IRAQ: The Brady Bunch they're not

Was it a family feud or a family murder?

Mystery still surrounds the reported massacre Nov. 25 of 11 members of an Iraqi journalist's family. Relatives who say they are among those claimed dead swear they are alive and well and that the journalist, Dhia Kawaz, invented the story in order to get money and sympathy from charity groups.

The sympathy part worked. Within hours of the reported killings, Reporters Without Borders and Iraqi media representatives were condemning what appeared to be another case of Iraqi journalists being targeted for their work.

Still, something seemed odd.

LEBANON: Lovin' a man in uniform

Is a solution for Lebanon's political crisis finally on the horizon? 

Today Lebanon's feuding political factions came closer to an agreement over electing the country's army commander as president, bringing hope for an end to a week-long presidential vacuum and an alleviation of political tension in the country.

Key opposition figures said that they supported the election of Gen. Michel Suleiman to Lebanon's top post, a day after members in the ruling majority announced their readiness to vote for the army chief and amend the constitution to that effect.

President Emile Lahoud stepped down last week, leaving the country in a fragile void after parliament failed to convene and elect his successor. Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government took over the president's powers. The opposition, supported by Iran and Syria, tacitly accepted the move but warned it regarded the government as illegitimate.

ISRAEL: The 'big one' that wasn't

As if people in this conflict-ridden region don’t have enough to be jittery about — an earthquake scare?

Thousands of Palestinians were evacuated from schools and offices today after rumors of an impending earthquake caused panic in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. According to one version of the rumor, a small tremor hit the area shortly before noon (untrue) and a potentially devastating aftershock was expected (also untrue, so far).

The source of the rumor remained as much of a mystery as the missing temblor. But as with almost every story here, the episode carried a political element.

One version held that Palestinian authorities had spread word of an impending quake in order to deter protesters in the West Bank town of Hebron, where police have clashed twice this week with demonstrators opposed to the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis. There was counter-speculation that Palestinian Authority officials were being blamed for the scare as a way to discredit them and the nascent peacemaking efforts.

The Israeli news website Ynet was reporting that the rumor took off after Palestinian education officials ordered schools to make earthquake-preparedness plans. It said word soon spread that the expected quake would measure 7 or higher on the Richter scale.

The Geophysical Institute of Israel, which monitors seismological activity, said the rumor was unfounded, and that officials don’t try to predict quakes.

Earthquakes, even big ones, have been known to hit here. At least two minor quakes could be felt in parts of Israel and the West Bank in recent weeks, renewing speculation that the region was due for a much bigger one sometime soon.

Meantime, we’ll try to stay focused on what’s happening on the ground, not under it.

— Ken Ellingwood in Jerusalem and Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank

EGYPT: Politicized faith

Egypt’s top Muslim religious leaders have recently elicited a huge uproar across the country by issuing fatwas and making statements that reinforced the common conception that they advance a version of Islam that suits the interests of the ruling regime.

Sexy models take Lebanon

In a high-end hotel in downtown Beirut, fearful of a new wave of assassinations, Lebanese lawmakers are holed up awaiting to complete a pivotal political mission, the election of a new president.

But many eyes in the Arab world these days are focused on another group confined to fancy digs. In an upscale villa atop a nearby mountain, a television show brings together the Arab world's hottest models and trendiest fashion designers to compete on a popular new reality television show called Mission Fashion.

IRAQ: Onward butter soldiers

Yes, you hear about strange things in Baghdad. Peruvian security guards singing Frank Sinatra in the Green Zone. A sheik who prided himself on being a dead ringer for Sean Connery.

Once a friend attended a Friday sermon in Baghdad, where the cleric told his congregation he had found proof of America's wickedness and started to recite a text that had been passed on to him. "Asia's crowded and Europe's too old. Africa is far too hot and Canada's too cold and South America stole our name. Let's drop the big one. There'll be no one left to blame us."

My friend thought he knew the words and then realized the preacher was reciting the 1970s song "Political Science" by Randy Newman.

But last week, I had my own encounter with the bizarre. On line for Thanksgiving dinner at a U.S. Army base, we passed ice sculptures of Babylonian winged lions. That was fine. I didn't even mind the little gingerbread houses decorated with candy canes and Oreos. It was the life-sized model of a soldier that freaked me out. Even the soldiers were disturbed.

It was sculpted from some fatty food product, either vanilla icing or butter. You had to touch it to find out. It was defintely butter. A six-foot tall butter soldier.

It stayed there for several days and didn't melt. I wondered who spent their time sculpting this thing. Was it some contracted food worker ordered by his KBR supervisor: "We need a six-foot butter soldier for Thanksgiving." Or maybe it was just a man who believed this was his way to pay tribute to his country. I just don't know.

— Ned Parker in Baghdad

Photo: Butter soldier will not melt in battle. Credit: Ned Parker

IRAN: Ahmadinejad the blogger

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has something in common with bloggers around the world: being overwhelmed by the demand for fresh content.

The president started a blog in 2006, vowing to spend 15 minutes a day communicating directly with people around the world. He has had 12 posts since then, starting with descriptions of his childhood as the son of a blacksmith who placed 132 out of 400,000 on the university admissions test despite a mid-exam nosebleed.

His protests against the shah did not distract from his studies, he said, and he rose to become a civil engineer, mayor, and in 2005, was elected president. He writes of the nature of bureaucracy, condemns the indignity of the United States' fingerprinting of foreigners, and prints the transcript of the 2006 meeting at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York when a Holocaust survivor presented himself as a living witness to the fact the Holocaust occurred.

The comments section is uncensored and erratic as any blog: "I think you are an evil leader," wrote Xochitl from the US.

"I think we need more leaders like you," wrote Ishu Shujau from the Maldives.

"Keep fighting bro," said Yuli Rani from Indonesia.

"Nice blog. You should be writing more often," said John Walker from Germany.

In an apparent response to Walker's comment, the president made his first post in eight months on Nov. 18th, apologizing for not writing.

"This doesn't mean that I have not been keeping my promise of spending fifteen minutes per week on it," he wrote. "As a matter of fact, I have spent more than the allocated time on the blog."

He had so many messages that he felt like he must personally respond to, he wrote, that only now does he feel caught up. He will continue to post and answer messages.

But he has one request for his loyal correspondents: "Make it as brief as you can."

— Maggie Farley at the United Nations

IRAQ: Honeymoon in Baghdad?

The car was festooned with flowers. The bride was resplendent in a puffy white gown. ‎And what a tall, strapping bride she was! A bit too tall for soldiers who stopped the ‎seemingly happy couple as they approached a military checkpoint north of Baghdad ‎on Sunday.

According to a statement from Iraq's Ministry of Defense, ‎Iraqi troops got suspicious when the car tried to pass through the checkpoint without ‎stopping. The occupants were ordered out of the vehicle, and a pat-down search ‎quickly revealed that this was no ordinary couple. Iraqi officials said the bride, groom ‎and two escorts actually were wanted men suspected of involvement in insurgent ‎activity. The ministry statement included photographs of the men, both before and ‎after the wedding.‎   

— Tina Susman in Baghdad

Photo: The blushing "bride"; Credit: Iraq Defense Ministry

IRAN: Fighting for human rights

Iran's Supreme Court today reopened the case of Zahreh Kazemi, the Canadian Iranian journalist who was allegedly beaten to death in 2003 while in a Tehran prison. Her mother tapped Iranian lawyer and Nobel Laureate Shireen Ebadi to pursue her case, which continues to strain relations between Tehran and Ottawa.

Ebadi lost the battle. Iranian authorities acquitted all those allegedly involved in her death.

On a trip to Iran early this year I spoke with Mohammed Hossein Aghassi, lawyer for Parnaz Azima, the Iranian American reporter who was charged with state security crimes during a visit to Tehran and later allowed to leave the country.

I expected a timid and discrete jurist who would refuse to let me use his name. Who knew that I would find Iran’s version of William Kunstler, the famous American civil rights lawyer who took up the case of the Black Panthers in the 1960s?

IRAQ: De-Baathification measure draws lawmakers' ire

Sunday’s session at the Iraqi Parliament resembled a typically rowdy gathering of the British Parliament during Question Time with the British Prime Minister, in which backbenchers (or members of the parliament who are not ministers) boisterously pepper the country’s leader with queries. The sessions usually become quite heated.

While Sunday's session was not targeted at the Iraqi Prime Minister, numerous “Right Honorable” Iraqi lawmakers descended into yelling and finger-pointing among themselves.

The issue at hand concerned reforms that would ease curbs on former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party rejoining Iraq's civil service and military.

IRAN: No one-way tickets in Tehran

Inflation rather than the American warships moored in the Persian Gulf may be the biggest threat to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The country's inflation rate itself is a matter of heated dispute between officials and experts. The Central Bank pegged the rate at 16.2% in a report published this year. Reformist critics say it's closer to 25%.

However, consumers have their own assessment of inflation. Stores regularly say they’ve raised prices 30% to 35% over the last year for basic staples such as rice, bread and meat.

IRAQ: At long last, a victim is laid to rest

Salam Suwaidan died more than a year ago, but he finally got a proper burial Thursday after his family tracked his body to a cemetery for unidentified corpses and brought it back to his hometown west of Baghdad. Hundreds of people turned out for the funeral, the result of painstaking efforts by relatives whose experience illustrates the tragedy facing so many Iraqis.

Not only do they lose loved ones to violence on a daily basis, often they never find out what happened to them. This was nearly the case with Suwaidan, who headed the scholarship department at the Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad.

IRAQ: Al Qaeda marks Thanksgiving with bloodshed

Al Qaeda in Iraq appears to remain as defiant as ever, despite indications that multinational forces in the country are making significant inroads into defeating the insurgents.

On Thursday, they brazenly attacked Iraqi Army troops in south Baghdad, captured a couple of Army vehicles, and then used them to attack armed civilians, known as Concerned Citizens, who at one time were Al Qaeda allies.

EGYPT: Who to believe?

Two days after an announcement that the government finalized a plan to build a new capital,  President Hosni Mubarak dealt a blow  to his cabinet by ridiculing the project and declaring that his treasury could not afford such a project, a statement that embarrassed the cabinet, which is a presidential appointee.

SAUDI ARABIA: A beguiling case of rape

Even in a Saudi Arabia, where evildoers are beheaded and the hands of pick-pockets are amputated, the case of the young woman from Qatif was viewed by many as a startling injustice and disturbing reminder of how little rights women have in the kingdom.

JORDAN: Islamists lose elections

Preliminary results from Jordan's elections Tuesday showed Islamists losing more than half of their parliamentary seats and those aligned with King Abdullah II winning big, according to Reuters.

The results were no big surprise for most observers, who saw the election as rigged to give the king's secular and Islamic opponents, like the Islamic Action Front, little chance at mounting a credible opposition. The Front's total dropped from the 17 seats it won in 2003 to seven.

The big loss for the Islamic Action Front comes as the party split between hard-liners who wanted to boycott the election altogether and moderates who wanted to give it a chance. The results may boost the hardline position.

IRAQ: News agency to address Baghdad security concerns

Iraq's government is so confident that the security gains being felt in the capital are here to stay that it plans to launch a new news agency to trumpet the good news. Ali Hadi Mohammed, head of the government's National Media Center, announced the plan Monday to a handful of foreign journalists invited to his office for a get-to-know-you session.

Presidential deadlock in Lebanon

Deadlocked Lebanese lawmakers yet again today delayed a parliamentary session to choose a new president to replace the departing Emile Lahoud, whose term expires at the stroke of midnight Friday.

They were supposed to meet Wednesday. But news agencies reported today that the meeting has been pushed back until Friday, just hours before the hours the deadline.

Blogger Jeha, writing at Pajamas Media, thinks there will likely be another delay.

The smart money is not betting on anything happening any time soon. Nor is anyone expecting much for the time being. The fact remains that the current crop of leaders, many of whom are “born again” Lebanese, have been accustomed to getting marching orders from elsewhere.

Indeed many Lebanese feel utter contempt toward their political class, who dress well but can't seem to govern, as shown in this animated video featuring Lebanon's political cast of characters, from Michel Auon to Walid Jumblatt.

Still many fear the political bickering could quickly descend into the kind of violence that plagued Lebanon during the 1975-1990 civil war.

IRAQ: Car bombings are all too common in Baghdad

Better security was the topic of a news conference held by U.S. government and military officials inside the well-protected Green Zone on Sunday. Unfortunately, security concerns prevented some journalists from hearing the news first-hand.

IRAN: Bureaucratic realism in Tehran

Iranian authorities have banned a Persian-language translation of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's novel, "Memories of My Melancholy Whores," but pirated copies continue to sell briskly in Tehran. In fact, sales appear to have increased since the ban went into effect.

On the sidewalks outside Tehran University, vendors sold copies of the book, which is titled "Memories of my Melancholy Sweethearts," in the Persian version. On Sunday, the booksellers busily bound copies of the Colombian novelist's book to sell for about $3 each. At least one website put the whole book online, and without mistranslating the title.

ISRAEL: At the Old City, breathing it in

Jerusalem’s Old City offers a feast of iconic sights (the Dome of the Rock and Western Wall, for example) and evocative sounds (the pealing church bells and chanting calls to Muslim prayer). But the cramped stone alleys are also rich for how they smell--for the variety of scents, from burning incense to ground cardamom, that tell you a lot about the Old City’s many roles as holy spot, tourist destination and ordinary residential neighborhood.

Just step inside Jaffa Gate, past the row of taxis, where a pushcart is loaded with oblong rings of a sesame-topped bread, known in Hebrew as beigale and Arabic as ka’ak, that smell fresh-baked. Follow the slippery stone walk as it slopes gently past souvenir shops tight on both sides, the fresh-leather scent of sandals for sale disappearing behind a vendor’s cigarette smoke.

LEBANON: Uneasy return

Last Saturday, I went up to northern Lebanon to finally enter the refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared, the scene of an intense summer war between the Lebanese security forces and Fateh Al-Islam, a militant group with Al Qaeda ties.

It was quite a challenge to get in and report on what was happening there. For the past month, the Lebanese army has allowed the return of almost two thousand Palestinian families. Local and international humanitarian groups have also been granted permission to enter.

IRAN: Tangled times in Tehran

In his Friday sermon in Tehran, ultraconservative Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami (not to be confused with reformist former President Mohammad Khatami) addressed signs of an emerging rift between the hard-line clique of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and more pragmatic groups within Tehran's ruling establishment.

Addressing worshipers at Tehran University, he played down the recent war of words between the camp of Ahmadinejad and his powerful rival, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, ahead of parliamentary elections slated for spring.

"It is better, as the late Imam [Ruhollah] Khomeini said, 'to argue in private like seminary students in school' and to avoid the public podiums," he told the faithful.

He also took the opportunity to denounce the U.S., demanding that America apologize for "lying" about the recent International Atomic Energy Assn. report on Iran's nuclear program, chronicled here and here by The Times' United Nations Bureau chief, Maggie Farley.

EGYPT: Jihadi violence revisited

A heavyweight ideologue of al-Jihad group has drafted a new document where he revisited the group's initial ideology and renounced violence. In his treatise, Sayed Imam, who co-founded the first cell of al-Jihad group with Ayman al-Zawahri in Egypt in the late 1970's, revisited the juristic foundations that justified the group's violence against Muslims and non-Muslims.

The document titled "Document for the Rationalization of al-Jihad in Egypt and the World" is expected to be published in sequels in the local and regional press starting next week.

MIDDLE EAST: No domestic bliss

Human rights advocates have shined a spotlight on the plight of maids from South Asia imported to the Middle East. The nonprofit group Human Rights Watch has accused the Lebanese and other governments in the Middle East of failing to curb serious abuses against Sri Lankan domestic workers.

New-York-based HRW estimates 600,000 Sri Lankan women work in the Arab world, many without basic legal protections. Its 130-page report, released today, focuses on violence against Sri Lankans in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

EGYPT: Save the Sphinx

Stark and red, the letters bleed through the website as if promoting a horror film from the 1930s: "Save The Sphinx." But there are no desert villains, no howling sandstorms, no lurking, murderous mummies. Bassam El Shammaa, an Egyptologist who types in breathless passion punctuated by CAPITAL letters and !!!!!!!, reports on his website www.sossphinx.bassam.itgo.com that underground water levels among other things are endangering the Sphinx.

"While I was walking around the Sphinx area on Saturday, September, 22nd, 2007," he writes, "I was shocked by what I saw there! As you can see below in the pictures I took, the UNDERGROUND WATER, ELECTRICITY CABLES, LOUDSPEAKERS, SALTY STAGNANT WATER, CABLES, HUMAN FEET SHACKING THE MONUMENTS, GARBAGE and finally OLD AGE all definitely lead to destruction!!   

The Egyptian press reported that the water problem is being studied but that it is not as alarming as Shammaa's capital letters suggest. It could be a change in the groundwater table, or overflow from irrigation. Shammaa would rather be BOLD now than sorry later. He told the Daily News Egypt: "I am driven by a sense of responsibility."

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo   

PERSIAN GULF: Watching the old country

The Persian Gulf's huge Pakistani community is watching with concern as events unfold back home. At Sherview, Dubai-based blogger and commentator Anwar Sher writes:

It is blatantly clear that self interest, which has been the hallmark of most of the nation's leaders, be they in uniform or not, has begun to unfold in a sadistic soup of side deals, broken promises, exiles and finally the show of the power of the gun muzzle through 'emergency powers.'

BTW, fellow Babylon contributor Laura King described in a Nov. 8 article how the Internet has become an essential tool for opposition to President Pervez Musharraf.

Dubai's Gulf News on Wednesday published an opinion piece by Pakistani American Hussain Haqqani taking Musharraf to task:

Only a belief in the divine right of army chiefs can explain some of the assertions made by General Pervez Musharraf in his press conference over the weekend. He claimed that "I did not violate the Constitution and law of this land," even after suspending the constitution. Quite clearly, he sees his decisions as the law of the land.

The United Arab Emirates' Khaleej Times published a Nov. 10 opinion piece by Indian journalist Praful Bidwai, blasting Musharraf's argument that he had to impose martial law in order to stop the growing power of Muslim extremists:

Musharraf's martial law is certain to increase public alienation, social turmoil and political instability. That will prove conducive to the further growth of extremism. Musharraf has aborted the democratic political process which alone could have acted as a buffer against extremism.

The Persian Gulf kingdoms' Pakistani expatriates wield money and influence, and Pakistan's officials have taken notice. In response to an article in the Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News about the security of his country's nuclear weapons arsenal, Pakistani diplomat Mohammed Saleem wrote:

The government of Pakistan has a strong custodial control of its nuclear assets. They cannot fall into unauthorized hands. We have the expertise, personnel and a multi-layered system, devoted to safeguarding our nuclear assets. The state agencies are fully vigilant. We also have an impregnable system of nuclear export controls.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

IRAN: Pill-popping through the revolution

The more Iran's clerics tried to change things in the country, the more they stayed the same.

A pharmacist friend gave me a short history of pharmaceutical drugs in the Islamic Republic of Iran and how it sheds light on the country's evolving revolution.

In the early years after the 1979 revolution, all drugs were generic, in part because multinational pharmaceutical companies cut their ties with Iran. But it was also because drab generic drugs fit in well with the revolutionary ethos of the time. Iran had thrown off the shackles of Western imperialism and was standing on its own feet, without the help of the U.S.  Its own pharmaceutical factories could meet the needs of most patients. Meanwhile, those who could afford it bought smuggled brand-name drugs on the black market.

In 1989, after the Iran-Iraq war ended and freewheeling Hashemi Rafsanjani became president, Iranian companies were allowed to label their drugs with colorful logos and brand names, such as A.S.A., Jalinous or Hakim.

IRAN: The atomic cafe

Tensions between Iran's conservatives and ultra-conservatives appear to be heating up over the direction of Iran's controversial nuclear program.

On Monday, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a fiery speech at a university in Tehran calling his domestic rivals "traitors" and accusing them of pressuring a judge to release former nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian from jail despite pending espionage charges.

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, former president and chair of Iran's Assembly of Experts and a challenger to Ahmadinejad's powerful clique, stood by Mousavian at a news conference.

"Criticism is contructive but not nastiness," Rafsanjani said in a veiled criticism of Ahmadinejad's rough manner.

The longstanding fight between Ahmadinejad's circle and that of more pragmatic politicians have heated up in the days before an International Atomic Energy Association report that could tilt the international community for or against another round of United Nations sanctions on Iran.

IRAQ: No hunting allowed

The security chief along the gorgeous and mountainous stretch of the Iraq-Turkey border was a genial man. He welcomed us into his office  and invited us to sit down by his desk. He served us tea, and then fed us a line of bull.

I pressed him about the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the Kurdish militant group that has been attacking Turkish soldiers. Was it true, as we'd heard, that the fighters came to this town, Mergasur, for medical treatment? Do they ever visit the town's hospital? Do any of the nonprofit organizations in town or villagers give them support?

He paused thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "You know," he said, "a lot of things that are allowed in other parts of Iraqi Kurdistan aren't allowed here. Cutting down trees, for example. If you cut down a tree, I'll put you in jail for two months."

LEBANON: 1,000 days, no end in sight

Lebanon’s parliament today, the fourth time, announced a delay in choosing a new president. Speaker Nabih Berri said negotiations between the pro-Western and anti-Syrian camp and the Syria- and Iran-backed opposition faction continued.

Lebanon also marked 1,000 days  since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

Lebanese commuters passing through central Beirut are greeted by the beaming face of their former prime minister on a large billboard with a digital counter tallying the number of days since his killing above the words, "The truth, for the sake of Lebanon." 

IRAQ: Not without her daughter

You know the story. A Middle Eastern man marries an American woman. They have a daughter, the marriage falls apart and he swipes the kid and takes her back to the old country.

But scholar Denise Natali, 44, adds a new twist to the story. She married a man from the Middle East. They moved to Paris, but it's she who brought her 7-year-old daughter to the region, to pursue a job at the newly founded University of Kurdistan-Hawler in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil.

Her husband, a successful Paris restaurateur and an ethnic Kurd from Turkey, is packing up his business and following his wife back to the Middle East, albeit skeptically.

ISRAEL: Border crossings, Part 2

My departure from Israel went quite smoothly, with only minor hassles and a short Q&A. As mentioned previously here, Israelis seem to be feeling pretty relaxed these days.

One curious point: I noticed that pre-flight security measures at Ben Gurion Airport were actually a lot mellower and less invasive than at any American airport I've been to in the last few years.

I didn't have to take off my shoes or my belt when going through the X-ray machine. The lady in front of me came through carrying a bottle of water.

So here's the question I'll put forth for discussion: Are Israeli security standards lax? Or is much of the stuff we're put through by the TSA just unnecessary fluff designed to demonstrate vigilance? 

— Ashraf Khalil in Chicago

ISRAEL: Babylon babble causes a diplomatic incident

The source for this Nov. 8 posting, the Jerusalem Post, reported that an Israeli journalist's use of the online translation engine Babel Fish resulted in a series of incomprehensible questions to the Dutch foreign minister. That report was incorrect; the translation engine he used was Babylon.

You're about to leave for an educational seminar in the Netherlands, where your group will meet the foreign minister. The Dutch Consulate wants to know in advance what you intend to ask him.

Your English is not very good, your Dutch nonexistent.

What do you do?

Faced with that problem, an Israeli journalist got the bright idea to type his group's questions in Hebrew and run them through Babylon Babel Fish, the automated online translation service.

The output, according to the Jerusalem Post, was a series of mangled sentences and a diplomatic embarrassment.

"Helloh bud, Enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister," the journalist's e-mail began. "The mother your visit in Israel is a sleep to the favor or to the bed your mind on the conflict are Israeli Palestinian, and on the relational Israel Holland."

It continued with five nearly incomprehensible questions, and several other mentions of "mother."

One question that was meant to read: "What, in your opinion, needs to be done regarding the Iranian threat to Israel?" became "What in your opinion needs to do opposite the awful the Iranian of Israel."

The Dutch Foreign Ministry was not amused. It is considering canceling the group's trip and filing a formal complaint.

"How could this e-mail possibly have been sent?" an irritated Israeli diplomat asked the Jerusalem Post.

Ask Babylon Babel Fish, bud. It mistakes the Hebrew word for "if" (ha'im) for the Hebrew word for "mother" (ha'ima) and translates "Dome of the Rock" as "bandages of the knitted domes."

— Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem

IRAN: Every book tells a tale

The books are for sale in a crumbling three-story building doomed to be demolished to make way for a new western wing of Tehran University. A man in his mid-30s asks a salesman about selling his used English-language books in bulk. He built up the collection painstakingly over the years, evading censors and sanctions. But they’re now a burden for him as he plans his immigration to North America, Australia or Europe.

The official figures say that up to 180,000 educated Iranians leavethe country every year in search of a better life abroad. The desire to leave the country is evident, simply take a look at the lines outside the Canadian or French embassies in Tehran, or at the growing number of lucrative private language schools. Or visit the used book stores.

I have mixed feelings when I buy such books. I'm happy to own some books by Edgar Allan Poe and William James but I feel sad for the man selling his beloved books. He seems like a father giving away his motherless children to be adopted by a rich family.

EGYPT: Have scooter, will deliver

They buzz through the night like fireflies, legions of young men delivering Big Macs, pizzas, subs, groceries, flowers, pharmaceuticals, holy books, stockings, incense and anything else that can fit into the boxes teetering on the rear of their motor scooters. Delivery guys are common in many countries, but in Cairo they're everywhere, waiting to be dispatched from fast-food restaurants and dry cleaners. They are a cross between the "Wild Bunch" and schoolboys in helmets. They have a limited amount of change in their pockets and an uncanny ability to find streets with no names. They skitter, squeal, skid and slide, racing on sidewalks and zipping across bridges that span highways and train tracks. They will deliver a single ice cream cone, no mean feat in a nation that's mostly desert.

They are so ubiquitous and relied upon that anyone preferring to venture to the supermarket to buy and haul home groceries on his own is looked upon by cashiers as possibly being addled. One clerk recently told a customer: "Why don't you phone it in next time? We have people who will come."

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

IRAQ: Baghdad gives rush hour new meaning

Sunday morning is the worst time to drive in Baghdad, because it’s the first day of the workweek here. For that reason, I left home early last Sunday to reach work on time. As I approached the bus terminal, I was surprised to see it crowded with buses just sitting there.

The drivers had been warned by others to avoid downtown because of terrible traffic jams. But people have to get to work, so some people gave our driver extra money to go downtown via Haifa Street, which six months ago was a battleground controlled by Sunni insurgents. Back then, it was difficult for regular Sunnis to venture down Haifa Street. It was impossible for Shiites to do so. That changed after U.S. and Iraqi forces attacked the insurgents controlling the area.

EGYPT: The trouble beyond the chorus

By singing at a Cairo synagogue, Gaber el-Beltagui elicited a storm of fury among many fellow Egyptians, who dismissed his move as a sign of normalization with the Jewish state. The opera singer performed his songs at the centenary celebrations of the Shaar Hashamashiyam synagogue, an event organized by the Jewish Community in Egypt.

According to the local press, Egypt has a population of about 100 Jews, mostly women. After decades of fighting, Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, which normalized relations between the two neighbors. Yet, it remains a sensitive issue for many Egyptians, who still regard the Jewish state as an enemy and shrug off normalization as a form of treason. To dispel accusations of “normalization,” El-Beltagui contended he did not sing for the Jews. “There is a clear confusion here, because I did not sing for the Jews but I sang for peace … In my song, I called for the denunciation of fanaticism and the proliferation of peace,” El-Betagui told the media

However, those statements did not dissuade his syndicate from freezing his membership. “How can he go sing at a synagogue while they [Israelis] are killing our sons?” asked Mounir El-Wasseemy, the head of the Musical Artists’ Syndicate. “What glory was he seeking? This was very selfish and showed a sense of irresponsibility,” he added.

— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

ISRAEL: Border crossings

Entering and leaving the state of Israel has always been an adventure for me. As an Arab American, the usual security routine always seems to be jacked up an extra 10%. And flashing the journalist ID sometimes makes matters worse.

In 2001, I crossed into the Gaza Strip from Egypt to cover the Palestinian reaction to Ariel Sharon’s election as Israel's prime minister. Several days later, when I was ready to leave, the Israelis had indefinitely closed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

I was working freelance at the time and paying all my own expenses, so hanging around in Gaza running up hotel bills while waiting for Rafah to reopen wasn’t an option. My only choice was to cross into Israel and make my way overland to Taba, then into Egypt.

The problem: I had been issued a Gaza-only visa.

IRAQ: Man on the hilltop

With yellowed fingers, the aging Kurdish warrior lights another cigarette and speaks his mind.

For decades Nawshirwan Mustafa fought for Kurdish autonomy against the tyranny of Baghdad. The steely-eyed intellectual turned guerrilla commander helped secretly organize the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein that challenged Baghdad's rule in the north and led to the establishment of the Kurdish autonomous region.

Now at 63 he's embarked on a new crusade: against his fellow Kurdish warriors, whom he accuses of corruption and complacency.

"There is no separation of the political parties from the government," he says. "There's no transparency. There's cronyism and nepotism in the appointment of high officials."

SAUDI ARABIA: Stale popcorn?

In response to our Oct. 31 post, "Banished from the kingdoms," about the banning of director Peter Berg's new film "The Kingdom," in the Persian Gulf,  Saudi Arabia expert Stephen H. Franke writes:

"This film disparages the Saudis, their culture, and the Saudi organizations for public safety/national security, and the film also aims to 'get in the face' of every official organization depicted, including the US Department of State and the FBI."

In his extensive and thoughtul comments, Franke also says the movie is unrealistic, loaded with "numerous nonsensical and inaccurate items, scenarios which would be impossible."

IRAN: Renovations at "The Den of Spies"

On Sunday morning I rushed to the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, now called “The Den of Spies,” for the annual commemoration of the taking of the diplomatic mission by radical Islamic students.

As I walked in, I tried to compare what I saw to what I read about in Mark Bowden’s book “Guests of the Ayatollahs.”

I explored the courtyards between the former ambassador’s residence, which is now a center for Quranic and computer centers. I visited the consular section, a huge space that is now a venue for different cultural or “anti-imperialist” art exhibits.

IRAQ: Pomegranate season

Cool mountain breezes grace the golden hilltops of Kurdistan, bending the dry blades of grass. Across rocky mountain slopes studded with pine trees, upon yellowed high desert plains strewn with boulders, in grassy valleys along foaming rivers, a hundred wedding celebrations bloom.

With the threats of a Turkish invasion receding, Kurds have resumed the joys of life. They tend to celebrate weddings outdoors. The men get gussied up in traditional baggy trousers and cummerbunds. The women slide into glittery emerald dresses and shawls as red as the ubiquitous pomegranates now in season and sold from makeshift stalls along country roads.

TUNISIA: A moment in Carthage

The cathedral is not used for God anymore. It has been turned into a concert hall, where the other day a pianist played as a few souls wandered amid the ruins on a bluff overlooking the sea beyond Carthage. He was practicing for the evening's performance, toying with notes, circling back on them until they smoothly fit beneath his fingers. The music may have been Bach.

Carthage. The name conjures much: sea lanes and Romans, Phoenicians and Greeks, queens and pirates, falls and rises, Christianity and Islam, and now, disposable cameras and the slap of tourist sandals on cool stones. Pews have been removed from the St. Louis Cathedral, built by the French at a time the French ruled much of North Africa. The holy water fonts are dry, but the cupolas and the keyhole-shaped alcoves — a striking blend of eastern and western architectures — are well-preserved.

The piano player slipped into a minor key. He hunched over his hands, as if whispering to them, coaxing something that wouldn't come, until he found it, and released it into the afternoon light. His name was not given, nor asked for. He was a man in a white shirt sitting on a stool in a church along the Tunisian coast. Before him had come warriors, kings, martyrs and missionaries. He kept playing, even as the door closed, the music growing fainter as the car wound down the hill.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Carthage

PAKISTAN: Whereabouts unknown

The first bad sign is someone's mobile phone failing to ring. The Pakistani addiction to cellphones cuts across all social classes; if someone's phone is turned off, chances are good that something is amiss.

Over the last two days, as hundreds of lawyers, human rights activists and political leaders have been rounded up by police, those who have been detained or have fled into hiding are finding ways to get the word out to friends and associates, like a trail of electronic breadcrumbs left behind.

"JUST TAKING A LITTLE TIME OFF," said a wry text message from an opposition party worker who went to stay with relatives in the country because she feared arrest.

IRAQ: A little color in Baghdad's Green Zone

Sometimes, walking through the Green Zone in Baghdad is a strange experience. You will see Hash runners — the British expatriate running and drinking club present in far-flung places around the world — jogging by the speeding convoys, sucking in the dust and passing a landscape of bombed-out villas and residences now inhabited by security contractors and politicians.

The Peruvian security guards manning checkpoints to enter the road to the parliament talk about Frank Sinatra and will sing a verse of "New York, New York."

Everyone loves Ol' Blue Eyes.

— Ned Parker in Baghdad

EGYPT: Want ads

Egypt is many things, but a pyramid of political correctness it is not. Consider the want ads. In the U.S., companies fine tune job posting prose to create an obtuse language with a style all its own. They "lawyer-ize" it, run it past the human relations department and, generally, make sure it does not offend, outrage or otherwise bruise the feelings of any person or group prone to outrage and bruised feelings.

Flick to the Egyptian classifieds and — depending upon your political correctness index — you'll either be reviled or refreshed. A recent ad for a receptionist in a telemarketing firm left no doubt about the kind of candidate the bosses had in mind: "age 22 to 30 — good looking." It came with a bonus.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

IRAN: When the old city fades away

It is said that to make a costume drama in London — say a feature film based on a Charles Dickens novel — filmmakers need only cordon off traffic from any given street and begin shooting.

But in Tehran, where everybody delivers long-winded speeches about Iran’s heritage and grand cultural past and issues slogans about fending off the encroachments of the West, you can get lost in your own city because the architecture, street names and landmarks change so fast.

The disorientation has struck me and many of my friends, watching as old buildings are demolished and new high-rises spiral ever upward. Part of the rapid change is because of safety. On the radio they say 700,000 housing units in Tehran are in danger of collapse if a minor earthquake jolts the seismically active capital.

Prisoners as icons, and museum fodder

Patriotic steadfastness is exalted in the Palestinian imagination, and no one personifies this more than a Palestinian prisoner — there are an estimated 11,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Prisoners are esteemed across Palestinian society, and a jail stint buys instant street cred.

A new West Bank museum focusing on prisoners gives a strong taste of the iconography around jailed Palestinians, if not deep scholarship or much explanation. The six-month-old Abu Jihad Center for Political Prisoners’ Affairs is a collection of artifacts — letters, photos of prison life and the like — and a comment on life under occupation. Mainly, it’s a salute to Palestinians jailed by Israel. (That’s 800,000 people since 1967, said museum director Fahed Abu Haj, an animated, stocky man who spent 10 years in jail for his activities in the Fatah movement.)

The museum was built with $750,000 from Kuwait and named after Khalil Wazir, a former deputy of Yasser Arafat killed in Tunisia in 1988, apparently by Israeli agents. Housed at Al Quds University in Abu Dis, the collection pays careful attention to symbolism and design (crenelated walls and worn stone tiles are meant to evoke Jerusalem’s Old City, for example).

There are many lists: of 27 Israeli detention facilities; of 76 “forms of torture" inside Israeli jails; of 220 Palestinians who died in custody. Another roster lists 64 “old prisoners” jailed more than 20 years. The most immediate artifacts are those from prisoners’ daily lives, such as the letters written in minuscule Arabic script and rolled into candy-sized pellets to be smuggled out by prison visitors.

Israelis are welcome, Abu Haj says, but even dovish Israelis may be appalled that the museum never says what deeds these inmates committed. A Palestinian’s act of resistance is usually an Israeli’s act of terrorism.

Still, samples of prisoner art, including Dome of the Rock sculptures crafted from cardboard, beads, colored silk and other household materials, help show that inmates are people, too, said Salah Takatka, who was visiting on a recent day. Takatka, 33, was freed in September after serving 8 1/2 years for activities that, he said, included attacking Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem with stones.

“When they see the work that we do, they will see we are not all terrorists,” Takatka said. “We are also artists.”

— Ken Ellingwood in Abu Dis

Photo: Fahed Abu Haj, a Palestinian former prisoner, runs a new museum in the West Bank devoted to the experience of Palestinians jailed by Israel. Credit: Ken Ellingwood