I was in the United States last week to attend the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. On the sidelines of my visit there, I also followed up the case of the terror charges made against Mr. Najibullah Zazi, a legal U.S resident of Pakistani origin. In fact, the indictment issued against him alleges that Mr. Zazi travelled to Pakistan where he was trained in bomb-making, and then returned to the U.S and started purchasing materials used to produce bombs. It was noteworthy that all the American newspapers mentioned that the materials purchased by the suspect consisted of women's cosmetics – as if it is no longer enough for women to kill with their whispers, smiles and touches, and they now want to kill using eyeliners and lipsticks. If we are to believe what the investigators and newspapers are claiming, Mr. Zazi bought these chemicals from women's beauty shops: hydrogen peroxide, acetone and hydrochloric acid as well as components of triacetone triperoxide. I know that acetone is used to clear nail polish, but how can the “acid”, or the other chemical acids, be used in cosmetics? Does this then explain why each time men come near a beautiful woman wearing full makeup they act as if they were inside a nuclear cloud? Poets once said that women paralyze the smartest of men, while they themselves are the most vulnerable amongst god's creatures. I continue with other issues: - Pat Buchanan once said that the Capitol building, i.e. the U.S Congress, is a land occupied by Israel. I remembered this statement when I was in New York, with Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likudniks like him occupying the city, and when I saw the demonstrations against Iran and its imminent nuclear bomb on my way to and from the UN Headquarters (there were also other demonstrations against Israel with the participation of some liberal Jews). While the New York Times for instance is also liberal, it sometimes is “occupied”. While Netanyahu was lying while on the podium at the UN General Assembly, the op-ed section at the paper ran an article by the Likudnik writer David Brooks and the other Likudnik Kenneth Adelman, the man who coined the term “walk in the park” to describe the war that he was inciting against Iraq. The latter had also shed tears of joy in front of Dick Cheney for the invasion of Iraq. Four thousand Americans died however, without him crying over them; rather he wants a similar number of soldiers to die in a war against Iran for the sake of Israel. At least however, the op-ed page that day also ran an article written by Paul Krugman, one of the best columnists at the newspaper. On the next day, the New York Times plagued us with an interview with Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador, or the extremist who represents a government of extremists. He was born in New York, which means that he is an American, and then immigrated to Palestine to occupy the home of one of its original inhabitants. He was a paratrooper during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, a fact that saves us the need for further explanations. - I was gathering material about Sarah Palin – Alaska's proud daughter -from the international press several weeks ago, after I had read that her daughter's boyfriend said that she [Sarah Palin] is not good at shooting and hunting, contrary to what she claimed during the U.S presidential election campaigns last year. This time, I found a news story about how Palin travelled to Hong Kong to give a speech to the Chinese and the other east-Asians about the world economy, and to give them her sound economic advice and guidance. Palin's first and foremost (and only) quality, is that she is an ignorant. It is for this reason that the neo-cons in the known gang of war like her, and try to sell her to the people, as they are still hoping that she will one day be in the White House, where they would use her as a front and govern, in the same manner that they did with Ronald Reagan and George Bush Jr. In fact, it is enough to hear her talking about the U.S economic collapse (which was caused by the Republican party, her party), the so-called death panels in the healthcare plan, and the radical Islamic terrorism to realize that her speech was written by a Likudnik from the same gang that led the Bush administration into the losing wars which have destroyed American's reputation in the world along with its economy. Finally, I will conclude with some good news in compensation for the above. The trip between London and New York in fact takes about seven hours in both directions; as such I read everything that fell in my hands, including this month's issue of Tatler, the English magazine, where this social periodical celebrated its 300 year anniversary. As such I moved on from cosmetics, to fashion, then to the parties of aristocratic socialites, and then ended up in the travel and tourism section. I was surprised to find there a report about Aleppo, which described this city as the best destination for tourists in the Middle East. Actually, the article was on par with BBC4 Radio's praise some weeks ago of the coexistence between Muslims and Christians in Syria. I also read that the al-Mansuria hotel was the best in the Middle East, and the writer did not forget to mention the historic Baron hotel, that the souks [old markets] of Aleppo are more important that those in Damascus and that its castle is unparalleled. I believe that my friend Dr. Sa'adallah Agha al-Qalaa, the Syrian Minister of Tourism, would not have been able to add anything to this report even if he was to write it himself, although he is from Aleppo, and his last name in Arabic means “castle”.
