Jefferson Corner

Last week we had the pleasure of traveling to Cleveland to attend the engagement of one of my wife cousins, actually Iyad is the son of my mother in laws uncle, Marwan Mazhar. While Cleveland will remain Cleveland like so may ill planned and ill designed American cities, the engagement was just terrific. It was held in the main hall of the old court house, a very majestic place and of course the beautiful setting was made more beautiful by the mother of Iyad fiancé’ who added her touch to every thing in the place, turning the place to a very beautiful court of justice.
Well, Marwan who attend and graduated from LSU back in 1953 and perhaps was the first Arab and Muslim to hit the shores of Louisiana was there and as we sat in the hotel he was as his usual self, full of life and full of stories about his wonderful experience with the people in Louisiana and how he kept in touch with so many of them all these years. I even suggested he should publish a letter in one of the major Louisiana journal. I was in Louisiana in the army, basic training and the only thing I remember is Fort Polk and its swampy environed. But Marwan had great stories to tell including his stories as a deck hand on the Great Mississippi.
I loved one of his stories of a Lebanese woman, living in London who placed an order for some household item from that great store in London, Harrods. The woman fed up with the delay and went to the manager and said “after” meaning “Ba’edin” in Arabic.
Well, one has to appreciate the real meaning of “Ba’edin” which means so many things, and it’s mentioned most often when people are fed up or “lose it” with something. It is almost similar in meaning with TOZ, that Arabic word which is full of so many meaning. I thought it was so beautiful and so original from this woman to walk in to Harrods and say “ After” “ Ba’edin” enough is enough. I guess the same goes to the Palestinian Authority and one has to say to both Fatah and Hamas, “Ba’edin” every one is fed up with the situation in the Occupied Territories, fed up with a useless government and fed up with useless and “rudless” leadership who are more interested in their own self interests than taking care of the people. Perhaps it time to let go of the greed and incompetence that kept the Palestinian Authority alive for so many years without ever having any positive impact on the Palestinians. We all should know by now that Oslo was nothing but a private deal between Rabin and Arafat, where Arafat became a subcontractor to Rabin to quash the First Intifada with financing for Arafat and his 4,000 thieves coming from Europe and the US.
Yes, Marwan, we very much enjoyed your visit to our home in Virginia and we hope you enjoyed our company, and as promised I am publishing this note on “After- Ba’edin” for your laugh. Keep in mind that the most telling expression I ever heard any one use the word “TOZ” was Shafiq Alhout, who was the PLO representative in Lebanon, when asked about the Israeli plans to bring more Russian Jews to Palestine, he said “ TOZ”. The Palestinians will always catch up with the Israelis even if Israel brings Jews from Indian and Japan.
Marwan, you have to keep your promise and write all your friends in Louisiana a ‘thank you note” I am sure they will all appreciate hearing from you. Yes, American is not what it used to be, but there are whole lots of so many great, honest, loving and caring people that will compensate for what George Bush and his gangs are doing to America.

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Saddam Hussein the darling of Washington, Paris, Bonn and London few years ago was found guilty of crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court couple of days ago. The verdict was not so surprising given the fact that he ran a killing and murder machine through his Baathist Party and was and is responsible for the murder of millions of people within Iraq and also in Iran.
The surprising thing is that Saddam did not call for his defense the former heads of stated of the United States, both the late President Reagan and George Bush Sr., and did not call to his defense, Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister and did not call the former Chancellor of Germany, Mr. Kohl and not to mention Mr. France. All of these people made it all possible for a know criminal like Saddam Hussein to commit and continue to commit his crimes against his own people and against the Iranians. These people are as guilty as Saddam. They may not have pulled the trigger or order the killings, but they all made it possible for him to commit his crimes against his people and against his neighbor Iran. By the way, I was never a fan of the late Khomeini; I thought he was an evil man with nothing but vengeance and anger in his heart.
Of course we should not forget the honorable Donald Rumsfeld the present Secretary of Defense who was the Reagan connections to Saddam and who met with Saddam few days after the chemical attacks against the Kurds in Halabja and of course while there Mr. Donald made sure that Saddam knew how much he is appreciated by the United States and its allies in the Middle East, who also supported Saddam will tens of billions of dollars.
Saddam, like the late Shah was the darling of Washington, with his ambassador having an open check book to buy and trade congressmen and senators and buy any thing that darling Saddam wants from the US including giving him billions in line of credits, so that he can save his cash to buy weapons to kill his people and kill others.
Saddam got what he deserves. His own people should have hanged him long time ago, without the help from George Bush and his Tel-Aviv mafia. It is too bad that the Iraqi people did not stand up to Saddam and allowed him to get away with murder. Shame on all of the Sunni Muslims, who were part of Saddam killing machine and who stood in silent while Saddam waged his war and terror against their fellow countrymen, the Shiite and the Kurds.
Personally, I would be more happier if some of the western leaders who supported Saddam will also stand trial for their support of killer Saddam. May he hang for a long time and left to rot on his hanging robe. And may leading politicians and heads of states and military leaders everywhere in the world remember that NO one ever gets away with murder. It is never too late to bring to trial all of the men of the Reagan and Bush administrations and also bring to trial Thatcher and her boys and of course the Chancellor and his men and so many others. Perhaps we also need to dig up the grave of the late Khomieni and bring him to trial for his crimes against his own people. I wonder why these little dictators never learn lessons from the likes of the late Shah and Norriega.

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