Daily Archives: September 21, 2010

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Goofy Lebanese Terrorist

Caught red handed:

Sami Samir Hassoun thought he was going to blow up half a city block full of frat boys and sorority girls. He ended up just disposing of a gallon paint can full of fake explosives for the FBI, in one of the oddest terrorist attempts in recent memory.

He’s a Lebanese emigrant, but he’s no Islamist:

Hassoun wasn’t inspired by religious views. His reasoning for the bombing was to undermine the mayor and hopefully have an associate take control of the city

Mark that as 2 extra hours of searching for holders of Lebanese passports in world airports.

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Centre Ville Beirut Has Region’s Most Expensive Retail Space

The National:

Beirut’s City Centre has the highest average retail rent, at US$167 per square foot per year, [it] is followed by Ramat Aviv in Tel Aviv at $153 per sq ft and ABC Centre Achrafieh, also in Beirut, at $139. Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates is ranked ninth in the MENA region, at $110 per sq ft per year, the report said.

This is astounding. We’re talking about an area that only a few years ago was completely shut down because of political unrest, something that could very well happen again. But what strikes me most about that report is that it says that “Beirut has relatively few shopping centers”.

What I’d really like to see is Return on Investment (ROI) figures. This to me sounds like too much hype and too little business acumen.

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Is America Partly Responsible For The Suppression Of Arab Shias?

Kevin Sullivan:

When America’s top diplomat calls Iran an emerging Junta, and the West repeatedly calls Tehran a regional threat, it gives the region’s other not-democracies – you know, the friendly ones – carte blanche to suppress and discriminate against their Shia minorities and, in the case of Bahrain, majorities.

When things become about Sunni-Vs-Shia , all of logic, persuasion, argumentation and debate become obsolete. It becomes a power game in which factions want to control each other.