Perhaps the WikiLeaks story was the most important news item in the United States last week, but what came in second place? My judgment in such matters relies on the amount of coverage, and I say the second most important news item was the decision by the Transportation Security Administration to subject travelers to intrusive pat-downs, which means getting under their belt, as well as below it and behind it. I will say no more here, and leave it to readers and their imaginations to help them understand what is meant. There are two kinds of searches. There is the pre-boarding search, for example, with X-ray or digital imaging. However, recent attempts by terrorists, including the place where the liquid or other explosives were hidden, have seen the intervention by the TSA, which should have remained outside the issue. The strange things is that a group of around 200 prominent American scientists at the University of California warned of the danger of exposing travelers to X-rays; however, the TSA did not heed their warning. Since we usually have to copy the Americans in everything, and since I travel to the US and move regularly around the Arab region, I thought long and hard and decided that the reasons for my personal and professional travels are not important enough for me to accept a security person delving into my private “details”. I will now deal with other related matters. *There was a news item about a Somali teenager in the state of Oregon, for whom FBI agents set a trap. He tried to blow up a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, but the car was full of non-explosive materials, which the youngster had taken to the event in which some 10,000 people were taking part. What do terrorists say to these misguided and misled kids? When will practitioners of proper Islam confront terror and deal it a final defeat? The Jews and Christians are “People of the Book,” and not infidels. The Prophet Mohammad and the Caliph Omar conducted agreements with them; who today can be more pious and versed in religion than the Prophet and his Companions? *On another matter, I find reason to be completely absent. I received an invitation through the internet, which said “declaration by the Preparatory Committee to Commemorate the Martyrdom of the Eternal Leader Saddam Hussein, God Rest His Soul.” The Arab nation is at a low point because there are those who still believe today that Saddam Hussein was an “eternal leader who was martyred.” He is eternal indeed, in Hell. He destroyed Iraq, and almost destroyed Kuwait. He opened the gates of evil to Arabs and Muslims everywhere, and gave enemies pretexts to attack Iraq and kill one million of its people. Saddam Hussein was qualified to lead a drug smuggling gang, not a great country like Iraq, which never left behind the nightmare of the years of his rule and subsequent occupation. Nonetheless, there are those who want to celebrate what he achieved, or rather his destruction of the Arab nation. *If Saddam Hussein did not finish off the Arab nation, we had George W. Bush and Tony Blair. The former recently published his vulgar memoirs, in which he justifies the killing of Muslims, and apologizes for nothing. The latter debated the British atheist writer Christopher Hitchens on the question of whether religion is a force for good in the world. I already wrote about Bush's book, and will suffice with Blair today. He converted to Catholicism after he left the prime minister's office, and began to justify in religious terms what he did to Iraq and Afghanistan. The audience supported Hitchens, who revealed Blair's falsity. Dr. Samuel Johnson, who wrote the English dictionary, said once that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” I believe that religion has become the last refuge of war criminals these days. *For months I have been noticing in British newspapers and magazines an advertisement about the “unique experience” offered by Israel, urging people to taste the climate of Tel Aviv, the cultural wealth of the Dead Sea, the charm of Jerusalem, and relaxation under the Eilat sun. The advertisement says that few countries contain the pearls that are found in tiny Israel. I say that Israel is not a country, but an illegal settlement with a fascist, criminal government. If a British national or anyone else visits Palestine, which is called Israel today, perhaps he or she might ask that the tour cover the jails and detention centers, where more than 10,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children, are tortured every day, and beaten, and humiliated. I have heard stories about them from those who have left the Israeli Nazi concentration camps. A tourist would find it quite educational, and if he or she continued on to Iraq, I have pictures of dozens of disfigured children, the victims of the Bush-Blair war. The Arab nation has ended up in a detention center of its own making. [email protected]
