Fun with Amr Mussa and the Arab League

More hilarity from the useless Arab League and its chief, Amr Mussa. The story is from Naharnet and it's very short. I'm posting the full Naharnet story with my own comments [bracketed].

Arab League Refuses Isolating Syria [Title]

[Very good Amr, stick with your specialty. The Arab League is good at one thing and one thing only: refusing, saying "NO" to everything.]

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa has warned the international community not to isolate Syria or threaten sanctions without proof that Damascus had a hand in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

[What if they isolate Syria Amr? Whaddyagonna do about it? Everybody is very worried because the Arab League has tremendous powers and could really hurt the planet.]

"We cannot accept the fact that a member country is isolated without evidence the government is involved," Mussa said Friday ahead of a Euro-Mediterranean summit which opens Sunday in Barcelona -- where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not on the guest list despite his country's membership.

[Amr as a true Arab League guy and Arabist you could not recognize "evidence" or "facts" even if they bit your nose off. I thought, however, that you and your old friend Boutros-Boutros-Boutros Ghali had great respect for fellow internationalists and bureaucrats at the UN.

What do you make of the 60-page plus Mehlis report? No evidence there? What about the 56 assassinations of prominent people in Lebanon, over 30 years, prior to the Hariri assassination?
Maybe priors don't count (in order to protect the rights of the accused), but only when the accused is an Arab president. Any news on who blew up Pan Am 103, Amr? Is the Arab League still investigating? I sure hope you guys are close to catching the damned Mossad agent who did this and made it look like it was Qaddafi.]

Mussa said Hariri's Feb. 14 murder was nonetheless "a crime that must not be left unpunished.

Be careful Amr, you're starting to make sense here.

"We are sure the Syrian government is cooperating with the investigation," Mussa insisted.

[How exactly do we know that Amr? You like "evidence". Do we have "evidence" of this?]

He [Mussa] also focused on the war in Iraq, saying that a distinction should be made between "terrorism" and "resistance to foreign occupation."

The UN Security Council (including the Algerian brothers??) voted to say that the Hariri murder was "terrorism". On the other hand, to determine whether blowing up kids in an Israeli pizzeria is "terrorism" or "resistance", the Arab League will sponsor a high-school essay competition . The League is inclined however to classify the recent Amman wedding-attack as terrorism (perhaps Sunni on Sunni crime is not good).

With terrorism a key topic on the Barcelona summit agenda Mussa described the issue as "a plague that must be beaten" and a "violent act against innocent civilians."

Amr will condemn some acts, and condone others. The Arabs are whimsical like that. But "terrorism", whatever it is, is a "plague that must be beaten", but only sometimes.

On the chances of peace in the Middle East Mussa admitted he foresaw problems ahead.

Very, very bold prediction Amr. Let me catch my breath here.

"I am not optimistic on the peace process. (There is) not enough sign from the Israeli government that things are moving on the right track."(AFP)

WOW! Beyond "bold" and into "genius" territory: Amr, very sadly, breaks the news that Middle East peace ain't for tomorrow.

Thanks Amr, you've earned your salary, if not as a competent bureaucrat, at least as a semi-entertaining clown.