Semites, the entire Jewish population was seen as a monolith, and for the Islamophobes, all Muslims become one Muslim, and preferrably a fanatical Muslim drawn from today's headlines.

I always wondered what really inspired Jean-Paul Sartre's masterpiece Nausea. Now I know:
"When Sartre attempted to seduce Beauvoir's favorite, a waifish 21-year-old called Olga, he failed resoundingly. He redirected his attentions onto the girl's sister, Wanda, who rewarded him for his first kiss by running to the bathroom to vomit."

Succeeding Daniel Pipes at the US Institute of "Peace":
Are you aware that some people view your nomination as an instance of Bush cronyism, perhaps because you're not a foreign-policy expert but an actor who spoke on the opening night of the 2004 Republican National Convention?
I understand what you are saying about "why." No. 1, I am not a crony of the president. I have never been to Crawford.

From F. (thanks):

"[Maronite Patriarch] Sfeir had a habit of scribbling all that goes on between him and his "guests" at Bkerkeh ... Basically, he had a researcher's dream log of all the meetings ..Recently, he asked a young guy (Antoine Saad) to publish these in two volumes (1986-1992) released last spring, ... and had a second edition (1992-PRESENT) waiting in the aisles.

A. B., knows Saad very well, ... and told me that the SECOND edition (the juicy one) was supposed to be released last summer ... BUT Sfeir decided to "hold" it because of malaise surrounding Hariri's death .. inquiry ..etc.cSaad came out with the 2nd edition last week .... and I already have my copy flying via DHL... In it (A. said) there is more on Hariri ,,.. the Shiaa's ... etc.:صفير: "... وسيادتنا مجتزأة، واستقلالنا ناقص، وهذا لا يطمئن. نحن نحاول ان نبعث الثقة في قلوب المسيحيين لكنهم غير مقتنعين. أقول لك بصراحة. علينا ان نذكّر ذاتنا دائما بأن الوضع غير عادي لئلا ننسى السيادة. واضافة الى الوضع العام غير المريح، ثمة أمر يقلق المسيحيين من دولتك شخصيا، إذ يقال انكم تشترون أراضي المسيحيين".
الحريري: "هذا غير صحيح. وليُقَل لي أين اشتريت".
صفير: "قرب البلمند".

الحريري: "إن لم أشتر أنا، اشترى الارض سواي من الشيعة. الاغنياء هم الذين يبيعون أراضيهم".
وتطرق صفير الى المقاومة في الجنوب، فقال الحريري: "كانت المقاومة من قبل ان نأتي. وبعد، نحن قضينا عليها في الضاحية الجنوبية من بيروت، اذ دخل الجيش هذه المنطقة ووضعها تحت سيطرته (1993)

(Something worried the Christians about you personally your excellencey...It is said that you are buying the lands of the Chrisitans?
Hariri: No this is not true. Let them say where I bought?
Sfayr: Near Balamand.
Hariri: I did not buy. The Shi`ites did buy. The Rich are selling lands....
On the resistance, Hariri said: Resistance existed before we arrived. We put an end to it in the southern suburbs as the Army entered and put it under its control."

`Allawi runs for his life in Najaf. Another weak, and another false claim of an assassination attempt by `Allawi (former puppet prime minister/car bomber/embezzler-in-Yemen/Saddam's henchman). `Allawi always makes claims of assassiantion attempts that nobody can verify except himself. Today, he claimed that people "with long knives"--I am not kidding you--approached him in Najaf but then left. What people can verify is that people in Najaf saw `Allawi and simply started throwing shoes and slippers at him while chanting slogans against Ba`thists like him, and his bodyguards intervened and shot at people. Unless it was an assassination attempt by shoes, a la Shajarat Ad-Durr. This is the LA Times account: "One of Iraq's most prominent politicians and his entourage were pelted with rocks and shoes Sunday as they left a shrine, escalating tensions between religious and secular Shiite Muslim factions 11 days before a parliamentary election that will set the country's course for the next four years. Iyad Allawi, the former interim prime minister who now leads the Iraqi National List coalition, said he and his bodyguards were also attacked with gunfire in an assassination attempt outside the Imam Ali shrine in this Euphrates River city. Local authorities disputed the claim."

A scene from the romance of Layla and Majnun, as depicted by the painter Dharmadasa in the Emperor Akbar's "Khamsa," 1597-98.

Palestinian kids bravely defying Israeli occupation.

"Do These Two Have Anything in Common? President Bush has equated Islamic radicalism with communism. Is the comparison sound? Is it wise?
By asserting that Islamic extremism, "like the ideology of communism . . . is the great challenge of our new century," Bush is implicitly elevating Osama bin Laden's stature and historic significance to the level of figures such as Lenin, Stalin or Mao. And that suggests, in turn, that the fugitive Saudi dissident hiding in some cave (or perhaps even deceased) has been articulating a doctrine of universal significance. Underlying the president's analogy is the proposition that bin Laden's "jihad" has the potential for dominating the minds and hearts of hundreds of millions of people across national and even religious boundaries. That is quite a compliment to bin Laden, but it isn't justified. The "Islamic" jihad is, at best, a fragmented and limited movement that hardly resonates in most of the world....It is particularly troubling that Bush has also relied heavily in his recent speeches on what to many Muslims is bound to sound like Islamophobic language. His speeches, though occasionally containing disclaimers that he is not speaking of Islam as a whole, have been replete with references to "the murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals," "Islamic radicalism," "militant jihadism," "Islamofascism" or "Islamic Caliphate.""

Grand (not really) Ayatollah Sistani lied. After last elections, Sistani (seen above while resting uncomfortably in his hospital bed in London last year) said that he would not endorse any list. Well, he lied. Yesterday, he issued an edict in which he urged his adherents to follow three guidelines: 1) that they vote in the elections; 2) that they vote for the list that is headed by a religious leader [i.e. `Abdul-`Aziz Al-Hakim]; 3) that they not vote for the smaller parties that may fragment their vote. This only reinforces the consolidation of the Shi`ite republic in Iraq, brought to you by Bush's doctrine. By the way, have you noticed how frequent elections are in Iraq? They seem to occur every other week. Do you have doubt that this dictated by US occupation to use the symbols and images of elections in order to compensate for the lack of democracy? They need the images for propaganda purposes. Don't you think? After this election for example, the US has urged Iraqi to vote for their favorite dishes, and a month later, they will vote for their favorite color, and then their favorite character on Family Guy.

PS. That title Ayatollah. Which is Arabic for Ayat Al-Lah (Sign of God). The first person to acquire that title in Shi`ite Islam is Al-Hasan Bin Yusuf Bin Al-Mutahhar Al-Hilli (b. 1250AD). Yet, the title was not used for centuries after him. After him, Muhammad Baqir Al-Majlisi (d. 1699AD) attained that title while engaging Sufis rhetoric and discourse. And Muhammad Baqir bin Akmal Al-Bahbahani (known as Al-Wahid) (d. 1791) also acquired that title. In the 18th century, when the conflict between the Usulis and Akhbaris characterized Iranian Shi`ism, the title was used. But Grand Ayatollah was not used until 1961 when Husayn Al-Burujardi emerged as the sole religious leader in Qum. The title of `Allamah may also have first been used by Al-Hasan Bin Yusuf Al-Hilli. (For further study, read Al-Qazwini, Jawdat, Tarikh Al-Mu'assasa-d-Diniyya-sh-Shi`iyyah (Beirut: Dar Ar-Rafidayn, 2005). For the various titles used by caliphs in Islamic history, I still like Thomas Arnold's The Caliphate (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924--I think it was 1924).

"Decline in Support for War Worries GOP:In Georgia, Even Republican Voters Are Voicing Unhappiness With Iraq Involvement"

"Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake"

By the way, I have not checked. Have US troops captured or killed yet another senior aide to Zarqawi yesterday?

"CIA agents have broken ranks to reveal the 'cruel and inhuman' interrogation techniques they are ordered to use at secret prisons around the world, including freezing and near-drowning."

This is Zionism: Not even a dim-light unto the Nations. "A 14-year-old Palestinian who was hospitalized in Israel after being shot in the leg by Israel Defense Forces soldiers has been held in arm and leg restraints since Friday, even though he is guarded 24 hours a day by two Military Police officers."

When Israeli media talk about Arab countries' missiles, they call them missiles. Only Israeli missiles are referred to as "anti-missile SYSTEMS."

I have been critical of Al-Arabiyya TV for running US (not pro-US, US) propaganda. Recently, I really have observed that the channel has been on occasion running Israeli propaganda, and I don't think that it is accidental. Just today, it ran a special on Israeli spy `Azzam `Azzam. And the piece was so badly done, and so one-sidedly skewed in favor of `Azzam's false claims, that it must have earned additional points for Saudi Arabia in Tel Aviv.

The only people who should be surprised about Peres joining Sharon's party should be American liberals. The rest of the world has been quite aware of the history of this man, whose electoral campaign in 1996 was launched with the dead bodies of the Qana shelter used as TV props. And he lost anyway.

Back off. Torture is taking place. "US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will inflame the transatlantic row over America's alleged torture of terror suspects in secret jails by telling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and other European officials to 'back off'."

Please spare me the piety of Saddam. Do you know that wherever Saddam goes (not far, of course, between his cell and the court) he clutches a copy of the Qur'an. Like Noriega, he must have discovered God in jail.

Legacy of the Syrian mukhabarat in Lebanon. Is this it? Is this the legacy of the Syrian mukhabarat in Lebanon? Two mass graves were found yards from the headquarters of the Syrian intelligence apparatus in Lebanon during its long years of domination. What images and what symbolism. But was that surprising? And who is guilty too? Who is also implicated? The entire era and those Lebanese who participated in it and benefited and profited from it are also guilty. That primarily include all the parties and organizations and personalities who had links at different or constant times with Syrian mukhabarat and with their master Ghazi Kan`an (ally of Hariri and Jumblat and still remembered fondly by the latter): that would include Rafiq Hariri, Jan `Ubayd, `Abdur-Rahim Mrad, Muhsin Dallul, Najib Miqati, Jamil Sayyid, Raymond `Azar, Emile Lahhud, Ahbash organization, Nabih Birri, Walid Jumblat, Na'ila Mu`awwad, Phalanges Party, SSNP, Ba`th Party, Samir Franjiyyah, Hizbullah (despite an early clash with Ghazi Kan`an when he first brutally entered Beirut in 1987), Michel Murr, Ilyas Murr (the last two in particular), Muhammad Qabbani, Walid `Idu, Butrus Harb, Ilyas Hrawi, and on and on and on. But let us remember this: Israeli war machine killed more Lebanese and Palestinians in one year (1982) than Syria killed over 30 years. But Israeli bombing usually incinerates the bodies. Sometimes nothing remains.

Syrian thinker Tayyib Tizini offers his criticisms of the Damascus Declaration in an interview with Al-Mustaqbal. He, as a staunch secularist, disagrees with the marriage between politics and Islam posited in that declaration, and fears Kurdish separatism. He also strongly disagrees with the absence of references to the Palestine question in the declaration. Tizini signed the Hums (not Hummus) Declaration, but not the Damascus Declaration. I have signed the potato declaration last year. He accuses Syrian and Lebanese press of vengeance toward the "other." But I think that the Lebanese press is worse because 1) it ostensibly is "free" while the Syrian media are mere tools of the government; 2) Lebanese media, especially Hariri media and An-Nahar exhibit blatant racism toward all Syrians while the Syrian media have not exhibited racism toward all Lebanese--hostility to Hariri rags and tools is not racist, by the way.

Another insane and hugely costly project in Dubai.

Al-Jazeera has added qualifications and disclaimers to its reporting in the Middle East in order to appease the US. Yesterday, AlJazeera reported on (but did not air) the video showing Western hostages in the Iraq attacking US war and occupation. The anchorperson added that this could have been made under duress, and the true feelings of the hostages could not have been ascertained. I don't have a problem with that but...should not AlJazeera by the same token add a special disclaimer to all its reporting about Iraqis under occupation to the effect that they too may have made those statements under the duress of the US (and Macedonian) war machine?

You have to read this long interview with Walid Jumblat published in Ash-Shira` magazine. This magazine, and its editor Hasan Sabra, has a checkered past. He was a leader of the thuggish Sunni militia, Arab Socialist Union, during the civil war. Its only claim to fame is that it was a vehicle of Libyan intelligence in Lebanon, and its leaders profited from Libyan money (look at the fortune accumulated by former Syrian functionary `Abdur-Rahim Murad who used to head that "union"). Sabra started the magazine and he has no journalistic skills to speak of. He established ties with branches in Iranian intelligence, and broke the Iran-Contra scandal by publishing an item fed to him by sources close to Mohtashemi in Iran about a secret US visit to Tehran. This gave the magazine publicity. He started as an Arab nationalist Nasserist, but in the 1990s was one of many publications bought by Hariri Inc, and is now a fanatic Hariri mouthpiece. In this interview, Jumblat contradicts himself several times per paragraph. Notice that Jumblat expresses deep nostalgia to the most brutal era of the Syrian regime during the days of Hafidh Al-Asad and Rif`at Al-Asad. Notice how much affection he has for former vice-president `Abdul-Halim Khaddam and former chief-of-staff Hikmat Shihabi. Both men reportedly were bought off by Hariri very early on, and facilitated his entry into the Lebanese political scence. Two of Khaddam's sons have jobs with Hariri Inc, and Khaddam stays for long periods in Hariri's house in Paris, and so do his family members when they go shopping in Paris. Shihabi, I am told, is now staying at a hotel in Paris at Hariri's expense.

The crackpot Lebanonese presidential candidate. You had to see the crackpot Lebanonese presidential candidate, Shibli Al-Mallat, on Al-Arabiyya TV. The host (one of the best interviewers on that channel, Hasan Mu`awwad) grilled him and pointed out the absurdity of his launching his campaign for the presidency in Lebanon from...the US, and the fact that he has no popular basis. I really feel that Mallat is losing his mind. He even said that "the world" knows him from his "new theories in various intellectual systems." I swear. So you readers around the world have heard of Mallat from his "new theories." I mean, aside from his theory for a new Hummus recipe, what are these theories? Please tell me. He, this former secular and leftist, praised the sectarian system (a "guarantee" he called it), and said that he can never disagree with the Maronite patriarch. This is Lebanon (and the new Iraq). If you have no popularity, latch on the garb of sectarian religious leaders. He was asked about his friendship with Fouad Ajami, and he denied having met him, but added that he admires some of his writings but disagree with him on the question with Israel. When asked about his position on Israel, he said: "I have a civilized stance on Israel." Dont you love those Hummus eaters: they are all civilized. It is the tahini I bet.

"The U.S. general who used to head the National Security Agency says the only way to stabilize the Middle East is to leave Iraq."

Mystery, undated. Odilon Redon.

Now try to figure this out please: "UAE outlines vote mechanism". But this is clear from the ruler's statement. Some citizens will be allowed to vote in an indirect way for half of the members of councils that have no powers whatsoever. OK. I have to cut a cherry tree now.

This is how we know that democracy has finally arrived to Iraq: "The U.S. military command in Baghdad acknowledged for the first time yesterday that it has paid Iraqi newspapers to carry positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, but officials characterized the payments as part of a legitimate campaign to counter insurgents' misinformation."

"Almost £1m has been paid to Iraqi civilians in compensation for injuries and damage to property caused by British soldiers" (Iraqi civilians have been paid $56.20 by US)

So-called "liberal" press in Israel: the case of Haaretz. The patriotism of the Zionist press requires that Israeli newspapers always provide justifications and rationalizations for Israeli wars, invasions, conquest, and weapons' acquisitions. Here, there is a story of a testing of an Israeli missile (but Israeli press calls Israeli missiles "anti-missile systems", this is like me calling a gun "an anti-intruder system"). But also notice that the story of the test of the missile is only mentioned after a report of a Russian arms sale to Iran.

"The inequalities that blazed in France will soon scorch the world: The tensions between a dispossessed underclass and the comfortable majority have only been repressed, not solved" says Immanuel Wallerstein

"Guantánamo Bay, Bagram and beyond"