MESSAGE (S) IN A NEWSPAPER

se co n d dr a f t

Don’t get excited.

The following isn’t meant to feed the Israel-obsessed Jewish Right or its once intimate partner, the Christian Right, which now has disappeared off the face of the map. It’s meant–as this newsletter in general–to add some wisdom to U.S. foreign policy, and save the troops from the Israel-inspired and grossly negligent Israel-centered decisions of the harmful idiots. These repeatedly risk the life of the troops to secure the realm, so to (Jewish Right) speak.

AL MANAR

Manar.com (Arabic), Hizbollah’s Palestinian/Lebanese mouthpiece, has nothing subtle about it. It’s preoccupied with dispatching messages of all sorts.

I accessed it on August 27.

Two headlines caught my eye. Here’s my interpretation of these headlines.


MESSAGE ONE: TO HAMAS: SPREAD YOUR TROOPS AMONG THE POPULACE. EMPTY OUT ALL KNOWN SECURITY BUILDINGS.

The first, and most prominent headline, reads:

“Made necessary by the most recent developments in Gaza, [the Israelis] have introduced changes to [their] plans to invade the [Gaza] strip.”

The article says that diplomatic sources have told al-Manar of the above.

There are no such sources. In al-Manar’s case, it’s almost always fiction. Al-Manar’s stories are messages and threats–communication of one sort or another. The key communication to the above story is found in the following paragraph:

“...[T]he most recent changes to these scenarios [to invade Gaza] indicate that any expected Israeli attack on Gaza, targeting the Hamas movement, should be much easier than in the period when the Fatah movement had control of the Gaza strip. [This ease is due to the fact that] Hamas’s troops and elements are now [easily] found in the headquarters/buildings of the security organizations and [therefore] are now easy to locate on the ground. [They} no longer are [the] armed groupings [they once were], hiding here and there and swift in disappearing, as they had been in the past. These [Hamas] elements have now become an easy target for Israel. Targeted and intensive strikes by the Israelis [against these headquarters/buildings] should result in chaos in the Gaza strip and should, too, result in the fall of Hamas’s rule in the strip.”

(My translation.)


The message: Empty out all known security buildings and headquarters. Develop a plan to hide among the populace.


2. MESSAGE TWO: WE WILL BE LAUNCHING A SERIES OF ASSASSINATIONS AGAINST THE LEBANESE ASSETS OF THE HARMFUL IDIOTS, THE ISRAELIS, AND THE SAUDIS.

The second front page headline reads: “Geagea and Jumblatt have issued their orders to execute assassinations and to explode Lebanon.”

Yes, Geagea likely is in communication with the Israelis and has men trained by these. How could he not? Thousands of his men are stuck in Israel. These would like to emigrate to cargo countries (U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe.) But, for some reason, this hasn’t taken place.


Jumblatt has been designated by the harmful idiots as the all-Druze leader of all the Druze–in Syria, in Israel, and in Lebanon, and, by logical extension, among the diaspora in cargo countries. But that’s not serious. It's a pathetic joke–the product of the harmful idiots’s desperateness. Syria’s Druze are happy where they are. Lebanon’s Druze population is rather small–in the thousands. (I’d be surprised if it’s more than 150,000–and I’m being generous.)

Besides, in no way does Jumblatt have a lock on Lebanon's Druze, in spite of all the money he has spent on them. In the next parliamentary elections in the Shouf, I suspect many of these will vote for the Aoun (Maronite)-Arslan (Druze) slate. The Christians of the Shouf are awaiting the opportunity to retaliate against Jumblatt for passing over a billion dollar in aid (some say $1.7 billion) to his cronies, and not to those who truly deserved that aid.

Neither of these two, Geagea or Jumblatt, however much they’re cooperating with the Israelis, is in a position to launch assassination attempts. The real message of the Manar.com story:

If you try to force a Presidential candidate on us, who we don’t approve of, we will launch assassinations against Jumblatt, Gegea, Hariri and their allies.

To recall, as this newsletter has recently assessed: Hizbollah and Syria can kick Saudi Arabia’s Hariri out of Lebanon any time they chose. They don’t. Why? Because they’re smart. But push them hard enough...

THE RETREAT OF SAUDI ARABIA--I

premier attentat
first and a half draft

Here’s an attempt at gaining an understanding of where the harmful idiots and their antagonists stand in the Jewish Right’s Greater, New, and Improved Middle East–the one full of cluster bombs and other people’s orphaned children. One finding: the harmful idiots have succeeded in forcing Saudi Arabia to cease and desist from forging a semi-independent (from the United States) foreign policy.

SAUDI ARABIA DOES NOT LIKE SYRIA; AND SYRIA LOVES SAUDI ARABIA.

Let’s start with the recent shouting match between Saudi Arabia and Syria. The Syrian Deputy to the President recently feigned befuddlement at the paralysis of Saudi foreign policy. It’s as if (1) he had never read this blog which a good while ago had talked about the heightened antagonism between his country and Saudi Arabia; and (2) he had forgotten how beholden the Kingdom was to the harmful idiots.

About the latter: I’ve covered what I’ve considered were incrementally nastier and dirtier threats–blackmail–by the harmful idiots against the Saudi governing royal team. The blackmail went from

(1) threatening to incite the Israel-centered U.S. Congress against the Saudis, to

(2) diminishing the historic commitment by this country to protect the Saudi royal system of government to,

(3) in the end, playing dirty, likely going after the very team at the top of the Saudi government–using personal information the harmful idiots had collected over the years.

To expound: I suspect that the blackmail by the harmful idiots had gone as far as to threaten revelations. These would include all the dirt U.S. intelligence services had gathered over the years about this or that prince–not only about corruption but likely about the prince’s personal life.


Politically, the blackmail could’ve gone as far as

(4) threatening to push for more Shia representation in the Saudi government, using propaganda by satellite television and the creation of Saudi Shia opposition groups. (As with the Iraqi Sunni, the Saudis by now would’ve learned that one way to counter the attempt by the harmful idiots to dominate them fully would be to instigate a civil war–in their case, a low-intensity one which would be intensified in proportion to the pressure applied by the harmful idiots. )

The Saudis caved. The team at the top felt helpless, especially when the harmful idiots threatened revelations of matters that were personal. Prince Sultan went (or is planning to go) to Egypt. Saud al-Faisal always is heading there. What’s in Egypt? It’s not like the Egyptians have such a capable army to transfer to the Kingdom. I believe the hajj to Egypt by the Saudi royal team is in part about complaining to a trusted American vassal about the harmful idiots hitting below the belt. All it would take is for the royal team to have placed the Egyptian leadership on the payroll for these to intervene and ask that the harmful idiots refrain from going personal.


The Saudis over-reacted to the statements by the Syrian Deputy to the President. You would’ve thought that he had cursed Islam itself. He hadn’t. He was flirting with them. The Iranian-Syrian team likely sees Syria as the bridge to the Arab World. But the Saudi royal team was in no mood for flirtation. It’s nauseated. It’s made to feel the leaden weight of the American boot on top of its members’ necks. All that, while its world is foundering all around it.


SAUDI RETREAT

They had thought for a while that they had owned Lebanon, financially and politically. Rafiq al-Hariri (May God have mercy on his soul) and the harmful idiots had dragged the Saudis in. The harmful idiots thought Hariri would be the perfect candidate to sign a peace treaty with the apple of the harmful idiots’ eye. A Sunni, for a change, practically member of the Saudi royal family. Not some Arab Maronite from a little speck on the Mediterranean. For the harmful idiots, and for the Saudis, the Arab Maronites were passe. Their alliance to Israel saw them eat dirt. They lost the country they once ran, a financially successful country, once the least corrupt under Shihabi rule, with surpluses and a pound (LL) that ran three to one dollar. (It’s now @ LL 1,510.00 to the dollar.)

Now came the Saudi Rafiq Hariri and sank it into the ground. He pocketed an estimated $17 billion dollars. Better yet, he had his banks–owned I suspect in partnership with the Saudi royals–finance the Lebanese government’s $40 billion debt. In other words, he made and continues to make money twice: once by outright and direct corruption and yet again by less direct corruption: by pocketing interest on the money the state (he) had borrowed, a good portion of which went into his pocket. Historic scheme!

(Mr. Berri and Hizbollah played a significant part in bankrupting the Lebanese state. They put each and every Shia on the state social security payrolls. In addition they had hired the multitude of their people as government employees who "worked" by staying home, yet collected a monthly salary.)

Well, Rafiq Hariri pillaged the country, which he considered and treated as his private farm, importing into Lebanon the Saudi system of half-for-me and half-for-me. And he wasn’t alone. His chief partner: Syrian intelligence. He was in bed with them and shared the booty with them

In the last parliamentary elections, he gave his word to Hizbollah that his government would not seek to disarm it. Accordingly, Hizbollah turned its back on Michel Aoun, its Christian Maronite ally. It instructed its people in the Baabda district to vote for the Hariri slate. Hariri gained ten deputies to parliament, as a result, giving him a majority.

But then the harmful idiots, in symbiosis with the Jewish Right and hyper-inspired by that ethnic right wing, came up with the sophomoric (and extremely harmful) plan for a so-called Greater Middle East, so full of other people’s orphans. Hariri bought into it. Now that he was a billionaire many time over, he decided it was time to disarm Hizbollah and get rid of Syria. He had to do it because he was a foreign “asset” of the harmful idiots, as Blair and now Sarkozi likely are.

(A foreign asset is a politically ambitious and/or greed-driven person who the harmful idiots help along, pushing him/her into this or that prestigious post, often placing him/her on the payroll at an early stage of his/her career, until such time as the harmful idiots have a need for him/her. Other intelligence services likely do similar things. So, if you ever wonder how this person is shuttling among these fancy posts, think of the harmful idiots or of foreign intelligence services.)


Unwise to turn on the people who gave you ten deputies to parliament and made you a “majority.” Hariri put his faith in Bush and the Israelis–in their technology–and he paid the price.

The Saudis lost one. Lebanon no longer looked that attractive. The Shia there have become too prominent for Saudi royal comfort.

Then Iraq. There again the Shia gained prominence soon after the harmful idiots ordered the troops in.

The world for the royal team governing the Kingdom went topsy turvy as a consequence.


BUILDING BRIDGES WITH IRAN. NOT.

If only it had the flexibility. If it did have, the royal team would’ve taken advantage of the new balance of power. Instead of being a threat, Syria would’ve been its bridge to Iran and to various resistance groups inside Iraq. Even Muqtadha as-Sadr and his Mahdi Army could’ve been co-opted in a new historic alliance that would’ve made both the Kingdom and the Arab nation that much stronger.

But the royal team didn’t have the flexibility. It thought it did, at one time, helped along by an immense amount of money from oil revenues. It had showed this flexibility, but only fleetingly. It showed it in the Mecca Accord. But the harmful idiots torpedoed that and issued not-so-subtle ultimata to the royal team. They chilled it. Shoulders down, humiliated, the team accepted its fate and turned to Israel to kiss its ass. When the Syrian Deputy to the President spoke, the Saudis over-reacted. As the seven-year old William did in a water fight I had with him two days ago: When he couldn't reach me to dump the heavy bucket of water onto me, he dumped it onto himself. The Saudi royal team couldn't unleash against those holding it by its balls--the harmful idiots/Israelis. So it dumped the soiled water onto itself. For its backlash against Syria was so absurdly virulent that it revealed the royal team's anger with its new predicament: hands tied and forced to kiss the ass of its tormentor: tha harmful idiots/Israelis.



The telling thing about the Mecca Accord was that it had signaled a Saudi policy of developing a working relationship and inter-dependency with Iran. That was a smart approach, a way to stabilize the region. The Mecca Accord was significant in that it would've established yet another link, along with Iraq and Lebanon, for that evolving working relationship with the Islamic Republic. But it wasn’t to be. The harmful idiots wanted the Saudi royal team to buddy up to Israel instead. Why?

1. Because this administration and likely the one which will follow are Israel-centered. It’s not peace they’re after–not even peace for the apple of their eye. It’s dominance over the Middle East--total, unquestioned domination. This domination looks as if it’s been bought for Israel. It is and it’s not. For years now, there has occurred a symbiosis between the Jewish Right and the U.S. government in what relates to the Middle East. The harmful idiots–both Republican and Democrat–are now Israel-centric, in full. Even Brookings, a prominent government-connected think tank, now hosts the Saban Center, an unquestionably Israel-obsessed mini “think tank.” Not to mention the many other “think tanks” which are an extension of the Israeli quest to monopolize American foreign policy in the Middle East, most recently to instigate an Amerian war on Iran. Revolving doors are such that Israel-obsessed entrepreneurs move between government and the think tanks with total freedom and ease. Call it strategic alliance. Within this framework there’s no room for the Saudi royal team to express any independence or creativity.

In other words: symbiosis between the United States and Israel. So, when the harmful idiots threaten the governing royal team, it’s one and the same as if Israel is issuing the threat. Sadly, the royal team caves. Like Willilam, it dumps the bucket of water onto itself--it agrees to cooperate with its tormentor--the harmful idiots a/k/a Israelis. As a result, we obtain close cooperation between Saudi and Israeli intelligence, inane cooperation and essentially useless. ( There’s so much smoke about cooperation between Saudi and Israeli intelligence that there’s bound to be a fire. Likely a big one.) Why be in a relationship that doesn’t help, even likely hurt? The answer: what else can the helpless royal team do? The harmful idiots are hitting below the belt and the Saudi royal team has little to work with. Not to underestimate the likely feeling, naive and unintelligent, on the part of Saudi intelligence that the Israelis can help them in matters that make a difference.

2. Because this administration is working its hardest to evolve an Israeli-Arab front to confront Iran. And the governing royal team better fall in line, or else.

Here, the Saudi governing royal team can see a serious flaw, fatal; yet it can’t seem to able to communicate it to the harmful idiots in good part because Israel (remember: symbiosis) wants an American war on Iran. The fatal flaw: the way things had evolved, in good part thanks to the invasion and elimination of the Arab nationalist government of Iraq, is such that Iran can shift between swaying the Arab Street and swaying the Arab Shia Street, alternating. Put differently, the Arab-Israeli front against Iran will either have to quiet the Arab (mostly Sunni) Street, or the Arab Shia Street. Unworkable.


SWAYING THE STREET

Daily statements by the Iranian leaders, threatening hell if Iran is attacked, are meant to shovel the shit back at the harmful idiots. These had waged one psychological war after another to rattle the Islamic Republic. Now the latter is doing the same. But one recent statement caught my eye. In that statement, the Iranian foreign minister talked gloriously about the “sbhu3ub” (the masses) who he said the harmful idiots could no longer repress. Likely he was referring to the Streets–Arab, Arab Sunni, and Arab Shia. That Iran can ignite these any time it deems necessary.

THE WAY THINGS ARE

s e c o n d ruffdraft

Friend: 1. A. : one attached to another by affection or esteem b: ACQUAINTANCE 2 a : one that is not hostile b : one that is of the same nation, party, or group ...Webster’s

OUT OF IRAQ

S: So, where are we?

SPC: Iran rules the roost and that’s not bad. The new balance of power is such that the patsy Arab governments now have a chance to see some results on the Palestinian front. All thanks to Iran and Syria. In other words, Iran’s prominence–the defeat of the U.S. in Iraq and of Israel in south Lebanon–has injected a new realism into the thinking of the harmful idiots and the apple of their eye.


S. : Will this lead to a peaceful settlement in Palestine?

SPC: It’ll probably lead to a period of detente, so long as the harmful idiots are talking to the Iranians and cargo is flowing to the Palestinians. The Iranians now are engaged in taming the harmful idiots as a zoo keeper tames an enraged wild beast. And the harmful idiots have no choice but to be tamed. Iran’s got them by the balls in Iraq.

Zein: And Syria?

SPC: Shrewd as they come. Syria now is the uncontested leader of the Arabs. It doesn’t have the money of the Saudis. But it has that superb army called Hizbollah, and a new outlook on how to take the war inside Israel and wreak it psychologically. Syria has learned from experience that it cannot trust the harmful idiots. The harmful idiots will turn on it as soon as convenient or possible. It has learned that the harmful idiots want all to go through Israel to reach them. Not an easy test for an independent nation. It has learned, as should've the Saudis, that there was a time in America when Israel carried weight mostly within the Democratic Party. But now, Israel carries lots of weight within the Republican Party, too. Arabs and Muslims need not apply, except Arab and Arab-American patsies.

Even Lebanon’s Christians, probably the most reliable pro-Western people in the Middle East, have learned that Israel and the harmful idiots will harm them. Not only had the harmful idiots and their Jordanians started the Lebanon war, and destroyed the country, all based on harmfully idiotic miscalculations (or is it calculations?), and all to avoid the formation of a Palestinian state. The harmful idiots and the Israelis allowed Syrian troops and tanks to enter Mount Lebanon as a quid pro quo for Syria’s assistance in the liberation of Kuwait. The recent electoral defeat in the Metn region of the harmful idiots’ man, Amin Gemayyel, in spite of the terrific sympathy vote he had for the loss of his son, and the amazing amounts of money (originally from the public purse but now in Hariri’s possession) by Hariri–speaks directly to the fact that the Christians of Lebanon will trust the harmful idiots and the Israelis to their peril. They’ll have to be really dumb. Once again, people learn from their experience. Only idiots don’t.


S: But doesn’t the encirclement of Hamas on Gaza weaken Syria’s cards?

SPC: It does, for now. But we still don’t know how able Hamas is on the West Bank. There were some mild tumults within the ranks of university students, but that fire was put out fast, with little violence. I think Hamas will wait until Mahmoud Abbas obtains as much cargo as possible from the Israelis and the harmful idiots and then–and only then–test its machine on the West Bank. If Hamas is choked beyond a certain point, U.S. troops will pay the price in Iraq. To the Arab Street–especially the younger generations-- there’s really no difference between U.S. troops and Israeli troops. I’ve talked about this linkage a long time ago. Because of the prominence of the Jewish Right within their ranks, and because the Jewish liberals aid and abet anytime the Jewish Right orphans other people’s children, the harmful idiots can’t see that they’ve made U.S. troops one and the same as Israel’s.

S: I guess the harmful idiots are paving their way out of Iraq by seeking the help of the United Nations.

SPC: Yes. Finally. But it’ll take a good while for the U.N. to get in. Here again, the U.N. will need the approval of Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Not to mention the Sunni resistance, divided though it may be. It took one major explosion to get the U.N. out. Another like explosion can be repeated relatively easy.


IRAN AND THE GULF ARABS

S: Is Iran a threat to the Gulf Arabs?


SPC: Not really, and certainly not now. From a balance of conventional power perspective, the harmful idiots have no choice but to defend these. So, from a conventional military perspective, these are alright regardless. The harmful idiots have faced resistance in mobilizing these in an anti-Iran front, with the hope of adding Israel. But the harmful idiots have so linked their fate to that of Israel that any such front, even without Israel, can easily be portrayed as an Israeli-led front. Linkage again. The harmful idiots have failed to provoke Iran into committing an act that would scare the Gulfies. Iran is too shrewd to fall for the sophomoric schemes of the harmful idiots. One underestimates one’s opponent’s ability to learn from experience to one’s peril. Iran knows by now that it shouldn’t fight the U.S. conventionally. Iran knows not to fall in traps set up for it by the harmful idiots, Kuwaiti intelligence, and the Kurds, as Iraq did. Iran knows it needs to keep the Arab Street mobilized. And, should that Street change directions, Iran will keep the Arab Shia mobilized.

The scheme by the harmful idiots, Saudi intelligence, and Jordanian intelligence to create a Sunni front to face off with Iran has failed miserably.

S: In Lebanon?


SPC: Yes. The battles between the Sunni Islamists at Nahr el-Bared and the Lebanese army have foiled the Saudi-Hariri-harmful idiots attempt to create a Palestinian counterpart to Hizbollah. I’d read here and there that Fateh–Mahmoud Abbas’s–has dispatched three hundred fighters to Nahr el-Bared to help the Lebanese army. Then I’d read that Fateh had killed three members of Fateh al-Islam at Nahr el-Bared. But these were passing stories. In essence, the ones dying are Lebanese troops. Abbas’s Fateh, the hope of Hariri and Bandar bin Sultan, is nowhere to be found.

What I’m saying is that Syria owns the 410,000 Palestinians in Lebanon, and its hold over them should tighten the more Mahmoud Abbas draws closer to the Israelis. Syria is now organizing a conference on the Right of Return. What’s Hariri to do? The harmful idiots had brought his father (may God have mercy on his soul) over to Lebanon (from Saudi Arabia) in the hope that he would sign a peace treaty with Israel. Instead, until he amassed a $17 billion fortune, and put Lebanon in double that amount in debt--much of it to banks owned by him and the Saudis-- he did that while he partnered with the Syrian ocupation forces. And both pillaged the Lebanese public purse. The harmful idiots, who only care about Israel, didn’t lift a finger to address this absolute corruption. He was the harmful idiots's man. How could the Hariri family or the Saudis own the Sunni Street while Syria is championing the Right of Return and fighting for Arab honor via Hizbollah? What is it that they do to draw the allegiance of the Arabs, the Sunni in particular? The Mecca Accord was a brillant idea by the Saudis, But the harmmful idiots torpedoed it, and now are having the Saudi princes running scared.

S: Will Hariri be kicked out of Lebanon?

SPC: No. Iran and Syria are using Lebanon to train the Saudis and the harmful idiots into accepting to cooperate with them. Hizbollah and Syria can kick Hariri out of Lebanon in a blink of an eye. But they don’t’ want to do it. All they want is for the Saudis to accept them as they are and stop aligning themselves with the Israelis and harmful idiots against their own, to reverse their gains.

S: Can these gains be reversed?

SPC: No. The invasion of Iraq has put an end to anything akin to stopping Iran’s influence. It’s over. Iran and Syria are so f—ing shrewd. They’ve defeated the Jewish Right and the hooraying liberals. That’s no small achievement. The fact that the Saudis cannot reverse the gains by Iran and Syria at a time when the Saudis are floating on huge surpluses of money tells me that they will not be able to do it, period. In good part this is due to the fact that the focus by the harmful idiots on Iran’s nuclear program helps Iran remain vigilant in defending itself . Part of its defense is the Arab Street. It’ll need to keep it mobilized.

S: But what if Mahmoud Abbas is able to strike a deal for a Palestinian state? Wouldn’t that take away Iran’s ability to mobilize the Arab Street?

SPC: Don’t make me laugh. The Palestinians will get rid of Mahmoud Abbas if he fails to open up to Hamas. I suspect he’s secretly doing that, but that’s only a suspicion. They’re just giving him time to bring in cargo, that’s all. They don’t like him. The Palestinian nationalist press is all pro-Hamas. Even al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arab/Islamic Palestinian nationalist newspaper, which never ever had liked Syria, is now writing about Syria as the true representative of the Arabs. Which Syria is, no question about it, now that Iraq is gone. And the Israelis have this stupid colonialist way of thinking: Oh, this is our chance to take over Jerusalem, and do a transfer of the 1948 Palestinian population, but we’ll call this European supremacist, racist, and ghetto-like transfer–we’ll call it--a Palestinian state. Do they really believe for a moment that the Palestinian people will fall for this, or that it will let Abbas sign on anything of the kind? Put differently, the Israelis themselves will fail Abbas.


S: You mean their idea of exchanging lands with the Palestinian Authority: We take lands around Jerusalem, where already we have extensive colonial settlements, and give you Israeli lands where 1948 Palestinians now reside?

SPC: Yep.

S: And the Saudis?

SPC: If your read the two posts in the blog about the threats...The Saudis got scared and caved to the threats by the harmful idiots–and now they’re sort of aligning their foreign policy (reluctantly) once again more closely with that of the harmful idiots–in Iraq, in Palestine.

S: Why?

SPC: The harmful idiots can harm them. The ruling princes are corrupt and the harmful idiots likely have tons of dirt on them. Besides, by now, unless the harmful idiots are totally and absolutely incapable of learning, being allied to corrupt elements the world over is a prescription for being hated. If the Saudi princes play difficult with the harmful idiots, these will start a string of revelations. In other words, revisiting my earlier analysis, I don’t think the threats of, one, canceling the arms deal with the Kingdom is what made the Saudis cave. I don’t think it’s the unleashing of the Israel-can-do-no-wrong Congress against the Saudis that did it. And I don’t even think it’s the possibility that the harmful idiots will draw closer to Iran. In the end, I think the Saudis caved because the ruling princes shit in their pants any time the harmful idiots wave the stick of waging a campaign the world over that reveals their corruption. The Saudis should really line up a new queue of princes to lead the country–princes who the harmful idiots don’t possess so much dirt about. But, no one willingly gives up power and multi-billion-dollar corrupt perks and commissions.

The Saudis are dealing with these threats not only by appeasing the harmful idiots. They are, too, directing their people’s attention away from themselves (e.g., the recent allegations of absolute corruption about Bandar bin Sultan–which logically inculpates Crown Prince Sultan himself–the father) and onto the Shia. A recent statement by the Saudi cabinet talked about a rejection of the Saudi people of any change in the social structure and make-up of the Kingdom that comes from outside. A week or so afterwards, the religious police attacked and beat a bunch of Iraqi Shia in Mecca there for religious reasons.

This is a dangerous game the Saudis are playing. Very dangerous. I’ll explain some other time.

S: Lost cause for a decent Arab front?


SPC: The Saudis are key to that, for many reasons, not the least of which is money. But they need to diversify their princes’ foreign points of reference to diminish the ability of the harmful idiots to push them about, especially to disallow them from playing a supportive role in the quest by the Palestinians for an independent state on all pre-1967 territory, and for historic reparations to Lebanon and to all the refugees who are willing to accept it.

S: Like?

SPC: Look, for as long as U.S. politicians refuse to raise taxes, and/or the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates relatively low, U.S. dollars will continue to flow all over, cause economic booms the world over, and enrich the opponents of the United States. This eventually will come to an end, but for now the end isn’t near, not yet. Accordingly, countries like Russia and China now are rich and carry a lot of weight in world affairs. Saudi intelligence, stupid and incompetent though it likely is, likely having to rely on cooperation with Israeli intelligence, sooner or later will instruct a few princes to draw closer to Russia and be counted as Russia’s wing within the ruling family. Ditto for Japan; for China; for India; for France. What have you. This should relieve the pressure on the royal family which now is at the mercy of an administration(any U.S. administration, Democratic and Republican), a country (the U.S.), and the two political parties in that country--allof whom are so Israel-centric that no Saudi government could be comfortable about. Remember: in the end, the rulers of Saudi Arabia are Najdi. Though wealthy and forever running scared of the harmful idiots, the Najdi in the end are of the core of what defines Arab and Muslim. You can push them about to kiss Israel’s ass. They’ll kiss it for a while. But, in the end, deep, they’re Arab and Muslim, not Thomas Friedman’s students.

And I doubt that any of them has forgotten that Kissinger, the Defense Policy Board, and Kissinger's children in the Jewish Right wanted to break the kingdom into mini-states, on their way to orphan thousands of other people’s children–all to make the so-called realm safe for Israel. If they have forgotten that, then they’re f----ing dumber that I can explain.

OF "FRIENDS" AND SNOOPING

S: On this note, any more harassment on the job or threatening intimidation outside by the Israelis and their people?

SPC: Things had quieted down, thankfully. I thought that once they had perfected my file, they’d leave me alone. But a friend, you know her, .........., had warned me that the perfection of my file was an ongoing matter for intelligence purposes. She was right. Recently it had become obvious to me that they were using a friend who I hadn’t cut off.

S: A Jewish friend?

SPC: Yes, a colleague. And pretty right wing himself, but too wise to get into this stuff. Anyway, there were three encounters, instances really, which piled up to show that they were still trying to mind me, so to speak, and using him to do that. I think he fell for it not knowing that their first snitch by treachery had been monitoring me online for months and their second snitch had also by treachery obtained my fingerprints and likely my DNA profile.

In one instance, after I had spoken highly in the blog about Zbignew Brzezinski for educating the American public on colonialism and the Iraq affair, and damning Henry Kissinger and the Jewish Right’s Defense Policy Board for Iraq and for having wanted to break apart yet another Arab country–Saudi Arabia–he came to me with information to discredit Zbignew Brzezinski. What the fuck, I thought, after he had left. One, what are these people telling their Israeli handlers? That they have an in with me? What cloud do these people live on? Are they trying to portray my newsletter as their own, stealing my hundreds if not thousands of hours of work? While I toil away representing poor people and sweating each dollar? These fucking cheap assholes! They’ve already hurt me pretty bad: Their first snitch spied online on me for months–the asshole was eavesdropping on me for that long. Then another right wing asshole, also Jewish, faked the need for my help on a French legal document to obtain not only my fingerprints but likely my DNA profile. He appealed to my tendency to want to help to stab me in the back! Not to mention that their first snitch probably was taping my phone conversations with him and likely f---ing doctoring the tapes. Not to mention the synchronization of chance encounters with two people who are Israeli agents! What am I supposed to do? Go to the police? What the hell! How much harassment can one take?

And now they’re using a trusted friend!

S: Man you’re angry.

SPC: I gave it some thought. I think that the Israelis are trading intelligence about me to the stupid Saudis. The Israelis are in that business–trading intelligence. I recalled the Saudis trying to get information from and on me way early in the life of the newsletter through a Jordanian guy who worked at the Jordanian embassy. Before the newsletter, I had helped this guy–a humble employee at the Jordanian embassy who walks with his shoulders down–I had helped him by writing his letters to various U.N. agencies in search of a job. When he tried to get information, I cut him off. No big deal. He wasn’t exactly a dazzling personality. Then Saudi so-called students started writing to me, calling me professor Khater, blah blah blah. Then all stopped. Saudi intelligence decided: Hey, he’s a lawyer. That profession is full of right wing Jews who’d be glad to snitch for the glory of Israel. Contact Israeli intelligence. Sure. We’ve got him surrounded.

I cut them off, then their first snitch sent me the Trojan virus, then I cleaned it up and now I dread making any travel plans on my computer. And now, they're using a friend. What part of stay the fuck away from me don’t these people understand?

Be mindful, S--, that the Saudis consider newsletters about them and about Arab affairs as a potential threat. Only recently, Reuters published an interview with a Saudi media personality [“Interview–Saudi media empire tries to counter opposition,” August 9, 2007] which revealed that they were yet dumping more money and energy into reining in any and all media outlets that deal with Arab and Saudi affairs.

The sad part is that this friend had accepted to do it. I can’t tell you how saddened I was by this because, unlike their first snitch (an asshole) and their second (an idiots' idiot)-- I think this guy is quality.

S: Are you gonna cut him off?

SPC: I don’t know. I think he made a mistake. Let's see if and how he'll make up for it. “Wa in anta lam tashrab miraran 3ala-l-Qaza, Zami’ta Wa’ayyu-l nasi tasfu Masharibuh?"

(A poetry verse: “And if you don’t drink dirty water repeatedly [in the desert], you’ll go thirsty--For what human being, after all, is made up [solely] of pure water?)

They want to tell the Saudis that they have an in with me. That they have a minder for me at all time. They want to push the illusion that they own my blog, an ownership done on the cheap. And if this friend doesn’t do the right thing, I guess I’d steer away. You’ll be my only friend, S--

Zein: F--- off, I’m married. My adorable wife is my only friend.

D.C. NOTES

secondroughdraft

The following is a re-write of an email by which I updated friends about my father’s plot in a victory garden. I’ve fictionalized the facts to protect the identity of the birds, the people, but not the place. It’s still D.C.


THE ANGULAR BIRDS OF (GRAPE) PREY

I had had it with these brownish birds with the aggressive look. They'd land above my head, in the grapevine, to pick the sour grapes, and relieve themselves on me. I would interrupt my reading, stand up and shoo them. They would ignore me. I would touch them, lightly. They’d leave, only to return moments later and eat and relieve themselves.

I found the answer. I bought two small “power squirt-ers,” filled them to the hilt, and waited. The fun I had squirting them from below. Amazingly, even after a couple of squirts, they’d still think for a second or two before they’d leave.

Okay, now the angular and aggressive birds are gone, in part because of my efficient squirting of their butts, in part because they’ve eaten nearly all the grapes. I’ve declared victory and moved on. I’ve first considered landing on an aircraft carrier, but I doubted our Navy would spend all the money on me to land on one of theirs to declare victory before the troops.


A FIGHT WITH WATER: WILLIAM AND ROBERT

William and Robert, both around seven years of age, one without front teeth, dropped in on my father. I was there. William is Dennis the Menace incarnate, only ten times worse (or better?) He’s forever trying to help my 82-year old father with his garden tasks, screwing things royally, but convinced he’s not.

I gave the two the power squirt-ers. They began a fight with water. But, very soon after they started, they instinctively ganged up on me. I was defenseless.

William’s mother gave me a nod. I picked up a small bucket, filled it with water, many, many, times, and repeatedly dashed an impressive stream of water onto them. I was able to do it because the two lacked the cunning of disappearing, hiding, then surprising the enemy. I did it the Hezbollah way, you could say.

William tried. He was fearless. But, in the end, holding a full bucket of water above his head, he handed me his squirt-er and ordered Robert to do the same.

The two boys went home totally wet, especially William. But–boy were they happy.


OKRA: TONS OF IT BUT I’M STILL WAITING FOR JENNIFER TO SEND ME HER GRANDMOTHER’S RECIPE

The Okra is prolific. You need to pick it daily, maybe even every half a day. I’ve never liked it much. But Jennifer promised to send me her Michigan grandmother’s recipe. I’ll wait and will keep an open mind.

Miriam, and Afghani friend, sent me hers. But it’s no different than the Lebanese, mainly.

The mlukhieh is thriving. And why shouldn’t it? For all practical purposes, it’s growing in an environment similar to where it comes from: the Nile Valley of Egypt. It’s one hundred degrees here and there’s plenty of water.

For those who don’t know: mlukhieh is basically the Egyptian equivalent to spinach. Only problem: it packs as much mucus as okra. Never liked it.

The tomatoes are aplenty. Victory Garden has begun a program of sending the surplus (that’s 98% of the crop) to a homeless shelter. Though I had no standing, I recommended instead that they sell the crop to WholeFood. People thought I was callous. I didn’t understand them.

Parsely, basil, Lebanese badriyyeh string beans–all are doing well.

THE FAUNA

The golden finches still are doing their acrobatics to reach each and every sunflower seed. The hummingbird, freakish-looking, leaves its trumpet vine and relaxes on the wire holding the string beans. (I had never thought it ever relaxed; but now I know it does.) The cardinal still waits on the floor of the garden for the sunflower seeds that escape the acrobatic finches. It also likes the seeds of the Swiss chard. The woodpecker hasn’t given up on a rotted wooden pole, standing sideways by a fence. Wrens are about. Chipmunks are all over the place, sharing the tomatoes with the homeless. The deer visits mostly at night, though at times it visits during the day. And once a fawn was having the time of its life running about. Garden snakes are all over. And mosquitoes eat you alive not a second later after sundown.