As the world worried about Saddam Hussein's quest for nuclear and biological weapons, he took time out to discuss with his top advisers the merits of a decidedly more primitive arsenal: slingshots, Molotov cocktails and crossbows.

In a previously undisclosed video, apparently shot in the months before the American-led invasion in 2003, Mr. Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, beams as military officers display and demonstrate low-tech weapons spread on a table in a ceremonial room. Whether the episode shows genuine preparation for an insurgency or was merely a bizarre propaganda exercise is unclear. (NYT)

At the Movies

Bobby (2006)

Casino Royale (2006)

For Your consideration (2006)

Let Us go to Prison (2006)

President Carter appeared on the "News Hour" this evening discussing his latest book "Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid" . Here is a link to the text of the interview as well as audio download (News Hour)

فى يوم مولدهم ... أدام الله أيامهم أعيادا فى طاعته عز وجل

وينقص من الصوره محمد طارق سامى

 

Lower Back Problems

People with ruptured disks in their lower backs usually recover whether or not they have surgery, researchers are reporting today. The study, a large trial, found that surgery appeared to relieve pain more quickly but that most people recovered eventually and that there was no harm in waiting. (NYT)

At the Movies

Babel 2006)
Coffee Date (2005)
Fast Food Nation (2006)
Happy Feet (2006)
Harsh Times (2006)
Shut Up and Sing (2006)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Israeli Map Says West Bank Posts Sit on Arab Land
An Israeli advocacy group, using maps and figures leaked from inside the government, says that 39 percent of the land held by Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is privately owned by Palestinians. (NYT)

CIA Finds no Evidence of Secret Iranian nuclear-weapons program

The Administration’s planning for a military attack on Iran was made far more complicated earlier this fall by a highly classified draft assessment by the C.I.A. challenging the White House’s assumptions about how close Iran might be to building a nuclear bomb. The C.I.A. found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear-weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency. (The C.I.A. declined to comment on this story.)

The C.I.A.’s analysis, which has been circulated to other agencies for comment, was based on technical intelligence collected by overhead satellites, and on other empirical evidence, such as measurements of the radioactivity of water samples and smoke plumes from factories and power plants. Additional data have been gathered, intelligence sources told me, by high-tech (and highly classified) radioactivity-detection devices that clandestine American and Israeli agents placed near suspected nuclear-weapons facilities inside Iran in the past year or so. No significant amounts of radioactivity were found.

From an article by Seymour Hersh in the new Yorker (Link)

غرباء فى بلادهم - شركة طيران مغربية تحظر الصلاة في مكاتبها

حظرت الخطوط الجوية الملكية المغربية على موظفيها الصلاة في مكاتب ومقرات الشركه ب ب س

But there’s one important difference. When Mr. Colbert’s fake talking head provokes a real congressman into making a fool of himself or Mr. Baron Cohen's fake reporter tries to storm the real White House's gates, it’s a merry prank for our entertainment. By contrast, the clowns on the ballot busily falsifying reality are vying to be in charge of our real world at one of the most perilous times in our history.
Source: Frank Rich (Op-Ed Column NYT)

At the Movies

Borat (2006)

Driving lessons (2006)

Iraqi Death Count

"A new study in the British medical journal The Lance estimates the number of Iraqi dead since the U.S. invasion at over 600,000. This week, we look at whether that number might be accurate, and return to a in-depth look at a similar study in The Lancet, with similar methodology. That study came out a year ago, and was largely ignored by the press. We also hear U.S. forces dealing with the aftermath of some of those Iraqi civilian deaths."
Source: This American Life and look for episode no. 320 11/05/06

Iraq: Indications and Warnings of Civil Conflict

A slide titled “Iraq: Indications and Warnings of Civil Conflict” lists factors that are destabilizing Iraq. (NYT)

Egypt’s political elite is in a state of anxiety. The president, Hosni Mubarak, is 78, and while there is no clear successor in sight, it appears the president has begun to hand the reins of state over to his son, Gamal Mubarak. At the same time, regional crises — from the war between Lebanon and Israel to the rise of Iran as a regional power — have further undermined the leadership’s credibility on the street, political analysts said.

In that environment, the leadership has taken a harder line with its critics.

The United States at one time talked about Egypt as leading the way toward democratic reform in the Middle East. But with the chaos in the region, and the political uncertainty in Egypt, officials in Egypt said the United States had dropped all pressure to make democratic reforms. (NYT)