Al-Arabiya TV's anchor, Suhayr (something) was interviewing Gen. `Awn. He told her rightly that their correspondents are quite biased in favor of the Sanyurah government. She told him--I kid you not--that Al-Arabiya correspondents cover the news with "complete bias and objectivity." Gen. `Awn could be heard laughing.

"President George W. Bush's approval ratings are now the lowest for any president the day before a State of the Union speech since Richard Nixon in 1974, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll."

The front page of Prince Salman Bin `Abdul-`Aziz's Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat is devoted to important news around the world. Today, it has this headline: "Bush is a firm editor."

Back in 1993, a Lebanese academic and a Lebanese journalist started a journal in Lebanon--one of them approached me about writing. One of them was a friend of my sister. I looked at the journal, and it was a mouthpiece of the Iranian regime. The editor of that pro-Khumayni journal was Michel Nawfal, who now writes for Hariri rag, and warns of Iranian conspiracies. The other is now active in the leadership of the March 14th Movement: he also regularly warns of Iranian conspiracies.

By Lebanonese standards, Gibran's The Prophet is a book of "Philosophy". Gibran is to philosophy what Bush is to nuclear physics.

Iyad `Allawi (former Iraqi puppet prime minister/car bomber/embezzler-in-Yemen/Saddam's henchman) told Arab reporters that he has a comprehensive plan to solve the Iraq situation. I was confused. I mean, why on earth do we need a new plan when Bush sent the 20,000 troops which will solve the problems in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Oh, and how is the weather in London, o Iraqi leader?

My mother today was furious at Fu'ad Sanyurah. She was furious at people who are still deceived by the rhetoric of March 14th. She was most pleased with Gen. `Awn: because he reminded the Lebanese that most of the debt in Lebanon is being paid to a bank owned by Hariri family (and used to be managed by Sanyurah himself). Hizbullah still avoids criticizing Hariri Inc.

Dahlan in Palestine; Dahlans in Lebanon; King Dahlan in Jordan; Guardian Dahlan (of the two holy things) in Saudi Arabia; Dahlan Mubarak in Egypt; Dahlan Maliki in Iraq; Col. Dahlan in Libya. Arab rulers, in a nutshell.

Today, Hariri rag had this headline on its front page: "Washington wants to present "big" aid in Paris III [to Lebanon.]" By pure coincidence, An-Nahar (the right-wing, sectarian Christian, anti-Syrian (people), anti-Palestinian (people) had this headline on its front page: "Washington Promises to Present Big Aid in Paris III". Do you see why Arabs are sometimes inclined toward conspiracy theory? It is foolish not to.

The demonstrators in Beirut moved rubble from the southern suburbs to Beirut streets to block the roads. This has a double meaning: they wanted to remind people that the government has still not cleaned up the rubble from the area. And did you see Walid Jumblat's press conference today? My favorite part was when the leader of the "Democratic" March 14th Movement paid tribute to the Saudi king calling him a great man and: "A Man, the Man." (Ar-Rajulu-r-Rajul*).
PS A reader suggested that I should translate as Manly Man.

This is hilarious: Fu'ad Sanyurah is outraged, just outraged, at the economic conditions of Lebanon. Nowhere does Le Monde or Sanyurah mention--not even in passing--that he was the man in charge for all those years when he designed the economic plans for Lebanon: "La dette publique s'élevait en 1992 à environ 3 milliards de dollars, alors que les seules créances de cette dette à la fin 2006 s'élèvent à environ 16 milliards de dollars ! La seule compagnie Electricité du Liban coûte chaque année à l'Etat un milliard de dollars ! (Sa privatisation progressive est prévue par le programme de réformes.) Pouvons-nous continuer à ce train ?" (thanks Karim)

"The footage is shocking"
PS Notice that it says: ""given the stigma of sodomy in Egypt's masculine culture". Yeah, because in the West, there is no stigma of sodomy whatever. That stigma exists only in Middle East countries. Don't you love those explanatory remarks in the Washington Post? This is almost like the explanatory remarks by John Burns on Iraq: on how the US respects the sovereignty of Iraq.

A tribute to Arab supporters of Iraq war and occupation in the Washington Post. (Warning: it is sad; not a dry eye in the room. And notice how Young refers to the devastation of Iraq as "a bureaucratic US" mistake. He probably would refer to the French colonization of Algeria as a "bureaucratic French mistake".) (Amer sent me this on this piece: "Shadid should have titled the article "arabs who bet on the wrong horse",I am annoyed that he makes it look like khalil and na`mat are the representatives of democracy in the arab world, they never fought for it
until the wave of us invasions...")

It seems that British troops are also winning hearts and minds.

Libyan dictator commented on the Lebanese situation yesterday.

As-Safir is reporting that the heavy weapons (missiles) that were found in Rashayya last week don't belong to Hizb Ittihad or Hizbullah as Hariri media implied but to Harri ally, Al-Jama`ah Al-Islamiyyah.

Muhammad Dahlan said yesterday (it was not an exclusive interview with Al-Akhbar as it tried to suggest) that "Hamas is more corrupt than Fath." He did not realize the implications of this sentence.

Tell me what you think. On the front page of Al-Akhbar they have this item: "Saudi ambassador [in Lebanon] `Abdul-`Aziz Al-Khujah told Al-Akhbar that he has recently devoted his time to writing poetry and preparing for his new collection that will be released soon, and that he has refrained from listening to news after things reached what it reached. Khujah yesterday pleaded with the Lebanese to realize the interest of their homeland and to work for its rescue by opening up toward one another and to sit together to the dialogue table, affirming that the solution to the crisis is in their hands alone." Now, tell me: what does that say? What does this mean? And what on earth was that????

Some Arabic website and House of Saud's media are circulating a letter ostensibly written by Fath dissident, Abu Khalid Al-`Amlah, who is now languishing in Syrian jails. Having read the long letter, I don't believe that it was written by `Amlah. It has the color and tone of Dahlan-Israeli propaganda. What tipped me is the reference to the assassination of Majid Abu Shrar: he was assassinated by Israeli hit teams in Italy in 1981, and not by Syrian regime. Furthermore, since when do Syrian regime jailers allow prisoners to write long letters and poems?

An Ethiopian maid was found dead in Ba`aqlin in Lebanon (a Jumblat stronghold) at the house of her employer. She hanged herself, said the police report. As usual, Lebanese police will not investigate deaths of foreign domestic workers in Lebanon. On the same crime page, the racist anti-Syrian Hariri rag, reports a rape of a Sri Lankan maid by "two Syrians." The same rag never notices the regular mistreatment and abuse of Sri Lankan maids by Lebanese.

A Mauritanian prisoner at Guantanamo writes a letter about his experiences and the torture in the prison. (thanks Nasser)

The unannounced segment of the Bush Doctrine. US (and other) media are missing an important story. They are all wrongly assuming that Bush has discarded the Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq: that he ignored their advise to talk to Syria and Iran. I say not. I think that the Bush administration has agreed to negotiate with Syria and Iran but indirectly. Do you think that US clients, Abu Mazen of Palestine and Talbani of Iraq would have gone in the same week to Syria without US permission and even urges?

Flash. Please, please, please: I mean it this time. Wake up the children and release the pigs from the barn. This is big. This is your taxpayers' money at work. The US Department of State has produced an Arabic speaking official: people are dancing in the streets in every Arab capital. This has happened because the lonely Arabic speaker at the Department, Alberto Fernandez, was banished and now he is spending time on a Greek island, forced to memorize all speeches by Bush and Cheney. He is also forced to learn Bernard Lewis' unique system of Orientalist numerology. The new guy is named Michael Peletier (I am transliterating his name from Arabic). He made his debut to my knowledge on New TV today, and is based in the US propaganda center in Dubai. He pledged in his first appearance to never make the mistakes of Fernandez: he said the US never ever made mistakes, and that Iraq has been a great success but blind people can't see.

When you compare poll results of Aljazeera English (website) with poll results of Aljazeera Arabic you realize that they attract very different readerships.

For those who care, I will appear (via phone) tomorrow Monday morning at 8:00AM (Pacific Time) on the Iraqi TV station, Qanat Baghdad Al-Fada'iyyah. But to be honest, I was quite surprised to be invited: when the guy called me from Baghdad, I did not know about the channel. He said that it is the one that is owned by the `Adnan Dulaymi and Tariq Al-Hashimi group. I bet that I would be cut off the air after a few seconds.

Gen. `Awn today said that "Harirism is a hanging rope that should be cut." Notice that Hizbullah still avoids criticizing Hariri and Harirism and foolishly thinks that Hariri Inc is innocent of the "excesses" of its allies, like Ja`ja` (Ga`ga` in Egyptian accent) and Jumblat.

"Military officials say Pakistan army helicopter gunships killed up to 20 suspected foreign fighters during an attack on suspected al-Qaeda compounds in Zamzola in South Waziristan on Tuesday. Villagers say at least eight woodcutters died during the raid and a US aircraft was used in the strike."

For those who hear voices in their heads.

A right-wing Republican pays tribute to Bin Laden: He describes him as "“a quiet, well-mannered, thoughtful, eloquent and deeply religious person.” Despite being considered a friend of the Palestinians, he “has not launched a single attack against Israel.”" Well, in fairness: both Democrats and Republicans were supporting the likes of Bin Laden throughout the Cold War.

Dubai's Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashed wrote a poem on Iraq. Qadhim As-Sahir immediately made it into a song. The song will be like every other song of As-Sahir since he insists on being a musician with the ability to sing different poems to the same damn tune--a version of the "talent" of Sha`ban `Abdur-Rahim. Lebanese newspapers will soon declare the poem "the best ever written."

Another new definition of democracy according to the Bush Doctrine: "His advisers are trying out devious ways around this drawback: Azzam al-Ahmad, Fatah's parliamentary leader, claims Mr Abbas can do anything the Basic Law does not expressly forbid, and, since it says he cannot dissolve parliament during a state of emergency, he can therefore do it at other times."

"His book, which dwells on the Palestinian refugee experience, makes two fleeting references to the Holocaust." Lipstadt has a point here. After all: the Palestinian refugees were part of the Nazi regime. And did Lipostadt think that Carter was writing a book on European history?

"Any day now I expect some janitors at the Carter Center to resign, declaring that they can no longer in all conscience mop bathrooms that might have been used by the former President, their letter of protest duly front-paged by the New York Times, just like the famous fourteen members of the Carter Center's Board of Councilors. Actually there were, at the time of resignations, 224 people on this board, where membership is mostly a thank you for a financial donation to the center. So the headlines could be saying, "Nearly 95 per cent of Carter Center Board Members Back Former President." (thanks Muhammad)

Here it is. A new definition of democracy. ""Arguably, Palestinians are digesting the bitter lesson that the United States and its allies set out to teach them a year ago -- that even in a democracy, there are repercussions if you choose leaders who reject the international consensus. Especially in the Middle East." (thanks Regan)

In today's issue of the Globe and Mail, there was an article by their lousy Middle East correspondent on Hamas. Can somebody find me the text and send to me? I need to share one line. It is classic.
PS: Got it. See above.

You have to admit that Israeli media and their affiliates in the US have a special skills in finding some really unusual characters and plug them as Middle East experts: ""There is a big difference between Shiite and Sunni mullahs. Foreigners may not know this. Many of the Sunni mullahs would pick up arms and fight, but the Shiite mullahs are not like that. Their hands, if you touch them, are softer than any woman's hand. They've never fought." And have you touched your mullah's hand today? (thanks Kamal)

"British military bases in Iraq have been "blotted" out from Google Earth maps at the request of the Government to hinder terrorist attacks, it can be revealed."

"Dreams Vanish in Smoke of Dubai Fire" (thanks May)

TV Islamist, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, returns the favor. In a speech, he said: "The Gulf is ruled by princes who are Sunni but the Shi`ites have lived among the Sunnis [there] safe and secure, and have the biggest commercial businesses."

Marwan Iskandar is one of the least interesting or insightful "economists" in Lebanon. He was launched by An-Nahar (the right-wing, sectarian Christian newspaper) only becuase of his right-wing views. I never took him seriously--nor have I taken his brother (a former professor at AUB who once told me that people in the Middle East need not study the region because "we are all experts of the Middle East by nature"--he told me that just before I left to pursue my PhD; he also was known as a skilled praiser of wealthy Arabs from the Gulf--just like his brother). Here, he observes that the Egyptian people--all of them--are lazy. (thanks Hicham)

I don't want to upset you but look at this from the London Times: "Obama 'was educated in madrassa'" (They misspelled Madrasa it should be: Maaaadrraaaasssssaaaaaa). But apparently it is not the same Taliban-madraaassssaaaah that Irshad Manji attended in Vancouver. I can't believe how many maaadraaassahs are sprouting in Western cities. In fact, in Calgary there is a maaaadrrasssah where Mullah Omar serves as the headmaster. Unbelievable. (thanks Nader)

"The [Israeli] army has become the settlers' militia and views the local people as hostile elements."

King `Abdullah in a revealing interview: Jordan will develop a nuclear-powered PlayStation.

This maybe the last interview that Sami Hadawi gave before his death. I strongly recommend his Bitter Harvest as a first book to recommend on the Palestinian question. (It was originally published in Toronto Star). (thanks Hicham)

Iyad `Allawi (former Iraqi prime minister/car bomber/embezzler-in-Yemen/former henchman of Saddam) gave an interview from his hiding place in London to Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat (Saudi media still love to promote him). In it, he refused to rule out the possibility of establishing his own militia. In Arabic, `Allawi is often critical of the US. In English he can only utter those words: "Thank you America" for the destruction and mayhem, presumably.