In the Iraqi law-under-occupation, terrorism is defined as "any violent actions against people, instiutions, or property and the damage to security, stability, and national unity, or the spreading of fear and chos." Stalin would have loved that.

So justice has been served. "An inquiry has found that an American public relations firm did not violate military policy by paying Iraqi news outlets to print positive articles, military officials said Tuesday."

Helen Thomas versus Bush:
"Q I'd like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet -- your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth -- what was your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil -- quest for oil, it hasn't been Israel, or anything else. What was it?
THE PRESIDENT: I think your premise -- in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist -- is that -- I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect -"

After Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, now Israel has "uncovered" a plot by Al-Qa`idah. Next week, tune in when Morocco and other Middle East countries uncover plots by Al-Qa`idah.

"Just as the teaching of Russian took off after the launching of the Sputnik satellite in 1957, more colleges than ever are starting or expanding courses in Arabic. Schools such as UCLA, UC Berkeley, USC and Pasadena City College report waiting lists for classes, with most of the demand coming from students whose families have no ties to the Islamic world."

"Russian Bloc in Israel Looks to a Strongman: High-Security, Anti-Arab Platform Finds Favor With Swing Voter Group"

A story about "sovereign" and "independent" Iraq: "A group of U.S. senators met with the prime minister of Iraq on Tuesday and urged him to speed the formation of a national unity government, warning that American support for helping Iraq could start to dwindle if there was too much delay."

"Grants Flow To Bush Allies On Social Issues: Federal Programs Direct At Least $157 Million"

"The US military is investigating two incidents in which American soldiers killed at least 26 Iraqi civilians and then claimed that they were either guerrillas or had died in cross fire."

"Oregonian Exclusions Covering the Palestine / Israel conflict"

Israeli occupation soldiers terrorizing Palestinian children.

A Palestinian family watching, as an Israeli occupation soldier terrorizes.

Dictatorships that you find adorable: "Jordan Blocks Palestinians Fleeing Violence in Iraq" (thanks Ema)

It made me angry to watch news of protests against the Iraq war all over the world, but not in the Arab world. In the Arab world, they are still busy demonstrating against the Danish cartoons.

On the henchmen and propagandists of Saddam: "All discussions between Sabri and the CIA were conducted through a "cutout," or third party. Through the intermediary, intelligence sources say, the CIA paid Sabri more than $100,000 in what was, essentially, "good-faith money." And for his part, Sabri, again through the intermediary, relayed information about Saddam’s actual capabilities." (thanks Fadi)

"Bush says U.S. military will defend Israel from Iran."

"Turkmenistan's autocratic leader told his country's youth to read his book three times if they wanted to go to heaven, Turkmen television reported yesterday."

"raqi police have accused American soldiers of executing 11 Iraqi civilians, including four children and a six-month-old baby, in a raid on Wednesday near the city of Balad, it was reported yesterday."

Actualization of the Bush Doctrine: "Pakistani Taliban take control of unruly tribal belt"

After 29 years, Walid Jumblat suddenly discovers his father, and suddenly discovers that his father was killed by the Syrian regime.

There is something about Chirac and Arab royalty. Here, he is with the Jordanian Hijazi king.

That is when Lebanese police (or the Hariri militia--just as Iraqi police is the Badr Militia) shows up in full force. Mothers of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails held a sit in. The Lebanese state freaked out.

"“Model Employees”: Sri Lankan Domestics in Lebanon" (thanks Aida) (I think that the article is too uncritical and specific but I dont have time to elaborate. It also does not relate the subject to the hiearchy of power, wealth, prestige, AND race in Lebanon).

When Prince (prince my potato) Al-Walid Bin Talal started negotiating with Harvard and Georgetown about the $20 million "gift" to both universities, he insisted that centers or programs be renamed after him. For a $20 million gift, I would not even name a potato after the Prince. OK, maybe a tomato.

I am told that Mersheimer and Walt had a very hard time finding an American publisher for their piece on the Israeli lobby. This reminds me: an author of a widely used book on the Arab-Israeli conflict on college campuses told me of his experience. When he completed his manuscript, he sent it to US and UK publishers. The UK publishers did not think that he was sympathetic enough to the Palestinian side, while the US publishers did not think that he was sympathetic enough to the Israeli side. Draw conclusions, NOW.

I was very pleased that the PFLP has decided to decline the Hamas invitation to join the new Palestinian cabinet. I am opposed, on principle, to the idea of an alliance between secular leftist forces and religious-oriented, fundamentalist forces. No matter what. We still remember what Khomayni did with the Iranian communists.

"Separation of Mosque, State Wanes in Indonesia" (But not in the US???)

The Fall of Robert Irwin. This is a confused and jumbled attack on Said's Orientalism by Robert Irwin. But his intentions become clear in this passage (talking about US invasion and occupation of Iraq): "It would have been useful to have had a larger pool of translators and even more useful to have had a corps of experts on the history of Iraq's tribal politics." Enough said. (Irwin believes that Said was unfair to those who "loved" Arabs and Islam. Ya. He was unfair to such great lovers of Islam and Arabs as Patai and Lewis. How unfair of him. In fact, was Lewis' advocacy of war and force against Arabs not motivated by love? We must have missed that.)

I need to be consoled: the person who really invented chicken mcNuggets has died. "McDonald's is often given credit for inventing chicken nuggets in 1979, but the groundwork was laid by Dr. Baker's contributions in the 1960's in developing ways to bind chicken meat together and make the coating stick to the reconstituted meat."

"Some Say Civil War Already Started: Bush and top advisors tout progress, but U.S. lawmakers and Iraq's Allawi sharply disagree"

I don't have time to elaborate: but MEMRI and Al-Arabiyya TV are on the same wave length.

My dear friend `Isa (2nd from right) in Jordan just sent me this picture of our high school days. It was taken (I think by "Ihab" who is no more with us at Dbaybu Cafe in Beirut). Angry Arab is 1st from right--notice the Angry beard. (I was able to identify every body in the picture except the 1st person from the left. Help.)

"Left to Rot in Gaza: The main trade passage between the Gaza Strip and Israel has been closed for much of the year, despite an agreement brokered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in November that required Israel to "ensure the continued opportunity to export."

So...does Bush plan any "liberation" soon? "In Iraq, US influence wanes as full-scale civil war looms."

Bush's Inebriation of Iraq: "Death squads on the prowl in a nation paralysed by fear"

"In memory of those who have died in Iraq: No official organisation has collated the Iraqi dead. Here we list the 3,000 people known to have died - just one tenth of the most conservative estimates"

Classmates of Akabir Zaydan (8) place a picture of her at her desk. She was killed by Israeli occupation troops. (See below)

News from inebriated Afghanistan: "Christian convert faces death penalty in Afghanistan"

"'Iraq was awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills' : At the beginning of the Iraq war, the UN entrusted $23bn of Iraqi money to the US-led coalition to redevelop the country. With the infrastructure of the country still in ruins, where has all that money gone?"

"At least 150,000 Algerians have died in a 15-year Islamist insurgency, the head of the government human rights body said Saturday, the highest official estimate ever given."

"American officials still speak of creating a national army and police force that they say will represent all Iraqis, but the facts on the ground tell a different story. The Interior Ministry forces are basically the Badr Brigade, a Shiite militia, in national uniform; the Shiite political coalition needs the support of radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, so it lets his private militia move freely from Basra to Baghdad; and, of course, the Kurdish peshmerga militia constitutes a separate army that reports to Kurdish leaders, not to the national government in Baghdad."

I was notified by an employee of Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia that the company has blocked my site.

"In fact, there were no airstrikes and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op. What’s more, there were no shots fired at all and the units had met no resistance, said the U.S. and Iraqi commanders."

"Do you regret telling the president that the Iraqi people would "greet the troops with sweets and flowers? "
I regret the phrase but not the intent behind the phrase. By and large, the Iraqi people received the United States very well in the first two or three months -- before the occupation was enshrined." (I still can't believe that US journalists still interview this fellow on Iraqi affairs, when he was wrong on every assumption and on every prediction he had made. I am told that this conceited person really was expecting to emerge as a popular leader in occupied Iraq, and talked with Wolfowitz about possibly becoming president of Iraq. Notice that he can't even get himself to accept the term "American occupation" and notice that the "objective" Washington Post reporter refers to the US invasion as "liberation". And notice that his "liberal" advocate now prefers "benign dictatorship" to democratic rule because the Iraqi people haver rejected his ilk.)

This Washington Post article did not mention that it is largely derived from a long study by Khayr Ad-Din Hasib published in Al-Quds Al-`Arabi a year ago.