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Ayoon wa Azan (Expensive Gifts … from Arab Rulers) |
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Friday, 2 January 2009
By Jihad el-Khazen
Many in the East and in the West, including in the United States, are absolutely convinced that the Bush administration has perfectly plotted the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center to justify its invasion of Afghanistan as a cover up to the subsequent invasion of Iraq for colonial or oil-related motives. I have accidentally referred in one of my articles to Al-Qaeda's responsibility for that disastrous terror. I was surprised at the flurry of letters sent by Arab readers denying Al-Qaeda's responsibility even after the movement admitted its responsibility for invading New York and Washington.
There is nothing strange about the above. Tens of theories still surface over Kennedy's assassination though this incident took place 45 years ago. The advocates of the conspiracy theory believe anything except the Warren Commission report that proved Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt.
40 years later, I am sure readers will still come across people who blame the 9/11 terror on every possible party except for Al-Qaeda. In light of the stream of letters I received in denial of Al-Qaeda's responsibility, I reviewed the available material, only to come across The Truthers, a website which still accuses the Bush administration despite all the available information.
I have eventually prepared a file enclosing all the gathered information on the events of the year, as I do every year. I would have forgot the file had I not reviewed it entirely in the course of the month. I choose to communicate to the readers today and tomorrow the other news items. Certainly they are not the most important items of the year, as each daily, including Al-Hayat, chronicles the most important news items. I collected and commented on other news items I found important back then. But with time, they were eclipsed by other headline-grabbing news. The Israeli offensive against Gaza is by far the most important event at the end of this ill-fated year.
I will take the readers in a tour across the months of the year. I will overlook the Olympic Games even though I have collected a lot of material on sprinter Usain Bolt and swimmer Michael Phelps. I will also turn a blind eye to Barack Obama's election, Muntadhar al-Zaidi's shoes, the global financial crisis, and Bernard Madoff who swindled people of his ilk out of some $50 billion, or the swindlers who notify me every day by mail that I can claim the million dollars or euros I have won by dialing a specific number; the money may also come my way as an inheritance in Chile.
I have repeatedly raised the issue of Palestinian martyrs slain by the bullets of the Israeli occupation in this column. I also have two files ready on Salman Rushdie himself and the British author Martin Amis. The former tried to prevent the publication of words on him. He stood by an author and an insulting novel on Lady Aisha and used the freedom of expression as an argument when Muslims rebelled against him on the backdrop of his book, Satanic Verses. As for the latter, he became over the past years well-versed in assaulting Islam and Muslims and in frightening the world of their growing number and "occupation" of Europe. British authors and academics answered him, criticizing his last book The Second Plane: September 11, 2001-2007 for not adding new information; it rather assaulted Muslims and the threat they pose to the West.
If I were to start from the end, I would say that I have read this month countless of end-year riddles. Each daily publishes a list of questions on everything that may or may not come to mind. My information on international politics and the US elections outdid those on cinema, pop celebrities and domestic politics in America and Britain although I follow some of it. Another news item at the end of the year has to do, as usual, with a collection of reports on Jerusalem, the cradle of Jesus Christ, published on the occasion of Christmas - let alone a few allusions to the emigration of Christian Palestinians under the pressure of the occupation.
Arab readers may find it strange to learn that the Western press I read daily, particularly the British and American, publish positive reports with touching pictures on the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. The London Independent published a full report on Queen Rania, while The Sunday Times published a similar report on Mrs. Asma Al-Assad, in recognition of their humanitarian efforts and social activities.
I close this month's file with a news item that surfaced by the end of the month. It has to do with the very expensive gifts, including jewelry worth thousands of dollars, offered to the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, by Arab rulers on her official visits to the region.
American officials are bound by law to declare and deliver every gift they receive to the federal government; otherwise they will be embroiled in a scandal that would cost them their positions. I do not know how our leaders are unaware of this old principle enshrined in American law. Consequently, all their gifts to Ms Rice either ended up in museums or were sold with the collected money allocated for charity. (To be continued)
http://www.j-khazen.blogspot.com/
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Friday, 2 January 2009
Al-Hayat
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