The Shisha Haze

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2011-04-04T16:02:00.001-04:00

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--
Don Amboyer
amboyer@gmail.com
(646) 512-1445

Stonewall

2005-11-03T22:28:00.000-05:00

King Abdullah and his brother Ali

A Royal Consultation

2005-11-03T22:20:00.000-05:00

The leaders of the Emirates welcome King Abdullah of Jordan

U.S. steps up attack on Syria over 'hit list'

2005-06-11T03:42:00.000-04:00

White House accuses Damascus of creating climate of fear during Lebanon's parliamentary elections

BEIRUT: President George W. Bush stepped up his attacks on Syria last night, after a U.S. official said Damascus had compiled an "assassination hit list" targeting Lebanese political leaders. The accusation comes a week after the assassination of anti-Syrian Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir which has fueled speculation that Syrian intelligence units are still operating in Lebanon."

Bush said: "Our message to Syria - and it's not just the message of the United States, the United Nations has said the same thing - is that in order for Lebanon to be free, Syria needs to not only remove its military, but to remove intelligence officers as well."

Commenting on the assassination list, Bush said: "Obviously we're going to follow up on these troubling reports, and we expect the Syrian government to follow up on these troubling reports

The anonymous U.S. official said the information came from "a variety of credible Lebanese sources."

In the latest escalation of tensions between Damascus and Washington, the White House accused Syria of creating a climate of fear during Lebanon's parliamentary elections in what will be seen as a scarcely veiled allusion to the murder of Kassir.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "We are deeply concerned about Syria's interference and intimidation inside Lebanon."

He added: "We are concerned intelligence operatives are interfering in Lebanon's internal affairs. We have all called on the UN to send the verification teams back to Lebanon."

Washington's attack follows earlier comments from UN chief Kofi Annan who said on Thursday night that he was considering sending a second verification team to Lebanon because of reports that Syrian intelligence is still operating in the country.

Damascus has strenuously denied any involvement in the Kassir murder, and insists it has fully complied with UN Resolution 1559 which ordered Syria to withdraw its troops and intelligence agencies from its smaller neighbor.

The new accusations against Syria came as Lebanon prepares to hold its third phase of four-stage parliamentary elections on Sunday, in Mount Lebanon, and the Bekaa districts.

Jumblatt accused the former Syrian military intelligence chief in Lebanon, General Rustom Ghazaleh, of meddling in the election through his agents.

So, I was sitting...

2005-06-10T14:40:00.000-04:00

...on a mountain in Yemen chewing some qat. I went on a day trip from Sana'a to two villages about an hour away with a Yemeni army captain. We ended up climbing a mountain with a village on top that overlooks the village we started from. The air was really thin and it was quite the adventure. Here are my favorite photos. I'll be back in the States on the 22nd.

--
Don Amboyer
amboyer@gmail.com
+971-050-8894656

News from Sana'a

2005-06-06T08:55:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,

I flew into Sana'a, Yemen on Monday 31 May. My plan is to spend three weeks here studying Arabic with a private tutor at the Sana'a Institute for Arabic Language. My Arabic abilities are still not great and Yemen is a good place to practice because, unlike other places in the Middle East, most people don't speak English. Yemen is also cheap. It's costing just a few hundred dollars to study privately and live in a traditional Yemeni house. The student housing is on the edge of the Old City in central Sana'a. The walk to Bab al Yemen is only about a kilometer.

Sana'a is an amazing place. In many ways it's like stepping back into history. The traditional souks and street markets thrive and are the main supply of food and goods for the people. Poverty is rampant here; most people live on less than $2 per day. However, things are comparatively less expensive than the States or other countries in the region. My first three days in Sana'a I lived on less than $5 per day while eating at decent restaurants. My diet has consisted mainly of bread, foul and some chicken. The foul is much better than the Sudanese variety but I still have an aversion to it.

The Institute is a pretty cool place. It's a decent sized building about 300 meters from the student housing. There are probably about 25 people studying there. Most all have private tutors and schedule their time in 3 or 4 hour blocks throughout the day. I've had sessions inside and outside and really like the relaxed atmosphere. My instructor and I agreed to work primarily on conversational items but also to work on a subset of politically specific language. Each day I bring the day's newspaper and we review articles that cover politics in the Middle East. This should really help to expand my vocabulary when speaking about current issues.

One of the first people I met here was a Canadian guy who came for a month to get a quick introduction to Arabic. He and I were talking and discovered we both shared a passion for diving. He had planned a weekend away at Kamaran Island in the Red Sea off the western coast of Yemen. I agreed to join him and we would set off on Friday and return on Sunday. Friday and Sunday would be travel days and we would dive on Saturday. Thursday evening we stayed up late with some students and it made a rough start for Friday morning. Our bus left from Bab al Yemen at 6:15 AM and I was feeling a little sickly. The bus trip took six hours and ended in Houdida, a city near the port of Asslif. I continued to get worse during the trip, but I hoped it would go away after a few hours off the bus.

The bus trips here a bit of an adventure. Arabic music and/or movies blare from overhead speakers throughout the trip. It's a challenge at first to follow along but after about three hours it just gets obnoxious. There are also several stops during a six hour trip. On average every hour and half the bus stops in a village to offload passengers for twenty minutes to buy food and drink and also the all important qat. Qat is the national pastime of Yemen. Most men and women chew the leaf and it acts as a stimulant. I don't Yemenis could survive a bus trip without qat. The other charming part of my bus trips seems to be my ability to choose a seat next to the on-board toilets. Not nice.

Houdida and the surrounding area was a bit Wild West meets Sudan. The coastal populations of Yemen have mixed African and Arab ancestry; most of the north is dominated by Arabs. The temperature in Houdida mixed with humidity was stifling, 42°C with 85-90% humidity. There was almost no breeze which made standing outside nearly unbearable. Our hotel hosts arrived quickly to collect us and let us sit in an air conditioned room for about an hour before we went to lunch. The hour in A/C was the second best part of the entire trip.

For lunch our group of ten headed to a local mendi restaurant. Mendi is a style of food popular in Yemen and the greater Gulf region. It consists of a base of rice topped with meat (mutton, chicken, or fish) served on a communal plate. Its eaten with your hands, but you mix yogurt and sauce with the rice and meat to solidify a mound that you scoop into your mouth. It may sound terrible but it actually is great once you get the hang of it. The meat is perfectly seasoned and cooked underground and the flavor really comes out with the yogurt and sauce.

After lunch ended we left via the hotels delivery trucks. We had to make a quick stop at the qat market to pick up a supply of qat for the workers. It was an eye opening experience to wander around market and witness the shouting, haggling and general chaos of the qat scene. The drive to the port of Asslif took about an hour through a desolate arid/desert peninsula. I was expecting the ferry to the island to be a drive-on heavy duty type. Er, wrong. Workers unpacked the bus and put our things into a 15 foot rowboat with a motor. It was starting to get interesting.

The ride across the strait to Kamaran took about twenty five minutes. The "hotel" didn't come into view until we almost reached the shore. It consists of a main lodge type area with dining tables and six separate huts for guest quarters. The owner doesn't believe in air conditioning so it was a bit hot. No, really; it was hot. The hotel is separated from Kamaran village by at least fifteen kilometers. The total island size is 80 square kilometers inhabited by less than three thousand people. The terrain is basically a mixture of rock and desert. Wide white sandy beaches are not in abundance.

We had dinner, played dominos and I settled in for the night. It was defiantley one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life. Air couldn't circulate in the hut and the humidity was intense. I eventually passed out. The next morning came early thanks to the rather rude rooster who began crowing at 5:30 am. We had breakfast and got ready to dive. Jason, the Canadian, and I suited up and took our equipment to the boat with Ahmad the divemaster. We were joined by two locals who work for the hotel; they are fishermen and provide security for us.

The first dive spot was about twenty minutes from the hotel dock. It was an amazing dive. It was fairly shallow at on 10 meters but we stayed under water for more than an hour. I saw all kinds of amazing fish, lobster, and even a few stingrays among the coral. Awesome dive. The second dive wasn't as interesting. We dove to about 30 meters but couldn't stay down long because of the diminished oxygen supply due to depth. There was a lot of silt kicked up on the bottom and the current was strong. All in all not a great dive. The good part was that I gained confidence in my diving abilities. I used less air than usual and controlled bouncy better. I think it had a lot to do with being in salt water instead of fresh.

I had hoped for more diving later in the afternoon but it wasn't to be. This wasn't too bad because sunburn was starting to set in. That afternoon I sat around and finished a good book. I was still feeling sick and I think I became dehydrated. I lay down and only got up briefly for a dinner I didn't eat. Sunday morning came early again and I was still feeling sick. We saw some dolphins that morning in the bay near the hotel. That was cool and reminded me of a few summers ago in South Carolina. We said our goodbyes around 9:30 and boarded the boat for the return trip to Asslif.

Jason and I had decided to skip the bus ride and instead travel back to Sana'a with Sultan in his Landcrusier. Did I mention I love Landcruisers? I do. He has an 80s model FJ62 and the thing is a tank. We couldn't wait to get out the flat costal area and into the mountains where the temperature drops. Along the way we were stopped at every police checkpoint. The police are not used to Westerners traveling in the area and made sure to take all of our details before releasing us. At one checkpoint near the mountains it was decided that this wasn't enough. The army manned the checkpoint and insisted on giving us an armed escort through the region. An army Landcruiser bushanab loaded with six men and a mounted fifty caliber machine gun stuck close to us for about half an hour before pulling off. Rural Yemenis are notorious for capturing Westerners and holding them for ransom to force the government to build infrastructure in their villages. The government figures it cheaper to prevent abductions than to continue building roads and powerlines to the middle of nowhere.

The ride back through the mountains took about six hours. I was still sick and dehydrated. I was starting to feel a bit delirious. We only stopped once so that Jason and Sultan could take lunch. I began feeling better once the climate cooled. The mountains are beautiful. The houses are built into the sides and tops of cliffs. It is the exact same style of building and decoration that I saw in the mountains between Dibba and al Fujariah at the southern end of Musandam. I have no doubt that the occupants of those mountains were orginially Yemenis who migrated to the far eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. We had one small traffic incident on the way back but no big ordeals. It was an interesting trip that I would rather have taken about three months back. I am hoping that the sick leaves me soon so that I can get back to full strength.

Talk to you ya'll soon.

--
Don Amboyer
amboyer@gmail.com
+971-050-8894656

Hizb Allah chief: We will keep our arms

2005-05-26T08:25:00.000-04:00

The interesting bit is that Jumblatt has sided with Hizballah against the political pressure being exerted by Aoun and the Christians. Jumblatt has taken an anti-Syria position. Hizballah has recieved substantial financial and military support from Syria. Hizballah has been on the retreat since the Syrian withdrawl. This alliance seems to based on the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" principle. From Al Jazeera.

"Any hand that reaches out to our weapons is an Israeli hand that will be cut off," Hizb Allah chief Shaikh Hassan Nasrallah told tens of thousands of supporters on Wednesday - the fifth anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

"We do not want to attack anyone and will not allow anyone to attack Lebanon, but if anyone, anyone, thinks of disarming the resistance, we will fight them like the martyrs of Karbala," he said, referring to a battle in Islamic history pivotal to Shias.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt also spoke at the rally, defending Hizb Allah's right to keep arms. The prominent opposition leader told the thousands of Hizb Allah supporters that "We must not allow international interference to undermine Lebanon's principles".

Jumblatt recently forged an alliance with Hizb Allah in Mount Lebanon for the crucial parliamentary elections, due to kick off this Sunday.

Jumblatt, one of the most vocal critics of Syria's interference in Lebanese politics, said that Hizb Allah had to be protected "out of loyalty to slain premier Rafik al-Hariri".

Notes from Usama bin Laden's November 04 speech

2005-05-26T06:42:00.000-04:00

Some of you may never have read the actual unedited versions of bin Laden's speeches. The news reports don't do justice to the full weight of his words. Much like our government has a National Security Strategy so does Al Qai'da and it is largely laid out in this speech. I've copied a few excerpts but the full translation is at Al Jazeera.

No, we fight because we are free men who don't sleep under oppression. We want to restore freedom to our nation, just as you lay waste to our nation. So shall we lay waste to yours.

No one except a dumb thief plays with the security of others and then makes himself believe he will be secure. Whereas thinking people, when disaster strikes, make it their priority to look for its causes, in order to prevent it happening again.

I say to you, Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike the towers. But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.

The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. This bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorised and displaced.

I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy.

The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child, powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand a conversation that doesn't include a weapon? And the whole world saw and heard but it didn't respond.

And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and the intentional killing of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance.

Is defending oneself and punishing the aggressor in kind, objectionable terrorism? If it is such, then it is unavoidable for us.

You can observe it practically, if you wish, in Kenya and Tanzania and in Aden. And you can read it in my interview with Abdul Bari Atwan, as well as my interviews with Robert Fisk.

The latter is one of your compatriots and co-religionists and I consider him to be neutral. So are the pretenders of freedom at the White House and the channels controlled by them able to run an interview with him? So that he may relay to the American people what he has understood from us to be the reasons for our fight against you?

It's slightly disconcerting to see that I agree with bin Laden that Fisk is unbiased.

All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.

This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers, as we, alongside the mujahidin, bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat.

So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.

Sudan forces surround southerners

2005-05-24T07:41:00.000-04:00

Massive trouble. I've been through this area and the camps that the government wants to move these people to along the Kosti highway. From the BBC.

Several thousand armed Sudanese security forces have surrounded an illegal shanty town full of southerners displaced by two decades of civil war.

Machine guns mounted on pick-up vehicles are pointing at the ramshackle houses in Soba Aradi which is in a suburb of the capital, Khartoum.

Several lorry loads of men and women have been arrested, beaten with sticks and taken to a local police station.

Last week, 14 policemen died during an attempt to resettle residents.

At least three other people also died in the violence, which officials say happened as crowds surrounded a police station and burnt it down.

A spokesman for the residents said no-one was being allowed out of Soba Aradi.

"They have cordoned off all areas and have taken tough measures to stop people leaving," Mohamed Ahmed Abdel Gader Arbab told Reuters news agency.

Resettle

Some 50 people were arrested in connection with the police killings and 200 held on lesser charges, the BBC's Jonah Fisher reports from Khartoum.

He says 6,400 police officers and military were involved in the operation.

Some two million southerners squat illegally around Khartoum.

It's All Newsweek's Fault

2005-05-24T02:53:00.000-04:00

Hot damn! Op-ed from the Times.
---

IN the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Fareed Zakaria wrote a 6,791-word cover story for Newsweek titled "Why Do They Hate Us?" Think how much effort he could have saved if he'd waited a few years. As we learned last week, the question of why they hate us can now be answered in just one word: Newsweek.

"Our United States military personnel go out of their way to make sure that the Holy Koran is treated with care," said the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, as he eagerly made the magazine the scapegoat for lethal anti-American riots in Afghanistan. Indeed, Mr. McClellan was so fixated on destroying Newsweek - and on mouthing his own phony P.C. pieties about the Koran - that by omission he whitewashed the rioters themselves, Islamic extremists who routinely misuse that holy book as a pretext for murder.

That's how absurdly over-the-top the assault on Newsweek has been. The administration has been so successful at bullying the news media in order to cover up its own fictions and failings in Iraq that it now believes it can get away with pinning some 17 deaths on an errant single sentence in a 10-sentence Periscope item that few noticed until days after its publication. Coming just as the latest CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll finds that only 41 percent of Americans think the war in Iraq is "worth fighting" and only 42 percent think it's going well, this smells like desperation. In its war on the press, this hubristic administration may finally have crossed a bridge too far.

Let's stipulate flatly that Newsweek made a serious error. For the sake of argument, let's even posit that the many other similar accounts of Koran desecration (with and without toilets) by American interrogators over the past two years are fantasy - even though they've been given credence by the International Committee of the Red Cross and have turned up repeatedly in legal depositions by torture victims and in newspapers as various as The Denver Post and The Financial Times. Let's also ignore the May 1 New York Times report that a former American interrogator at Guantánamo has corroborated a detainee's account of guards tossing Korans into a pile and stepping on them, thereby prompting a hunger strike. Why don't we just go all the way and erase those photographs of female guards sexually humiliating Muslims (among other heinous crimes) at Abu Ghraib?

Even with all that evidence off the table, there is still an overwhelming record, much of it in government documents, that American interrogators have abused Muslim detainees with methods specifically chosen to hit their religious hot buttons. A Defense Department memo of October 2002 (published in full in Mark Danner's book "Torture and Truth") authorized such Muslim-baiting practices as depriving prisoners of "published religious items or materials" and forcing the removal of beards and clothing. A cable signed by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez called for interrogators to "exploit Arab fear of dogs." (Muslims view them as unclean.) Even a weak-kneed government investigation of prison abuses (and deaths) in Iraq and Afghanistan issued in March by Vice Adm. Albert T. Church III of the Navy authenticated two cases in which female interrogators "touched and spoke to detainees in a sexually suggestive manner in order to incur stress based on the detainees' religious beliefs."

About the Newsweek matter Donald Rumsfeld had a moral to bequeath the land. "People need to be careful what they say," he said, channeling Ari Fleischer, and added, "just as people need to be careful what they do." How true. If one of his right-hand men, Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, hadn't been barnstorming American churches making internationally publicized pronouncements that his own Christian God is "a real god" and Islam's god is "an idol," maybe anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, at record highs even before the Newsweek incident, would have been a shade less lethal. If higher-ups had been called to account for the abuses of Abu Ghraib, maybe Newsweek might have had as little traction in the Arab world as The Onion.

Then again, even the administration's touchy-feely proactive outreach to Muslims in the Middle East is baloney: Karen Hughes, appointed with great fanfare by the president in March as our latest under secretary of state for public diplomacy (the third since 9/11), runs a shop with no Muslims at the top - or would, if she were there. As The Washington Post reported, she doesn't intend to assume her duties until the fall and the paperwork for her confirmation has yet to be sent to the Senate. Why rush? It's not as if there's a war on.

Given this context, the administration's attempt to pass the entire buck to Newsweek for our ill odor among Muslims, including those Muslims who abhor jihadists committing murder, is laughable. Yet there's something weirdly self-incriminating about the language it uses to do it. Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman whose previous boss, Colin Powell, delivered a fictional recitation of Saddam Hussein's weapon capabilities before the United Nations Security Council, said it's "shocking" that Newsweek used "facts that have not been substantiated." Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, attacked Newsweek for hiding "behind anonymous sources," yet it was an anonymous source, an Iraqi defector known as Curveball, who fed the fictions that Mr. Powell spouted to gin up America for war. Psychological displacement of this magnitude might give even Freud pause.

The only thing more ridiculous is the spectacle of the White House's various knee-jerk flacks on cable news shoutfests and in the blogosphere characterizing Newsweek as representative of a supposedly anti-American, military-hating "mainstream media." It wasn't long ago that the magazine and the co-author of the Periscope item, Michael Isikoff, were being cheered by the same crowd for their pursuit of Monica Lewinsky and Kathleen Willey.

As for the supposed antimilitary agenda of the so-called mainstream media, the right should look first at itself. In its eagerness to parrot the administration line, it's as ready to sell out the military as any clichéd leftist. For starters, it thought nothing of dismissing the judgment of Gen. Carl Eichenberry, our top commander in Afghanistan, who, according to Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said the riots were "not at all tied to the article in the magazine."

The right's rage at Newsweek is all too reminiscent of the contempt it heaped on Specialist Thomas Wilson, the soldier who dared to ask Mr. Rumsfeld at a town hall meeting in Kuwait in December about the shortage of armored vehicles. Mr. Wilson was guilty of "near-insubordination," said Rush Limbaugh; the embedded reporter who helped him frame his question was reviled by bloggers as a traitor. Yet Mr. Wilson's question was legitimate, and Mr. Rumsfeld's answer (that the shortage was only "a matter of production and capability") was a lie. As USA Today reported in March, the Pentagon has known for nearly two years that it didn't have enough armored Humvees but let the problem fester until that insubordinate questioner gave the defense secretary no choice but to act.

It's also because of incompetent Pentagon planning that other troops may now be victims of weapons looted from Saddam's munitions depots after the fall of Baghdad. Yet when The New York Times reported one such looting incident, in Al Qaqaa, before the election, the administration and many in the blogosphere reflexively branded the story fraudulent. But the story was true. It was later corroborated not only by United States Army reservists and national guardsmen who spoke to The Los Angeles Times but also by Iraq's own deputy minister of industry, who told The New York Times two months ago that Al Qaqaa was only one of many such weapon caches hijacked on America's undermanned post-invasion watch.

IT is terrible that Newsweek was wrong, though it's worth noting, as John Donvan of ABC News did, that the Defense Department's claim that its story was "demonstrably" false is also an overreach. Almost nothing that happens in the sealed prison at Guantánamo is as demonstrable as, say, Saddam's underwear. But if something good can come out of something bad, the administration's overkill of Newsweek may focus greater public attention on just how much it is using press-bashing to deflect attention from the fictions spun by its own propaganda machine.

Just since the election, we've witnessed the unmasking of Armstrong Williams and Jeff Gannon. We've learned - thanks to Newsweek's parent publication, The Washington Post - that the Pentagon went so far as to deliberately hide the circumstances of Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death from his own family for weeks, lest the truth mar the P.R. advantages to be reaped from his memorial service. Even as Scott McClellan instructs Newsweek on just what stories it should write to atone for its sins, a professional propagandist sits as chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Kenneth Tomlinson, who also runs the board supervising Voice of America and other government-run media outlets. He's been hard at work meddling in the journalism on NPR and PBS.

This steady drip of subterfuge and news manipulation increasingly tells a more compelling story than the old news that Newsweek so egregiously botched.

Is the U.S. retarding Arab reform?

2005-05-18T02:18:00.000-04:00

from Daily Star:

Two related and important issues that are widely debated these days among analysts, citizens and foreign military invaders of the Middle East are: Why has the pace of democratic reform been so inconsistent over the years, and what is the impact of the new American policy of promoting reforms in this region? It is critically important that the political debate, and the related diplomatic and cultural negotiations between Arabs, Americans and Europeans over these issues, be conducted with much more honesty than was the case, for example, with the thin debate over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before that country was attacked.

This trend has been driven by three related forces: homegrown demands for dignity and better governance by the citizens of the Middle East; increasingly vulnerable and more thinly legitimate Arab regimes that find it difficult to maintain the existing political and economic order; and external pressures to reform and modernize (mainly from the U.S., but also from Europe and other industrialized democracies).

In private conversations and public lectures here in Beirut this week, Hudson has outlined the strengths and weaknesses of the Arab democratic reform movement, and the role of the United States in it. Among the significant points he makes is that Arab liberalism has moved erratically in the past few decades, largely due to four factors: the strength of the authoritarian modern Arab security state, the fear of Islamists taking over political space that is opened up, the impact of economic stresses and imbalances, and the distorting effect of regional conflicts.

On the positive side, however, he points to several other trends now driving Arab reforms: the activism of a dynamic and democratic civil society, the mass media's capacity to inspire activists in one country by showing the breakthroughs of their colleagues in other Arab or foreign countries, and the structural changes required of governments if they wish to join global trading systems such as the World Trade Organization or bilateral free-trade agreements. On top of this, and perhaps most importantly, he says, authoritarian Arab regimes and leaders themselves sense their own growing weakness and inability to maintain their one-party power structures, because they see that their countries simply do not function very well in today's globalized, market-driven world.

Hudson clearly warns against the U.S. embracing Arab democrats and reformers too closely and "contaminating" them, because of the region's widespread deep suspicions of American motives and anger at American policies, especially in Palestine and Iraq. Many Arabs, he notes, fear that Washington's calls for reform hide deeper aims of regime change in other countries in the region.

Arab democratization will also bring in changes that might appear to contradict existing U.S. policies or values, including democratically elected religious leaderships with close links to Iran, governance systems based on sectarian, religious and ethnic sharing of the pie, and Arab state policies that are critical of the U.S.

Syria Heralds Reforms, But Many Have Doubts

2005-05-18T02:04:00.000-04:00

DAMASCUS, Syria, May 17 -- Beset by U.S. attempts to isolate his country and facing popular expectations of change, Syrian President Bashar Assad will move to begin legalizing political parties, purge the ruling Baath Party, sponsor free municipal elections in 2007 and formally endorse a market economy, according to officials, diplomats and analysts.

Emboldened opposition leaders, many of whom openly support pressure by the United States even if they mistrust its intentions, said the measures were the last gasp of a government staggering after its hasty and embarrassing troop withdrawal last month from neighboring Lebanon.

The debate over the changes comes during a remarkable surge in what constitutes dissent in this country of 18 million. For the first time in years, opposition figures and even government allies are openly speculating on the fate of a party that, in some fashion, has ruled Syria since 1963 in the name of Arab nationalism, and today faces perhaps its greatest crisis. The debate points to the most pressing questions in the country today: Can Syria truly reform itself and what might follow?

"We understand that democracy is a process -- a historical and political process -- but we are on the right track, and we have begun the mechanisms that will take us forward," said Imad Shueibi, who directs the Data and Strategic Studies Center in Damascus and says he is aligned with reformers within Assad's government. "This will be the first step."

Dissidents are dismissive of the government's capacity to sincerely reform. They see similarities between government moves here and in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, where President Hosni Mubarak has sought to introduce measured but controlled change.

"We have an archaic authoritarian regime, which is now a burden on itself. They want to streamline it and make it more attractive," said Yassin Hajj Saleh, a leftist dissident imprisoned for 16 years and freed in 1996. He calls the moves "the modernization of authoritarianism."

"The old model has ended, it is outdated, its age has passed," he said, "and they want to renew it."

Assad, who seems to remain popular in Syria, has pointed to next month's congress of the Baath Party as the centerpiece of the promised reforms. The congress, which has become the talk of the capital, was last convened in 2000 after Assad inherited power from his father, Hafez Assad. In the wake of the withdrawal from Lebanon, expectations were high that the congress might inaugurate a Syrian equivalent of glasnost. In past weeks, through the state media, those hopes have been steadily ratcheted down.

Clashes with Israel put Hizbullah back in global spotlight

2005-05-17T02:06:00.000-04:00

By Linda Dahdah
Daily Star staff
Monday, May 16, 2005

BEIRUT: As clashes between Hizbullah and Israeli forces continued over the weekend, international reactions brought the disarming of the Lebanese resistance group back into the spotlight only a few weeks before the start of parliamentary elections.

On Saturday, the French Foreign Ministry said France was disturbed by the "resumption of fire over the past three days on the frontier zone between Lebanon and Israel."

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman said: "In this period of preparation ahead of the elections, which will be crucial for Lebanon, we call on all parties involved to show the utmost restraint and to respect the calm needed for this vote to be carried out well."

"We call on all parties to immediately cease all attacks and to exercise calm and restraint," said U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher late Friday.

"This is an especially sensitive and critical time for the Lebanese people, who will be voting in parliamentary elections ... This opportunity for reaffirming democracy in Lebanon must not be undermined by militias pursuing their own agendas," Boucher said.

"These incidents highlight the urgent need for full and immediate compliance by all parties with UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1583," he added.

Resolution 1559, adopted early last September, calls for all militias in Lebanon to disarm, targeting Hizbullah and Palestinian factions in refugee camps. Resolution 1583, adopted in January 2005, calls on Lebanon to assert full control over its border with Israel, explicitly stating that the UN sees no merit in Lebanon's claim to Shebaa Farms.

Since Friday, Israeli artillery and aircraft continued to pound the outskirts of Lebanese border villages early Saturday.

These clashes are the fiercest in four months and come after the Shiite group's second drone flight over Northern Israel earlier last month.

On Friday, Hizbullah said it had only opened fire on Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms district after Israeli machine-gun fire hit the Lebanese village of Kfar Shouba.

Lebanese security forces had added that Israeli air raids also hit the towns of Khiam and Rmeish, further west.

Israeli officials denied the accusations and launched retaliatory shelling saying it had destroyed four Hizbullah bases.

Hizbullah politburo member Rima Fakhry charged Saturday that Israel had cynically provoked the flare-up to intensify Western pressure on the resistance group.

"Lebanon's political elite is preoccupied with the forthcoming parliamentary elections and there's a tacit agreement here to postpone discussion of the question of Hizbullah's weapons. But that's not in Israel's interests, so they provoked this escalation in a bid to reopen the issue," she said.

Although Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denied the Jewish state was interestd in any escalation on the border, European diplomats based in Beirut thought Israel had deliberately provoked Friday's flare-up.

"Israel wants to raise tension on the border to step up the pressure and secure the implementation of Clause Two of Resolution 1559" on militia disarmament, one diplomat said.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials declared "Hizbullah wants to trap Israel by unleashing a military conflagration in South Lebanon that would justify its continued existence as a militia."

"Having been on the defensive since the departure of the Syrian Army from Lebanon, Hizbullah wants to appear as a guarantor of Lebanese soverignty at Israel's expense in order to win more votes in elections that look bad for them right now," the declaration said.

After three decades of Syrian control, Lebanon is preparing to hold its first general elections without a Syrian military presence.

However, Isrraeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Friday: "We are following events in Lebanon closely. The Syrians continue to play a certain role despite announcing their troops have withdrawn."

As the situation went back to normal Sunday, Israeli aircraft continued their daily violations of Lebanese air space. - With AFP

Shiites in the Arab World

2005-05-14T09:37:00.000-04:00

Overview of Shia populations in the Arab Middle East; notice that Iran is excluded because of Persian ancestory. From a Carnegie Endowment brief.

While changing political conditions in Iraq and Lebanon have allowed for a more assertive political role by Shiites in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, they continue to be subjected to political, social, and economic discrimination. Although reliable statistics are rare, Shiites in Saudi Arabia are believed to constitute between 8 and 10 percent of the population. They are not well represented in official institutions; t here are no Shiite ministers, no Shiite members of the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars (the country's highest religious authority), and only two Shiites in the 150-member Majlis Al Shura (consultative council). They also face limited employment opportunities; the government restricts employment of Shiites in the oil and petrochemical industries and in national security-related positions. Shiite candidates won most local council seats in recent municipal elections in the Eastern and Southern provinces, where Shiites are a majority.

Bahrain's Shiites represent around 60 percent of the local population but Sunni Muslims dominate politically and economically (the ruling Al Khalifa family is Sunni). Shiites complain that they are excluded from positions of power. Unemployment—officially estimated at 15 percent although it is probably higher—is concentrated in the Shiite community. Recently, thousands of demonstrators participated in a rally calling for constitutional reform organized by the Al Wefaq National Islamic Society and the Islamic Action Society (Shiite opposition groups; political parties are illegal). Observers are concerned that if not managed properly, these tensions could escalate into a conflict between Shiites and Sunnis.

In Kuwait, Shiites constitute around 25 percent of the population and maintain more cordial relations with the government, but are disadvantaged in representation in upper levels of government. Five Shiites were elected to the 50-seat National Assembly in July 2003 and the prime minister appointed one Shiite to the 16-member cabinet, although he later resigned.

Yemen's Zaidi Shiites, around 30 percent of the population, are concentrated mainly in the north. Since June 18, 2004, government forces have clashed in the mountains of the northwest with followers of Hussein Badreddine Al Houthi, a Shiite cleric who founded a radical group known as Believing Youth. The rebellion is not aimed at spreading Zaydi Shiism but rather is a protest against President Ali Abdullah Salih's pro-U.S. policies.

In Lebanon, the Shiite population is the largest single confessional group (approximately 40 percent). Under the leadership of Musa Al Sadr, it began to mobilize in the 1970s in response to its relative social deprivation. Al Sadr's influence led to the emergence of two major Shiite political parties: the Amal Movement and Hizbollah. Amal's leader Nabih Berri has been Speaker of Parliament (the highest political position that a Shiite can occupy according to the Lebanese Constitution) since 1992 and the party has 11 Shiite MPs in the 128-seat parliament. Hizbollah has 13 Shiite MPs and forms coalitions with other blocs in parliament. There are seven Shiite independent deputies.

The overthrow of the Baathist regime in Iraq resulted in major changes in the political representation of Iraqis. Iraqi Shiites (around 60 percent of the population) moved to the forefront of the political transition in Iraq, setting an agenda that addressed issues of Shiite political participation, the role of religion, and the coalition presence. To ensure their voting power was not diluted in the elections, leading Shiite political parties joined forces in the United Iraqi Alliance, which includes the Islamic Dawa Party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the Iraqi National Congress, and the Shiite Political Council. The new 32-member Iraqi cabinet is led by Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and includes eighteen Shiite ministers.

After reading the Shia primer there is a piece about politicalization of these traditionally disadvantged populations from the Carnigie Endowment.

Not since the Iranian revolution has the issue of Shiite political development been of such interest to observers of Middle Eastern politics. The success of Shiite candidates in the recent Iraqi elections, the prominent role played by Hizbollah in mobilizing its support base in Lebanon for pro-Syrian rallies, and the success of Shiite candidates in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province during that country's municipal elections have created the impression that there is a new expression of Shiite political identity underway within the region. With the United States' push for democratization in the region, the conditions may be present to alter the Shiites' historically inferior socioeconomic status through political action.

Before hastening to conclude that the recent electoral success of Shiite political parties in Iraq presages a surge in Shiite political activism in the region, observers should look at Shiite political activism in its local context. The diversity of Shiite political interests at play is perhaps best illustrated in Lebanon Here, the pro-Iranian Hizbollah represents some, though by no means all, of the Shiite population. Hizbollah's communal rival Amal was founded by religious scholar Musa Sadr, but is now headed by non-cleric Nabih Berri and looks towards Syria, rather than Iran, for support. The leading Lebanese Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, is capable of exercising political leadership given the size of his following, but he maintains his independence from both Shiite political parties in his country, as well as from the Iranian leadership. The Shiites also maintain a strong presence in the Lebanese Communist Party.

There is an unstated fear of Shiite politicization among Western policy analysts that is, in large part, based on the outcome of the Iranian revolution and a belief that Shiite politicization is always directed by clerics—and hence automatically anti-American. Such a view ignores the fact that Iranian-style theocratic rule is attractive to only a small percentage of Shiite political groups. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, for instance, moved his elements of the Dawa Party away from Iran to avoid becoming too closely beholden to Iranian views of political leadership. Just as American fears that the Soviet Union was behind all socialist political movements during the Cold War blinded the United States to the real sense of political and economic injustice that spawned many such parties, policy analysts need to look critically at the circumstances that the Shiites find themselves in within each country before they assume that all Shiite political roads lead to Tehran.

All of this is not to deny there is a Shiite ideological construct that is extraterritorial in nature, or that Iran actively influences some Shiite political parties. In Iraq for instance, Iran's historic and educational links with its co-religionists in the south of the country provide a firm basis for cross-border influence-peddling. At the same time, the late Ayatollah Khomeini's notion of wilayat al faqih (governorship of the jurist) provides an ideological bridge that links the Iranian leadership to other Shiites in the region. Lebanon's Hizbollah and Iraq's Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) are two examples in which ultimate authority on issues of political ideology (as opposed to concrete policies) rests with Iran As Hizbollah has found in multireligious Lebanon, however, the conditions that allowed the concept of wilayat al faqih to be implemented in Iran do not exist in Lebanon Hence clerical political leadership for them remains a distant goal, rather than one that is achievable in the short or medium term.

Democratization offers the Shiites a way of overcoming their political disenfranchisement through the use of their demographic strength. The Iraqi election gave the estimated 60 percent of the population who are Shiites the ability to achieve the strong political voice denied them in the past. In Lebanon, both Shiite parties advocate changes to the electoral law that allocates to Shiites far fewer parliamentary seats than their numbers would justify. While the Shiites' attempts to alter the political status quo throughout the region go back over 40 years—from the attraction of leftist parties to the intellectual activity of Najafi scholars in the 1950s and 1960s—what is different now is that there is a more permissive international environment for transforming demographic strength into political power. That does not mean that countries will become clones of Iran if the Shiites attain political power; it will be local conditions and local leaders who determine the political direction of the Shiites.

Hizbollah, Israeli forces clash in border area

2005-05-14T04:45:00.000-04:00

from Reuters:

The clash raised tensions on the Lebanese frontier two days after a rocket fired from south Lebanon landed in a northern Israeli town, damaging a building but causing no casualties.

Hizbollah said it was shelling an Israeli position in the area in response to "Israeli assaults." Minutes earlier, witnesses said Israeli forces had begun shelling a hillside east of the Lebanese border town of Kfar Shouba.

Witnesses said several Hizbollah shells had struck the Israeli Rweisat al-Alam post.

The Israeli military said guerrillas in Lebanon fired six rockets or mortar bombs which fell near an Israeli army post along the border.

Four explosions and gunfire had been heard in the Shebaa Farms, on the border between Lebanon, Israel and Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, earlier on Friday.

Two explosions were also heard in the area overnight.

Picture power: Death of an Iraqi soldier

2005-05-13T08:26:00.000-04:00

Unseen in US

The first Gulf War was done entirely under the US Department of Defense Pool system, which means any press organisation that was a member of that pool had access to everyone else's work.

The film was processed and when the image got to the AP office in New York, they all made copies for themselves to show people but then they pulled it off the wire.

They deemed it was too sensitive, too graphic for the editors of the newspapers that are part of the co-op - too graphic even for the editors to see, not even to let them make the decision of what the market they served could see.

So, basically, it was unseen in the US.

In the UK it was published by the London Observer and I was actually going through Heathrow and I picked up the newspapers and I saw it was quite big, and that was basically the scene I thought I was going to see in all the newspapers around the world, since everybody had access to the image.

It caused quite a controversy in London, which is what images like that are meant to do. They're meant to basically cause a debate in the public: "Is this something we want to be involved in?"

How can you decide to have a war if you are not fully informed? You need to know what the end result will be, what the middle result will be.

And since then, it's an image that has a life of its own. It's been published hundreds of times, you can find all over the internet, it just keeps going and it's published as much today as it ever has been.

If we are going to engage in war, then we must understand the consquences of those actions regardless if they are just or unjust. It is important that we realize the cost to our soldiers and their families as well as our enemies. The full interview from the BBC.

Hezbollah confident of poll boost

2005-05-12T06:33:00.000-04:00

from BBC:

As elections near in Lebanon, the pro-Syrian and Shia Hezbollah movement can expect to maintain its share of political power and influence.

Mr Mansour believes that there is no reason for Hezbollah to disarm.

"The arms that we have are only directed against the Israelis," he says.

"If they do anything against us, we have to be ready for that. We are a political party and a resistance movement."

For a clear sign of Hezbollah's military role, all you have to do is drive a mile or so from Nazih Mansour's home to the border fence with Israel.

Within seconds, a Hezbollah soldier in camouflage uniform comes out from a bunker. He carries a walkie-talkie but no gun.

It's Hezbollah that runs this border zone, not the Lebanese army.

Captured Al-Qaeda kingpin is case of ‘mistaken identity’

2005-05-11T06:08:00.000-04:00

An article from The Times about confusion between Libbi and Liby. Whoops.

THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as "a critical victory in the war on terror". According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists' third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as "among the flotsam and jetsam" of the organisation.

Another Libyan is on the FBI list — Anas al-Liby, who is wanted over the 1998 East African embassy bombings — and some believe the Americans may have initially confused the two. When The Sunday Times contacted a senior FBI counter-terrorism official for information about the importance of the detained man, he sent material on al-Liby, the wrong man.

Although British intelligence has evidence of telephone calls between al-Libbi and operatives in the UK, he is not believed to be Al-Qaeda's commander of operations in Europe, as reported.

The Oz of the Middle East

2005-05-09T01:50:00.000-04:00

This guy nailed Dubai in five days but the most important section of the article is the last paragraph. Truer words cannot be spoken of the fake quality of Dubai except that those of us who live here do care that we essentially live in a giant compound. Read the entire article about what visiting Dubai is really like. Working and living here is a different story.

Down gleaming silvery escalators they glided, eyes afire and credit cards in easy reach. As a warm Tuesday night hung languidly over the Persian Gulf, a multicultural pageant of shoppers, diners and drinkers fanned out into the majestic, wintry-cool shopping mall beneath the Middle East's tallest building, the 1,163-foot Emirates Office Tower in Dubai.

Indian matrons in colorful saris and Middle Eastern women in black veils strolled through the pristine, white marble corridors, pausing to consider the worthiness of Gucci totes, Bottega Veneta shoes and Cartier diamonds. White-robed Middle Eastern businessmen, fat gold watches glittering from the edges of their sleeves, talked into green-glowing cellphones. Three Arab men in baggy jeans, looking like cast members from an Al Jazeera version of "The O.C." chatted warmly with three young European-looking women in spangly tops. Just behind them, boisterous British expatriates in business suits tried to push into the fray of Ladies' Night at an overpacked bar called Scarlett's.

Dubai is a metropolis of bone-white apartment blocks, green palm trees and amazing, odd juxtapositions. Thudding jackhammers mingle with the call to prayer. At Nad al Sheba racetrack, old-world camel racing by day gives way to glitzy thoroughbred action by night (the $6 million purse for one annual race in Dubai is, of course, the world's richest). Cruising the city by taxi on a five-day visit in February, I was reminded of the hot, flat sprawl of Tampa or Houston - until I glimpsed a fully veiled woman driving alongside my cab and saw two men in checkered headdresses pulling their Lamborghinis parallel to chat. Glossy financial magazines share rack space with titles like International Falconer.

In a dark corner nearby, a beanpole-like bald man from Liverpool looked at the odd old-young crowd and ersatz North African décor and made a remark that is probably repeated at least once every day in Dubai. "The whole thing is totally fake," he said to his date, "but no one seems to care."

Al-Jazeera Puts Focus on Reform

2005-05-08T05:05:00.000-04:00

An article from the Post about Jazeera.

The Arab world's most-watched satellite channel has been reviled in Washington since it began airing Osama bin Laden tapes and footage of insurgent strikes on U.S. troops in Iraq. Yet as the Bush administration struggles to design a public diplomacy program for its democracy campaign, al-Jazeera has become a leading vehicle for the region's budding reform movements.

"It's still the enemy. It still does stupid things," a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. When Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick was in Fallujah last month, "al-Jazeera reported his convoy was attacked. There was not a germ of truth. It was sensational, unprofessional and unsubstantiated, and fit into the past pattern of its coverage. Whatever else it's doing, the reaction here was: 'There they go again.' "

"It is the satellite channels that show the greatest potential for ushering in political change in the region . . ." the report says. "Inadvertently or not, they offer a locus for the Arab street to vent, formulate and discuss public affairs. They bring Arabs closer together, breaking taboos and generally competing with each other and their respective governments for the news agenda. All in all, Arab satellite stations have pushed ajar the door of democracy and flanked state monopoly on media."

I have never understood why the Bush administration hates Al Jazeera so. Well, actually I do. Jazeera shows images of dead Americans and that is not conducive to gaining national support at home. The administration has also made Jazeera into a larger entity because of ongoing harping about its broadcasts; they have helped to grow their "monster".

I don't see Jazeera in this light. I think Americans should see more dead from wars around the world; particularly of our own soldiers. We should be reminded of the very real human costs of our wars. Political events that lead to war increase human suffering. We should be reminded of this. When I watch a CBC newscast or documentary I am likely to see a images of those killed in war. That is necessary. War is killing. How can you talk about war in an abstract political way without acknowledging the killing? It's not being honest.

Jazeera may occasionally screw up some coverage, but I've yet to watch a news channel that doesn't at time misreport the facts and have to make corrections. What Jazeera does provide is access to a portion of the political pulse of the region; much more so than enduring the state run broadcasts. Al Jazeera is not an enemy. It is one tool to understand the region and can be a forum for reaching its viewership.

Bomb kills one, wounds 6 in the port city of Jounieh

2005-05-07T05:43:00.000-04:00

Who is behind this bombing? Is it the same bombers as the February and March bombings? Is this in response to Christian rallies of support for Geagea and Auon? Are the Syrians via Lebanese mukhabrat executing these strikes? Friday nights are still a dangerous time in Lebanon. An article from the Daily Star:

Friday, May 06, 2005

BEIRUT - A bomb exploded in a Christian port town north of the Lebanese capital on Friday, killing one Sri Lankan woman, wounding six people and damaging shops and houses, a security source said.

The explosion, the fifth to target the country's Christian heartland in two months, came on the eve of the return of anti-Syrian opposition leader Michel Aoun to Lebanon from 15 years of exile.

Four bombs have killed three people and wounded around 40 in Christian areas since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which plunged the country into its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Lebanese eye Palestinian posts

2005-05-06T09:32:00.000-04:00

Will the Lebanese turn attention to Palestinian armed factions and camps in the run-up to the elections? Will this be a way of avoiding the Hizballah question? How will the return of Geagea and Aoun have an effect on the debate? What of the alleged offer made by Abbas to Syria to disarm the Palestinian camps in Lebanon? Will the Palestine elections held yesterday help to solidify credability for Mahmoud Abbas and cement the dominance of Fatah? Do the Paleistinians in Lebanese camps owe allegiance to Abbas after Arafat's death? I didn't see posters of Abu Mazen in Sidon, but rather Arafat.

An article from CS Monitor.

QUSSAYA, LEBANON – On a lonely wind-swept plateau high above Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, a commander in a militant Palestinian faction defiantly rejects disarming his men and dismantling the outposts scattered along the remote mountainous border with Syria.

The mountaintop position, some 3,000 feet above this village, is one of several in the Bekaa Valley manned by the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC).

Most Palestinians in Lebanon live in crowded refugee camps - some of which are heavily militarized. Although the refugee camps are ringed by Lebanese Army troops, they lie outside the jurisdiction of the Lebanese state.

Lebanese authorities are clearly reluctant to deploy troops in the heavily populated camps to forcefully disarm the Palestinians.

Lebanon: Exiled general to return

2005-05-05T03:36:00.000-04:00

This is bad news, but not unexpected. The support for Geagea is also distressing; he holds radical Christian views and advocates against the Muslim population. It was easy to find posters of Geagea scattered around Beirut, particularly Ashrafi, and I passed several pro-Geagea rallies.

Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian and staunch foe of Syria, was charged in 1990 with assaulting state security, national unity and the constitution, as well as embezzling state funds. But a court ruled on Wednesday that he was exempt from those charges by an amnesty law that cleared the bloody records of Lebanese politicians after the 1975-1990 civil war. Many Maronites say the arrest of Christian former militia leader Samir Geagea and the exile of Aoun symbolise the targeting of their community by the Syrian-dominated order after the war.

In a seperate aticle from the Daily Star protestors in Beirut called for the release of Geagea on Thursday.

BEIRUT: Thousands of opposition supporters gathered in downtown Beirut Wednesday to call for the release of Samir Geagea, leader of the disbanded Lebanese Forces (LF), who has been in jail for the past 11 years. Gathering near Parliament in Beirut, at least 3,000 flag-waving protesters urged MPs and the Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to act on an amnesty bill that would end Geagea's life term in prison.

Al Qaeda's No. 3 a major capture

2005-05-05T01:24:00.000-04:00

Abu Farraj al Libbi.

An article from CS Monitor giving the first public information about a Qaeda capture.

The capture of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, Al Qaeda's new No. 3 leader, in a remote region of Pakistan is a major step forward in the fight against terrorism, according to government officials and terror experts.

"Abu Farraj al-Libbi's one of the hard-core Al Qaeda members," says Bruce Hoffman, a terror expert at the RAND Corp. in Washington. "He's not as well-known to Americans as many of the 9/11-era Al Qaeda leaders. But since Al Qaeda's expulsion from Afghanistan, he has become an increasingly important player - stepping into the role vacated by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed."

Robert Fisk

2005-05-04T05:33:00.000-04:00

I'm still reading the Robert Fisk book about Lebanon. I'm enjoying the style of writing and starting to gain a better understanding of Lebanon. I read this interview with him from 1998. I'm really starting to like this guy.

Jihad Crusaders

2005-05-04T02:32:00.000-04:00

Today I read an article from the Times reviewing the new movie Kingdom of Heaven. When I first saw the previews I groaned. I could already envision the conversations that would flow about the historical Western propensity to attack the Arab/Muslim population in their homeland that had been occuring for nearly a thousand years. There is already a buzz about the movie and, I am afraid, it will only re-enforce the existing views of American/Christian/Jewish aggression.

So, the article was good and led me to Crusader expert Professor Johnathon Riley-Scott and a short piece on the modern Islamic interpertation of the Crusades. This explanation jives with the view presented by Michael Scheuer in Imperial Hubris, a book I hold in very high regard. I've decided to include it here because it is short and very worth the read.

---
Jihad Crusaders
What an Osama bin Laden means by "crusade."

By Jonathan Riley-Smith

When Osama bin Laden and his followers refer, as they often do, to crusades and crusaders, they are not using language loosely. They are expressing a historical vision, an article of faith that has helped to provide moral justification for the actions of both Arab nationalists and radical Islamists.

It originated over a century ago, when the Turkish sultan and Sunni caliph, Abdulhamid II, publicized his conviction that the European powers, who had seized much of his territory and had engineered the "liberation" of other parts of his empire, had embarked on a new "crusade." In using this term, he was echoing romantic nonsense that had been washing around Europe, where many writers compared contemporary colonialism to crusading. But his language was taken up by the pan-Islamic press; the first Muslim history of the crusading movement, published in 1899, drew attention to the fact that "our most glorious sultan, Abdulhamid II, has rightly remarked that Europe is now carrying out a crusade against us in the form of a political campaign."

Up to this point, Muslims had looked back on the crusades with indifference and complacency. They felt that they had beaten the crusaders comprehensively, driving them from the Levant and occupying far more territory in the Balkans than the Westerners had ever held in Palestine and Syria. But as they began to take an interest in the historical parallels between contemporary and medieval Christian-Muslim interaction, they were confronted with Western rhetoric portraying contemporary empire builders as quasi-crusaders returning to complete the work their ancestors had begun. It was easy to gloss this with the view that Europe, having lost the first round in the crusades, had embarked on another. This struck a chord in Arab nationalism, which was beginning to emerge in response to the British and French occupations of much of North Africa and the Levant, and the settlement of Jews in Palestine.

Even before the First World War an Arab author, warning against the threat posed by Zionist settlement, had taken as a nom de plume the name of Saladin, who was being adopted as a model counter-crusader. A university named after Saladin was opened in Jerusalem in 1915, and as early as 1920 he was praised for thwarting the first European attempt to subdue the East. In 1934 a writer maintained that "the west is still waging crusading wars against Islam under the guise of political and economic imperialism." By the 1950s the creation of the state of Israel, established on the very ground occupied by the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem, was being portrayed as an act of vengeful malice. The Lebanese novelist Mahmoud Darwish, referring to the invasion of Lebanon by the Israelis in 1982, described them as "leftover crusaders" and their siege of Beirut as "revenge for all medieval history."

Since the 1970s Arab nationalism has been challenged by pan-Islamism, an ideology enshrining the unity of all Muslims dedicated to the worship of one God. Islamists anathematize the nationalists, but they have adopted their view of crusading, even though the Islamists recognize its ideological base, and have globalized it. Nationalists, on the other hand, see crusading as colonialist avarice masked by religion, and their vision underwrites an Arab struggle for freedom from colonial oppression. The Islamists maintain that the term "crusading" can be applied to any offensive — including a drive for economic or political hegemony — against Islam anywhere by Christians, and to any aggressive action by their surrogates, like Zionists (which is why the terms "European Crusading" and "Jewish Crusading" are interchangeable), or even Marxists. Indeed, "international Zionism" and "international Communism" are ideologies employed by the imperialism of the outside world to mask its "crusaderism." This explains why Mehmet Ali Agha, the Turk who tried to assassinate the Pope in 1981, could refer to John Paul II as "the supreme commander of the crusades."

Osama bin Laden's militant wing of Islamism is also inspired by a theory of jihad that demands turning inwards to purge Islam of infidels and heretics, renewing individual spirituality and creating a united, triumphant society dedicated to God. This is why Osama appears to be so emotional about infidel penetration, which, he believes, defiles Islam and particularly its holy places:

Our lord, the people of the cross had come with their horses (soldiers) and occupied the land of the two Holy Places (Mecca and Medina) and the Zionist Jews fiddle as they wish with the al-Aqsa mosque.
The Arabian Peninsula has never — since Allah made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas — been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies, spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations.... For over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.

To be found fighting under the sign of the cross are not only Christians, but also their surrogates, Jews, Marxists and secularists. And Afghanistan has been for decades a theatre of crusading warfare in a world-wide conflict.

This is a battle of Muslims against the global crusaders....God, who provided us with his support and kept us steadfast until the Soviet Union was defeated, is able to provide us once more with his support to defeat America on the same
land and with the same people.

In a war of civilizations, our goal is for our nation to unite in the face of the Christian crusade...This is a recurring war. The original crusade brought Richard (Lionheart) from Britain, Louis from France and Barbarossa from Germany. Today the crusading countries rushed as soon as Bush raised the cross. They accepted the rule of the cross.

It is this radical vision of crusade history which has suddenly and spectacularly forced itself on the outside world. Although merely a fantasy to the West, it finds expression in many Muslim societies. It is said that in mosques in Egypt, the word "crusader" has become a synonym for "Christian." In Indonesia last year, local preachers were referring to the dead at Bali in the same terms.

We are therefore confronted by a dangerous view of the past and of the present, moral as well as historical, shared by both Arab nationalists and Islamists. It has been spreading for a century and nothing has been done to counter it. Indeed, over and over again, in words and deeds, Westerners have thoughtlessly reinforced many Muslims' belief in it.

Campus Watch

2005-05-03T08:46:00.000-04:00

I shouldn't even bring it up here, but it just infuriates me to no end. The overwhelming climate, in my experience, in US university classrooms is blind support for Israeli policies in the region and demonetisation of all Arab policies. If you publicly speak out against an Israeli policy then you are considered anti-Semitic. I'm not sure how this happened, but it makes me sick that university forums are under siege because of the ideal of Israel and the belief that American foreign policy is tied to Israeli policy by Israeli/Jewish influence groups and students.

Now anyone can go to a central website and report professors and students for voicing anti-Israeli policy opinions. If Campus Watch thinks Columbia is bad, they should spend a class period in any Middle Eastern university. Take your collective heads out of the sand. American policy must begin to evolve for the next generations by students in university now. The climate in our universities must change so that arguing the Israeli debate does not leave one branded a bigot.

Turning Strategic Location Into Economic Advantage

2005-05-03T07:23:00.000-04:00

This one completely slipped past me. Apparently, the US has been operating from Djibouti since late 2003. The Djibouti president gave permission for a 2,000 plus strong contingent of Marines and others to open up shop. Smart move to gain access to Somalia, Eritrea, and Yemen all from one central base. I had wondered how the Qaeda people in Yemen met their end via Predator. I figured the US was basing from Yemen, but it makes strategic sense to fly across the Gulf of Aden. A DoD report also came during the google search. Interesting stuff.

In addition, the Central Intelligence Agency is widely reported to be using a Djibouti airfield to launch pilot-less Predator drones, which both conduct surveillance and attack selected targets using laser-guided Hellfire missiles. One Predator flying from Djibouti is credited with killing a suspected Al-Qaeda leader and five other occupants of a car traveling in a remote region of Yemen.

Last November, Marine Corps Expeditionary Units conducted full-blown exercises in Djibouti, using heavy weapons and live ammunition. Another military exercise was staged in the country earlier this month. Djibouti's full-tilt engagement in the global anti-terror campaign represents a "courageous decision" on the part of President Guelleh, the American ambassador to Djibouti, Donald Y. Yamamoto, told last week's business gathering in Washington, which was sponsored by the Corporate Council on Africa.

Sudan's Unbowed, Unbroken Inner Circle

2005-05-03T02:35:00.000-04:00

I am continually fascinated by Sudan. This is an excellent article by the Post. It's rare to read something that is as well written as this about a group that is difficult to access and understand.

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- The men who control Africa's largest country -- the key architects of the conflict in Darfur -- hail from two tiny, interwoven Arab tribes. Many of them grew up together and graduated from Khartoum University. They often sit together in cafés beside the Nile, bickering about politics and religion over endless cups of sweet tea. During the 1960s, Sudan's Muslim Brotherhood was born on the campus of Khartoum University, once one of Africa's most prestigious schools. The charismatic, urbane Turabi taught law there, wearing neckties as comfortably as turbans, sliding easily between Arabic and English, and courting Western visitors with warm hospitality.
This reflects my experiences visiting Khartoum University and attending an economics class there. The power is held in very small tight circles. For instance, the economics professor was a former Communist who studied under Soviet scholars in Poland. He was prosecuted in Sudan, but his brother is also a former professor and Attorney General. He was given a pardon and of course an in-law was the head of intelligence until his death in a helicopter incident several years ago. Power is held tightly.

Still ostracized by the West and unable to tap into U.S. oil markets, the Khartoum government began fostering ties with China. Once oil production began in 1999, the government began collecting $500 million a year in revenue. This paid for Chinese-made tanks, guns and planes used to fight southern rebels, the group Human Rights Watch reported. Khartoum's military budget doubled, and the State Department described it as the richest government in Africa.

There is a substantial Chinese population in Khartoum. They are responsible for most of the new road, bridge, and building construction.
Around that time, the government also declared that a coup had been launched, a claim largely viewed by diplomats as political theater. Officials held news conferences warning that if the United Nations imposed sanctions on Sudan, it could end up in chaos, becoming a failed state and even a threat to the war on terrorism.

Whether the coup "attempted" by Turabi was real or a political farce is a moot point. While I was there a suspected coup happened which shut down all roads and bridges in the capital. It also brought out more troops then usual. If there is one place a foreigner power should never attempt to send troops it is Sudan. Any military option in Sudan must be entirely punitive because I suspect that country to be the most hostile of all if invaded. Of course, every Western government knows this and that's why nothing will be done about Darfur other than some saber rattling and economic/travel restrictions.

Odyssey of an Al Qaeda Operative

2005-05-02T05:06:00.000-04:00

article from the Post:

Moroccan's Trail of Terror Illustrates Ongoing Ability to Organize Attacks

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- In the post-Sept. 11 world, Karim Mejjati was the perfect undercover al Qaeda operative. The former medical student from Morocco could speak several languages, had many passports and excelled at building bombs. He was also good at avoiding attention as he crisscrossed four continents to organize a wave of catastrophic attacks.

In Morocco, counterterrorism officials said Mejjati provided explosives training to a cell of Islamic radicals recruited from the slums surrounding Casablanca. At first, investigators thought the operation was conceived and planned locally. But a suspect who later divulged Mejjati's name to interrogators led them to conclude that those responsible for the attacks were taking their cues from al Qaeda's top leadership.

The article is an interesting read. The part that stuck out to me was the information contained in the second paragraph I've included. The profiles of many Qaeda operatives have included degrees from universities or studies in higher education and a middle class family background. These people possessed higher level scientific, religious, and political knowledge that isn't taught in the slum areas found around major urban centers. Past attacks have been successful because of these types of individuals. It would be surprising if Mejjati collected a group of uneducated religious zealots and quickly organized and executed an operation of the scope undertaken in Casablanca.

More likely this is false information given by the Moroccans to throw attention from respected middle class families with well educated and traveled sons. Hopefully, public news will come out of Morocco and/or Europe in the coming months after the capture of cells affiliated with Mejjati about their members.

Don't Rush on the Road to Damascus

2005-05-01T06:44:00.000-04:00

commentary from the Saban Center:

For starters, any effort to engineer a pro-Western Lebanese government would be resisted by Hezbollah, the largest party in Lebanon's Parliament, which because of its record of fighting Israel is at least as legitimate in Lebanese eyes as the anti-Syrian opposition. In the face of such resistance, efforts to establish a pro-Western government would fail, creating more instability in the region when the United States can ill afford it.

Does the Bush administration understand that for the foreseeable future, any political order in Lebanon that reflects, as the White House put it, the "country's diversity," will include an important role for Hezbollah? Does the administration feel confident about containing Hezbollah without on-the-ground Syrian management and with the group's sole external guide an increasingly hard-line Iran? Even Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's national security adviser recently said that an overly precipitous Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon could pose a threat to Israel.

Moreover, the sudden end of the regime headed by Bashar al-Assad would not necessarily advance American interests. Syrian society is at least as fractious as Iraq's or Lebanon's. The most likely near-term consequence of Mr. Assad's departure would be chaos; the most likely political order to emerge from that chaos would be heavily Islamist. In the end, the most promising (if gradual) course for promoting reform in Syria is to engage and empower Mr. Assad, not to isolate and overthrow him.

Arabic-Teaching Videogame Ships Out to Iraq-Bound Soldiers

2005-05-01T05:53:00.000-04:00

from those crazy kids at University of Southern California:

The Tactical Iraqi game arena reproduces the environment of Iraq, geographically and architecturally. Most important, the characters are recognizably Iraqi, speaking Iraqi Arabic and using gestures and other non-verbal cues characteristic of the nation.

Using a headphone and microphone system, Tactical Iraqi trainees communicate with these characters in Arabic, using appropriate body gestures, to perform typical war-theater tasks: entering a town and locating a head man, check documents at a road crossing, and other civil administration tasks.

Learning Arabic is a topic near and dear to my heart. It has been an incredibly difficult task for me over the last year. The idea of using a computer game to teach situational language is very impressive. I think that one still needs a background in the language sounds and alphabet, but this is a great leap forward for learning to interact on the street. I'm sure there are commercial possibilities for this product.

Imagine a game that challenges you to move up from a school environment to a blue collar job to general and then specialized white collar situations. It could all begin with a quick course in vocalization and basic reading skills. Awesome potential for any language and a great way to teach young students and get them wrapped into the culture. Nothing can replace living inside the culture, but this is a better alternative than others that I have tried. Go USC.

Explosions rock Egyptian capital

2005-04-30T11:03:00.000-04:00

from BBC:

A bomb explosion in the centre of the Egyptian capital Cairo has killed at least one man and injured several others, including foreigners.

Police said a bomb was thrown from a bridge to the street below, killing an Arab man and injuring four Egyptians and four foreigners.

The blast happened near the Egyptian Museum, the country's main Pharaonic museum and a major tourist attraction.

Meanwhile, reports are coming in of a second explosion in the city.

A source close to the Egyptian security services told the BBC that two female suicide bombers had blown themselves up near a suburb of Cairo called Nasser City.

Another unconfirmed report says that a tourist bus has come under fire in the city, but the attackers failed to hit the vehicle.

I am not surprised by this development in the slightest. I had an expectation of additional violence after the small bomb explosion at the entrance to Khan-a-Khalili last month. I visited Cairo in April and found the atmosphere to be very tense and especially un-welcoming to foreigners. It was the first time that I had traveled in a Middle Eastern country with a woman and I experienced thinly veiled anger directed at Westerns based on several conversations as well as the outright stares of disapproval of a Western woman dressed modestly.

It will be interesting to see how Mubarak responds in the coming days. Are these attacks intended to destroy the tourism industry or simply to kill tourists? Is at an economic attack or a direct challenge to governmental rule? The Doha bomber was also Egyptian. Is there a coming rise in terror incidents committed by Egyptians at home and abroad? The coordination and number of attacks in a short period is surprising. More to come...

New readings

2005-04-30T07:57:00.000-04:00

I've started reading Robert Fisk's intriguing book Pity the Nation. I really admire how he frames his discussion of the Israel/Palestine conflict by journeying to Auschwitz to examine the plight of holocaust victims and survivors. It's a good read and so far I'd highly recommend it.

It's getting hot here in Dubai. No, really it is. Not much to do around town right now. I've been seen a few movies this week. Interpreter is an interesting new release. It was a bit long in places but all in all worth the 30 dirhams. Need to finish writing the third part of the Lebanon trip. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow. Also, need to get all the photos added to the galleries. Busy busy...

The Syrian street speaks on Lebanon

2005-04-29T14:50:00.000-04:00

an article from al Jazeera:

Shuqayri's is a view echoed by many Syrians. They believe the assassination was just the excuse the US needed to meddle in their country's relationship with Lebanon - and Syria is getting the raw end of the deal.

Ali Ziyatir is a civil engineer who spent the better half of his life working in Lebanon for one of the late al-Hariri's many construction companies.

"The opposition is behind the assassination, definitely - along with the West - Israel, France, and the United States. It was all a plot to make Syria withdraw its forces.

"The reality is Syria had nothing to do with it. But the US will not attack. If it wanted to, it would have attacked by now.", he says.

I have heard this same view expressed over and over by students and professionals in Dubai and elsewhere; this view is not limited to Syrians either. The logic is asinine but it stills prevails. It makes no sense that any Western nation would want to intervene in Lebanon since prior actions have only brought death to nationals and military personnel abroad and/or engagement in an endless political squabble.

The issue drives at the epicenter of the modern Arab mindset. It is a general inability to accept fault in the individual sphere and at the governmental level. My claim is based on three primary factors: intensely patriarchal and largely xenophobic families, lingering embarrassment caused by Israel, and the Nasser Arab unity doctrine.

Each culture is rooted in the dynamics of its prevailing family type. In most families the father is the ultimate authority. Inclusion in the family is dependent upon obedience and loyalty. In my experience, there is dramatically less questioning and thought expended by a child towards the parents demands and wants in an Arab family opposed to a Western family; particurarly an American family. This is a broad generalization, but it is a relevant point. Two significant results are that maturity (emotional and intellectual) is stunted and critical thinking skills are not encouraged. When an authority figure (father) announces a direction it is generally accepted. This analogy applies when attached to a powerful central government with a visible figurehead.

The creation of the Israeli state will remain a blow to the Arab psyche for the foreseeable future. There is no acceptance of the mindset of apathy that states neighboring Palestine pre-1948 demonstrated for thirty plus years as the Haganauh grew in power after the Balfour declaration. The reality is that either Egypt and/or Trans-Jordan military forces could have invaded and defeated the Zionist movement. Instead after the formation of Israel they suffered lasting military and political defeat. Today the modern Israeli state is fully supported by the United States, according to popular thought. This thinking allows the populous to blame the US for its continuing problems. Instead of introspection there is a lashing out at non-Arab governments for attacking the collective society. Before there was the United States there was the British and their mandate system. Before that the Turks. When does one recognize a pattern and diagnose the root cause?

Finally, there is the Nasser syndrome. Nasser is exalted as the Arab leader. His ideology based in pan-Arabism and socialism have both united and divided the region. In modern times his lasting legacy has been to develop a collective Arab mentality. An external threat, real or imagined, to one country is a threat to all people. Likewise, there is great skepticism when one Arab country is accused of threatening or attacking a neighbor. The immediate reaction is to blame an outside force. In this case it couldn't be possible that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence corroborated to kill Hariri because clearly the Israelis and their puppet American allies have joined in an alliance to control the Lebanese government. Please. Both the US and Israel have fairly recent and very bloody pasts in Lebanon and I believe that neither wants to engage again.

The fragmented Syrian government, particularly the intelligence services, are the big bully in Lebanon. The Hariri operation went too far and dramatically racheted up diplomatic pressure on Syria by the international community and United States which currently as a sizeable military force deployed just south of her borders. Fear of a government being toppled sent Syria fleeing from Lebanon, not a grand conspiracy conjured by the West.

Global terror attacks tripled in 2004

2005-04-28T13:10:00.000-04:00

Terror attacks around the world tripled in 2004, rising from 175 in 2003 to 655 last year, according to statistics released by the US government's National Counterterrorism Center (NCC) Wednesday. The figure includes the children killed in the Beslan massacre in Russia, and the victims of the Madrid train bombings.

- CS Monitor Daily Terrorism & Secruity Report

Read the full 2004 State report here.

Visiting Lebanon Post Hariri: Part 2

2005-04-27T09:27:00.000-04:00

Friday afternoon I made arrangements with a knowledgable taxi driver
to take a tour of the Bekaa Valley area of Lebanon on Saturday. Bekaa
is an elivated plateau that lies east of Beirut and the Mount Lebanon
mountain range. Syria and the anti-Lebanon mountains border to the
west. Bekaa is particuraly strategic for Syria because it acts as a
buffer zone against an Israeli offensive.

My plan for the day was to visit the ancient sites in Bekaa;
particurarly Baalbeck and Anjar. I also wanted to get a general sense
of the place. Was it true what I had read about the Syrian military
that occupies the region and the Hezballah precense?

I met the driver around 10. We went for a short tour of the Green Line
areas around Beirut. I gained much insight into the neighborhoods and
divisions. The term "Green Line" actually refers to a stretch of
road/land that winds through Beirut that was a no-man's land during
the war. The line was overgrown by vegitation and named the "Green
Line".

As we got away from downtown (Waslett al Midan) the effects of the war
become more apparent. Entire blocks remained in nearly the same
condition as when fighting ceased in 1990. Each different neighborhood
was pointed out to me. Some Sunnah dominated, some Christian, and some
Shia. The conversation revolved around the Shia districts which are
still divided between Hezballah and AMAL. This short part of the day
really prompted me to read more about the divisions and in-fighting
during the civil war.

We headed out of Beirut along the Damscus Highway. Along the way we
stopped at a military monument. It was massive column of concrete that
had whole pieces of tanks and armor imbedded in the structure. Quite a
sight but didn't really have an emotional feel to it. It came off
very, well military and cold. It was positioned next to the entrance
of a Lebanese military base and we gained an armed visitor monitoring
us as we walked the site.

Heading through the mountains was interesting. Each town/village has
it's own flavor. Some Sunni, Shia, Christian, and Druze. Tourists,
mainly from the Gulf, come to resorts in the area to escape the
oppressive heat during the summer. It's always strange to hit an
ultra-modern concrete building after passing by kilometers of
villages. I'll never understand the khaleeji love of ugly concrete
structures.

The driver and I had been talking about the Syrians and he took me on
a mini-tour of a few recently vacated military camps. The Syrian army
had positioned itself on most all mountain tops and they commanded
views of the valleys in the area. There were dugouts from hundreds of
tanks that had been positioned in defensive positions throughout the
area. Apparently, most of the tanks had vacated about 2-3 weeks back.
The barracks and living conditions were at best harsh. I had a feeling
that this was probably a prime assignment in the Syrian army. If that
is true I can't imagine how bad the regular army in Syria has got it.
Some of the areas had been taken over by Lebanese military, but many
were simply abandoned.

A largely abandoned Syrian military tank park in the mountains near the Damascus highway.

We made a quick diversion to tour a vineyard on the way to Baalbeck. I
hadn't known there was wine production in the area. Interesting tour;
aparently the Romans had used an underground cavern to store and age
their wine. It was abandoned until a Jesuit group built a church on
the land and inadvertently found the cave. The Jesuits then started
wine production. It's currently owned by Lebanese. The wine tasting
was ok, but truthfully I have no idea what I'm doing in that
department. I like wine, liked Italian wine, but the swishing and
swirling is beyond me. I ended up buying two bottles for $10 but
realized that bring them back to Dubai would be an issue and unloaded
them later.

Headed off to Baalbeck. I've seen a fair amount of Roman ruins in the
last year and these were some of the best perserved I've seen. It's a
relativley small and contained area but well maintained. Massive main
temple complex. The columns had Corinthian leaves so I figure the area
was built up during the Hellinistic period. Truthfully, I'm a little
tired of walking around these types of places. Overload. I checked all
out was impressed but only spent about an hour and a half there.
Beautiful views of the mountains. Must have been a great city/state in
its time.

Exploring the Baalbeck ruins.

Before leaving the ruins I wandered over to the museum. Interesting
collection but I was the only one looking at it. At least until some
Syrian officers wandered in. It was a sight. Four high ranking
officers drinking swaggering through the museum. They reaked of
alchol. I figured they were on their fairwell tour after 30 years. I
briefly greeted and talked with one of them in Arabic. They seemed in
pretty high spirits for a army withdrawing under a cloak of shame. eh.
Everyone likes a happy drunk. Later my driver told me that they were
high ranking officers who were coming to give finals instructions to
the garrisons in the area regarding the withdrawl.

The Syrian officers' truck outside of the Baalbeck museum.

We sat down for lunch at a meat show in the town. My favorite kind of
meal here. We sit among the lamb or cattle that had been butchered
that morning. The butcher cut up some meat for us, skewered it, and
threw it over the hot coals outside. Grilled a few tomatos and onions
and I was in heaven. Hot damn. The driver got some tasty bread and we
feasted. You just can't match fresh well seasoned and cooked meat. I
watched a couple of tour buses drive past our spot. I'll never get
those tours. You speed through the interesting culture just to see
ruins of culture that has been gone for more than a thousand years.
Same as Egypt and Jordan. I just don't get that either. A little work
goes a long way in my opinion.

We left in mid-afternoon and headed towards Anjar. We were winding
through a series of villages in the Bekaa. Many were covered by
Hezballah banner with pictures of marytrs along the road. That part
was a little surreal. Hezballah supporters had setup a "checkpoint" at
one point. Really, it was just a roadside donation stop. They offered
free sweets because of the Prophet's birthday holiday. My driver
stopped got some sweets for he and I then left without giving any
donation. He wasn't much of a Hezballah supporter.

Hezballah exerts a little bit of influence in towns around the Bekaa.

Down the road we ran into a pro-Lebanon rally. During the day we had
seen signs and buses head towards rallies. I decided to stop because
of the lack of Hezballah or conservative Christian signs in the area.
It was a demonstration supporting Hariri and demanding the Syrian
exodus. I only stayed about 20 minutes. Early on during the trip it
occured to me that I was visiting a modern day fall of the Berlin
Wall. It was explained to me that had this happened two months ago the
mukhaberat would have come and machine-gunned the crowd and taken
many back to Syria where they would have become "disappeared". The
power of unity struck me while standing on the outskirts of the
demonstration. Of course, the real reason for Syrian withdrawl is
American pressure but the Lebanese demonstrators didn't hurt the
effort.

The recently emboldened Lebanese demonstrators.

Not much to see at Anjar. Anjar is a mainly Armenian town inhabited by
refugees that fled Armenia during the 1930s. The ruins weren't
spectacular and I didn't even pay the ticket price to get in. eh. We
took another tour of Syrian military posts. Anjar is right on the
border so we did run into a fair amount of troops. Many were beating
down walls of their camps or taking down tents. We also saw some
mukhaberat. We had only come across two other intelligence
check-points but being that close to the border I expected them.
Friendly enough, no problems.

I heard the story of a dedicated military line that runs through
Anjar. It is seperate from the official boder crossing. Apparently it
directly links Iran and Syria to Lebanon. The occupiers had used it
for many years to ferry people and supplies in and out of the country.
Apparently, it became an issue after the withdrawl was announced. The
Lebanese started to check vehicles after the small bombings in Beirut.
They found two cars laden with C4 about 2 weeks previous. After that
the military line was closed. The Lebanese even opened fire on
vehicles that tried to cross. Curious that this all occured at the
same time the bombings stopped. Coincidence? I think not.

We made our way back to Beirut without event. The whole trip was
actually pretty draining even though all I did mostly was sit in the
passenger seat of a Mercedes.

The driver wanted to stop by his home and drop off some grocries he
had bought during the day. I readily agreed because I wanted to see a
different side of Beirut. His neighborhood was in a Hezballah
stronghold and across the street from an AMAL neighborhood. He lived
in an apartment on the top floor of a monlithic concrete building with
his wife and 6 children. When we got there the electricity had been
turned off. This is a fairly common occurance, I was told. During the
war the mukhaberat had three stations in the neighborhood but now they
had left. The area had been the only area during the war that always
had electricity.

Ahmad is a Shia muslim but dosen't associate with either AMAL or
Hezballah. Listening to him speak all he wanted was peace and a chance
to make some more money and provide for his family. Really, what else
is there? Anyways, we sat and drank tea and chatted for a bit. I
talked with his kids who had varying degrees of English fluency. I
just had to find the right topic to coax it out of them. For one son
it was football. Chelsea, Real Madrid, AC Milan; I didn't think I was
going to be able to leave. His youngest daughter, 11, impressed me
most. Her English was excellent without accent. I like being able to
move back and forth in English and Arabic even if my Arabic is pretty
spotty at times.

Ahmad dropped me off back at the hotel. I wasn't sure if I'd see him
again so I said my goodbyes. I had hoped to meet up with a friend, but
he was out of town. Rested for a few hours and watched some TV. It is
nice to get away and be able to sleep in a room alone and watch TV.
The small pleasures of life.

More later...

Syrian Intelligence Still in Lebanon

2005-04-27T07:44:00.000-04:00

An article from todays Post.

U.N. member states and the Lebanese opposition have told the United Nations that Syrian military intelligence has taken up new positions "in the south of Beirut and elsewhere, and has been using headquarters of parties affiliated with the government of Syria as well as privately rented apartments for their purposes," said a report Annan made to the Security Council and released yesterday.

Syrian intelligence is also deployed in Palestinian refugee camps and communities, some of which have suddenly grown larger, U.S. officials and Western diplomats said. One Palestinian community in the eastern Bekaa valley, which is tied to the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is of particular concern, as are strategic locations inside the Lebanese border with Syria, Western envoys said. The PFLP is based in Damascus.

A photo I took on 24 April of the entrance outside of the former Syrian mukhaberat headquarters in southern Beirut.

Last Syria Force Leaves Lebanon, but Political Puzzles Remain

2005-04-27T06:28:00.000-04:00

The Times has run a well written article in today's news.

"Some Lebanese politicians and American officials expressed concern, however, that Syria might continue exercising influence here through intelligence officials and its Lebanese political allies. And Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed concern at the United Nations that Lebanese militias, including Hezbollah, had not yet been disarmed."

This paragraph hits the heart of the widely held Western view of Lebanon. Of course Syria will continue to be deeply involved in Lebanese politics. America, the Arab World, and Russia build and wane in their influence in the country. However, Syria will always be just across the border. The idea that the Syrian government wouldn't be involved is asinine. It is the equivalent of saying that one is concerned that Germany will continue to influence the political atmosphere of Luxemburg.

Syria is the big brother with a much larger population, economy, and military force. In the present state system it is essential for Syria to protect their interests; ie access to the Lebanese economy. The focus of Western governments and the UN should be less on verifying Syrian withdrawal and investigating the Hariri asassinantion and more on building a viable economy and helping to equip and train a competent Lebanese security force (training outside of Lebanon). Lebanon has a unique opportunity to rebuild its base and encourage the millions its highly skilled expatriate workers to return. Syria will continue to be intimately involved until Lebanon is strong enough economically to stand on her own.

Regarding Hezballah; how is it possible to disarm them? This is not a structured or defeated military force. The organization is an armed militia operating in a semi-autonomous region in the south and less so in Bekaa. Disarming them by force is not a smart option. The Lebanese military is little more than a more organized militia and is not capable of that operation. Foreign forces would do nothing more than worsen the situation.

Hezballah's strength lies in its base that see the organization as a force that prevailed in driving Israel from Lebanon and representing the largest organized Shia party. As wealth and opportunity return to the country Hezballah will play less and less a role in the political scheme. In the meantime, the focus must be on incorporating and legitimizing its base into mainstream politics. Disarmerment will be a natural course of action.

Both issues are a matter of focus. The glass must be seen as half full rather than half empty in Lebanon.

In other news: found out this morning that I'll be making a trip to Tehran in May. Can't wait. It's one of the places I had written off because of visa issues and general difficulty of travel. A contact in the consulate should be issuing the visa; fingers crossed.

Syria completes Lebanon withdrawal

2005-04-26T04:06:00.000-04:00

Tuesday 26 April 2005, 5:51 Makka Time, 2:51 GMT

Aljazeera's correspondent in Lebanon said the Syrian army's intelligence chief in Lebanon, Major-General Rustum Ghazala, crossed the border and arrived in Damascus on Monday.

Ghazala's departure comes after Lebanese security forces took control of the last positions vacated by Syrian forces from Anjar in the country's eastern Bekaa Valley.

The final handover of control to Lebanese forces will be carried out on Tuesday in a ceremony where Syrian forces will be honoured for their services to Lebanon.

On Sunday, Syrian soldiers were seen loading ammunition and knocking down the walls of an old base in eastern Lebanon, ending a 29-year military presence.

Blast, gunfire in Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms: witnesses

2005-04-25T14:58:00.000-04:00

Blast, gunfire in Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms: witnesses

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Monday, April 25, 2005

RASHAYA, Lebanon: An explosion, followed by gunfire, was heard in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms district on the Lebanese-Syrian border Sunday, according to witnesses in the area. The blast struck around 5.30 p.m. and was followed by several bursts of gunfire before four Israeli helicopters arrived on the scene, the witnesses said.

There was no immediate riposte by Israeli artillery as is usually the case when Israeli positions in the area come under attack.

According to witnesses, it was unclear how many people were wounded.

Reports emerged that the explosion had taken place inside an Israeli tank in the Ramsa farm, or that the tank had run over a land mine planted by Israel. However, neither reports were confirmed.

Shiite guerrillas of the Syrian-backed Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah usually carry out sporadic attacks in the area. But on Sunday, a Hizbullah official - despite confirming the explosion - added that the resistance group would not comment at the time being.

Originally part of Syria, the Shebaa Farms are now claimed by Beirut with Damascus' blessing, but the arrangement is not recognized by Israel or the United Nations. - AFP

Visiting Lebanon Post Hariri: Part 1

2005-04-25T10:35:00.000-04:00

I left last week to spend four days in Lebanon. The country hasn't been my focus of study so my knowledge was pretty general. Civil War ~25 yrs, Syrian occupation ~30 yrs, Israeli occupation ~20 yrs, Hizballah, SLA, the Green Line, Khiam detention camp, Bekaa, etc. This is just general knowledge stuff, but I figured it would be a safe enough place despite the State travel warnings. I think if one abided by the warnings it wouldn't be safe to leave the US or Canada.

I digress; I flew in at night to Beirut. It was gorgeous flying into the airport because I got lucky with a window and, wait for it... Emergency exit row seat. Go Air Arabia. I'd seen pictures of the city but hadn't realized the extent of the mountain ranges the encircle it. It's quite beautiful at night when the surrounding hills are lit up.

The airport was so-so. Not as nice as Dubai but not as bad as Sudan. A bit like the old Detroit terminal. The Sharjah airport was a diaster. Not nice at all when compared against Dubai and even Abu Dhabi.

The Lebanese women at the airport were incredible. Big departure from other Middle East countries. They wore western clothes and wore them well. This was a highlight of my time wandering around Lebanon, especially Beirut.

I stayed in the Hamara neighborhood in West Beirut. I was a five minute walk from AUB and in the middle of one of the major shopping districts. Bar Bar is food chain I frequented often. Good menaeesh and shawarma. There was also a good saj stand across from the main gate of AUB. The area I was in had defiantly seen some fighting during the civil war.

The street the hotel was on in Hamara. Notice the bullet pock marks on the building to the right of the photo.

I wandered around Beirut the next day. I basically stayed in the area around Hamara, Downtown, and Ashara Fi (the transliteration there might suck). Lots to see. The corniche was quite beautiful but the skyline was somewhat obscured by a cloud layer over the mountains and city. Not great photo weather both days in Beirut, so not many photos there.

It's actually a little depressing. It could be such a beautiful place, and is to a extent, but the remnants of the civil war haven't been cleaned up. Most places around the Green Line still show traces of the fighting. Collapsed and bullet riddled buildings are a plenty.

I went along the corniche to the area where Hariri's convoy was attacked. The bomb left a massive crater and destroyed the entire block. The area was still blocked off and guarded by soldiers and police. Not much seemed to have been moved. The twisted remains of cars littered the street with the rubble. There were plastic bags up over the cars that must have still been covered in blood. It was a sobering sight. I had wanted to take a photo but decided not to after some milling about. I think it is because I have the mental image and the area is well documented by talented journalists. It also felt like an invasion of Lebanese privacy. Ah well.

At one point I drifted over to Marytr's Square; the location of the huge political rallies following Hariri's death. The square was closed off to cars but was open to people. It was mostly empty when I was there. However, there has been a photo wall/memorial opened and dedicated to the last 2 months events. Very moving to see and even more moving to stand back and watch the Lebanese walk along while talking and pointing at the photos. I am not sure if these photos are art, but their power to convey emotion and prompt an intimacy with the people portrayed is unfathomable powerful. There are also two grotto areas near the photos under the tent that covers the area. Christians and Muslims stood side by side weeping while praying.

The center of the square is marked by a large statue that existed before the war. During the war it symbolized the epicenter of the fighting and beginning of the Green Line. Camped around the area are mostly student aged demonstrators that decided to stay rather than risk leaving and not being allowed back in by either the Syrians or Lebanese government.

The weather was fairly warm and more humid than I was expecting. I spent only about eight hours getting acquainted before heading back to the hotel for a rest. I met up with a friend that night and went out to the Manour street area. Great, vibrant bars/gathering places. People were out having a good time and it was a very attractive scene. That topic was the topic de jour. I think it would very interesting living in Beirut.

Slept in the next day and then shed my camera for the day. Went to the AUB campus. This is a beautiful place. It sits on a large parcel of land on a hill that slopes down to the coastline. The entire area is wooded and silent. I couldn't hear the city from inside campus. Go trees; they're pretty and muffle the sounds of the city. The main building had been destroyed by a car bomb during the war and was rebuilt about 10 years ago. It sticks out as looking new but in time I hope it will weather and take on the character that the rest of the place has.

I went on a book shopping spree. It was good. About 6 or 7 Lebanese and Mid East books in total. I also went up in a tethered hot air balloon in the center of downtown. Very cool experience. I could see all of the mountains and urban sprawl that encroached upon them. The Hariri bombsite was near and the full extent of the devastation was clearly visible. I also could see the funeral procession for Bassel Fleihan who died as a result of burns suffered while riding with Hariri.

Fleihan was a Christian and the funeral was held at a large church near the Parliament building. I wandered over in that general direction and watched for a bit. It was an odd mix of a funeral and political demonstration. Really, its not odd at all but it struck a chord with me. I also felt like I didn't belong there so I only watched for a short time.

Everywhere I went in Beirut there were posters of Hariri. Along the streets, in shop windows, on cars, billboards. I thought this scene was poignant.

I wandered around for a while longer and stopped at some cafes along the way. It was nice to just sit and relax along the corniche and think in peace for an hour or so. After, I headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. Had dinner at Bar Bar and then headed off to find a another decent bar for the night. Things don't get started until late and I didn't go out until about 11. Service taxis are a great and cheap way to get around. You yell your neighborhood destination from curbside and they either stop or continue. It's a good chance to meet interesting people and make conversation. I ended up in a bar on the eastern side of Manour street down a side alley. Really cool place. White Stripes, Von Bondies, Franz Ferinand, Joan Jett, Modest Mouse all being played. Nice stiff drinks and made quick friends with the bartenders and other guys sitting at the bar. A few JD w/Coke and shots later I headed in for the night.

The next day I was planning to head to Bekaa and needed some sleep. More on that later.

Trying the blog bit again

2005-04-25T10:28:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to get into blogging. Again.

The first time through I was preparing to leave for Sudan and a few
months in the Middle East. I wrote a bit last December about
preparing, but I found it to be a chore and stopped. I don't
particularly regret that yet because all of my memories are still
fairly fresh. That may change in time but not yet.

In Sudan I tried to keep a journal but the experiences were just a
little too overwhelming at times. I was mentally exhausted from trying
to keep up with Arabic and the events around me. While I was in the
south part of northern Arab Sudan I managed to get deathly sick for a
few days and that didn't help the journal keeping.

My advice: if you find yourself in a refugee camp in Sudan stay away
from the roadside agachi. YMMV.

So that is my apology to myself for the my future anger at failing to
keep an accurate journal for ~ six months. This brings me to my next
point, first being the agachi, my audience is not you. It is me. If
you found these posts and are interested, great. The first time around
I sent this stuff to lots o' people and it felt like too much
pressure. If you don't like what I write then don't read it.