The Angry Arab News Service/????? ????? ?????? ??????

The Angry Arab News Service/????? ????? ?????? ??????: "Thursday, February 17, 2005
Hariri's Assassination: Thomas Friedman, it seems, not only produces silly and superficial commentaries on world affairs, but he also produces lies. Today, he talks about meeting Hariri in Lebanon in the 1970s when Friedman was covering Lebanon as a foreign correspondent. Friedman forgot to remember that Hariri was in Saudi Arabia at the time, and did not start coming to Lebanon until after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. And the Empire of Principle (US) is now saying this: that Syria should not interfere in Lebanese affairs, and that Lebanon should hold elections without Syrian troops. That was exactly my position on Iraq: And notice that when US officials say those words, no reporters (certainly not in the US media) point the ironies and hypocrisies of the US position. Much has happened since my last post. I will focus first on the assassination of former billionaire prime minister Rafiq Hariri. This was a heinous crime, of course. Car bombs are terrorist weapons, no matter who the target is, and they allway kill innocent people. It is a reckless method by people who are reckless about human life. Former Lebanese Minister Basil Fulayhan was sitting next to Hariri in the car, and he is now in Paris in a very critical condition. I knew Basil since he was 5 years old, and was friends with his brother Ramzi. I did not keep in touch with them, especially as Fulayhan became a key trusted advisor to Hariri. I felt bad for him when he got involved in politics, because he was the most unpolitical and apolitical person I knew. But people are weak vis-a-vis billionaires. The US media, as usual, miss the point. They talk about Hariri as if he was some outspoken critic of Syria. He never was. He was one of many uncritical voices toward Syria, and talked insin"