TRAVEL ALERT

Please read IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER at end of post.

(Note: “AFTER THE RETREAT.”

I had started to write what I had hoped would be a series of posts titled, “The Arab Nation: After the Retreat.” But, as happens often when I write, I awoke to something which in this instance I deemed more pressing. I awoke to the fact that the positioning-and-maneuvering between the reluctant ones and Iran, in anticipation of their upcoming meeting in Geneva, might slide towards violence against traveling American civilians. So I interrupted the “After the Retreat” assessments and am issuing this travel alert.

It’s important to note that the issuance of this Alert has been delayed by two days. The delay is due to the fact that I don’t even dare use my computer - - but for the very basic necessities - - any longer. The harmful idiots had pumped so much money into the hiring of informants and computer hackers - - people around me - - that I counted seven people who’ve secured a stream of income just by passing information, handwriting samples, email activities, family history, poetry collection (“Diwan”) and what have you to “consulting firms” (the intelligence establishment) in exchange for payments. These have included at least two, possibly three, “colleagues” (attorneys) whose greediness, adoration of money, (and love for Israel) know no limit. At any rate these have and are acting on behalf of an intelligence establishment which had decided to try to shut down this newsletter. Hence the intimidation and harassment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and against my father at the Lebanese Maronite Church, Our Lady of Lebanon. Because of computer hacking, over-and-over-and-over again by the informants, in this instance, I’ve had to wait to have access to a computer that’s not mine to post this Alert.)


POSITIONING-AND-MANEUVERING

Positioning-and-maneuvering between Iran and the United states is ongoing.
Consider, for instance, the revelation by Iran about the new nuclear fuel processing location and the concerted reaction of President Obama, France’s President and England’s Prime Minister.

Consider that the U.S. almost certainly had known about the location Iran had revealed. Consider that the U.S. had not said anything earlier about it. (The U.S. started collecting information about it in 2007.)

Consider that Iran’s revelation and the Western leaders’ reaction were all part of the positioning-and-maneuvering that are (necessarily?) preceding the scheduled face-to-face negotiations to be held in Geneva.

MORE POSITIONING-AND-MANEUVERING

Consider that the idiots likely persuaded Plantation Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani to go back on his declaration against requesting U.N. Security Council intervention in the form of a tribunal. Maliki had called for an international tribunal to investigate the “Wednesday Bombings” (against the two ministries). Jalal Talabani’s office, including two Vice Presidents, earlier had declared this call by Maliki illegal. Talabani, in a recent volte-face, now does want the international tribunal. The overstretched idiots likely had told him thathe shouldn’t have given away the store outside of the scheduled negotiations.

Consider, too, that the U.S. had retaken over the security institutions in Iraq - - according to the Arab press - - after having surrendered them to Maliki’s people. The idiots are re-positioning. Their return to take over the Shiite state’s security institutions likely is meant to send the message to the Iranians that we’ll delay our withdrawal from Iraq, SOFA-or-no-SOFA. We will stay in Iraq until we’re ready to attack (less realistic) or simply to assure a tighter blockade (more realistic.) (There had been rumors reported in the Arab press that Iranian influence had so increased within these institutions that intelligence staff had started to run away to Jordan. Will the re-take-over stem that flight?)

(Forgive the sarcasm: The idiots’ protégés in the Arab nation are fretting over the obvious disappearance of the once-aggressive excitement that the former deranged Administration had brought to the region. They had so enjoyed the illusions. What with Jordan’s Prince Hasan gloating that the United States had become Jordan’s neighbor. (For the dense ones: the Prince had been thrilled that the U.S. had taken over Iraq; he was so sure it’ll stay.) With Mr. Obama, and following a gargantuan national bankruptcy: No more Greater Middle East; no New (and Improved) Middle East; no Union for the Mediterranean. All gone. What’s left is a sorry attempt by a prominent and skillful former U.S. Senator to negotiate a minute part of the peace needed - without the money to back up the necessary wider peace. That money had been spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan Projects. Still is. I bet no one had told Senator Mitchell that he was being sent on a political suicide mission - - his own. Then still swimming in their sea of illusions, the idiots likely had told him that the matter was a national security priority. He believed them. He listened to the idiots! (IMPORTANT: I have no “in” with anyone. I’m SPECULATING.) Even I had once believed that the idiots were not!)


TRAVEL ALERT

The positioning-and-maneuvering between the idiots and Iran might heat up especially that President Obama and the British and French Executives had promised Iran strict sanctions. Should these sanctions prove effective (such as by intercepting refined gasoline from Venezuela to Iran - - for now China seems to be meeting Iran’s demand), Iran should be expected to retaliate. This might prove particularly true if the Russians join in with the U.S. and NATO. What I’m saying is that the idiots might implement something painful - - such as intercepting gasoline shipments - - as part of the positioning-and-maneuvering. As a consequence (also within the framework of positioning-and maneuvering, a phase that may continue on into that of direct negotiations in Geneva), Iran could retaliate in Iraq or in Afghanistan - - the more likely locations. But it could, too, retaliate overseas. And that retaliation might be of the expedient type - - against U.S, French, and British civilians. I suspect Iran has a network of operatives - - many of them Hezbollah - - all over the globe, especially where Shiite communities - -mostly of the Lebanese Diaspora - - are located. Too, Iran likely has strong connections to Sunni Islamists across the world, the Muslim world in particular.

Iran has Iraq and Afghanistan to retaliate, and Lebanon. So it doesn’t need retaliation worldwide, especially against civilians. But the tension might prove of a kind that would widen the rift even more between the “Muslim World” and the “Christian.” Loose bullets might take action independently.

But the heart of it still is the positioning-and-maneuvering. So: Lest tension between the idiots and the Iranians spike too fast, as perhaps when the idiots undertake some form of punishment that would truly hurt the Iranians - - you should consider less travel to such places as West Africa, South America, and majority-Muslim countries. I would suspend plans to travel to these destinations until the picture becomes clearer about the positioning-and-maneuvering, and about the upcoming face-to-face negotiations.

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:

This newsletter is an open source publication where I produce analysis based solely on my reading of newspapers. This newsletter has no connection WHATSOEVER to anyone in government, to ANY government, or to the business world.

IRAN: HOW TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE RELUCTANT ONES

Second draft.

Please read IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER at the end of this post.

INTRODUCTION

How to negotiate: first the explosions against the Ministries in Baghdad to relay the message to the reluctant ones that their control of Iraq is an illusion. But that’s only one item in the arsenal for negotiations.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Jerusalem Day once again made a statement denying that the Holocaust ever took place. He’s said so much in the past. What’s he up to?

To cut to the chase: he’s, in good part, negotiating; and not with Israel. Israel is eminently insignificant. He’s negotiating with Israel’s sponsors: the reluctant ones. He uses Israel knowing it is key to reaching the brains of the reluctant ones. To his strategists, Israel is part-and-parcel of our national security establishment (not incorrect) and of their psyche.

How could denying the Holocaust be part of a negotiating strategy?

As a given, to state the obvious (at least to me): The Islamic Republic’s strategists couldn’t but be fully cognizant that the Holocaust is a historical fact. So why then deny that it ever took place?

By way of an answer:

The Iranian Islamic strategists know full well that each-and-every Arab zooms in on the fate of the Palestinians. (I’m not talking about the idiots’ Arabs. I’m talking about the Arab public and the alternative elite, the “Arab Street,” - - by far the majority.) By extension, at a time when the reluctant ones have fired up their engine for peace (the George Mitchell mission), the Arab public should be concerned that an idiots’ peace will leave so many behind: the Palestinians outside West Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, and the Joulan Heights. (A prescription for yet more instability - - but that’s not what Mr. Amadinejad is worried about.) Each-and-every Arab, after the dismemberment of Arab Iraq by the harmful idiots, the Israelis and the right-wing and many of the liberals of Israel's American Diaspora, is now superbly attached to Islamic Iran and to its alliance with Arab Syria.

Without Islamic Iran there would be no Palestinian cause left. Without a Palestinian cause, the Arab nation would disintegrate even further. The best illustration of where the Arab Street stands can be found in the writings of Abdel-Bari Atwan. For a good while now, Mr. Atwan has been coming to Syria’s defense, consistently.

All hope to do justice by the Palestinians (both those inside and those outside) relies on Iran and on the alliance of Iran and Arab Syria.

Even Jordan, reputed to be our CIA station within the Arab nation, is worried that Mahmoud Abbas would strike a deal with the Israelis that would ignore the Palestinian refugees in Jordan - - hence, in part, the rapprochement between Jordan’s government and that of Syria. Syria’s steadfastness is suddenly in demand, even by a CIA station! (No, it's unlikely - -though possible - -that our Jordanian CIA station is using the King to help peel Syria away from Iran. That ship's already sailed many times over.)

So why doesn’t Mr. Ahmadinejad limit himself to expressing support for the Palestinian people? Answer: he would then be no different than any other who does that. Why doesn’t he limit himself to condemning Israel for its cold-blooded decimation of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians? Same answer. By adopting Holocaust denial Mr. Ahmadinejad - - in the context of negotiating with the reluctant idiots/Israel - - is after a mix of the following:

1. Drive the political discourse within Iran to the right. That would force the Iranian opposition to meet him (and his supporting public and institutions) half-way. Which would mean that the opposition would need to quit on any hope/illusion it nurses that it could make of Iran a rest stop on the idiots’ HIGHWAY to Central Asia/the Caspian’s energy fields. Even if a political change results from the opposition’s travails, Holocaust denial would assure that that change would still keep the country Islamic since the political discourse would oscillate between a moderate form of hostility towards the idiots (the opposition's, having met Ahmadinejad half-way) and an extreme form (the Revolutionary Guard's.) But for driving the discourse to the right, using Holocaust denial, the opposition might shed Islamism altogether, forcing the extremist pole of the discourse to meet IT halfway - - to moderate, not the other way around.

2. Instigate an Israeli attack on Lebanon. Such would scuttle the reluctant idiots’ peace plan and the possibility of the creation in the region of a Palestinian state that’s yet another CIA station. (Gaza will suffocate and cry uncle under the boot of the Israeli-Egyptian alliance and its blockade of the Strip. When it does - - cry uncle - - Abbas would enter it victorious and finish Hamas once-and-for-all. The Gazans would be happy to have food, at last.)

3. Tighten Iran’s hold on the Arab Street, Iran’s secret ally against the reluctant idiots/Israel, and the idiots’ Arab protectorates.

4. Obtain concessions of substance from the reluctant ones in exchange for a promise to no longer issue such extremist statements - - a favorable exchange for Iran.

5. Maybe, just maybe, promising to re-ignite antisemitism in Europe - -to fund it, that is. (Again, in the context of negotiations with the reluctant idiots.)


IRAN SUCCEEDS AT DE-LINKING “SUNNI” FROM PATRIOTIC ARAB

The retreat (not that there’s another choice) on the harmful idiots’ stupid Highway Project (to Central Asia/the Caspian sea's energy fields), using direct military power, should confirm the proposition that “Sunni” doesn’t translate into “Arab patriot.”

As a result, for instance, the Arab public, Sunni in its greater majority, could no longer afford to see Syria weakened, even though Syria isn’t governed by Sunnis. The Arab public may be shedding (or perhaps already has shed) any association between the Sunni creed and patriotism. The Arab public could see that Arab countries which governments are Sunni had all but abandoned the plight of other Arabs - - the Palestinians, the Syrians, and the Lebanese - - just as they had allowed their ally, the harmful idiots/Israel, to invade and decimate Arab Iraq. The Arab public had appreciated the success Arab Iraq had in melding the Arabs, Sunni and Shia and Christians, into the melting pot of pan-Arab nationalism. This had avoided civil wars and the further disintegration of the Arab nation. But even from a sectarian perspective, within the paradigm of Iraq’s Arab nationalism, the Sunnis had fared well and had the lion’s share of the rule.

The Arab public is now returning to the perspective that anything that keeps the Arabs together and avoids further disintegration is to be preserved and encouraged. Secular Syria falls into that pool of unique experiences where Arab nationalism - - and repression of course - - had kept Arabs together: Sunnis, Shias, Christians, Armenians, and Kurds. (All governments repress: note the U.S. intelligence establishment’s likely - - highly - - payoffs and payments to its operatives at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to harass this author to shut down his American newsletter, by hunting down the author out of his practice at that courthouse. And into what net?) For instance, Egypt is governed by Sunnis. Right? Yet, the Egyptian ruling class has little if any Arab patriotism left in it. Consider, for example, that this elite now has adopted the Jewish Brandeis University as its foremost own! Not even the appearance of patriotism!

To repeat: the Iranian-Syrian alliance has gone a long way in helping the Arab public shed any association between the Sunni creed and Arab patriotism - - especially after the alliance of the idiots and Israel-and-its-Diaspora (the right wing and the liberals in awe of their community’s right wing) had dismembered a Sunni-ruled Arab country.

THE MESSAGE

To repeat, in part, when the Iranian President denies the occurrence of the Holocaust, he is sending a message to two parties:

 To the Arab public; the massage says: Iran will not quit on the Palestinians, both those inside and outside. Iran will give a value to their suffering at the hands of the Israelis and their U.S. sponsor at least equal to the value the West gives to the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jewish people - - at the hands of the hypocritical Europeans; and

 To the reluctant ones; the message: give up; the Arab Street is ours. You’re so cute when your President and Secretary of State gather up Muslim Uncle Toms to have iftars (Ramadan dinners). But, in the end, the Arab Street is ours; you’re nothing but outsiders who finance colonial settlements, orchestrate with Jordanian and Lebanese army intelligence a civil-war-to-end-all-civil-wars which destroyed one Arab country (though we did get Hezbollah out of it - - we win any time you do anything Israel-inspired), and yet again break apart ANOTHER fellow Muslim country (for our benefit, but we won’t say that) - - then follow all of that by having an iftar! Your symbolism is ironclad incredible. You’re so smart. Stick to it. Can’t lose with all of this cunning symbolism. The Arab people truly appreciate your iftars with fellow Muslims.


As I’ve said in an earlier post (much earlier): Iran can ill-afford to see the droves of Sunnis in the Levant—Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan - - mobilized against it. (It won’t happen even if there’s Israeli-Palestinian peace. But it’s relatively inexpensive to issue Holocaust-denial statements to assure that the Arab Street doesn’t stray too far.)

THE NEW BALANCE OF POWER: WILL THE IDIOTS-AND-ISRAEL BE ABLE TO DERAILIT?

With the retreat of the reluctant idiots - - to save money and energy - - the region has been witnessing the emergence of a new balance of power. Neither of the poles of the new system (Turkey and Iran) would want to threaten the safety of the other. Each has its own Achilles heels - - and each stands to benefit from the other. (Turkey as a route for Iranian energy.) Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has all but made it clear that not only would Turkey lobby its NATO allies for no new sanctions against Iran - -but, too, Turkey would lobby for the lifting of the old sanctions. Islamic Turkey knows best.

(Turkey has the more sensitive Achilles' heel - -its sizable Kurdish population. The Israelis/reluctant ones/British and Turkey may decide on a strategy where they divide up roles with Turkey. They, without Turkey, would ratchet up their campaign to entice domestic political change in Iran, while allowing Turkey to act as the good cop. In this scenario - - which already may have been initiated, for all I know, Turkey can look good to Iran, while allowing the British, for instance, to fund the Iranian opposition to keep the pressure up on Iran.)

Israel is insignificant - - and has been for the longest time. The idiots are stuck with it. It is stuck with the idiots. It’s part-and-parcel of the idiots’ national security establishment. Israel can busy itself with Egypt and Abbas in managing Hamas and Gaza. That's the extent of its horizon as a ghetto-like state.

But that doesn’t mean that the Israelis don’t nurse dreams and delusions. Already the Israeli strategists are preparing for some form of accommodation with a nuclear Iran. (Note the latest statement by Israel’s defense Minister Ehud Barak - -that Iran is not an existential (Shouldn't it be "a threat to the existence?") threat to Israel. Did he suddenly discover that Israel had enough defenses not to worry about Iran--or is he more likely accepting new reality?) The strategists are dreaming.

Israel’s only hope to regain some role in the region as an agent of empire is to put to use the American national security establishment (i.e., yet more sanctions and, later: war). It could, instead, live with the acceptance that it is an arms supplier on behalf of the idiots (e.g., India), and find satisfaction in that. But it’ll never accept that. It’ll use the fact that that American establishment, (of which Israel is a basic component) would still have to be concerned about Turkey and its peaceful coexistence with Iran. Accepting that would mean delivering oil-rich Iraq (mostly) to the Islamic Republic.

So the Israeli component of the American national security establishment should be expected to prod the establishment to push Turkey along by using the lure of weapons supplies. Too, the Israeli component should be expected to push the establishment to use the rift between the current Islamic government and the armed forces’ institutions with the hope that these would make a comeback. Finally, the idiots can have Israel - -already well-established in Iraqi Kurdistan - - supply money and support to the Kurdish rebels to instigate a return of the Turkish military.

But all these options should be outweighed by the peace-and-prosperity Turkey would obtain by cooperating with Iran. The odds therefore are against the revival of a vibrant Israeli-Turkish alliance. There will be cooperation between the two - - if only because Islamic Turkey would want to please the reluctant idiots (for whom Israel is an essential component of the American military establishment and their psyche) and their own military; but that “alliance” will no longer amount to any substance. I’m talking probabilities.

CONCLUSION

The reluctant ones-and-their-Israel hold out hope for the “Iranian opposition” to topple the regime. My advice to my fellow reluctant ones: Sober up a little. Even if the Iranian opposition makes it, unless it is TOTALLY a creation of the idiots, it’ll be a fool to relinquish the very powerful and beneficial Islamic card - - albeit no one is enamored any longer with exporting the "revolution." Iranian nationalism has gotten quite a lot from the Islamic ideology. Even in the days of the Shah, the Shia communities in the Arab nation had received Iranian aid. So Hezbollah and such aren't going to be cut off and disappear - - though Hamas might - -but likely won't since it'll still be a bridge between Iran and the Sunni Arab Street.

Islamic Iran is now busying itself consolidating its hold, gains, and defenses, knowing that the idiots (maybe a hybrid version of the harmful and the reluctant) would want revenge - - especially that the Israeli component of the national security establishment should be expected to push in that direction as soon as the country recuperates from its bankruptcy. (It won't be easy. Powerful right wing forces in the country and their demagogues would stand in the way of a needed change in economic/political paradigms. In that change, the federal government would need to take on more say and involvement in the economic/manufacturing life of the country so as to match the concentration of such that the Chinese government enjoys. Alternative: Bring in a couple of hundreds-of-millions of new immigrants.) But, for now, Islamic Iran has won. To be fair: It owes America’s Jewish right, Usama bin Laden, Crusader, and Bald Samson - - the mediocrity and idiocy of these and the murderous streak of one- - a big, BIG, thank you.

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:

I write this disclaimer in the hope that it’ll keep the intelligence establishment from trying yet again to shut down this newsletter. The hope, too, is for that establishment to stop its campaign of harassment using its Israeli agents (the “Bad Cop”) and its non-double agents (the “Good Cop”). (If you wanted me to conclude that Israel's agents and America's agents are one-and-the-same - -you've succeeded! The harassment is and has been taking place at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia - -and against my father (indirectly) at the Lebanese Maronite church.

I would hope that the intelligence establishment would stop paying these agents (directly or in government contracts) to stage the harassment. (To document the harassment, I’ve drafted a post titled, “The American-Israeli Hunt: The Arab-as-Animal.”) (How much more money do these greedy assholes need to make? And have they not checked out the professional responsibility?) (They know what I'm talking about.) Too, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop hiring each-and-every snitch who claims he is a friend of mine and have him monitor my web activities.

That said, this newsletter is an open-source publication where I produce analysis based solely on my reading of newspapers. This newsletter has no connection WHATSOEVER to anyone in government, to ANY government, or to the business world. No one funds it. The only connection it has to government is one where the government pays greedy and unprincipled defense attorneys, taxi drivers, unemployed Ph.Ds, and all sorts of pests and to harass its author to shut down the newsletter.

FEEDING PESTS, PARASITES, AND ASSHOLES

Ruff first draft

fictionalized to protect the identity of the assholes.

“And I’ve dipped my bread in dirt
Not needing the generosity of others.

Mahmoud Darwish, Marthiyya (My translation from Arabic)

“And my life becomes devoid of all of my roses.”

Mahmoud Darwish, Ughniya (My translation from Arabic.)

INTRODUCTION: THE MAN I HELPED

Frankly, it’s become a major annoyance to be responsible for feeding so many pests and parasites: incompetent Homo sapiens who’d rather spy on me than own and run gas stations. I’m surrounded by these, all clamoring to obtain information: fingerprints, DNA, hand-writing samples. For some, there was likely a great finder’s fee, to reel me in, to shut me up - - say $150,000? (I would hope it’s not something like $20,000!) The pests monitor my web activities as if I were the agent of some hostile foreign power. I’ve become a source of employment-and-income for so many. Lest I sound paranoid and full-of-it, here’s the analysis.

(Be mindful that I’m fictionalizing this essay to protect the identities of the assholes, the pests, and the parasites - - did I say: the assholes?)

THE ARAB MAN

Having become tired of anti-virus programs uncovering Trojans and other viruses, a couple of months ago, I re-formatted my computer. Suddenly an Arab man starts to call asking to talk. I knew him, not well. He once had been having a difficult time identifying a lawyer who would take on his case. After a process of trial-and-error (referral to attorneys who turned down the case), I was able to locate a colleague who did take on the Arab case. The results were absolutely spectacular. (I’m not advertising. I mean it!)

Now this man, an employee at a U.S. government agency, not the fanciest one, after having collected the experience necessary as a taxi driver and a caterer, is calling me, nearly frantically - -but not leaving a detailed message. (Please understand: I’m not disparaging the man’s prior working life, before his job as monitor-of-me. I’ve buffed floors in hospitals - - though mine was a sweet union job. But the State seems to have hired any-and-all unemployed and under-employed Arab and Muslim Americans and has unleashed them on defenseless people like me! My suspicion: Israel’s boys, directly and through networks like that of the Lebanese Forces, have been a systematic conduit for this senseless hiring - - likely with finder’s fees to Israel’s boys, to boot.) The Arab man would only ask that I call him back. His repeated and unrelenting calls, without a message about the subject to discuss, peaked my curiosity - - and suspicion: Has this man lost a stream of income when I cut him off by re-formatting my computer? Better yet: One morning, quite early, after the passage of some time (from reformatting), I changed my Yahoo Mail password. No sooner did I do that, not even a minute after, the man called yet again and left a message to call him back. His voice sounded sad. He did lose a stream of income, didn’t he?

The Grand Nuisance this man and other pests are and have been touches the confidentiality of my professional and personal life. But I guess that ship had sailed with the Patriot Act and when I had started issuing this newsletter—over seven years ago. Or, more correctly, when the country’s institutions started to insist on using the web to conduct business, never minding the fact that a redundant system should be available for all transactions, or as an alternative to the web. In the past, we all thought that the web was safe, at least we thought our passwords were.

This man and the other pests now have my poetry collection (in Arabic) since I had been volleying it about between me and the web designer, and between me and my cousin.

Who was this man working for? The U.S. government agency where he held a job after having worked as a taxi driver? Once when a taxi driver I saw him drive into the Jewish temple off Massachusetts Avenue. I asked him later whether he was catering for them. (He did catering on the side.) He became so defensive. I told him there was nothing wrong with someone driving into the parking lot of a synagogue. I’ve driven in myself a number of times for bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs. But his defensiveness was paramount.

Could he be working for the Israel Lobby/Israeli intelligence? But, since he has a job that requires a low-level (I suspect) clearance - - could he be monitoring me for the U.S. government? I guess I may have answered these questions above: The Israel Lobby is an integral part of the foreign policy establishment of this country, a recruiter of sorts for that establishment. Or maybe elements within that lobby moonlight for the Establishment. Either way: I’ve had it with the Grand Nuisance to me these pests have become.

(My first attempt at this essay reflected my anger-and-disgust and was really harsh. I had titled it: “Arabs and Muslims: Shut the Fuck Up.” But, since Arab people read this newsletter, I re-wrote it not to have all Arabs among the reading elite mistrust all Americans.)

A colleague who does quite a lot of First Amendment work said that, after September 11, the CIA had gained the legal ability to hire outfits made up mostly of former agents to go after “suspects” like me. Nice. To be a suspect! And I who believed that freedom of speech was sacred in America. (To all Arabs, including a couple of my liberal college roommates: shed that illusion!!) God: am I THE idiot!

I lessened my reliance on the net.


THE CLAIM: U.S. SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN SENDS A MAN AFTER ME! OR DID HE?

On August 31, I revived this newsletter on the advice of a group of Arab-and-Iranian-Americans - -acquaintances. I had spoken to these to seek advice and had explained to the group what happened at the Maronite church (“A WOG Tool of the State…,” June 29, 2009)--without revealing identities, of course. Their conclusion: The incident at the Maronite church where consulting firms for the State had encircled me and accused me of allegiance to Hezbollah and had issued clear-and-unambiguous threats (“insulting,” one said), was an act - -a ruse. The threats had to come from the State.

The Group-of-Five had agreed/concluded that the incident was meant to shut the newsletter down, nothing less. The consulting firms were acting on orders. Perhaps their jobs were on -the-line; perhaps promotions were in the offing, if successful at shutting down the newsletter.

In the more recent August 21 post (“Who Did It?”), I went after U.S. Senator McCain for visiting Arab Kurdistan, the independent nation-state carved out of Arab Iraq. As I’ve always done in this newsletter: I’ve relayed the feelings of 300 million Arabs - -and of that part of the American Left that understands realism in foreign policy. Senator McCain’s visit to Arab Kurdistan was bound to offend each-and-every-Arab - - minus, of course, the self-hating ones and the ones with jobs. It was bound to confirm to them that the U.S. was dead-set on using each-and-every sectarian/ethnic division to forever splinter the Arabs, on behalf of Israel.

“Who Did It?,” too, was highly critical of the war in Afghanistan and of the retreat from realism by the Obama Administration. (Be mindful that I’m a fan of Mr. Obama as I believe he is THE heir of the Ted Kennedy legacy. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t speak out about the insanity of the Afghanistan war and the use- -and harmful frivolity - - of direct military power. To do that - -use direct military power - - to re-draw the alliances in South Asia to turn India into a “Great Power,” as the more secure passage way to Central Asia’s energy resources. Pakistan will never make it because, if it does, it’ll reverse itself fast when it realizes that India is getting the lion’s share of the loot, if ever. Yet more instability.) Or even to encircle Iran, the results of which, even if successful (a big IF), runs a decent likelihood to turn into something worse for us (and for the people of the region whom we keep on screwing with our illusory schemes, miscalculations, and resulting violence) than what is found at present - - however distasteful to the reluctant ones and to their Israel.

THE TRAIL

On Friday, September 4, I sat at a place with free WIFI. A man sat across from me with his laptop. I opened my Yahoo Mail account. I found an email from Sophie, who loves roasted lamb - -in spite of my advice to her to avoid meat altogether. Sophie encouraged me to meet her at the food fest at the Melkite Greek Catholic church in Virginia. I replied to her email, telling her that I would be there with my father on Saturday, September 5, at 4:00 PM.

On Saturday, I reported there with my father. It was good for him to be with people other than doctors. I sat with a friend, with my father, and with one of the priests. (Sorry to digress: but the American friend once, after running into him at a beach, wanted to show me a house that he wanted to buy in Lebanon. But he made the wrong turn and a bunch of Syrian intelligence men came at us with speed and machine guns. They asked us questions, concluded that we were idiots, and let us go. It would be the last time I’d trust an American-in-Lebanon, especially after he told the Syrians that we were from Washington, D.C.!) Anyway, I was –- sadistically, maybe - - enjoying the priest’s grievous tirades about the flight from the Holy Land of its Christians, their emigration away from that part of the world. (Please understand that I don’t lose any sleep over this, but I would never tell a priest that. Now he knows it. Oops.) I suggested we dress up Armenians as priests and smuggle them into the Holy Land, their wives dressed as nuns, their children as priests-and-nuns-to-be. The Armenian religious representatives in the Holy Land, I hear, are vicious when it comes to facing off with other sects and with the Israeli colonial authorities. The humor went unappreciated.

Out of the blues, a man joins us. No one knew him. He said he had been swimming at some local pool and saw the ads for the delicious roasted lamb. He volunteered that he was Estonian-American, that he had worked in the military for decades, then in the oil industry, that he now worked - - surprise! - - for U.S. Senator John McCain. We exchanged pleasantries. The priest went on complaining to him about the dwindling number of Christians in the Holy Land. The man was a polite listener but didn’t seem to really give a hoot. The priest complained about the Christians not having children. The Estonian-American remained polite, but had he not been on church grounds, and a total stranger, my guess would be that he would’ve said something like, “I don’t give a fuck, father.” What’s even funnier is that the American friend invited him to join the church, saying that the rites of the Greek Melkite Catholic church are similar to those of the Estonian. This is the same friend who nearly delivered us, two idiots who had nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy, to Syrian intelligence!

The man and I talked. I asked him how did one nab a high-paying job in the oil industry - - with an office suite with windows, secretaries with plump asses, a pension plan, what have you. He said if one wasn’t an engineer, a high-paying job would be difficult. He asked me whether I’d be interested in a job in Iraq. No, I said, one civil war was plenty enough for me. (Besides, sex isn’t easily obtainable in Iraq. Honor killings are rife.) He mentioned Qatar and the U.A.E. I said Malaysia! His eyes rolled. He didn’t seem to think much of the idea. (One of my former professors and friends had spent time in Malaysia and advised me a couple of times to visit there - - that it was so charming.)

Draw your own conclusions about the Estonian-American; the free WIFI outfit, with the man sitting across from me with his laptop; my reply to Sophie’s email, with date and time of attendance at the food fest; and the appearance of this one Estonian-American at the Greek Melkite Catholic Church’s food fest - - and his choice of seating. (And don’t you forget the travails of the priest about the dwindling number of Christians in the Holy Land and their frugality when it comes to producing children.)

You may, too, draw your conclusions about whether the most recent chance encounter was meant to be publicized here, using me yet again, to relay the message to all Arabs and Muslims that they’re monitored - - to chill them, that is, way beyond the duration when chilling had been necessary.

MARONITE FALAFEL IS BETTER

I ate one falafel. It wasn’t good. The Maronites make a much better falafel, I thought. No loss. One of the best falafel sandwiches I now have regularly is found at the Women’s Flea Market in downtown Bethesda, right opposite from the Starbucks across on Wisconsin Avenue. It’s divine.

On my part, I’ve drawn my own conclusions about the chance encounters I’ve had earlier in the history of this newsletter: it was all a trap to compromise my reputation as Arab and Arab-American, and my objectivity. They wanted me compromised, so to speak, as they had compromised (and trashed) so many good people and made them useless for relaying good intentions by so many Americans - - e.g., former President Carter. Those who I thought were Israeli spies threatening my safety - - they were not. The one "colleague" who sent me a Trojan and monitored me was hardly doing it only for Israel. He was doing it for the Israel lobby AKA former CIA operatives busy entrapping me AKA the harmful idiots. He participated in my entrapment. Maybe there was a "finder's fee." Damn if I know. Ditto for the one who lifted my fingerprints and DNA. Ditto for the one who obtained a writing sample from me. Ditto for Israel’s spies who were dispatched to stage encounters with me on the streets of D.C.

The idea was for me to be scared of Israel’s intelligence service and its tentacles ion D.C. Life’s too short. I’m nauseated but I’m not about to close shop just because so many traps had been set up for me.

One thing is now abundantly clear: Israel is American foreign policy and American foreign policy is all about Israel. The foot soldiers for both - -oh well. . . they can be Arab men who had sought and obtained my help.

Another conclusion: Just as Iran uses the Arab Shia communities for its defense/offense, so do the harmful idiots use the Jewish communities for their offense - -to dominate the Arab nation. In the end: the harmful idiots and their Israelis screw Arabs under the pretext, evolved through ruses and entrapment schemes (such as mine - - and don’t you forget the trap that was set up for Arab Iraq, which resulted in so much misery for the Arab people of that once-country) that they are protecting them. No one is protecting anyone.

All learned their lesson. People (and countries) aren't stupid.


SCARED?

Hardly. Only the death of beloved ones scares me. But I’m a realist, if anything. I have ways to overcome the ugliness of people, the treachery of “friends,” of “colleagues,” that of the ones I’ve helped. I do it by writing away. (I’m not being self-righteous, am I? If I sound like I am: please understand that you're only reading the half-of-it.)

If anything, this otherwise bleak experience has been enriching. I’ve already gotten one operetta out of it. May be it’ll be the all-American novel I’ve always wanted to write. You never know. Another Nineteen Eighty-Four? I’ll be posting it online as soon as I get more-than-a-moment. I’m forever looking for material. So bBring it on.

(This newsletter, I’ve come to learn, may very well become the subject of a Ph.D. dissertation by a J.D./Ph.D. candidate. That’s so nice: beauty at last. An objective look at a man who thinks HE is objective.)

MALAYSIA

On a more positive note: Oh, Malaysia: Oh, oh! Will you ever see me? Will you ever be mine? Will you be the paradise away from the ugliness of traps, snitches, and the treachery of “friends,” of “colleagues,” and of those to whose assistance I so blindly rushed?

I'll avoid visiting you if only to preserve your charm. So sorry. It's for your protection.