I honestly dont recall the last time i felt so humiliated of being Lebanese ..

We are boycotting Paris’ book fair because Israel is a guest of honor ???? And even worse we are doing so based on a decision ( read well) by the ISECSCO. In fact, the 50-nation Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISECSCO), called for a boycott of the event by Islamic states.

That same ISECSCO that was almost approved not long time ago by the government and that intended to islamize our educational system if it wasnt for the Patriarch’s interference and few other politicians ( Naamtallah Abi nasr for ex).

Added to that, Lebanon is now portrayed as an Islamic country

From the LA Times:
A decision to make Israel the guest of honor at the upcoming Paris book fair has angered Muslim countries around the world

And who announced the boycott ?? Tareq Mitri !

This is Ignorance at its best, complete stupidity ..but of course no one reacted ?? la chou .. machghouleen yisabso bi ba3ed wou yi2awssso RPGS ..

Taken from the LF Site.

Fight Fanatism with Nationalism .. i find it reasonable.
But Fighting Fanatism with more Fanatism .. it will only cause more problems and more hatred and therefore pave the way for more fanatism …

I dont see the point of naming the Prophet such names, i dont see any positive outcome of such an action.

A candidate campaigning for the Graz city council in Austria says it is time that Islam was “thrown back … behind the Mediterranean,” and alleges Muhammad wrote the Koran in “epileptic fits.”

Election campaigns, it would seem, are uncomfortable times for immigrants to be in Europe. First, it was Ronald Koch, the conservative politician in the German state of Hesse who turned up the rhetoric and began railing against “criminal young foreigners” in his country. Now, an Austrian politician has followed suit.

Read the full article here.

President Bush arrived in Israel on Wednesday to begin a weeklong trip in the Middle East intended to overcome deep skepticism by Israelis and Palestinians about the prospects of a negotiated peace in the last year of Mr. Bush’s presidency [...]

I was wondering why Bush cancelled his visit to Lebanon, it would have been the biggest boost to M14 and to the government and a slap in the face to Hezbollah and its threats ..

Tony Blair, newly minted Catholic: What took him so long?
The Roman Catholic Church has a new member, and he is isn’t just another, would-be choir boy.

Last Friday, in a private ceremony in London, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair left the Anglican Church (the Church of England founded by King Henry VIII in the 1500s after he broke with the Pope in Rome) and converted to Catholicism. The politician who led Britain into war with George W. Bush in Iraq in the face of emphatic protests from his countrymen “was received into full communion with the Catholic Church by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster….” (Times)

I think it’s quite strange that the day went by and no one on the Lebanese blogsphere mentioned anything about the International Day of Human Rights and the prominent role played by Dr. Charles Malik.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was proclaimed on December 10, 1948. NOW Lebanon has published an article about Dr. Malik’s early career as a philospher and diplomat.

For an official description about Dr. Malik’s “driving force behind the document’s arrangement”, you can find his biography on the official website of the UDHR.

What the hell is wrong with those people ???

She named a teddy bear Mohammad by mistake and now they wanna execute her …
Ma kharjoun education hal 3alam .. kharjoun da3ess bil sermeye !

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 30 — Hundreds of demonstrators in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, poured into the streets on Friday demanding the execution of a British teacher who was convicted of insulting Islam because her class of 7-year-olds named a teddy bear Muhammad.

The protesters, some carrying swords, screamed, “Shame, shame on the U.K.!” and, “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.”

They were calling for the death of Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in jail. Under Sudanese law, she could have spent six months behind bars and received 40 lashes. { …}

Arabic Version ( from Naharnet)

English Version ( From Daily Star)

Brief Summary:
The criminals are still out there and more capable than ever

A Lebanese-born C.I.A. officer who had previously worked as an F.B.I. agent pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges that she illegally sought classified information from government computers about the radical Islamic group Hezbollah.

The plea agreement by the defendant, Nada Nadim Prouty, appeared to expose grave flaws in the methods used by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct background checks on its investigators.

Continue reading here.

Ashrafa el Nass ( aka Hezbollah) caught in L.A as part of a drug ring .. guess they either blow themselves to get upthere or just smell some white coc and get high in no time ..

Sources: Feds Target Hezbollah Cell in L.A.

Today we report in the New York Daily News about a bizarre case unfolding in the Los Angeles communities Bell and Cudahy, where a special task force collared a dozen Arab-American and Latino suspects involved in a seemingly small-time drug and counterfeit clothing ring. While on the surface it doesn’t appear to be terrorism-related, our sources say Operation Bell Bottoms targeted a “classic case of terrorism financing,” with the defendants smuggling profits from selling dope and counterfeit goods in
L.A. back to Iran-backed Shiite terror group Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon.

Neither the press release by the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California or court filings by the government specifically mention Hezbollah or terrorism. But one clue is found in the affidavits filed in court, which are signed by prosecutors from the Justice Department’s National Security Division and by an FBI official assigned to “Counterterrorism Squad 4″ in L.A., a task force brimming with agents from the FBI, DEA, IRS, Department of Homeland Security and local cops. CT-4 isn’t known for making drug and counterfeiting cases.

The counterfeit designer duds were sold out of local stores by the defendants from Bell and Cudahy. My colleague Jeff Anderson has written astounding stories that suggest no criminal activity in Cudahy is done without the blessing - and tax being paid to - the Mexican mafia and 18th Street gang. Also, while unmentioned so far in court papers, Hezbollah is well known to have profited from the illegal sale of name-brand counterfeits produced in the tri-border area of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.
The Daily News has reported on similar scams before that were proven in federal court to be Hezbollah fundraising operations. Often they have involved smuggling cigarettes and other goods, as CT Blog contributing expert Matthew Levitt blogged about yesterday.

As the possibility of a confrontation with Iran arises, so have fears that Hezbollah operatives involved in the U.S. fundraising schemes could turn operational and attack at Tehran’s behest. While that may be a remote possibility, a federal case in 2003 fueled such speculation. Defendant Mahmoud Youssef Kourani was accused by federal prosecutors in Detroit of being a Hezbollah soldier trained in “weaponry, spycraft and counterintelligence.” Kourani’s brother was Hezbollah’s security chief in southern Lebanon.

Quite an impressive coverage on CNN and many channels for this meeting, no one seems to realize how important it is for a Lebanese politician ( neither prime minister nor president) to shake hands with Bush in the White House and get USA’s support.

Let us hope this support stays for long enough until we get rid of the Syrians.

I am not quite sure if you are following the news, but there is a major event going on in Burma ( or Mnaymar ) where hundreds of thousands of monks are protesting against Myanmar’s generals and the 1988 crackdown by General Saw Maung that caused the death of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators.

I honestly admire their courage and their commitment, and i hope the UN & US and the whole world will be put enough pressure against those criminal general to depose them once and for all.

Posted by Tareq73, your contribution is much appreciated.

Video to watch.

In the 1980s Lebanon used to be in the world news in America and Europe only when there were bombs or airplane hijackings or assassinations… and when you said to Americans or Europeans that you are Lebanese they always asked about the war… it was sooooo annoying to always have to explain that Lebanon was a great country before the war and we don’t all want violence and killing… it sucked so much to see how bad our image was in the world and when this started to change in the 1990’s (at least a little bit) it felt so different and so good that foreigners had good things to say about Lebanon, some of them were starting to go there on vacation and they would talk about the food and how much fun they had and how beautiful it is… naturally this is good for tourism and business but also psychologically for the millions of Lebanese outside Lebanon you have something to be proud of, it even affects your friendship with people when they think you come from a good place they respect you more and they treat you better (it’s human nature)!

Well all this changed again with the war of July 2006 that Hezbollah launched as we all know… and after all the killing and the destruction that stopped in August 2006, the image of Lebanon is again in the gutter, look at this video and see for yourself… It’s only one small example, it is a TV advertisement by AT&T for cellular phone service and they mention 4 cities that are infamous (that Americans consider weird or see them in a bad way), the first one is Beirut!!! they associate it with war and craziness and killing, then Los Angeles (crime and gangs) and Moscow (frozen in the old days of the Soviets) and Roswell New Mexico (where all the weirdos think a UFO crashed and some aliens were found!!)… the commercial is saying that AT&T is the best cellular phone company because you can get cellular phone service even in these weird backward crazy places!!!

This is an example that you don’t always see of what the war of Hezbollah has done to Lebanon’s image in the world for many years in the future… and why did they do this? to free 2 prisoners that they don’t talk about anymore, one of them is a criminal and the other one is a ghost that Israel denies he exists.

So I just want to say thank you Sayyed Hassan for this wonderful achievement, you have made the lives of millions of Lebanese outside Lebanon so much better, I am so glad I went back to Lebanon so I don’t have to see and hear the reaction of foreigners when I tell them I am from Lebanon, I feel sorry for the millions of Lebanese outside who have to explain again over and over why they are not all crazy religious wackos who dream of blowing themselves up.

The Pentagon is investigating how a B52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads last week and allowed to fly 1,500 miles across America before anyone noticed the weapons were missing.

A squadron commander in charge of the warheads, each of which has up to ten times the destructive power of the Hiroshima atom bomb, has been relieved of his duties while crews responsible for the error have been banned from handling munitions.

Although officials insisted yesterday that there was never any danger of the warheads detonating, the disclosure will shake confidence in the security of America’s vast nuclear arsenal. [...]

What the heck is wrong with those people ??

Story #1:
Bangkok - Thai police arrested a 23-year-old man suspected of being a serial rapists of women, cows and banana trees, media reports said Tuesday.

One question to this guy, how did u rape a banana tree ??

Story #2:
مجموعة دينية كينية تريد إلغاء حكم الإعدام الصادر بحق “المسيح”

A kenyan religious group wants to discharge the death penalty Jesus Christ got by the Romans, they say its illegal.

Story #3:
Police and health workers in Papua New Guinea have launched an investigation into horrifying reports that AIDS victims in the rugged South Pacific nation are being buried alive by their relatives.

Merci Mr.Sarkozy pour votre position envers la Syrie !
Merci pour avoir refuser n’importe quel dialogue avec la Syrie sans qu’elle nous fiche la paix !

Et finalement, bravo au peuple francais pour avoir fait le choix parfait pour votre futur ..

On Syria :

Stressing the importance of a French presence in the Middle East, Mr Sarkozy said he was prepared to hold high-level talks with Syria if it backed French efforts to end the political crisis in Lebanon.

On Iran

And he warned that Iran could be attacked militarily if it did not meet its international obligations to curb its nuclear program.

“An Iran with nuclear arms is, to me, unacceptable, and I am weighing my words.” Sarkozy told members of France’s diplomatic corps on August 27. “And I underline France’s full determination to support the alliance’s current policy of increasing sanctions, but also to remain open if Iran makes the choice to fulfill its obligations. This policy is the only one that will allow us to escape an alternative, which I consider to be catastrophic. Which alternative? An Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran.”

Indeed what France needs …

Thats like the best news i have heard in a while, i am so glad this prick is finally getting kicked out of the parliament ..

For those who dont know about him, he is a corrupted MP who was getting paid by Saddam and was campaigning with Hezbollah in the last July war.

Here is the article from the times:

GEORGE GALLOWAY, the MP who campaigned against the Iraq war, is to be suspended from parliament over his links to the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

The parliamentary standards watchdog will rule this week that Galloway failed properly to declare his links to a charitable appeal partially funded from money made by selling Iraqi oil under Saddam Hussein, according to a source close to the inquiry. The one-month suspension for Galloway, often referred to as “Gorgeous George”, is one of the most severe given to an MP.

It is honestly amusing how Hezbollah and Amal and other Lebanese parties think France’s No1 is gonna change his position or stop calling HA terrorist and beg him to attend the Dialogue being held there ..

What is more amusing is that Hezbollah is trying to hide its fear from France’s strong president and his clear intentions to list HA on the list of terrorist groups, a move that might destroy the party as reported in this article.

No clarifications whatsoever were made by L’Elysee on the comments he did earlier, and if HA really expects a man like Sarkozy to change his positions, they dont have a clue who they are dealing with.

Here is the article From the New Republic.

“A ban would significantly constrain Hezbollah’s European activities, especially its ability to raise funds there. Once designated, all EU member states would be required to freeze any Hezbollah-controlled assets within their jurisdiction. Hezbollah related financial transactions would be prohibited as well. It’s no surprise, then, that Hezbollah itself fears such an EU designation. According to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, this action would “destroy” the organization as “[t]he sources of our funding will dry up and the sources of moral, political and material support will be destroyed.”