Center for a New American Security

This priceless email report is from Beirut-based Mitch Prothero, of The National:

Oh no, the pride of Mahrouna, Haifa Wehbe, has gotten in trouble for calling those from Upper Egypt "monkeys". Tsk, tsk. I don't think singing this in Aswan is going to make up for the hurt, either.

Yezid Sayigh, to whom this blogger owes both a dissertation chapter as well as an interim progress report, has a new white paper out from the Carnegie Institute on secutiry sector reform (SSR) in Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen (.pdf). Considering Yezid's background, the section on the Palestinian Territories will be especially worth reading.

Building off of yesterday's post on Hizballah and Israel, I need to tell you that the UN in southern Lebanon is complaining the Israelis have placed "spy gear" in southern Lebanon that is now causing suspicious explosions. The only thing cooler than spy gear, I say, is exploding spy gear.

What, though, is "spy gear"? Can you imagine the UNIFIL investigation?

This would be really funny if it were not so serious. After Robert Fisk -- whose very name has long been a verb meaning to viciously fact-check -- wrote a very thinly sourced article in the Independent on how the end was neigh for the dollar, traders and speculators made and lost billions as the dollar weakened. Now a search has begun to discover Mister Robert's source.

My schedule is packed with meetings today, so posting will be light, but this beat out Iranian rocket tests for the lead story in yesterday's Jerusalem Post:

During his research for the article, titled "How the Arabs are preparing for the next war," Sandman asked 24 senior IDF officers to grade the army and Hizbullah in 10 categories, on a scale of 1 to 10.

 

As you might imagine, I have spent a lot of time in the bars and cafes of Beirut talking with journalists, analysts and other friends about Hizballah and its strategy. It's a new experience doing the same thing here south of the Blue Line. The other day, though, just before Yom Kippur, I sat down with a Jerusalem-based analyst, and though we had some (polite) disagreements about the motivations of Hizballah and its relationship with Iran, we both agreed on one thing: that Hizballah's strategy toward Israel since the latter's 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon has been incoherent.

1. How great was Qaddafi today? I mean, classic. The Guardian has the best re-cap:

Hahahaha, Lt. Col. W. Thomas Smith, Jr... This guy never fails to amuse me. He's still cranky some journalists in Beirut outed him as a fabulist, ending his gig with the National Review:

Whew. It's been quite a whirlwind journey. After leaving Beirut on Thursday, I spent the weekend in Paris where, among other things, I paid a visit to my friend Etienne de Durand at IFRI and also lunched with another friend, Judah Grunstein (et fils).