I dare not say that Saad Hariri and Fares Souaid ...etc. were Judith Millerized (The New Opinion Group, an NGO aligned with March 14, has brought a group of American journalists here, including me, Jacob Weisberg of Slate, Michael Tomasky of The Guardian, and Judith Miller, formerly of The New York Times. The organization deserves thanks for paying for much of the trip, helping to arrange some of my interviews...) Judith-Millerization is thus for some readers of the New Republic, the Guardian and God only knows where Miller will write her garbage ... Noteworthy though is the high esteem "honest" fares Souaid has for Lebanon's Shia's in general when he compares them to Africa bound immigrants who later later french and became "over civilized"... Usually, Souaid, "describes the movement's support among the Shia as consisting of "drug traffickers," "leftists from Baalbek and Bekaa," some members of traditional families and clans ("but they are very weak"), as well as "some persons who are very modern, " who were born in Africa and educated in Paris and became "over-civilized."
"...Sa'ad Hariri is saying. "In the past four years, I have lost friends. Pierre Gemayel was my friend. My father was murdered. It's been an agonizing four years."You can see at once what life has become for him. Sa'ad Hariri is a fun-loving guy who enjoys playing Xbox and sports a neat, three-tiered arrangement of facial hair that makes him look like a late-night magician from Las Vegas ....he takes meeting after meeting in preparation for Lebanon's June 7 election, while heroically passing up the succulent lamb dishes and tasty Lebanese sweets that are offered to his guests....
"Yes, this is a very nice house," Hariri says, when I compliment him on the impressive luxury of his surroundings. ...... zipping off in armored convoys to hand out new sports centers and improved sewers to his supporters, who are the beneficiaries of hundreds of millions of Saudi dollars that are flowing to Hariri's coalition. ...
The secure rooms in which Sa'ad Hariri spends his days and nights could not be more different from the location Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah uses to broadcast his regular TV addresses to the people of Lebanon--which is said to be an underground bunker in Beirut, equipped with an air filtration system and a dedicated fiber-optic link. From their opposing bunkers, the two men are vying for supremacy in the June parliamentary elections. The March 14 coalition, anchored by Hariri's Future Party, includes the remnants of the Christian Phalange party, as well as Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party. Hezbollah runs a joint parliamentary list with Amal, a Shia party that presides over an old-fashioned political machine that would be recognizable in Chicago. Together, the Shia parties anchor the opposing March 8 coalition, which receives material aid from Iran and Syria and also includes the Christian followers of General Michel Aoun, a Bonapartist figure who regards himself as the rightful savior of Lebanon...
There are two likely outcomes ....Either way, the election will provide very public evidence of the declining influence of the United States in Lebanon and the growing power of Iran. In the new Middle East, Tehran--armed with the strategic insulation that nuclear weapons confer--will be able to destabilize any government it doesn't like without fear of military reprisal. As nearby regimes weigh the pros and cons of life inside the nuclear cage with the Iranian tiger, Lebanon offers a preview of what the future might be like.
(continue reading this HARDLY noticeable biased story,... you'll love what "honest" Fares Souaid thinks of the Shia'a! Heartwarming! here)
2 comments:
The Canadian journalist who wrote that piece came to Lebanon under false pretense. He is a racist and an ignorant fool who cannot think outside the traditional clichés. His choice of interviewees is to show 'balance' but with his comments and those of the likes of Fares Souaid his story is pretty much one sided and not impartial as he tries to pretend.
Agree with you Senior, the bias runs deep through this article.
Lebanon politics at the moment I feel is very murky and to much journalists that I otherwise respect seem to have strange views on this election.
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