Bin Ladin's Women, Salafi 'Facilities', Lebanon

Lebanon:
Political tensions in Lebanon intensified. Shi’a ministers and some of their allies have resigned from the cabinet, and the Prime Minister refused to accept their resignations, but he made sure that they remain ‘resigned’ by calling a cabinet meeting that approved a controversial measure about the Harirri assassination. The move has probably doomed the Siniora government, since the Shi’a parties, and a few others, will now refuse to remain in his government. The President of Lebanon, who is by tradition a Christian Maronite, also refused to attend the cabinet session and called the cabinet measure ‘unconstitutional’. Al-Manar TV, run by Hizbullah, said that ‘the pitcher has broken’ between the two sides in the cabinet, which in Lebanese means that they have reached the point of no return.

Thus the stage is set in Lebanon for a new clash between two sides that also represent regional powers by proxy. While one side basically represents the political leanings of the Iran-Syria axis, the other side represents the leanings of Saudi Arabia and her allies and by extension is seen to represent the United States and the West. It looks like Lebanon might be going back to its bad old form of the 1970s and 1980s, when regional and foreign powers moved political events through their proxies.

Iraq:
In Iraq, groups representing Chaldians, Assyrians, and other Christians have asked that they have a semi-autonomous enclave and that it become part of Iraqi Kurdistan. These groups probably foresee an uncertain future, caught between fundamentalist Sunnis beholden to Al-Qaeda Jihadist terrorists and Fundamentalist Shi’as beholden to the militias. The Kurdish region looks attractive by comparison.

Bin Ladin’s Love Life:
A former close associate of Osama Bin Ladin, the Yemeni Rashad M. Sa’eed, has provided Alarabiya TV with glimpses into the Al-Qaeda leader’s love life. He claims that all Bin Ladin’s wives are usually with him in Afghanistan (in Pakistan now), except for his Syrian wife Najwa who travels to her home country each year, and that includes his Yemeni wife. Bin Ladin has divorced one of his Saudi wives because she refused to join him and remained in Arabia. This means that he has four wives at this time, i.e. he is fully occupied now since the faith allows only four wives at one time. This also means, in the delicate lingo used by Salafi Fundamentalists for such delicate matters, that his 'facilities are not kept idle'. He is not even a quarter eligible. It is still not clear whether he is always ready when the moment is right- if that was the case then perhaps Eli Lilly would have him in their commercials.

The man claims that Bin Ladin trusted him sufficiently to send him to Yemen to find him a new wife, his fifth one, which he did successfully and had her shipped to Afghanistn in 2000. Sounds like an Arabian Miles Standish bit on board the Mayflower. He also says that Osama was not a very sexual person and did not over-marry. He claims that two of the wives are already past 50 years, which in Afghanistan/Pakistan would mean that they are way past it, but that he has not replaced them (it may be hard to replace two wives while on the run). He says that Osama had a large house in Kandahar for all his wives, each with a suite of rooms and a kitchen, and that he took turns ‘visiting with’ his wives each day of the week. He denied reports that Osama had a love relation with a Sudanese poet(ess), or that he was sexually interested in a ‘western’ singer, (some western media had reported that he had the hots for Whitney Houston).

Sa’eed also claims that Al-Qaeda has trained women to be active as support and technical personnel and that they are also trained to fight in self-defense. This last assertion is especially highly unlikely to be true. However, if they wish they can get some shailkh to issue a fatwa allowing such training.
He also said that Osama did not suffer from kidney disease, was not homesick, and that he is quite healthy. Oh, and he also missed his mother.

Cheers
Mohammed