We still don't know why Qatar decided to withdraw its forces from the UNIFIL in South Lebanon.

A Syrian person was beaten up in Lebanon. No investigation.

Rafiq Nasrallah, an Arab nationalist reporter in Lebanon (he used to work in the Murabitun radio, Voice of Arab Lebanon, during the war, and later became bureau chief for Abu Dhabi TV) was interviewed on New TV. He said some interesting things. Among other things, he said that a team of Russian military experts came to South Lebanon to study the Israeli war on Lebanon of 2006. He also said that some 40,000 to 60,000 men had undergone training with Hizbullah since the end of the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon. I disagree with his prediction that the Syrian regime would go to war eventually against Israel: Belgium is more likely to go to war against Israel, than this Syrian regime. Ibrahim Al-Amin told Al-Manar TV that there is wild exaggeration of the role and deeds of `Imad Mughniyyah. Syrian state TV is now reporting--wait, I have to listen carefully--that...."The plums. From where? From where?"
القراصية منين. منين.

I am being informed by people who "know" that the secret Saudi-Qatari agreement requires the omission of any news on the BAE corruption scandal on AlJazeera TV. But the agreement does not preclude wall-to-wall coverage of Danish cartoons. Danish cartoons, for potato's sake.

My article in Al-Akhbar: "Who killed the Rabble in the Streets of Mar Mikha'il [in the suburbs of Beirut]"

There is a breaking news bulletin on Aljazeera TV: a Danish cartoon has just been printed. Hamas protesters took to the streets.

Notice that when Israeli propaganda has something to disseminate, it is now always done through Saudi media or Kuwaiti newspapers. Always. Conspiracy? What conspiracy? Are you one of those conspiracy nuts? (Personally, I am, what about you?)

Another scoop for Robert Fisk. So Robert Fisk was passing through London Heathrow airport. He saw this man singing aloud this song: "The plums. From where. From where. The plums. From where. From where." The man then approached Fisk and introduced himself to Fisk: Hi. I am Ayman Adh-Dhawahiri. Please interview me for the Independent. Fisk obliged although he was very busy because he was on his way to interview Abu Nidal (the latter had to come back from death for the interview).

Look at those: their country is under occupation, Arab regimes are strangling Gaza, Hamas leader is busy taking orders from Iran and Saudi Arabia, and what what occupies the minds of Hamas supporters: "Thousands of supporters of the Islamist group Hamas protested in the Gaza Strip on Friday against the reprinting of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad that sparked Muslim outrage two years ago." (thanks Maryam)

"A government minister has warned that inbreeding among immigrants is causing a surge in birth defects." (thanks Nader)

"To that list we must now add the name of Prince Turki. He recently attended a conference in Germany on the Middle East in which another former senior intelligence official, Yossi Alpher of the Mossad, participated. Peace between Israel and the Arab countries was discussed. A Reuters journalist asked the prince if he would like to send a message to the Israeli public. This is what the prince had to say: "The Arab world, by the Arab peace initiative, has crossed the Rubicon from hostility to Israel to peace with Israel and has extended the hand of peace to Israel, and we await the Israelis picking up our hand and joining us in what inevitably will be beneficial for Israel and the Arab world." He told the journalist that Israel and the Arabs could cooperate in many areas including water, agriculture, science and education. I asked Alpher what had been discussed at the conference. In true Mossad tradition he did not want to reveal too much, but he did say that Prince Turki was surprisingly forthcoming regarding the opportunities that existed if the Arab world and Israel could work together - and that, of course, depended on the peace talks."" (thanks Laleh)

These are US allies in the Middle East: "Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday." (thanks Yasmine II)

Syria announced that it will form a special investigation committee to find the fact regarding the assassination of `Imad Mughniyyah. Syria media are speculating that the investigation will reveal that Syrian TV was playing: "The plums. From Where? From Where?" song at the same time of the assassination.

Finally. The queen of Jordan finally commented on the regular Israeli killing of Palestinians. She urged Palestinians to avoid...reckless driving.

Amer believes that a large number of comments written on Arab news sites, especially Al-Arabiya and Elaph, are written by members of Arab intelligence services.

It is official: Lebanon is now made of two separate and distinct republics: a Sunni republic versus a Shi`ite republic, and each republic enjoys an outside regional and international patron. The Christians and Druzes are mere bystanders. Young people of both republics are eager for civil war: some of the demonstrators in the Hariri festival yesterday actually chanted "civil war." Hariri MP, Basim As-Sab` (who is blessed with the charisma of a chair) borrowed the words of Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf about "the ripe heads that need to be picked"--this was part of the democratic discourse of the "democratic" movement. Demonstrators of the Lebanese Forces carried models of gallows. And thugs of the Lebanese Forces clashed with thugs of Jumblat militia. (Secularists are not permitted in the potato homeland). Watching the news in Lebanon these days inoculate you against nostalgia for the homeland that should never have been.

Bono, who has finally decided to learn to play a musical instrument--he is learning how to play the triangle--meeting with Zionist dignitaries. This is a man who has never met a human rights violator that he did not like. (thanks Ali)

Comrade Khalid succinctly summarizes the obscene Hariri festivities in Lebanon.

"The judges relied on Fawza Falih’s coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had “bewitched” them to convict her in April 2006. She retracted her confession in court, claiming it was extracted under duress, and that as an illiterate woman she did not understand the document she was forced to fingerprint. She also stated in her appeal that her interrogators beat her during her 35 days in detention at the hands of the religious police. At one point, she had to be hospitalized as a result of the beatings."

" The group's founder, former Air Force lawyer Mikey Weinstein, said he has documented 6,800 testimonies by military personnel -- nearly all of them Christians -- of sometimes punitive or humiliating attempts to make them accept a fundamentalist evangelical interpretation of Christianity."

Bin Ladenites kooks have threatened a concert by one of my favorite contemporary singers, the Syrian Asalah.

"For example, American officials discovered in 1995 that Mr. Mugniyah was on a commercial flight that was supposed to stop in Saudi Arabia, but Saudi officials refused to allow the plane to land, frustrating the attempt to arrest him." No, New York Times. The plane landed but Saudi government turned down a US request to arrest him. Clarke offers a different account (and said that plane did not land): ""We appealed to the Saudis to grab him when the plane landed, and they refused," Clarke said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on ABC "World News With Charles Gibson.""

"Customs agents have the prerogative to examine and even copy data from travelling citizens' laptops they search, CNN's American Morning reports." (thanks Mouin)

"it is reasonable to speculate that the information or aid needed to kill the Hizbullah leader might well have come from one of Damascus's former allies in Lebanon"

"former CIA officer Robert Baer, in an email to [Laura Rosen] this morning: An old friend of mine. Friend may not be the word. Anyhow the Israelis persuaded him to set off a car bomb in a Damascus bus station. He used the Guardians of the Cedars, paid them something like $200,000. Bomb went off as requested. Point two is Syria these days is completely corrupt, you buy what you want." (via FLC)

Mini-Hariri said this to LBC-TV: "...But to attack kings and presidents who gave everything to Lebanon is not permissible...It is shameful for any person to speak ill about the king" of Saudi Arabia.

You can't accuse Western media of disregarding news from Africa and India.

"Another possibility is that the bombing was the work of agents linked to the pro-western Beirut government, which is at odds with the Shia organisation and its Syrian backers." Come on. I mean, I don't like the Sanyurah government but does any one in his/her right mind believes that Sanyurah or mini-Hariri or Ashraf Rifi would dare plot such a bombing?

This account by Robert Fisk about his meeting with `Imad Mughniyyah is like Christopher Hitchens' meeting with Abu Nidal. I mean, it was not Mughniyyah and it was not Abu Nidal that they met. First of all, do you really believe that Mughniyyah would introduce himself to a Western reporter in 1991, and use his own name? In the 1980s, I worked with NBC News as a free-lance consultant, and I was aware of how interested Western media were in the hostage story. Many Lebanese crooks also knew of such Western interest. As a result, I can tell you that there were many blank and fake tapes sold to Western media which ostensibly contained interviews with the hostages. People made money from such fabrications and allegations. Many would offer tapes for $1000.00 and insist that the tape can't be reviewed before hand. And the Western media were so eager for any news about the hostages, that many paid the amount only to be duped, yet again. Tomorrow, Robert Fisk reports about his interview with Hitler in a Hotel in Honolulu.

"A South African nurse, who has been missing from Riyadh since November, has called her family from an undisclosed location in the Kingdom where she is supposedly being held. Dannelene Noach, 54, who had been working at a hospital in Riyadh for around seven years, went missing last year after blowing the whistle on alleged irregularities at the hospital where she worked." (thanks Yasmine)

"The ultimate purpose of the proposed project is to provide the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior (MOI) surveillance and over watch capability of all major thoroughfares in Kabul City and the surrounding areas. The network will cover the entire City o f Kabul and connect the National Police Command Center (NPCC) and Kabul City Police with a route surveillance and security system, to include all US and multinational camps." (thanks Dale)

It hit me as I was reading tomorrow's issues of Arabic newspapers. An-Nahar is now such a bad newspaper--politics aside. When I Was growing up, it was a sectarian and right-wing newspaper, but it was a good and interesting paper. It really is unreadable now. I am not complaining: I am gloating, in fact.

This writer disagrees with Samir Amin who recently argued that political Islam is aligned with imperialism. But what about the contemporary history of the Muslim Brotherhood? What about the Badr Militia in Iraq? Those are large movements, you know. (But there were inaccuracies in the Amin's article. No time to elaborate. Take my word for it NOW.)

This account of UNSC understates Hariri's role (in coordination with the French).

Lebanese and Saudi TV stations will be over saturated with Hariri coverage tomorrow. On Future TV, they will interview a potato that was half-eaten by Rafiq just before he died.

Tomorrow, is Valentine's Day. It is a day to celebrate love and peace, man.

I saw mini-Hariri analyze the Lebanese situation on LBC-TV. He came across as intellectually gifted as George W. Bush when he analyzes foreign affairs.

Did you know that Egyptian actress Zizi Mustafa died? I just read that. To tell you the truth, I did not like her much. She was too whiny in her acting. (Oh, and she is not linked to any acts of terrorism. Of that we are sure.)

There is a new slogan for AlJazeera: Danish cartoons, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you ask me, American, Israeli, and Hizbullah propaganda are exaggerating the political and military significance of `Imad Mughniyyah--all for different reasons. Ibrahim Al-Amin gives an assessment of Mughniyyah here (he dispels the exaggerated notions of his role). What about Syrian propaganda, you are asking? Well, Syrian propaganda is still obsessed with the song: "The plumbs. From where? From where?"
PS The Lebanese Forces reporter, Bassam Abu Zayd, claimed on LBC-TV that Mughniyyah maybe the second or first leader in Hizbullah. He added that Kucinich is the most important leader in the Democratic Party).

People are being strangulated in Gaza, and AlJazeera is reporting among its top news...the publication of Danish cartoons. Keep it up and I will publish them too.

"The officer in charge of an army unit that went on a wild rampage in the West Bank and shot a Palestinian without justification last July was sentenced to 15 months in prison Wednesday." (thanks Yasmine)

The media is quite racist in its assumption that Latinos just would not vote for blacks. "Obama won among men, among women and among union voters. He won big among the affluent, educated voters in the District's suburbs, but he also won convincingly among rural voters and small-town Democrats." (No, I am not supporting Obama, but the Clinton machine, which exceeds the Nixon's machine in the resort to dirty tricks and racist code language, really angers me).

"But limits on waterboarding by US spy agencies remain unlikely to become law, thanks to political manoeuvring from Republicans and Democrats alike as well as certain opposition from George Bush."

The other day the Hariri rag, Al-Mustaqbal, published pictures (and location) of Palestinian tunnels in Gaza. Did people notice that?