The Battle for Basrah: will Baghdad and other towns pay the price?
The Jihadists' own March Madness, but without the Tarheels.
Are al-Qaeda and Bin Laden fearing irrelevance? Are they bored? Why not get some new wives?
Libya's entertaining Qaddafi does it again: he opines on Bush doing the Hajj and on Shi'as.
The logic of eschatology and logic.
Saudi bully tactics and the fading Arab summit institution.

The Battle for Basrah: will Baghdad pay the price?:
The battle for Basrah rages, as it has been for some time now, but with some new players. Now Iraq has become more 'fair and balanced'. The government, with US help, is fighting not only Sunni terrorists, but also renegade Shia militias. The emphasis is on "renegade": the Awakening Councils and the sanctioned Shi'a militias are not "renegades", not yet.

It is possible that, with the push to stabilize Basrah, there is the danger of destabilizing large sections of Baghdad. Unrest is already spreading, and many Sadristas are itching for a fight, except their 'nominal' leader who seems to have switched to civil disobedience. Maybe he does not think the time ripe for a battle, he has a history of pullng back from a battle when it suited him, as he did in 2004 and 2007.

Basrah need to be pacified for Iraq to begin to achieve some normalcy, hopefully a different one form the pre-2003 normalcy. Basrah is the sea gateway to Iraq, and its main oil city, which explains the continued inter-Shi'a fighting over it. It also explains the periodic emergence of some new "apocalyptic" armed groups in its vicinity, groups that Iraqis claim are financed by petro-money from some neighboring countries (other than Iran which already supports some well-known groups).

Do al-Qaeda and Bin Laden fear irrelevance?
UBL and his sidekick must be going through their own March Madness somewhere out there. That must be the explanation for their recent behavior: men don't suffer PMS.

Al-Qaeda has blown its chances in Iraq, at least for now but most likely forever. It has handed all those resentful Sunni tribals who would rather sup with the devil than break bread with the Shi’a al-Maliki, handed them to someone even worse according to their doctrine, the full-fledged American kaffir heathen. The very same who overthrew the Arab nation’s last not-so-white hope (not sure hope for what other than self destruction) and opened the door for the installation of the Shi’as and Kurds in power.

It is enough to make a gas-throwing genocidal officer of the Old Ba’ath Army cringe- that would be the same army, the third world tribal shell Wehrmacht that five-year later cable TV quarterbacks of the media are regretting that it was disbanded.

Al-Qaeda seems to be having a fire sale: new tapes from UBL and al-Zawahiri have been handed out furiously this month- threatening evrybody, including the Europeans as well as that old staple, Israel. They are as usual repetitive: it must be boring for them up there in the tribal Pashtun areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. One advice: get a new wife or two, you both must be short of the regulation four wives by now, what with all the raids and strikes.

Turns out that the Jordanian butcher al-Zarqawi was probably al-Qaeda’s last best hope in Iraq, that his demise was the beginning of the end for AQI, and the end of the only battlefield for UBL in the Arab world. His death sucked the air out of the Salafi fundamentalist militants in the Arab East, demoralized them. Now they are thriving on the pereiphery of the Arab world, places they would rather not be: like Algeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. When they would rather be in the Big Apple, in the area from Egypt through the Levant to Iraq and the (Persian) Gulf. Everyone wants to be in the Big Apple, but lately al-Qaeda has been dealt only ‘camel apples’. Even the Saudis have managed to thwart all their plans in the Kingdom, their natural and literal home base.

But never fear: it is resurgent in Afghanistan, for now. It is down in Pakistan, for now: but will grow again as the new alliance of the corrupt Bhutto-Zardari and Sharif tightens its grip. As the kleptocracy starts to do what kleptocracies can't resist doing- kelpting or kleptocrating?.

The GOP may keep UBL as a campaign poster for the November elections, but that would be a double-edged sword. Now that they have “the” national security candidate. Now that he knows the difference between Sunni Wahhabi fundamentalist al-Qaeda and Shi'a fundamentalist al-Mahdi Sadristas. He also knows the difference between the Jewish Purim and the American Halloween, courtesy of Joe Lieberman, the “real” national security expert.

Libya's Qaddafi Does it Again: On Mecca and Shia's:
Colonel Qaddafi has a knack for irritating some other Arab leaders, especially the Saudi royals in recent years. That is why he is the most entertaining Arab leader to listen to: he is the only one who does not bore you to sleep (or death), at least not for the first hour. The other Arab leaders make one yawn just looking at them.
This week Qaddafi was at it again, again infuriating the Saudis and their media by touching on two topics that are very "touchy" for them: the sanctity of the (Kaaba) Holy Shrine at Mecca, and the treatment of Shi'as in many Arab countries. These are subjects that are not to be discussed in genteel company, especially genteel Wahhabi company.

First, the colonel literally invited George W. Bush to walk around the Kaaba as many times as he wants, if he wants- which is doubtful, unless he decides not to have a third Bush term. He contends that it is the house of God, an hence should be open to all who believe in Him: i.e to people of all monotheist religions, incluing Christians and Jews. The colonel does not know that Zaroastrians are also monotheists- notr does almost anybody else.
He said the pilgrimage to Mecca preceded the Prophet Mohammed and Islam, which is true. Pagan Arab tribes used to go on pilgrimage long before Islam, when the Kaaba was lined with statues of pagan idol gods. Again, for the second time he said that Mr. Bush should have the right to go since he is a person of the book (Christian or Jew). He really wants Bush to do the Hajj, but the logic of eschatology sometimes defies....logic.

Second, Qaddafi reiterated that Shi'as are "persecuted" in Arab states, often treated as second or third class citizens. He did not mention Saudi Arabia by name, but if the shoe fits one often tends to wear it.
Qaddafi also blasted the Salafi Wahhabi doctrine, without naming it, for criticizing some faiths for "idolizing" the prophets, for example celebrating the birth of the Prophet. H noted that the Quran mentions Mohammed, Jesus, Moses, Mariam (Mary) many times, which they might consider a form of idlolatry.

Much of Arab media, especially in the Gulf, ignored the speech which for some reason was delivered in Uganda, although one Lebanese daily and Aafaq reported it. The colonel immediately drew the ire of the vast Saudi media, which again criticized him severely, without mentioning the contents of his speech.

The Saudis are pissed again, and there is no doubt they will send a royal janitor to Tripoli next time the Arab summit is scheduled for Libya. They are doing marginally better by the coming Summit in Damascus: they are sending a royal doorman (ends with an 'n' not a 't').

Saudi Bully Tactics and a Fading Summit:
Saudi Arabia and a few other allies are trashing the Arab summit in Damascus. They are punishing the Syrian regime for not toeing the line in Lebanon. Clearly the Saudis would like to see all over the Arab world the same uniform conformity that they have apparently managed to enforce at home.
They have downgraded their delegation to the coming summit in Damascus as a punishment. As I noted above, the Kingdom is practically sending a royal doorman to represent it.

The rump Lebanese cabinet has decided to boycott altogether. It has published a long litany of reaons that it will not attend, but the list did not include the one probable true reason: the Saudis, who have at least as much influence on the Hariri-Saniora group as Iran has over Hizbullah, probably more, have downgraded the Summit. They are sending someone who cannot speak for the kingdom, thereby effectively boycotting it.

Of course the moves by Saudi Arabia and Egypt are not just insulting to Syria, they are also insulting to all Arab leaders who will attend. King Abdul de Jourdanie has predictably decided to boycott. This is not a Syrian Summit, it just happens to be scheduled in Damascus: it is an "Arab" Summit, but the despots don't see that.
This basically ends the institution of Arab summits: next year it will be boycotted by the other side. Which may not be a bad thing: as I have written earlier, these meetings do nothing for the peoples.

VP Cheney's visit last week to the New Middle East has also been noted, and some claim that it was partly aimed at stiffening the boycot of the Summit. The Syrians are already blaming the US for the "attendance problem", aka the truancy of several kings and presidents-for-life.
Cheers
Mohammed

How has the Bush administration empowered OPEC?
Ex-oilmen and high crude prices.
Causality between Mideast visits and oil prices.
Bush and Iran's Nukes: will the mullahs retain Alan Dershowitz?
Shi'a fundamentalism vs. Bible Belt Sunni fundamentalism.
A new positive church-mosque debate in Arabia.
Finally, did McCain really mix up a Jewish holiday with Halloween?
Wasn't it bad enough mixing al-Qaeda with al-Sadr?

Who Empowered OPEC?
Robert Samuelson notes in Newsweek that OPEC has finally reached the point where it controls the crude oil market. It is official, it is now a true blue cartel, perhaps for the first time.

I find it interesting that it has taken a Republican administration run by two ex-oilmen obsessed with national security to finally consolidate the cartel's control- to finally empower all those in power in Tehran, Riyadh and Caracas. A long 34 years after Kissinger's IEA (International Energy Agency). This is a feat even Jimmy Carter could not achieve, blunder as he may on energy matters.
Maybe oil is thicker than blood to the ex-oilmen: the blood that has already been spilt and the blood of those soldiers in harm's way.

It has also taken the same two ex-oilmen riding out from the West to empower Iran's rulers, financially and, as a natural consequence, politically. Iran's daily crude production is at well over 4 million b/d. The prices it receives for the high levels of export are also at historically high levels, at least in nominal terms. Its influence across the Middle East has never been stronger in the past three centuries. As I wrote here many months ago, the old Saudi threat to drown the markets with crude in order to cause a price collapse and weaken the ruling mullahs was just frustrated talk.
Maybe the ex-oilmen had looked into the eyes of Hugo Chaves and the others, the moderate neo-domocrats (small D) of the New Middle East, and had seen through into their souls, and seen the kindred souls, or is it spirits, of fellow oilmen.

Paranoia time:
One more, odd, observation and it is highly suspicious. Last January Mr. Bush made a much publicized tour of the moderate New Middle East, a near-victory lap. No sooner had the potentates sheathed their dancing swords and waved goodbye to their guest than oil prices started to move up again, to new highs.

This week Mr. Cheney has been visiting the moderate New Middle East, including Riyadh although he will not do the 'omrah pilgrimage to Hijazz- he'll stick to Najd, where they have no oil but get all the money from it, where they have no holy shrines but oversee them. Oil prices have moved decisively over $ 100 per barrel since he started his trip. By the time Cheney leaves, prices will remain fairly within their recent historically high range: somewhere between $95 and $111. It is enough to make both the Prez and the Veep eager for Januray 21st, when they can ride into the sunset, deep into Speechland in Petroland.

Am I seeing things (that are not there)? Should I try a regression analysis to establish significant causality before making such observations?

Maybe both leaders would have been better off visiting Caracas and Tehran: maybe then oil prices would not have risen as much.

Bush, Iran and Nukes:
"Iran has declared they want a nuclear weapon to destroy people."
George W. Bush: Radio Farda Mach 19, 2008

I would like to see a copy of that Iranian declaration Mr. Bush refers to.
So would Mr. Cheney in preparation for his next Fox News interview.
So would White House spokesperson Dana Perrino before meeting the sharks in the press room.
So would representatives of all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
It is possible, nay very likely, that Iran is aiming at a nuclear weapon- but would they be foolish enough to declare it in this fashion?

Fortunately for the president, the ruling mullahs are not litigious, or maybe they are not into lawsuits just right now. Or maybe some of them are already perusing legalzoom. Or maybe they are already calling to retain Alan Dershowitz.
Or maybe the Iranian regime worries that litigation will lead to more intrusive inspections of their nuclear program.

Or maybe Mr. Bush has looked into Ahmadinejad's eyes, on HD television of course, and seen through into his fellow fundamentalist soul (Shi'a fundamentalist not Bible Belt Sunni fundamentalist) , a la Putin and all the neo-democrats of the moderate New Middle East.

Church and Mosque Controversy:
A Vatican representative had mischievously noted that perhaps churches will be allowed sometime soon in Saudi Arabia. That was in the context of opening the first Church in Qatar recently. He had noted that there are some 4-5 millions Christians in Saudi Arabia. That is true, a big percentage of the millions of foreign labor are Christians from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. That is a fact that tends to be ignored, conveniently, by Saudi officials and their surrogates.

The reaction was swift. Most Saudi shaikhs and others of influence categorically reject the idea of churches in their country. ( How about Christmas trees? At least give amnesty to Rudolph, legalize him). Someone mentioned that perhaps that can b tied to a Vatican recognition of the Prophet Mohammed (presumably as a messenger of God). But that would automatically mean conversion to Islam, even if they do not fast or pray. (Jews who two millennia ago accepted Christ ended up being called 'Christians', they are Jews no more, n'est-ce pas?).

Still, this is an intriguing debate that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Clearly there is some positive change in the Arabian air: merely talking the talk makes it so much easier later on to walk the walk. Is this a hallmark of the moderate New Middle East? Is the debate part of its famous birth pangs? Probably not: radical Old Middle East countries, ogres like Iran and Syria have always allowed churches, and some synagogues, they still do. Oh no, did I just say synagogues and Riyadh in the same paragraph?

The National Security Candidate:
Finally, did McCain really mix up a Jewish holiday with Halloween?
Wasn't it bad enough mixing al-Qaeda with al-Sadr?
Or mixing Shi'as with Sunnis?

Cheers
Mohammed

Saudi blogger Fouad al-Farhan has been detaiend without charges for about 90 days.
Republicans and McCain using the tragedy of Iraq as campaign poster.
Are Shi'as, Sunnis, and Kurds Frenching in Baghdad now?
What are these rumors and stories about little Hizbullahs in the Gulf?
Should Florida be allowed to vote, ever?

Five Years, So Many Billions, So Many Lives Later:
Especially so many lives, and many more limbs later, how do we see Iraq?
What we saw the past three days was a war torn country being used as a campaign poster.
Iraq, and the American soldiers put in harm's way, and the Iraqis who are in shock (maybe awed as well) were all being used as a pawn in a show that will continue until early November. Of course it could last through next December if Florida, true to form, manages to mess up its voting again (it is already well on its way with the primary mess).

What Iraqis saw was a pleasant-looking older man seeking to be leader of his own country, a man who has noted that he will remain in their country for 100 years if needed- without consulting them. Which means that they saw a war without end, of necessity spilling over across borders, across old battlefields.

The nice-looking old man was clearly focused on his election campaign: he went to Israel, but refused to see the Palestinian President Abbas. Not worth it: not many voters in Dearborn. Besides, Michigan always goes Democratic.

Fox News interviewed GOP's Ed Gillespie from the White House this afternoon. He said, among other things, that Shi'as, Sunnis and Kurds in Iraq were in love again. Yep, you would think that the laws against Frenching have been repealed in Iraq just so that Shi'as, Sunnis, and Kurds can....french each other with impunity. All in the spirit of brotherhood, sisterhood, and cross-gender-hood. Film at 11- but make sure your kids are safely in bed, with the "red relephone" to the White House, the one that might ring at 3 AM, handy nearby.
(BTW: there are anti-frenching laws in all Arab and Islamic countries, although the word itself is never specifically mentioned.)

What Hizbullah?:
A new term has been circulating in the Arab media these past few weeks. It is a term unheard before, at least unheard by me: mini Hizbullahs. Mention has been made of Hizbullah in Kuwait, Hizbullah in Bahrain, and Hizbullah in Saudi Arabia. Soon there might be one in Lebanon.

In Kuwait the authorities have accused some political and religious activists of belonging to a local party called "Kuwaiti Hizbullah". Somehow it doesn't ring right. In Saudi Arabia, eight Bahraini youths who claimed to have strayed into forbidden territory have been held for weeks without charge. Some Saudi media claim that they might be "charged" with belonging to Bahraini Hizbullah. It is not clear, in that case, on what grounds can Saudi Arabia prosecute foreign nationals for being members of a party in their own country- whether that party is legal or not. Unless the eight were intent on, or were involved in some "actiivities" inside the kingdom. Who knows.

Anyway, suddenly many little Hizbullahs are sprouting all over the (Persian) Gulf. Are there such mini-Hizbullahs? Are the authorities making them up, or merely inflating this for political purposes? Are the extreme rightwing media in one or two Gulf countries exploiting this to saw fear and instability? Is it all of the above? I need a scantron sheet to answer.

Some newspapers in the Gulf, especially two newspapers in Kuwait, have in fact been using this (almost?) mythical party to stir up political and sectarian divisions, scare people, and perhaps have them look to 'big brother' for safety. These pendejos with looted public funds may have succeeded.
Gulf Shi'as tend to deny the existence of such local parties. The Bahraini Minister of State for Foerign Affairs has also publicly denied the existence of such a party in his country.

This may just be the latest fashion. A decade or two ago, the spectre of Zionism was used all across the Arab world, and all were on the lookout for Zionist agents bent on mischief. Maybe they were bent on stealing our advanced technology? That has been debunked, so now we have a convenient "enemy" from within.
Cheers
Mohammed

Saudi blogger Fouad has been in detention without charges for 90 days. He was expressing his views in this moderate New Middle East.

McCain, Kings, and Arab Dwarves:
Senator McCain has moved on from the safe streets of Baghdad to the mean streets of Jordan, where he met in Amman with little King Abdul de Jourdanie, the US Senate's most favorite monarch that is not a butterfly. Actually I shouldn't call him 'little king', that is a belittling term Nasser's Egyptian radio used to describe his father the late King Hussein. Of course Anwar Sadat outdid even Nasser: at one point he called all Arab leaders "a'qzam", dwarves. Maybe he was unto something.

Most Arab media saw the McCain visit for what it was: promoting his presidential campaign, in the US not in Iraq.

VP Dick Cheney is also in the Middle East, creating more traffic jams in Baghdad. But he had some good advice to give this time. He urged the Arab states to start opening embassies in Baghdad, a bit of wise advice which they may not be wise enough to heed anytime soon. It would be a good start, a must if they ever want to contain the Iranian influence they have been whining about. A clear cut case of put up or shut up..

Kirkuk Simmering:
Elaph quotes a Turkman politician from Kirkuk claiming that the main Kurdish parties have resettled about half a million Kurds in Kirkuk in preparation for a referendum on the city's future. The report also claims that US forces have armed 10,000 Sunni Arabs in the Kirkuk area, as part of the Awakening Councils. This last move, if true, does not seem like a smart thing to do. The politician claims that the apparent goal was to resist al-Qaeda, but the real goal may be to confront the Kurds in the future. Very likely they alo have their eyes on participation in any future sectarian civil war.

The referendum was postponed last year and is slated to be held before summer of this year. Sooner or later things will come to a boil in Kirkuk, with Arabs and Turks opposing returning the city to Kurdish control.

Vacancy at the Summit:
Looks like the next Arab Summit will be held in Syria as scheduled, The Syrians have invited everybody except the Clinton's kitchen sink, including Lebanon's part-time rump Prime Minister Fouad Saniora and apparently even Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The last one is odd, a first for Arab summits, since Iran is not a member of the Arab League- it is not even an Arab country. Maybe host Bashar Assad worries that leaders and potentates of the Moderate New Middle East will gang up on him, and feels that he needs a friend? (Apparently he's never listened to James Taylor).

If they are now inviting to Arab summits all foreign leaders who have strong influence in the Arab world, why only Iran? Why leave out the others, the most important two? Why not complete the trifecta of powers moving the New Moderate Arab World by inviting Mr. Bush and Mr. Olmert?

Better yet, why not Dick Cheney and Tzipi Livni? She is better looking than Olmert (certainly better looking than Cheney). Besides, she is a powerful woman in her own right even outside the bedroom and therefore capable of making Arab potentates squirm, as powerful women outside the bedroom are wont to do.

And the Arab potentates won't even have to shake her hand or kiss her, just as they didn't do earlier at Annapolis. They do, however, have to announce their honorable intentions not to kiss or shake hands with her beforehand, just like they did before Annapolis. That would be the least gentlemanly thing to do under the circumstances- unless they want to be real gentlemany and kiss her anyway.
Cheers
Mohammed

Ah, ba ba ba ba Barbara Ann
ba ba ba ba Barbara Ann
Oh Barbara Ann, take my hand
ba ba ba ba let's bomb Iran
Senator McCain, aka Beach Boy

McCain, Obama, Iraq, and the Bomb:
A congressman from Iowa named King has told a radio program that if Barack Obama is elected, terrorists and extermists will dance in the streets of the Middle East more than they did on 9/11. This will be a main GOP slogan in the coming months- it may be their major one, after tax cuts of course.

He was wrong, of course. The Jihadists and Islamic extremists were handed their best present by the neoconservatives, when the Bush administration decided to linger in Iraq for years.

It has been a gift that keeps on giving: it has lowered the status of the United States to unprecedented levels in both Europe and the Middle East, and it has encouraged many young men from the 'moderate' allied countries of the New Middle East to join various Sunni Jihadist groups, especially al-Qaeda.

Actually nothing will please the Jihadists more than to have the same gift keep on giving: having US combat troops remain indefinitely in Iraq, providing a rallying cry for Islamic extremists, as well as tempting targets. That means that a McCain victory will keep the Jihadist cause alive: it most likely will please extremists in the Middle East. So much for the Sunni extremists.

As for the Shi'a extremists, they have not had much of a direct conflict with the United States since the 1980s in Lebanon. They will likely join the fray once Mr McCain establishes what is seen as permanent bases. Once he does a "James Polk", starts his march across the rugged Persian Plateau, as he has threatened. He will be following in the footsteps of the unfortunate Marcus Crassus and his legions, on his way to a political Carrhae for his party, doing his macabre rendition of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann. (FYI: he won't do it, he is too smart, but they think he will-they being both the Islamic Jihadists and the Neocon Jihadists).
But I'm moving too fast: people are not looking forward to a third Bush term, are they?

Jihadist ET, Call Home:
The Pentagon is considering providing telephone services and allowing some Guantanamo detaines to call home. It is not clear if they will be allowed to call their 'extended' families, in Pakistan and the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan.
Next step: will some students in Qandahar or Riyadh start a "cell phones for detained Salafis" program?

Speaking of phones: reports say that CENTCOM'S Admiral Fallon resigned by phone- a phone also provided by the DOD. So the plan is to have the Salafis phone in their resignations from the cause, and its other-worldly pleasures, from Gitmo- then head for the beach, the rum, and las chicas.
Cheers
Mohammed

Iraq- Muqtada al-Sadr is Going Religious, or is it Political?
Muqtada al-Sadr has gone back to college, to Grad School, or its equivalent in Shi'a theology. Arab media quote Muqtada that his father had advised him early on to finish his studies. His father and two brothers were assassinated by Ba'ath regime agents in 1999. An uncle and aunt were tortured and murdered by Ba'ath security in Baghdad in 1980. (It is possible that some of these very same guys are being rehired in the New Iraq Security Forces even as I rant, Of course they would be older, with more extended bellies).

Al-Sadr leads a political faction with thirty members in Iraq's parliament. He has twice declared an effective ceasefire with US forces, freezing all activities by his Mahdi militias, although US commanders still target what they call 'renegade factions' of the Sadrist movement. The freeze has coincided with the US surge. Muqtada himself has periodically railed against 'renegade' elements.
Lately the Sadrists had threatened to lead prtests if the new law on provincial (regional) councils is hindered. The law has not been ratified by the Presidential Council.

Al-Qaeda Rampant?
Arab media report that a wanted al-Qaeda man, has again appeared at a Yemeni court last week and then allowed to walk out free. His name is Jaber al-Banna and is on the Most Wanted list in the United States and has a $ 5 million reward for his arrest.
Reports say that he has posted bail to be able to go free, but it is not known if the bail posted exceeds ten US dollars.

Future Soccer Moms and the Mufti:
Alarabiya reports that the Mufti General of Saudi Arabia has intervened in a university to stop a race (running as in a track meet or cross country) among female students. Earlier a soccer (Football) game between female students of two Saudi colleges had created a controversy in the conservative quasi-fundamentalist kingdom. The soccer game was held in a closed stadium where only females were allowed entry- perhaps the boys were outside imagining things?

The Mufti Abdulaziz Aal al-Shaikh is a direct descendant of Mohammed bin Abdul-Wahab, an early political ally of the al-Saud dynasty whose name is given to the Wahhabi sect.
There is another Mohammed Abdelwahab, who is even more famous across the Arab world, and for good reason: the late great Egyptian composer and singer with that same name. But he was not much into fatwas.

Is It the Jordan River Water?
A Jordanian man has stabbed his brother to death after finding out that the brother has been violating their sister. The crime was discovered by the girl's husband on their wedding night when it turned out she was not a virgin. She confessed that the brother was the guilty party. The killer was sentenced to one year in prison. Interesting.

Another Jordanian man has killed his sister and a Syrian shepherd, claiming he had caught them in a compromising position. He fired six bullets into his sister and four bullets into the Syrian shepherd (that is nepotism) after he caught them 'together' early morning. A medical exam confirmed that the girl was still a virgin when she was shot.
It turns out the man was helped by two cousins who did not believe in mixed dating (mixed presumably being men-women and Jordanian-Syrian dating, apparently no Jordanian sheep were involved).
No word about the take of the sheep on all this- normally sheep are not allowed to testify in Jordanian courts.

In Jordan, the law limits sentences for "honor" killings to a range of between three months and one year. A kiss can be very costly in Jordan, but in Jordan life can be almost as cheap as it was in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Enough about life and death in the moderate New Middle East- I won't mention the famous birth pangs this time.

Arabian Frustration:
Alarabiya reports that police in the town of al-Khubar in eastern Saudi Arabia have intervened to stop a marriage, on the wedding night. Apparently some of the bride's brothers were disgruntled, and had sued against the marriage on the ground that the two are not campatibe in terms of clans, i.e not tribally compatible.

Arab Parliament Redux (Again):
Arabs can rejoice: the Provisional Arab Parliament has formed a committe to study and propose solutions for all inter-Arab problems. From now on all Arab problems and crises will be resolved forthwith. Rejoice my people.
(Actually it may not be a bad idea, it may turn out to be more effective then the Summits or the Arab League). Still, I would recommend that they move it to Strasbourg.
Cheers
Mohammed

Are Iraq's neighbors softening?
Arab potentates may now be regretting having neglected Iraq for the past five years. The neglect was partly an ill-conceived way for the potentates to punish the new political order in Iraq. They may have thought that diplomatic relations are a sort of reward. In that they seemed to be aping the Bush administration that considers meeting others and establishing a diplomatic dialog as some form of reward- it is not now, maybe in the next administration.

All they did by staying away was to allow Iran a freer hand in Iraq. Today Iran is Iraq’s biggest trading partner, and Iranian investments are pouring into the country, especially in the southern provinces.

There was anger among some Arab leaders, expressed in the Saudi and pro-Saudi Gulf media, at the visit of Ahmadinejad to Iraq last week. Some commentators in the Saudi-owned press called it an insult to Arabs- not sure how a head of state visiting another is an insult to anyone.
Some got misty-eyed and said it was an insult to all the Iraqis who died fighting Iran during the 1980s war and those who have died since the invasion. There was no mention of the fact that Arab regimes funded that long war and facilitated the invasion of 2003 and the initial war that has been raging since. There was also no mention of the Arab nationalities of the Salafi terrorists who for almost five years have targeted Iraqi civilians, thus weakening the unity of the country's social fabric, nor is there any mention of their sources of financing.

The anger is understandable, but it should be directed inward, toward those same regimes: they helped create the diplomatic vacuum that Iran has taken advantage of.

Now it looks like they may be having second thoughts- and about time. There has been renewed talk of opening embassies: there has been such talk for several years. When it comes to Iraq, as with other regional issues, the Arab regimes seem paralysed, incapable of acting, waiting for someone else to point the way. That someone else is usually non-Arab.

Speaking of trouble spots and fences:
It seems that walls and fences are the vogue in the Arab world as well these days. Just as they are among some U.S politicians during election years, as well as in North Korea.

Arab media report that Egypt has already started building a fence along its entire border with Gaza. The wall is supposed to be 3 meters (well over 10 feet) high. If this is true, it is the fastest the Egyptian bureaucracy has ever worked on starting anything. That is why I am doubtful.
Israel has had a partial fence built around the Palestinian West Bank for some time.

Then there is the Mother of All fences: the long fence project separating Saudi Arabia from Iraq that will eventually cost many billions of dollars- it is a Saudi fence, of course, not an Iraqi one. And there is a proposed fence between Kuwait and Iraq which is being talked about, as well as the various little fences separating Iraqi communities themselves. The way things are going now, it is possible that eventually the only countries that will not wish to build fences along Iraq's borders will be her non-Arab neighbors, Turkey and Iran.

Congressman Tom Tancredo, a noted lover of border fences, may be gone from the limelight, thank God, but his ghost has reached the Middle East and hovers over all Arab borders these days.

Luckily, once the November elections are over (in America, not in Arabia- they are never over in Arabia), the issue of a fence will be DOA in the United States, not to be revived for another four years. I can imagine Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs forming a new CNN Border Patrol Party to challenge the major parties that have sold out border security for the price of dubious and inequitable free trade.

Dobbs worries mostly about trade and jobs, which are reasonable worries- just look at the economies around some regions of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. His beef with illegal immigrants and NAFTA has mainly to do with loss of American jobs, not necessarily with a fear of having to file his tax returns in Spanish.

Beck, on the other hand, apparently couldn't tell Karl Marx from Milton Friedman- hint: one was quite hairy, while the other was as smooth as an eraser as well as being a perfect egghead. Both were extremists in their own zone of the economic electromagnetic spectrum, and both had the same roots.

Beck keeps losing sleep over terrorists, usually hailing from the moderate New Middle East, sweeping across the Mexican border and doing harm to Lake Mead or Sea World. And in the process further confusing Mr. Beck as to who is the enemy, and who is not, over there.
Of course they have to get into Mexico first and then across it, not an easy task for many, especially a Salafi Jihadist who would never touch a carne asada that is not kosher.
I believe that Beck is also terrified of someday having to file his tax returns in Spanish- pobrecito.

Ken Starr Redux?
Senator Clinton’s campaign has tried to revive the ghosts of the 1990s, again. The latest was accusing the Obama campaign today of using 'Ken Starr tactics'. It was a call to arms to the Democratic faithful, most of whom have not been faithful to Clinton. The call seems odd, quite surreal now that such bogeymen as Gingrich and DeLay are not around. It is like watching another president set a new goal of landing another man on the moon by, say, 2016.
What next: the famous black beret?
Cheers
Mohammed

The USS Cole, along with other ships of the Sixth Fleet, has been moved close to the Lebanese shores. The Cole has a sad history behind it, as most people know, or should know. It was attacked in the fall of 2000, by citizens of allied soon-to-be New Middle East countries, in a seaport of another New Middle East moderate ally. Nineteen people died in that suicide attack, most of them American victims.

The emergence of the Cole, target of al-Qaeda at the port of Aden, off the Lebanese shores has raised speculation. Fouad Saniora, PM of the rump cabinet in part of Beirut, was quick to deny that he had requested its presence. He said that US officials had not informed him of the deployment of the Cole, then added that "it will remain outside Lebanese waters", without explaining how he knew that it will. Other members of the Saniora coalition hinted at things to come, perhaps hopefully.

The Shi'as and their Christian Maronite allies are predictably pissed. Hizbullah said that it was part of an American campaign of threats and intimidation, and that it will not work. Perhaps: warships are not normally sent anywhere unless the purpose is to use them or to threaten their use. Hizbullah TV was quick to say that this move showed who were the real leaders of the pro-government forces.

Some media sources reported that the Cole is there because of worries about Syria. But Syria seems boxed in now, mostly laying low, so it is not likely to attack, say, Israel, or the realm of King Abdul in Jordan. And it does not send supplies and men to Hizbullah by sea. as a clever Arab analyst noted. Hassan Nassrallah does not seem to be getting ready to escape Lebanon through the Mediterranean. And I doubt that the rump cabinet is about to seek political asylum en masse in Dearborn anytime soon.
Some say that it is a show of force designed to stiffen the backbon of the Hariri-Saniora alliance- the next best thing to putting ground troops in harm's way. This is a mystery.

Ali al-Kemawi, R.I.P:
The Iraqi Presidential Council has approved the death sentence of "Chemical" Ali Hassan al-Majeed, mass murderer of Kurds and others, once Governor of occupied Kuwait and Ba'ath regime big man. Like some other Iraqi Ba'athist butchers, he was also once looked up to in some limited Arab circles, especially in some Gulf states, as an Arab folk hero because he tended to butcher mostly the "right kind' of people- just like his wilier and more famous cousin.
He is to be executed within a month.

He served a tribal and largely sectarian regime with a modern veneer that often deceived willing Westerners. It used as its front a party that was originally modeled after the National Socialists of a Germany gone berserk about a perverted Austrian former corporal in the Kaiser's army.

Later, the "Party" sensed the changing winds and adopted some of the ideologies of the socialist co-victors of the European war. The party was never popular in Iraq before 1968, when it took over through a military coup and started a bloody reign of terror that spared no group, sect or party in Iraq. Kurds were bombed, gassed, and uprooted- Shi'as were tortured, stripped of their citizenship and deported- Jews were hung in public squares to die slowly of asphyxiation not of broken necks- Sunnis were tortured, executed and exiled. It was a party of Equal Opportunity Persecution for those who did not toe the line or were suspect.
In the end very few Arab people, mostly among those who never had to live under its rule, were saddened by the demise of the party.
May that nightmare never ever revisit any nation.
Cheers, most likely
Mohammed

Lebanese Nostradamus:
Al-Manar, the Hizbullah television network and web site, has an interesting, and of course self-serving, take on the series of events in Lebanon these past two years- especially the political assassinations. The al-Manar speculations revolve around Sameer G'ag'a (J'aj'a), warlord of the Lebanese Forces militias and an ally of the March 14 pro-cabinet forces. The web site notes that Mr. G'ag'a seems to have supernatural powers for predicting events:

It notes that he predicted early in 2006 that about 15,000 foreign forces will enter Lebanon. And boom, within months Israel invaded and fifteen thousand international forces were stationed in Lebanon. (I have not verified this one yet)

It notes that G'ag'a predicted, after the Shi'a ministers and their allies withdrew from the cabinet, that ministers will be assassinated (he actually did say that, I mentioned it here). Sure enough, soon young Pierre Gemayel was assassinated. Al-Manar notes that a Maronite Christian legislator, S. Farangieh, has revealed that Tony 'Obied, a leader in the Lebanese Forces of G'ag'a was behind the killing.

It notes that he predicted to a French magazine attacks on UNIFIL forces in Lebanon. And sure enough, soon they came under attack.

It notes that he predicted in 2007 that members of parliament from a certain Maronite district will become targets. Sure enough, a member was killed within a short time after that.

Al-Manar notes that the same Mr Sameer G'ag'a is now predicting an assassination attempt against Mr. Fouad Saniora, prime minister of the rump cabinet. Ohoh....

So, do you really think there is something to this Hizbullah insinuation/accusation? I am not sure, I find Lebanon confusing and complex even as I find the Lebanese simple and predictable.

The Lebanese Forces of Mr. G'ag'a, modeled after the pre-war European Fascist militias, was implicated in the Sabra and Shatila massacres of perhaps over 1,000 Palestinians in the refugee camps in 1982.
Mr. G'ag'a is scheduled to visit Washington, DC, soon for discussions. He follows in the footsteps of other warlords who have already made the pilgrimage.

So, does this mean that if you are a Lebanese you have to choose between a side dominated by Shi'a fundamentalists allied with Iran and a side dominated by quasi-Fascists suspected of mass genocide allied with Saudi Arabia?

Hearts and Minds:
Rivalry for hearts and minds of Americans has been going on for some time between Arabs and Israelis. Mostly it has been a no contest situation. American perceptions of the Judio-Christian heritage is one main factor. Another, perhaps as important a factor, is the repulsive nature of many Arab governments: either tribal absolute monarchies or one-party military police states- all kleptocracies to some degree. That is not to say that Israeli politicians are clean: they have gone a long way down in the Holy Land since the days of their founders- greed is now entrenched on both sides of the divide, especially since the Likud and its heirs became dominant.

Still, there is an interesting debate going on in some American and Arab media about the roles of Israel and Saudi Arabia (the money-bags and new center of power of the Arab world), or is it Jews and Wahhabis as some in US media call them, in U. S. Academia:

A Frong Page article extensively covers the fact that Prince al-Waleed Bin Tala has donated $ 20 million to Gerorgetown University in 2005, in exchange for naming a center after him: the Prince al-Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding- I know, it is a mouthful. The Front Page report lists claims of ties between the Center's director and what it hints are apologists and friends of Islamic extremism.

I find the name of the "Center" interesting. How can there be any Muslim-Christian understanding without bringing in the Jews? They are the elephant, nay the gorilla if you will, in the room- can't be ignored. How can one discuss Christian or Muslim (Moslem) doctrine without referring to 'the source'? Maybe they wanted to keep the name short.

Besides, Georgetown is largely secular now, no? By restricting the Center to Muslim-Christian relations, it denies the secular and multi-faith nature of American society- at least as it is potentially possible to be.
Perhaps the center should be renamed The Prince al-Waleed Bin Talal Center for Understanding Islam- well, a tribal absolute monarchy version of Islam.

On the other hand, the Saudi-owned daily al-hayat has published (Feb. 20) a column titled "American Schools and Universities or Israeli Kubutzim?" The author starts by distinguishing between Jews and Zionists- then asserts that it is natural for Jews who are spread within sensitive and influential sectors across the world to form a normal medium for the spread of Zionism and the support of that movement and Israel. He does note that other, non-Jewish, groups are sometimes more pro-Israeli than some Jewish groups. Those include Marxists and left-wingers (this is debatable, at least), extreme right wingers (mostly true), as well as fundamentalists (non-Islamic variety, of course).

The author notes that the Zionist Lobby has been worried lately, and has redoubled its efforts to keep and spread its influence in American institutions, especially universities and colleges. Now the efforts have spread to high schools where students are picked for special courses and "fact-finding" visits to Israel. The author quotes "The Washington Report" as a source.

The Caliph of Egypt:
Speaking o faith and all that, interesting news from Egypt. A leading Salafi shaikh there has issued a fatwa that it is OK for president Mubarak to pass on power to his son Gamal. He notes that Mu'awiyya, the first Umayyad monarch (he called himself Khalifa) appointed his son as heir and nobody objected. Of course nobody objected: nobody wanted their heads chopped off. Besides, this is not exactly true, al-Hassan, son of Ali, objected because Mu'awiyya had promised not to make it a hereditary rule. But al-Hassan was poisoned- guess by whom. His brother al-Hussein and others rebelled and they were massacred at Karbalaa in today's Iraq. Abdullah ibn al-Zubeir rebelled at Mecca and he was beseiged and killed along with many others...
In any case, at some point this man even compares the president of Egypt to the early four Caliphs, as most of you heathen kaffirs call them, the Rightly Guided Four Khalifas: Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali.
The shaikh refers to what he and other salafis call 'Islamic Shari'a rules' that call for blind obedience to the ruler, no matter how he came to power, no matter how opperssive he is, provided he continues building houses of worship.Perhaps the Salafis of Egypt see an opening to break the Moslem Brotherhood's monoploy of fun-dementa-list opposition.
Cheers
Mohammed

Yoda, Yoda...can Jumblatt spare a dime?

Aafaq and Al-jazeera quote the chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards that soon "Israel will be destroyed at the hands of Hizbullah". This was in the context of a letter of condolences sent by General Ja'afari to Hassan Nassrallah after the death of Imad Mughniya. The report did not mention what Mr. Ja'afari was smoking or snorting when he wrote the letter.

In Saudi Arabia, Shi’a Isma’ilia residents of a southern province (Najran) are protesting what they regard as a deliberate government policy to settle Sunni tribesmen in their region and dilute their majority. They have sent a letter of protest to the prince/potentate who governs the province objecting to plans to settle a Sunni tribe from Yemen. Apparently there had been previous clashes between the Shi’a residents and the police in 2000 about the issue of repopulation. The native residents claim that the newcomers get land and services they never got from the Saudi government. Perhaps they don't realize they are considered heretics?

Playing around with demographics for political ends is a common prctice in some Arab countries. It was done on a large scale in Ba'athist Iraq in the Kurdish regions of the north and the Shi'a regions of the south. It was also done in some Gulf states where the rulers imported what they considered 'pliable' tribes and naturalized them in order to offset city folks who are not so deferential to potentates. Recently the ruling elites of Bahrain have been accused by opposition groups of naturalizing non-resident tribal men as well as Sunnis from Jordan and Iraq in order to dilute the huge Shi'a majority.

It turns out that the path to a long-term US-Iraqi security arrangement may not be as smooth as originally thought by some. Elaph reports (Feb. 15), quoting an aide to Marji'iyya, that Ayatollah Ali Sistani has warned against rushing into signing a long-term strategic pact with the United States. He has called for further studies by Iraqi experts to make certain there are no loopholes in the proposed treaty. Meetings to negotiate the treaty between Iraqi and American officials are scheduled to start on February 27.

The Arab Parliament again- sans Strasbourg:
A meeting in Libya is expected to put the final touches on a the constitution for an "Arab Parliament". That is nice, since some Arab states have no constitutions, and most of those that have them might as well use them as the infidel kaffirs use other kinds of thin paper. Whatever is concluded in Libya will be discussed by a meeting of the Provisional Arab Parliament next month, then it will be put to the Arab Summit in Damascus this Spring. The upcoming Summit is widely expected to be boycotted by at least one King Abdullah, one President Mubarak, as well as one Hassan Nassrallah. Perhaps they will boycott the meeting because it will not be held at Strasbourg. The new 'parliament', whenever it materializes, will be headquartered in Damsacus- not exactly Strasbourg, but it could have been worse, at least it is not in San'a or Riyadh.

Meanwhile, the president of the said Provisional Arab Parliament met in Tunis with Tunisian officials and discussed the best ways to improve Arab parliamentary work, seriously. Well, perhaps it is a good start to have parliaments in some of these countries. Then a next step will involve having elections- a good second step. The next step would be elections that are clean and free- preferably with Jimmy Carter around to verify. Then....perhaps some teeth?

A 95 year old Moroccan man on a wheel chair was sentenced three months ago to three years in prison- for insulting the king. I still am not sure that one can actually honestly insult an Arab leader, and how. But anyway, the old man died yesterday, still aged 95, cheating His Majesty out of 33 months of his sentence.

I was initially surprised to see the warm and sometimes excited welcome Mr. Bush got in Africa. But then, again, the man did substantially increase Aids funds, something that the continent needed badly. Mr. Bush has done good by Africa, more than for other regions, like the Middle East or South America. I recall that Bill Clinton took his farewell tour mainly in Asia. That was a wise decision, since he turned a blind eye to the massacre of up to one million people in Rwanda- that was under his watch. Of course Mr, Bush hasn't exactly stopped the genocide in Darfur.
Cheers
Mohammed

"When someone kills ya, you know that they've committed genocide against ya"
George W. Bush: Jan. 2008

A Game of Chickens and Lebanese Cantons:
Two parallel events were held in Beirut today.
One was a political rally for the heirs of the late Rafiq Hariri, and it was a political statement by the pro-rump-cabinet, since the man has been dead for three years. After all, Mr. Hariri was close to the Saudi royals, and the Wahhabis do not cotton up to commemorating the dead- in fact they frown on it. Come to think of it, they frown on many things most of the time.

The other event, in Southern Beirut, was a real funeral for Imad Mughniyah, Hizbollah operative, strategist, and wanted for terrorism across Europe and North America, and a couple of other places. The funeral was held in the same area that witnessed the massive bombings and shellings during the War of 2006, the bombfest that Secretary of State Rice callously called the “birth pangs” of the “New” Middle East.

During the funral, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nassrallah promised retaliation against Israel. What surprised me was when a State Department spokesman appeared on Fox News to dismiss the threat, saying that Hizbullah will “bluster” for a while. The sad thing is: Hizbullah never just “blusters”. To bluster means to speak loudly and noisily, which Nassrallah did today, but it also implies an element of bluffing, which he does not do- in this respect he is a very un-Arab leader.
Mr. Hariri, fils, for his part, blasted Syria, which means he was not original this time either. A good question: how did they get through Syrian security? Who got paid what?

The game of chicken continues in Beirut. Normally the party with more fire in its belly wins, in this case Hizbullah- the other side blinks. But this time around there are too many things at stake for various regional and international parties. Mr. Hariri and Mr. Saniora will not blink soon, even if they want to: their foreign sponsors (USA and Saudi Arabia) have placed matchsticks to hold their eyelids wide open. Hizbullah's sponsors (mainly Iran), meanwhile, keep the supply lines open. Unless this is resolved, it looks like a cantonization of Lebanon will be in effect. They always did say that Lebanon was the Switzerland of the East- now she will have the cantons to prove it.

In Iraq, the cantankerous parliament has finally acted on several measures to bring the country closer together, at least nominally. Meanwhile, the long-delayed municipal elections have finally been scheduled for October, under UN supervision- no word yet on whether Jimmy Carter will be there.

Iran has delayed a scheduled meeting with US officials over Iraq. No reason given.

Saint Valentine's Day Massacre:
In Saudi Arabia, the War on Valentine's Day has intensified. No less, and no more, a person than the head of the Society for the Spread of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (sounds like a Republican, as in GOP, campaign slogan, nicht war?) stressed that they will be vigilant and will confiscate any presents or symbols related to this “pagan festival”. Pagan indeed! Well, don’t expect any toga parties in Riyadh anytime soon….not unless you reside in one of them sumptuous palaces over there, those uniquely Arabian frat houses on the Riyadh or Jeddah Greek Row.

In relatievly liberal Kuwait, a Salafi member of the National Assembly tried to get a measure passed banning Valentine's celebrations. But, Kuwait being what it is, everybody ignored the shaggy honorable pendejo.

Bush the Censor (forget Cato):
Speaking of Saudi Arabia, President Bush yesterday gave its rulers a Valentine’s Day present that is decidedly double-edged. He put restrictions on financial and other dealings of several Syrian officials whom he said were involved in disrupting the stability of Iraq and, get this, “profiting from embezzling (or abusing) public funds” in Syria. At least this was the summary Arabic translation. About that last part, about “embezzling of abusing” public funds in Syria: is this supposed to be a warning shot for the royal Saudi allies to cease and desist from abusing public funds- just in case the had any ideas?
There is certainly abuse of public funds in Syria- there are all kinds of abuses in Syria: but how often can one overlook the pot and call the kettle “black”. And get away with it.
Cheers & Happy Valentine's...
Mohammed

I am the Sheik of Araby
Your love belongs to me
At night when you're asleep
Into your tent I will creep
The starrs that shine above
Will light our way to love
You rule this world with me
I am the Sheik of Araby

(Rudolph Valentino's "The Sheik")

'Imad Mughniyah was killed in Damascus, in that uniquely modern Lebanese way of settling scores- a car bomb. Except this time there were outsiders involved, and he was killed in a tightly-controlled Arab police state. Mughniyah was a Hizbollah operative and strategist, and he was all over the place during the 1980s, but he seemed to have faded from the public scene in recent years. He had been accused of involvement in various acts of sabotage and terrorism: from the bombings against US and French military bases in Beirut (1983) to the bombings of US Embassy and other installations in Kuwait City, to various hijackings. Some probably far-fetched reports have even linked him, along with al-Qaeda, to the al-Khubar bombings in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s.

In many ways, as a young man he summarized the Arab East as it was durng the 1980s: the beginnings of Shi'a stirrings in the region, especially in Lebanon where they had a plurality but were marginalized economically and politically. Politically, they were largely "owned" by a few Shi'a feudal families. The 1980s, after the ill-advised Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the ourtbreak o the Iran-Iraq War, saw the genesis of Hizbullah as we know it and the growth of the older Amal Shi'a organization. The ill-advised US military incursion in Beirut under Reagan provided a new impetus for Hizbullah recruiters and gave its planners a tempting target, which they hit.
The US mission in Beirut was in some ways a mini-Vietnam, it represented the same type of folly: placing small US military units in precarious positions in the middle of a hostile population.

The method of Mughniyah's death is not strange, not for a Lebanese fighter or even politician, but the venue is. Inter-Lebanese scores are usually settled in-country, which indicates that some foreign power(s) was behind the operation. Besides, he had been more active outside Lebanon and was wanted by several foreign countries, including being on the FBI most-wanted list. Hizbullah has already blamed the Israelis, as have other Arab sources and Iran, which means that if a foreign power was behind it, the Israellis were involved.

The most ridiculous take on him, outside Lebanon, tended to be in conservative US media. The most absurd was mentioned in Wikipedia as follows:

"Some foreign policy experts, including conservative Michael Ledeen, have claimed that Mughniyah had a strong working relationship with Al Qaeda and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi especially in recent years with the invasion of iraq."

Some clever "experts"!: given the Salafi hatred of Shi'as, a Hizbullah-alQaeda alliance would be like a Nazi-Jewish marriage, impossible for anyone with any sense to perceive...except perhaps for the "experts" mentioned above. These are the same people who tried to tie Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day in many places- ok, ok, I forgot that it is banned is Saudi Arabia. Anyway, tomorrow the Lebanese cabinet and its allies were scheduled to commemorate the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. They had planned a huge demonstration in support of the cabinet. So far, most Lebanese leaders, including Mr. Saniora, have condemned the killing of Mughniyah and made the appropriate noises for such an occasion. This attitude from its Lebanese allies will not please the Bush administration: he was accuseed of involvement in killing many US citizens abroad and was wanted in the country.

Some politicians are even calling for a joint commemoration of both Mughniyah and Hariri. Odd, but then that is Lebanon and it is Valentine's Day in many places (except Riyadh, and I am not sure about Qom).
We may see a Lebanese joint political and mourning potluck tomorrow, but it won't last.
Cheers
Mohammed

McCain’s Folly:
Senator McCain has called for a long-term US presence in Iraq. This is hopefully just a political ploy as the primaries head into the conservative Western states- otherwise it is a recipe for resumed guerrilla/terrorist/insurgent wars long into the future. Surge or no surge, once it becomes clear that the US is there to stay, bombings and roadside explosives will resume in Iraq. The fact is that Iraq cannot be ruled by foreigners, be they Americans, Iranians, or Arabs. It is not like the Philippines, Germany or Japan. It is a country that has deep tribal, ethnic, and sectarian divisions and has always been deeply suspicious of foreign powers. McCain’s cavalier attitude toward a long-term occupation is foolish, for it will surely lead to a re-surgence of the insurgency/terrorism of 2004-2007. The current surge may, just may, calm things in Iraq enough help get him, or another Republican, elected president: I certainly hope the election's outcome will be different. In that case it may also cause his defeat four years later.

Alzawraa Iraqi (Sunni) web site reports that US forces distribute development funds in al-Anbar province only through the local sheikhs who are members of the Awakening Councils. The report claims that millions of dollars are distributed without going through the normal procedures and channels for such development projects.
Come to think of it, the whole being of the Awakening Councils is outside the bounds of normal Iraqi political procedures and channels- so what are a few million dollars to grease the greasy palms of some shaikhs on the payroll? Shaikh Ahmad Abu Risha, whose brother was killed last year, and probably the biggest beneficiary of such money, has denied the allegations, reminding us that there are no alligators in Iraq.

It can kill you: aafaq reports that an Iranian youth aged 22 years has been sentenced to death for drinking alcohol for times. Apparently during the fourth time the man pushed his luck and decided to carry his party outside into the streets. Imbibers are flogged and jailed, but technically a drinker can be sentenced to death if he confesses to having imbibed at least four times. Now the question is: how the hell did they get him to confess? The case is subject to appeal.
Recently tow sisters were sentenced to death in Iran after being convicted of adultery. This intrigues me: what about the men involved? Normally it takes at least two to commit adultery, except maybe in Pakistan.

The Infanticide Law West of Aramco: Speaking of executions, Aalarabiya reports that last July a Saudi teenager aged 15 years was executed by beheading, after being convicted of murdering another teen when he was at the age of 13. There is a dispute about whether international rules that prohibit execution of minors aged 13-15 years apply here. In any case, the boy’s family is suing for $ 2.7 million. Apparently Saudi law does not go by age, but by whether the accused is physically mature- wtf this means.

The family lawyer has stated that until now the boy’s body has not been returned to his family. The family were not told of the execution until they went and tried to visit him. The victim, another boy, was found murdered with signs of sexual assault. The lawyer has said that the convicted boy was beaten up until he ‘confessed’.
Sneaky Saudis, they probably executed the child so fast and so secretly to avoid having to bow to an international uproar.

Gulf Reflections:
You can take the person out of the tribe, but you can’t take the tribe out of the person: I recalled this fact during my trip back to the hometown on the Gulf last month. Societies change, but some things are difficult to shake off. Talking politics with a friend when I was back, and this being the Gulf region, the subject touched on US elections and the role of families in politics. He mentioned Ford, the former US president, and commented on how famous and rich families in the United States as well tend to amass political power. He also mentioned the Kennedys. I tried to correct him, briefly explaining that Gerald Ford was not of the FORD family, Ford as in Edsel, and that in the old days the Irish-Catholic Kennedys were not considered among the ‘in’ families in America. He seemed doubtful: how can the man be named Ford unless he belonged to the Ford family? Which of course made sense, in a Gulf Arab context. I though that it would be too much of a shock for him if I fully explained Mr. Ford’s background.

This was not the first time I had seen this, especially about Ford, because of his famous name. I have read past newspaper columns in the Gulf region mentioning the same point, how powerful business families reach power in America, and using Gerald Ford as an example.

This is a Gulfie phenomenon, where societies are small, and the powerful merchant families are a handful and they tend to jealously guard the influence and political clout their names have bestowed on them so far. While these families tend to intermarry in order to keep the wealth within the families and not dilute the political clout, the world around them is changing rapidly, and the general population, the plebeians, the plebs (I would not say the proletarii), are growing very fast, with all that entails in a shift of political power and new economic demands. This creates much insecurity among the few families that were used to having power and unlimited access to the rulers. This partly explains the clamor for changing electoral districts in order to dilute the “others’” votes, especially the Bedouin desert people who are strongly allied with Sunni Salafi fundamentalist groups. (The Shi’a vote has been taken care of: somehow they never get more than 10% of the legislative seats- it is almost like a quota, but perhaps that is so because they often tend to vote for their own fundamentalist candidates like everyone else..…perhaps).

This obsession with names gets carried to absurd limits sometimes: A few years ago a famous newspaper owner, chief editor, and businessman noted that someone carried the same family name as his but was not related to him. It was someone he apparently thought was not of the right class. So he purchased advertisements in several daily newspapers, bold half-page ads, to the effect that a Mr. So-and-So, who chanced to carry the same last name as the advertiser, was in fact not related to him or anyone of his family. People were amused about the ads, but nobody thought it too odd. Try putting this kind of an ad during Super Bowl: it will handily beat Go-Daddy and Anheuser-Busch ads. Well, maybe not Go-Daddy’s.
Cheers
Mohammed

Some days ago, I arrived in the (Persian) Gulf on the same day that President Bush did- and in the same city. It is a measure of the low esteem of Mr. Bush that, even in the country his father liberated from Iraqi Ba'athist occupation, he is at best met with skepticism. Many people who gratefully adored his father as a liberator now despise Bush Jr.- at best they think of him as an inept president leading a disastrous administration. When people in the Gulf consider a U.S administration is inept, well, this is not only a case of the pot calling the kettle black- it is a definite trough, what is called in Mathematics a minimum, an absolute not a local minimum.

People I talked to in the Gulf region see this twilight tour of the Gulf states as partly Iran-related, partly Israel-related, and, last but not least, partly setting up the stage for lucrative future contracts for his buddies and his aides. He arrived in the emotional week before the highly emotional Shi'a (Shi'ite) holy day of 'Ashura- someone ought to have told him to put off his trip to the Gulf for a couple of weeks. Apparently nobody did, not his Middle East experts, not even his hosts. He did not do himself, or his country, any good in the Gulf, even if he did the sword dance with the royalty.
I wonder if he made the rounds of some Shi'a Husseiniyyas, religious houses, while in the Gulf region during this particular period- that would have opened his eyes...maybe...maybe.

In the Gulf, on the same evening of my arrival, I watched Bush cheerfully hobnob with the incense-soaked potentates with dye-blackened facial hair, while I sat with my older brother who is being destroyed by advancing Parkinson's. That is the same disease that Mr. Bush would rather not help eradicate if the research used is unacceptable to Christian Jihadists back in the United States.

Now we know that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is actually naked. The man who pooh poohed the financial crisis and the potential for a recession has been forced to eat crow, having been caught far behind the curve trying to catch up.
Cheers
Mohammed

Some days ago, I arrived in the (Persian) Gulf on the same day that President Bush did- and in the same city. It is a measure of the low esteem of Mr. Bush that, even in the country his father liberated from Iraqi Ba'athist occupation, he is at best met with skepticism. Many people who gratefully adored his father as a liberator now despise Bush Jr.- at best they think of him as an inept president leading a disastrous administration. When people in the Gulf consider a U.S administration is inept, well, this is not only a case of the pot calling the kettle black- it is a definite trough, what is called in Mathematics a minimum, an absolute not a local minimum.

People I talked to in the Gulf region see this twilight tour of the Gulf states as partly Iran-related, partly Israel-related, and, last but not least, partly setting up the stage for lucrative future contracts for his buddies and his aides. He arrived in the emotional week before the highly emotional Shi'a (Shi'ite) holy day of 'Ashura- someone ought to have told him to put off his trip to the Gulf for a couple of weeks. Apparently nobody did, not his Middle East experts, not even his hosts. He did not do himself, or his country, any good in the Gulf, even if he did the sword dance with the royalty.
I wonder if he made the rounds of some Shi'a Husseiniyyas, religious houses, while in the Gulf region during this particular period- that would have opened his eyes...maybe...maybe.

In the Gulf, on the same evening of my arrival, I watched Bush cheerfully hobnob with the incense-soaked potentates with dye-blackened facial hair, while I sat with my older brother who is being destroyed by advancing Parkinson's. That is the same disease that Mr. Bush would rather not help eradicate if the research used is unacceptable to Christian Jihadists back in the United States.

Now we know that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is actually naked. The man who pooh poohed the financial crisis and the potential for a recession has been forced to eat crow, having been caught far behind the curve trying to catch up.
Cheers
Mohammed

"Leaving on a jetplane...
Don't know when I'll be back again......"
Peter, Paul & Mary- Dec 1969: their own bit of Bush-ism

A columnist, Mahmoud al-Mubarak, has written an interesting column in the daily alhayat . He titles it "When the Guest is an Idiot." No, he is not writing about Ahmadinejad as a guest of Columbia University- he is writing about another leader, another guest, on another visit just about to start. Now, if the two ever meet, it might be hilarious.

Elaph notes that the Israelis are receiving Mr. Bush (not with flowers, but) by intensifying the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories of the West bank.

The same site also headlines a report that "Arabs Lose 50% of Their Brains Each Year". My first reaction was extreme worry at the thought that all are becoming half-wits and then worse every year. In that case, and using some version of half-life analysis (the power of e exponential and all that), at some point in time the brain power of the Arab world will approach zero- but of course it will never get to zero- the mathematical function won't allow it. The curve will be asymptotic to the zero-line. I believe that will be much worse than the case is now- unless they lose 50% of the leaders each year, to voluntary retirement of course. Of course.
But not to worry, the report was not as revolutionary as that.

Now the mystery is cleared- perhaps this is why they don't let them drive over there. A Saudi woman in Cairo drove her Hummer into a taxi and killed three (so far). Some Cairo press reports claimed that she was a princess, but in Cairo any Gulf woman is a princess or a shaikha- many like being thought of as such, except for the real ones. Some Saudi media outlets were quick, in tribal Gulfie fashion, to declare that the (Saudi) woman is of an Egyptian mother- as if a personal accident casts a pall over Saudi Arabia, and an Egyptian mother somehow spreads the blame among the tribes....er....countries. Had the woman won a gold medal, or mor likely given birth to a kid with two sets of eyes, a holy sign in some circles, everybody would be scrambling to claim her...100%, and the other tribe be damned.
A richness of alibis: the lady claimed she was trying to dislodge her son who had slipped between the seats and that her brakes failed at the same: in the old days the Zionists would have been blamed as well- but that was the Old New Middle East...before the birth pangs that rained death over Southern Beirut and killed so many people in the Summer of 2006- Ok, OK, arguably those explosive birth pangs were initially invited by the Hezbollah action of kidnapping two Israeli soldiers, before they got out of hand.
Cheers
Mohammed

The Secretary General of the Arab League is probably a humorous person, many Egyptians are- unlike, say, the Lebanese and Jordanians where it is often impossible to discern a sense of humor. In the Gulf states there is some limited sense humor as well, but it is always at the expense of others. Perhaps this is because the Egyptians are secure of their own place in history- they have no inferiority complex, because they concede that they are in many ways inferiors to some other nations now. The others, they suspect that they are inferior, in many ways, to many others as well, but they would never concede it, and try to cover it up with permanent scowls which scream "I am serious, take me seriously." Try driving or walking around in the Gulf States or in Jordan, or Lebanon- you'll see mostly scowling faces, especially among the extremely insecure men. This also applies to a lesser extent to Iranians and I suspect the Israelis as well, although I doubt that they can match the others.

Almost all of them have at least one thing in common: they are ruled by lousy regimes. But so are the Egyptians, who seem to have kept their historic sense of humor- but I suspect that the longer Mr. Mubarak lasts, the less humorous Egyptians will become. Before you know it, you can walk around a grim Cairo, looking at scowling faces, thinking you might be in Amman, Riyadh, or Beirut.

Back to Mr. Moussa, the Arab League chief. He said the other day that Lebanon is solely 'an Arab issue'. He said that between visits of American and French dignitaries, and between statements from Mr. Bush, Secretary Rice, and M. Sarkozy about what should happen in Lebanon. Even Dr. M. Kouchner, whose heart is probably not in it, has opined on it.

The Iranians, the target of the League's statement, are being clever about it. They have a finger in the Lebanese pie, like evrybody else, but they have refrained from making public statements about Lebanon recently. Which has led to louder complaints by frustrated Arab governments and their media about "non-Arab" interference in Lebanon- they do not mean American, French, or Israeli interference. Perhaps they mean Hezollah and Syria which are Arab and not Mr. Hariri who is both Lebanese and Saudi- and as Arab as a Lebanese can get.

Arab media, especially in the Gulf region, are full of columnists sharing with us their wishes for the new year. They mostly want for the Lebanon impasse to be settled, for Syria to desist, for democracy to prevail in places like Venezuela, Pakistan and Myanmar- and in some Arab states like Syria, but only Syria is named because that is the only Arab state where democracy, accountability and freedom do not flourish.
Either they are insinuating that these are the main countries of the world that are still undemocratic, or they are insinuating that it is hopeless to hope for democracy in the Arab world and hence it is best to push for it elsewhere. I suspect the latter in most cases.

Hezbollah's Hassan Nassrallah has also opined on his country's situation. He has threatened more serious civil action to break the political deadlock. Except the deadlock is not lasting because of the Lebanese, they are good at compromises- it is lasting because both sides are being subjected to extreme pressure from their rich Arab and powerful foreign supporters.

Iran's supreme leader (for life of course), no, the real leader not Ahmadinejad (he is only the elected help), has stated that not having relations with America is one of the main policies of his country. This is the first time I hear that not having relations with another country is a major policy of a government. Perhaps the US stand on Cuba is another case, althoug there might be unresolved financial, economic, and Florida electoral issues involved in that case.
He hinted that Messrs Bush and Chaney should not lose hope though, because this may change some day.

Oh, and more than one Arab opinion-maker has expressed the wish that, in 2008, the biggest hit Arab song will be something other than the hit for 2007: that one was "bahibbak ya hmar, I Love You, Jackass". No idea which one of the jackasses the song was dedicated to- I believe it is a one-size-fits-all type of song that can be sung in any Arab capital safely.
Cheers
Mohammed

Arabia 2007, Political vacuums, Bhutto's Revenge,

"The root of the word 'vacuum' is the Latin adjective 'vacuus' which means empty, but space can never be perfectly empty. A perfect vacuum with a gaseous pressure of absolute zero is a philosophical concept that is never observed in practice, partly because 'quantum theory' predicts that no volume or space can be perfectly empty in this way." Wiko.
Arab media has been full of anguish over Lebanon. Statements by Arab leaders are full of the same anguish about Lebanon. They are all worried about the vacuum of the presidency in Lebanon. This is all symbolic, of course, because the president of Lebanon is a head of state and does not make policy: he is no more important for the daily running of the country than the presidents of Israel and Germany, and how many people remember their names? What they probably worry about is the continued impasse between the Hariri-Saniora rump cabinet and the Hezbollah-Amal-Michel Oun opposition, which has paralyzed the country. There is a vacuum in Lebanon that needs to be filled soon, if only bcause it is hampering the functioning of a full cabinet that does not exist.

Reporters, columnists, and opinion-makers in the (Persian) Gulf of Frustration states, some of them perofessors doubling as royal gunslingers, get especially misty-eyed about Lebanon these days. They lament the old days when they spent summers in cool Lebanon, doing and drinking many things they cannot do and drink at home whether in Najd, Hijaz or on the shores of the Gulf of Frustration. Those were the same old days when many disenfranchised Lebanese, mostly Shi'as, were confined to their southern villages and subsistence farms, and did not bother the bosses who ruled from Beirut and were mostly paid up agents of Western and Arab regimes. Those were the days when everybody knew their place: in true Arab fashion, as the atrocious popular Gulf saying goes, "one never extended his feet beyond his blanket". That tattered blanket has been kicked off and burned. Aaah, for the days of cheap drinks and cheap women in Lebanon, perhaps gone forever.

Yet everybody in the Arab media seems to ignore a bigger vacuum looming in the Middle East- in the largest Arab country. The president of Egypt, in power for over 26 years, is nearing eighty years of age. He has always refused to appoint a vice president, disingenuously claiming that he does not want to impose a future president on the country. And he says it with a straight face. He has imposed himself on the people without an election for all these years, yet he worries about a vice president. Of course he has been grooming his son to inherit power, in the style of a true Arab absolute monarchy, a la Kim Jung Il and Bashar al-Assad, both having inherited their respective countries and their peoples from their despotic fathers. He has been doing it for a quarter century, and has only been forced in recent years to show his hand. And the Arabs, rulers and media have bought it all, hook, line, and sinker- well, they know, but then they all play the same game. So apparently has the West: both Bush and Sarko stand next to Mubarak, creator of what can be potentially the biggest political vacuum in the MIddle East, and decry the vacuum in Lebanon. Clever Arab autocrat? Dumb Westerners? A bit of both.

The Saudi ruling family has noted the possibility of family conflict once the direct sons of old Ibn Saud are dead. The ruling family has set up a council from among its members, of course, to look into the issue of succession in the future. They do not want a vacuum and the potential internal conflicts it might lead to, as has happened in some emirates and sheikhdoms in the Gulf in recent years.

Iran's Ahmadinejad made a blunder of his own by talking about a coming vacuum in Iraq. He said that Iran, along with Iraqis and other regional nations like Saudi Arabia, can help fill the vacuum. This was another of his many foolish statements- he seems to be good at making them just when everybody has almost forgotten his last one. It shored up the Bush administration policy in Iraq and the Middle East by worrying Americans and scaring the hell out of some Arabs. But is any regime foolish enough to think it can supplant the United States in Iraq and do any better?

In Pakistan, the late Benazir Bhutto was being feted as a near-martyr democrat by the Western and Arab press when her will was read. In true 'turd' world fashion, she had willed the whole Pakistan People's Party to her 19 year old son and her husband with sticky fingers. That was her lousy present to her people on New Years Eve. Maybe it was her way of avenging herself and her father. No wonder Pakistan is a hopeless case with nuclear weapons. Imagine Hillary willing the Democratic Party to Chelsea.

Alarabiya TV reports that Saudi Arabian security has been holding a blogger, Fouad al-Farhan, for three weeks now. Officials say he is being held for breaking certain 'regulations'. They did not say what these regulations were that he broke- perhaps they have not decided. I think it has to do with free speech and speaking his mind, to some extent. The report notes that he is one of the few Saudi bloggers who write in their own names. His family have not seen him since his arrest, and they do not know what he is being charged with. Bloggers in Egypt were also eagerly persecuted by the thugs of the security services, with several arrests and many sites being closed.

On the brighter side, and contrary to some 'expert' predictions in the West, petroleum prices held steady and then moved above $ 90 during the year. This has been good politically for all Middle East rulers, both Arab and Iranian. Talk of reform continues, but it is more muted, and is almost exclusively about economic and financial reform, which tends to flow with about the speed of cold molasses on a January morning.
Cheers
Mohammed

The official website of Iran's president yesterday headlined the following nuggets:
- Ahmadinejad terms Iran-Sudan relations "excellent".
- President appreciates filmmakers boycotting Denmark film festival.
- Ahmadinejad calls for enhancement of ties with Latin America.
- President calls for special attention to welfare of villagers.
- Production of auto engines for domestic production a source of natinal pride: president.
(That last one is a classic, my favorite- with the one about Sudan relations th runner-up).

His own personal blog, titled 'Ahmadinejad's Personal Memos' reads like a Dear Abby of (usually Islamic) piety. Something like Mike Huckabee's blog might look like, but perhaps more coherent, and with more crosses, Mathews, and Lukes than sauras and ayahs. Given the eschatology-centered GOP campaigns, any Republican website might look like that....even Rudy's during his first term.

Secretary Rice said she will meet her Iranian counterpart anytime, anywhere with the condition that Iran first stop enriching uranium. Except that the Iranians have not asked for such a meeting yet, and are now less likely to do so.
This was an unusual thing because it will almost certainly be rejected, especially now that the Bush administration looks unlikely to succeed in pushing through tougher international sanctions. Normally, a meeting among diplomats is a means, part of a process, toward a goal. Meetings are what diplomats do, and as such a meeting can never be considered a reward, not by both sides. Unless it is a date, and some dates can be included in the rewards column- which this one certainly ain't, not from the point of view of the dour Iranian mullahs.

The election of a Lebanese president has been postponed for the nth time. Both sides, the Hariri-Saniora camp and the opposition camp, now agree on the same candidate for the job, but there are differences on details- as it is in any deal, the devil is in the details.

President Bush has said that 'the world' wants a Lebanese president elected based on the demands of the Hariri-Saniora-Junblatt camp, which is the American-Saudi (and by default and preference Israeli) camp as opposed to the opposition Hizbollah-Amal-Michel Oun camp, which can be dubbed the Syrian-Iranian camp.
He did not make the mistake of saying that the Lebanese people want that: he may realize by now that many Lebanese, perhaps more than one half of them, do not want that.

Hezbollah responded quickly to Mr. Bush, asserting that they reject his wisaya over Lebanon, a term meaning mandate or guardianship over someone. Its spokesman claimed that it was Mr. Bush who is blocking an agreement which was within reach. Meanwhile a spokesman for the rump cabinet, with the name of Fitfit, said that the cabinet, what remains of it, will not resort to selecting a president on their own, although he said that option was not off the table for the future. Perhaps it is Fatfat in the Lebanese accent which is more singsong than my Gulf accent- either way it sounds French and feline. Back to the basics: Hezbollah and her allies claimed that Mr. Bush's proposals go against the Lebanese constitution.

In Iraq the government is pressing for various 'Awakening Council' Sunni militias that are mushrooming and are funded and armed by the Americans to be brought under central Iraqi control. Baghdad looks with suspicion at these militias, and rightly so, since they had been until recently allied with al-Qaeda. It is suspected that they may be biding their time before turning their guns and bombs against the government. Actually there is no uncertainty here: once US troops start to depart in earnest and petro-money and arms from all the neighboring countries start to flood in more rapidly than now, this is most likely what will happen. Baghdad's suspicion is probably exacerbated by the fact that some Saudi-owned media have recently been calling for similar 'awakening councils' in the Shi'a provinces as well.
Unfortunately the same measures that may have contributed to the current success of the surge may end up defeating US goals in Iraq in the long term, that is if the goal is a stable Iraq under a viable and elected central government.

The Guardian (UK) newspaper has published details of Tony 'Yo' Blair's role in pressuring the British Serious Frauds Office and the Attorney General to quash invetigation of the famous GBP 1 billion payoff (also called a bribe but not in polite mixed company). This was allegedly paid off by the British defense contractor BAE to Prince Bandar Bin Sultan while he was ambassador in Washington- before he became national security adviser to the Bush administration which was before he became head of the Saudi National Security. The report cites the various stages of the exchange between Blair and the investigators, and how they eventually caved in to Blair, who had already caved in to the Saudis.
Cheers
Mohammed

NewSpeak in Arabia: News media reported recently that Saudi King Abdullah has pardoned the 'Qatif girl' who was abducted and raped by seven men and was later sentenced to prison and flogging for her troubles. Not one outlet noted the irony in this act- but them, we are not known for understanding irony.
This is good news because it shows that world pressure works in some of the darker corners of the world.
It is also good news because the victim was 'pardoned', and 'pardoning' a victim is a good and humane thing- I think it is better than giving her 200 lashes. All victims should be pardoned, because they deserve it more than the criminals who are pardoned, no? There is no more to say on this, for now.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is trying hard to clear itself from any accusations of fear-mongering. Campaign spokesmen have been re-iterating on television, on a daily basis, that they did not bring up the 'cocaine' issue intentionally, that they do not think the 'cocsaine' issue matters, and that they will never raise the 'cocaine' issue again, no matter what new revelations come out about Senator Obama and his association with the use and trade of 'coaine' or other such substances.

Meanwhile, former Senator Bob Kerry, an aspiring VP, has put in his own two Manhattan subway tokens in trying to heal the party. He said that Senator Barack Hussein Obama should highlight (shades of The New School?) his middle name, and should be proud of his African father's name, 'Hussein'. The former senator almost hinted that Obama's father was not likely any relation of Saddam 'Hussein'. Kerry said while standing next to a beaming Hillary "It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim."
Kerry, the war hero possibly turned hatchet man, did not have time to call for a series of one-on-one debates between Barack and Hillary. Nor to offer that Clinton, Hillary not Bill, would be happy to wear a Hijab, or Burq'a, or even the more modernistic Niqab, just to show Iowa voters her cultural sensitivity to any latent Islamic quirks that Obama may hold. She would do it, he would have said, if being open-faced would insult Obama's Muslim heritage.
He did not, however, repeat that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself....."
Cheers
Mohammed