It wont be evicted: US will intervene

"The head of European soccer's governing body told a senior Palestinian Authority official that Israel is in danger of eviction from UEFA if its government does not change its policies limiting the freedom of movement for Palestinian athletes, according to reports in Palestinian and Arab media outlets."

The state that launch war crimes at the drop of a hat, and which littered South Lebanon with cluster bombs is now worried about the environment

"Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) threatened on Tuesday to do his utmost to prevent construction of the new Palestinian city of Rawabi if the developer did not offer solutions for potentially troubling environmental problems." (thanks Sarah)

Adonis for Nobel

"His poetry tells the Arab world not to rest on its history, that it needs to reform, it needs to act.""  Is that supposed to be original and profound?  (thanks Shakib)

Democracy advances in Fayyad republic

"The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine said Fayyad’s illegitimate government in the West Bank has officially labeled the Jihad movement a “banned organization”." (thanks Olivia)

An-Nahar's anti-Islamic propaganda: look at this headline

"American Father, Sons Accused of Plotting Jihad".  How do you plot Jeehaaad, I wonder?  Would that newspaper gives this headline: Father and Sons accused of Plotting Christian Holy Struggle (of course Western media prefer to translate Jihad as "holy war") (thanks Rana)

Wafa Sultan: as an expert

Mouin sent me this:  "From the 6 October 2010 edition of the Dutch daily, De Telegraaf:
Expert Witnesses Agree with Positions of Wilders

.....

Psychiatrist [Wafa] Sultan has informed the Judge-Commissioner that all Wilders' statements are correct. She has met the PVV leader a number of times and "is proud of him, because he dares to state the truth". "I don't deny that I am a supporter of Wilders". She additional finds that the Quran is worse than Mein Kampf, because Mein Kampf is a political text and the Quran combines politics and religion.

ENDS

She was one of only three so-called expert witnesses requested by Wilders admitted to provide an opinion to the court (Wilders had requested 18). 

The other two, world famous experts on Islam neither I nor anyone I know has ever heard of before (Hans Jansen en Simon Admiraal, described in the article as "Arabists"), appear to be just as well-versed in idiocy as Sultan."

Israel's dirty hands

""In collaboration with India, an Afghan Military delegation comprising of Afghan Defence Minister and high ranking Military officers paid a visit to Tel Aviv in July 2009. In connection with modernization of Afghan Army and to counter the Taliban threat, the visiting Defence Minister asked Israeli defence establishment to render maximum assistance."" (thanks Sammy)

Death Penalty

My first ex-wife Kathy sent this and asked, nay requested, that i post it:  "World Day Against the Death Penalty is October 10.  I now work with exonerated former death row prisoners.  They were the "lucky" ones.  It is estimated that for every seven executions, one person has been exonerated - innocent of the crimes they are accused of.  Some of the men I work with came within hours of execution (state murder); most received no compensation once released.  And this should not surprise your readers - one of our exonerees had prison guards who later became (in)famous as guards and torturers at Abu Ghraib.  So this is a domestic injustice that has international implications.  Our exonerees will go anywhere in the U.S. and the world to tell their stories.  They are unsung heroes in the fight against state-sanctioned violence in the world.  Read more about them here.

Debtor's Prisons

"An increasing tool of choice for collection agencies is getting folks thrown in jail for missing "financial assessment hearings," even when the folks had good reason - like moving and never getting the letter - or the validity of the debt is in dispute. In addition, collectors are requesting forfeited bail to pay off judgement, turning our local jails into de facto debtor's prisons, and the police into deputized debt collection agents. Now regulators and officials are taking notice, and taking action to curb some of the worst abuses." (thanks Julie)

King PlayStation and Queen Youtube II

Attending to the needs of their population.

Israeli Fatwawawawawa

If this was produced by a Muslim cleric, it would have been on the front page of the New York Times:  "An Israeli rabbi has given his blessing to female agents of Israel's foreign secret service, Mossad, who may be required to have sex with the enemy in so-called "honey-pot" missions against terrorists." (thanks Sarah)

 

Adventures of Saudi Princes

"Bandar Abdulaziz, 32, was found beaten and strangled to death in the Landmark Hotel, Marylebone, central London, on 15 February.  The court was told Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud had carried out several assaults on the victim before he died.  Mr al Saud, 34, admits the killing but denies murder and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent.  The jury has been asked to decide whether he is guilty of manslaughter or murder. When the body was found the prince claimed his aide had been attacked and robbed three weeks before his death.  But the jury was told Mr al-Saud carried out the killing - and injuries including bite marks to Mr Abdulaziz's face showed the "ferocity of the attack to which he had been subjected".
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said hotel CCTV from 22 January revealed the victim had previously been subjected to a "really nasty assault" by the prince." (thanks Nabeel)

Justice in the US

"In 2005, 15-year-old Ashley was facing trial in Manhattan Family Court for lying to police after she told officers she didn't know who had assaulted her on the way to school.  As she waited in the court's holding area for her court appearance, juvenile counselor Tony "Tyson" Simmons came up to the handcuffed girl, took her in an elevator to the building's basement, and raped her.  Moments later, Ashley -- who's withholding her last name for fear of reprisal -- was in the courtroom being sentenced to 12 months in prison for filing a false police report. This week, Simmons was sentenced to 10 years' probation for the sexual assault on Ashley and two other teens." (thanks Olivia)

The lousy picture from the Guardian (see below)

Khaled sent me this:  "I just spoke, by telephone, to the editors' office of the Guardian in London and the lady told me that they are investigating it after receiving many complaints about it. The picture has been removed from their online edition.  They are looking into who supplied the picture and why it appeared in that article.  I thought you ought to know."

King PlayStation and Queen Youtube

"EXCLUSIVE/ CPE / August 27, 2010 - Porto-Vecchio (FRA) Day 1: The Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan arrives at the airport in Figari Corsica. Arrival Airport Figari (Corsica) by private plane, from of Jordan, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, comes to discover the gift from her husband. King Abdullah II of Jordan, bid for the 40 years of his wife, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan sumptuous cruise in Corsica on a luxurious yacht of 83 meters, the OMEGA. It is with her family that the Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan come to Corsica. The program for this cruise, visit to Corsica! Bonifacio, Sardinia Islands Budelli, via Porto Vecchio, Bastia and Calvi, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, Corsica discovered with amazement, with her children." (thanks anonymous)

Tunisian secret police (can you imagine the uproar of Iranian secret police did that?)

""Avant d’entamer les enregistrements de son émission, Ahmed Mansour décide de se rendre à Marseille quelques jours pour une visite privée. Et de voyager léger puisqu’il laisse à la bagagerie de l’hôtel Pullman ses deux valises. Las ! A son retour à Paris le 2 août 2010, ces dernières ont disparues. Volatilisées avec à l’intérieur un I-phone riche de 4000 numéros de personnalités internationales dont des chefs d’Etat et un disque dur externe contenant 500 giga octets d’informations confidentielles dont le planning de toutes les personnes qu’il doit interviewer en 2011.  (...)Le journaliste est en effet persuadé que ce vol est le fait des services secrets tunisiens, particulièrement bien implantés dans l’Hexagone. « Leurs agents ne sont pas moins de 300 et travaillent dans des hôtels, restaurants, épiceries et comme chauffeurs de taxi. (…) Après avoir visionné la cassette (de l’hôtel), je suis sûr que des agents tunisiens sont impliqués dans le vol de mes bagages. J’accuse directement les services secrets tunisiens d’être derrière cette opération » fulmine le journaliste.."" (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

another day in the Zionist entity

"A Palestinian mosque was set alight and vandalized late Sunday night in what police suspected was a "price tag" operation by nearby settlers wishing to protest Israel's West Bank policies....Israeli soldiers arrived in the area and broke up the fight and forced the settlers to leave....A similar incident was carried that same week, when unknown vandals sprayed a Star of David with the name Mohammed beside it on a mosque in the West Bank village of Hawara.  The words "Thank you God, for not making me a Gentile" were spray-painted elsewhere in the village and two cars were torched in another location. No suspects have yet been caught." (thanks Sarah)

How sad

"Bangladesh will not send forces to Afghanistan even if the US shows up with a formal request for troops.  The government will argue that the national sentiment is against sending troops to Afghanistan, according to government and ruling party sources." (thanks Tanweer)

Riyad As-Sulh calls on Arab people to leave the task of defending Palestine to the Arab governments

On December 1st, 1947 Lebanese newspaper reported that "Riyad Bey urged against the venting of emotions, disturbances and trouble.  The matter, he counseled, should be left to the Arab governments to handle."

Romantic Occupation

I came across this in the Sham`unist Eugenie Elie Abouchdid, 30 Years of Lebanon and Syria,1948, p. 11: "Parallel to the Coast and towering above the sea, the chain of Lebanon mountains sill nestles many Crusaders' Castles full of romantic memories."

Oh. They like China more than they like us. How sad

"The fruits of this success are everywhere. Look at Afghanistan, for example, where American troops have been fighting for nearly a decade, where billions of dollars of American aid money has been spent -- and where a Chinese company has won the rights to exploit one of the world's largest copper deposits. Though American troops don't protect the miners directly, Afghan troops, trained and armed by Americans, do. And though the mine is still in its early phases, the Chinese businessmen and engineers -- wearing civilian clothes, offering jobs -- are already more popular with the locals than the U.S. troops, who carry guns and talk security. The Chinese paid a high price for their copper mining rights and took a huge risk. But if it pays off, our war against the Taliban might someday be remembered as the war that paved the way for Chinese domination of Afghanistan." (thanks Khalid)

This is Zionism

"An Israeli Border Policeman shot and killed a Palestinian laborer who violently resisted arrest while attempting to infiltrate Israel near East Jerusalem, Army Radio reported on Sunday.   The Palestinian, a 37-year-old Hebron resident, was spotted by police officers along with 15 other workers while trying to jump the fence near the French Hill neighborhood in northeastern Jerusalem." (thanks Sarah)

The Guardian published this picture under this headline: "US to issue terror warning to Americans in Europe"

Guardian. (thanks Mariam)

French Nazi collaborators

"The head of the French government which collaborated with the Nazis during World War II personally made harsh anti-Jewish legislation even tougher, a leading Nazi hunter said on Sunday, citing a newly unveiled document." (thanks Olivia)

Mangele Squad

"Nothing was done about the rumors of beatings and lootings of Arabs and the everyday abuse of the local population; but telling the press about it was considered unconscionable. One soldier in the unit, who now works in marketing, says without sarcasm, "All that happened was that a few soldiers decided to call themselves the 'Mengele squad,' to set themselves apart from the others - a kind of branding."" (thanks Farah)

Mistakes happen, every single day

"At least three Afghan civilians were killed in a NATO air strike targeting senior Taliban commanders in southern Helmand province at the weekend, the provincial police chief said on Sunday."

Sanchez

 "Also on a down note, Sanchez said during the speech that his first-grade teacher labeled him mentally retarded. "I swear to God, it's right there in my transcript," he told the depleted crowd." (thanks Max)

Phony Thomas Friedman

"A friend in the U.S. military sent me an e-mail last week..."  Oh, i posted this picture.  I thought it was funny.  He seems struggling to appear like a thinker.  For Thomas Friedman to appear like a thinker is like Bill Clinton posing to appear truthful, or for Muhammad Dahlan to appear patriotic. But this got my attention: in every article, including those he writes from far away places, he always has at least one reference to "my friends in Lebanon" or "my friends in China" or my friend in Oklahoma.  All that is part of his attempt to appear folksy and widely connected.  If someone were to count the friends that were identified in his columns, it would be that Friedman must have thousands of friends, which proves that he has no real friends at all.  I met this guy once and in the conversation with him (in the 1990s) he managed to tell me that he was playing tennis with Jim Baker the other day.  Forget about politics and his superficiality, the man is first and foremost annoying.

Reviewing a book on Hizbullah in the New York Times

Joe Klein writes about American politics and he reviews a book on Hizbullah.  Look:  "Nasrallah’s rhetoric is fierce and his anti-Semitism flagrant."  Of course, when New York Times and other Zionist media write about the anti-Semitism of Arabs and Muslims--real or imagined--they are never expected to provide evidence.  And here, Klein provides no evidence (the most widely circulated anti-Jewish statement attributed to Nasrallah was in fact made up by Zionists in Canada, just as Zionists made up anti-Jewish statement and falsely attributed them to Nasser in the 1960s.   And here Klein tries to sound knowledgeable:  "He also fails to put Lebanese Hezbollah in the context of Iran’s larger terrorist network — which includes Saudi Hezbollah and a surprisingly active Latin American wing. Who runs those? How does Hezbollah fit into Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Quds Force structure?"  Yes, Latin America.  Jose Nasrallah is a real political force in Latin America--as is widely known.

Lincoln

"On the other hand, he had a racist streak. He used the words “nigger” and “darky” in conversation, and he thought that blacks, whom he regarded as physically different from whites, should be deported to Liberia, Central America or somewhere else, since they couldn’t live on equal terms with whites in America...He remained so devoted to the American Constitution, with its protections of slavery, that he supported (albeit with reluctance) the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which imposed stiff penalties on Northerners who assisted runaway slaves."

The case of the Sudanese Doctor in Lebanon: where is the outrage?

Comrade Ali Latifa Fakhry (a Lebanese activist and eye witness to story below) wrote this: (I cite with his permission):  "After the racist acts by the Lebanese general security in not responding to the calls of the human rights activists to release the 17 Sudanese detained arbitrarily and the several calls by Dr. Abed el Meneem to the Sudanese embassy to take action in front of the Lebanese authorities he decided 7 days ago to start a hunger strike demanding:
1 – The release of the 17 Sudanese detained arbitrarily in the Lebanese prisons
2 – The re-election of the Sudanese cultural club in Beirut that can influence the embassy to take action to release the detained.
3 - The Embassy taking action immediately to release the detained Sudanese.
It’s been 8 days by now and none of the Lebanese or Sudanese authorities took action so the Dr stops his hunger and water strike, his health condition Is very bad and he is risking death in the next few days since he is at 54 already and extremely weak.
Human rights activists organized few actions in solidarity with Dr Abed and started a sit-in, a candle light vigil, a petition signing, postering the city, a media campaign and soon they will start a hunger strike.
For our surprise the police came tonight to take Dr Abed into captivity because he ison a hunger strike!
Activists immediately gathered and stopped them from taking him out, but the police forces told him that on Monday he has to come to the police station or they will come and take him by force, the thing that is very dangerous regarding his current health condition and the weird thing is that they already did take him to the police station on his 1st day of hunger strike!!!!
Activists will gather tomorrow and have a strategy meeting to decide on the next steps to take this further in order to free the 17 detained Sudanese.  Activists will sleep at Dr Abed strike place to protect him and others are staying in solidarity."


PS  The meeting is tomorrow at the sudanese cultural club near najjar hospital im hamra at 6‬.

When Le Point investigates Polygamy

"They tried to talk about increasing polygamous families making the link with juvenile crimes spreading among foreign descent etc... It turned out to be a prank done on the phone by ...an angry dude." (thanks "Crazy Bear")

Fact finding

"The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground.  The report says Dogan had apparently been "lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time" before being shot in his face.  The forensic evidence that establishes that fact is "tattooing around the wound in his face," indicating that the shot was "delivered at point blank range." The report describes the forensic evidence as showing that "the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back.""  (thanks Khelil)

Haaretz versus J Street

I hate J Street but I hate Haaretz even more.

Rick Sanchez

I wrote this on my Facebook:  I really hope that Arabs don't make Rick Sanchez of CNN a hero. He is a dumb bigot. And Arabs should know that his target, Jon Stewart, is probably the least prejudiced of all people in the US media (although he has problems on Middle East political issues).  Yes, yes. If he said those remarks against Muslims or Arabs he would not have been fired. We know that. But that is another issue, and he should not be made into a hero.


PS Arab media are widely reporting on Sanchez and treating him like a hero, just as I feared.

Utah residents fear ‘Israeli art students’ prying into NSA data center

"A local ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah has caused a stir online with a report suggesting that self-proclaimed Israeli art students, peddling their artwork from door to door, have been asking disturbing questions about plans to build an NSA data center in the area.  "These salespeople say they're Israeli students," ABC4 reporter Brent Hunsaker explained. "They even produce Israeli passports. They say they're selling their own artwork to raise money to open a gallery. So why would the Israeli art students want to know about the National Security Agency?"" (thanks Sellam)

Racism against Sudanese in Lebanon

"Dr. Abed El Meneem Ibrahim a Sudanese human rights activist has been on a strike hunger since 6 days.He is demanding the Lebanese government to release the detained Sudanese with no reason in the prisons now and in the same time demanding the Sudanese embassy to take an official stand to protect the community from the official racist actions that they are subjected to on daily basis."  (thanks Farah)

A Lebanese-American liar lies to Lebanese liars: Lebanon is the most strategically important country for the US--kid you not

"Les Américains d'origine libanaise font bloc autour de ce républicain qui « croit fermement que le Liban est le pays le plus important du point de vue stratégique pour les États-Unis »." (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

France's Channel 5

Eyad sent me this (I cite with his permission):  "I started watching the news headlines on the France Channel 5 Arabic (actually it is 2/3 arabic during primetime in ME and 1/3 english when people are asleep in ME). To my pleasurable surprise, I found that Angryarab blog site is often quoted and systematically reviewed in their Press review segment (like the Press Mirror in Aljazeera Arabic). Now, I can say the French are doing something right in their news. I thought you maybe -slightly- delighted for hearing that."

American heritage in Ras Al-Khaymah

"Although none of the faculty or administrators at George Mason's Ras al Khaimah branch come from the home campus in Virginia, the portraits on the walls of the administration building serve as a reminder of the U.S. heritage." (thanks Alain)

It is only an "experiment": like mixing chemicals in a lab. Why not call it a scientific experiment?

"From 1946 to 1948, American public health doctors deliberately infected nearly 700 Guatemalans — prison inmates, mental patients and soldiers — with venereal diseases in what was meant as an effort to test the effectiveness of penicillin."

Ighra': is she a Arab feminist?

Her name is Ighra' and not Igraa as it is misspelled or mistransliterated in the New York Times.  My comrade/friend Hicham wrote this about this piece on his Facebook page:  "The Jumanah Haddad of Syria, colonial feminism at its best....Igraa wants to liberate the east from its pratriarchy by taking off her clothes in a movie and telling people in the west that this kind of talk could get her hanged...and you wonder why secularism and leftist discousre in the Arab world don't garner 10% support among the population."  Now Angry Arab speaks on this issue:  Yes, Ighra' was daring and i have seen her movies since my teen years.  She also wrote scripts for her movies (like I die Twice and I still love you).  But the problem is with the Western skewed definition of feminism of Arab/Muslim women.  Ighra''s movies have nothing to do with feminism: the notional that playing nude scenes to sell tickets and to titillate (titillate is from the Greek word that means to tickle) sexually frustrated men is about feminism is totally wrong.  It is in fact sexism because it is about pleasing men: the men in those movies (like in the Leopard) kept their clothes on why making love to the character played by Ighra'.  Furthermore, Ighra' may have been secular and supported th regime and was close to Mustafa Tlas (the buffoon Minister of Defense in Syria) but her movie plots and role were very traditional and sexist: and relied on notions of honor and chastity.  And her character (as a brave sexually free woman) always get punished in some way, or even killed.  So soft-porn is not feminism, and neither is hard core porn.  And why do people who clearly don't know anything about feminism write about feminism, but only when it comes to the Middle East.  Women should be free to do what they want, but their freedom should be defined by them and not by "men's culture"--as radical feminist call it.

The Nation Narrows Down

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar;  "`Asabiyyat (Bab) Al-Harah:  The Nation Narrows Down"

Gender gap

"The gender gap among college majors once dominated by men is narrowing, and younger generations of women account for nearly half of science and business graduates, a USA TODAY analysis of new Census data shows.  In 2009, about 47% of science and engineering degree holders ages 25 to 39 were women, compared with 21% among those 65 and older. For business majors, about 48% of younger graduates were female — more than double that of older generations." (thanks Julie)

Obama is trying to win (like Bush) hearts and minds of Muslims but..

"New Poll: Pakistanis Hate the Drones, Back Suicide Attacks on U.S. Troops" (thanks Olivia)