POLL RESULT: LET HARRYZZZ DEAL WITH THE SCUMMIEZZZ

There could, of course, only be one answer possible to the question on the right of your screen. 77 percent of voters would contact harryzzz in case they met Radovan Karadzic and Osama bin Laden in a bar (see poll, on your right). And, even better, they would hit both men in the balls.

Twelve percent of voters would arrest Bin Laden instead of Karadzic, six percent would go for Karadzic. Only one vote for the option: "Arrest Karadzic because he is a Serb". To me that seems a rather odd reason to arrest somebody.

Anyhow. I was called by a German/Spanish/Slovenian friend who came up with the best solution. Use the one set of handcuffs as follows: One goes on the wrist of Karadzic and one on Bin Laden's. That way you get rid of both scummiezzz and make 55 million usd (5 million for Karadzic, 50 million for Bin Laden).

Thanks to the voters and keep on hunting! BTW: Because of the low dollar and the strong euro, I might wait some time before apprehending both men.

Harald Doornbos

Pakistan: Politics and planes

He flew, he landed...and he got deported.

For sure the shortest, but not the best comeback for Pakistan's ex-PM Nawaz Sharif (Well, compared to Benigno Aquino, an opposition leader from the Philippines, Mr. Sharif got away pretty easily. Remember? Mr. Aquino was shot and killed right outside his plane, after he returned in 1983 from exile).

But why is president Musharraf so tough on Mr. Sharif? I mean, Mr Sharif is about Pakistan's dullest politician. Still, there are enough reasons.

First, Mr. Sharif had promised, in 2000, to stay in exile in Saudi Arabia for ten years. Second, he was told by a Pakistani judge to give up politics. Third, the political party supporting Musharraf, the PML-Q, derives from Mr Sharif's party, the PML (Pakistan Muslim League). And fourth, not unimportant, Mr Sharif tried to get Musharraf (and 200 others) killed in 1999.

This last point is the most important reason behind Mr. Musharrafs utter dislike for Nawaz Sharif.

Let's go back to 1999. In that year PM Sharif fired Mr. Musharraf, who was at that time the army chief of Pakistan. Musharraf was on a visit to Sri Lanka when he heard he got fired. Immediately after, an angry Musharraf boarded a commercial airliner and tried to get back to Pakistan. Just before the pilot of the plane carrying Musharraf (and 200 others - mainly tourists, workers and Pakistanis living in Sri Lanka) tried to land at Karachi airport, he was told by traffic control that the plane did not have permission to land. Earlier, traffic control received an order from PM Sharif not to allow Musharraf to set foot on Pakistani soil.

As it goes with planes, you only have fuel for a certain distance. So the pilot tried to go for another airstrip in the area. But again: No permission to land. By now rather desperate, the pilot tried to land at Karachi airport. But again, the control tower did not give permission. Only after troops loyal to Pervez Musharraf stormed the airport, the plane could touch down. The fuel level was so low, that the plane could have stayed only another seven minutes in the air. Sharif was immediately arrested and Musharraf staged his, bloodless, coup.

Read the details of this fascinating story here.

Pakistan Army song:


And because if was such an amazing event - The killing of Beningo Aquino:


Harald Doornbos

Transcript of speech Osama bin Laden

I'm preparing a rather lengthy article on Al-Qaeda, to be published on - surprise, surprise - September 11th. It is based on my experiences and interviews with members and sympathisers of Al Qaeda in Pakistan and in Lebanon.

Due to popular believe, Al Qaeda is seen in many circles as a mainly political movement with a political agenda. Basically, these people say, Al Qaeda is an organisation which uses terror (or resistance) to give a voice to oppressed muslims. The moment the West stops oppressing muslims, Al-Qaeda will stop too.

I wish that was true. But it is, unfortunately, not the case.

Al-Qaeda is very much a medieval Doomsday sect with surprisingly little politics in it. If you really want to understand what Al-Qaeda is all about, you have to step away from politics, away from life in the 21st century. Al-Qaeda is all about a mix of religion (rigidly imitating the Prophet Muhammad), cultural elements (keeping the Arab world and muslim South Asia as backward as possible) and an immense fear factor (for Western-led globalisation and its effects on the muslim mind)

I wish Al-Qaeda was political. Then at least there would be an end in sight to the war. But, as I said, it is not and thus much more difficult to stop.

In his latest speech Bin Laden immediately makes my point. He asks himself how the War in Iraq can be stopped?

You might answer: Well, maybe if the Americans pull out of Iraq.

Or if the US would stop supporting Israel.

Or if the Palestinians get their own state.

Well, Osama's answer is none of the above. His solution: Either we step up our attacks and win the war militarily or you Americans reject your democratic system and embrace Islam.


Wow - that is soooo realistic. Luckily he doesn't want us to perform the silly walk during weekdays.

Anyway, hope you will read my article on September 11th(Tuesday). For those interested in Bin Ladens weird world, please read the full transcript of his speech:

"All praise is due to God, who built the heavens and earth in justice, and created man as a favor and grace from Him. And from His ways is that the days rotate between the people, and from His Law is retaliation in kind: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and the killer is killed. And all praise is due to God, who awakened His slaves’ desire for the Garden, and all of them will enter it except those who refuse. And whoever obeys Him alone in all of his affairs will enter the Garden, and whoever disobeys Him will have refused."

For rest of speech: click here

You can get it as well in a pdf file, although the text is not very clear. for pdf, click here.

Harald Doornbos

From Hollywood, with Love...

Thank god there is more in this world than the Middle East. So today a posting about my beloved Bosnia, where I lived for about eight years.

And it is a funky story. Because me and four journalist friends tried, in 2000, to catch Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic. You might remember this fascist asshole - responsible for the killing and cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in the '90s. We didn't get Karadzic (Nor the 5 million dollar bounty), but we came pretty close (At least closer than the UN or NATO).

The hilarious part of it all is that Hollywood picked up the story and made a 40 million dollar movie about it called The Hunting Party. The main actor in the movie is nobody less than Richard Gere. And yes, I had to get a picture of me and Gere while we met at the set in Sarajevo.

The movie is currently shown to the public at the Venice Film Festival and will open today, Friday, in Los Angeles and as of September 14th in the rest of the US. Europe and other parts of the world will follow soon.

During shooting of the movie we, me and my four journalist friends, met Richard Gere and the other main actors, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg. All were actually really nice guys.

To spice it up a little, the five of us were invited by director Richard Shepard to play a very small role in two scenes. Man, acting ain't easy even if you only have three lines. But anyway, it was a great (though nerve wrecking) experience.

My buddy Philippe Deprez (one of the journalists) is currently in Venice to check the movie out, so I will hear from him if it is actually any good. As I am in Beirut, I haven't seen the movie yet. But I've been told our scene wasn't cut out. See below the trailer of The Hunting Party:

The movie is very, very loosely based on our real story. That doesn't matter though. It is already a huge honour for a journalist, especially if you're from a rather anonymous place like the Netherlands, when Hollywood picks up your story. Watch below Richard Gere on The Late Show talking to David Letterman about the movie:



To me the trailer looks great and I hope the movie is as good. I can't wait to see The Hunting Party. And I hope you will do the same. That said: Real life and Hollywood, unfortunately, differ. Karadzic still hasn't been caught. But I would love to see The Hunting Party II. Revenge is a strong motivator. So to everybody...Keep on hunting! (Karadzic is the right prick on this picture, Ratko Mladic the other one)

Here is a link to the story behind our Hunting Party.

This get's you to the official website of the movie.

Sarajevo Siege:

Miss Sarajevo (U2 and Pavarotti...who sadly passed away on Thursday):

Army enters Tripoli

I kind of had upload problems, so here (a little late, but still nice to see) a 2.5 min video I shot of the Lebanese army entering Tripoli after the defeat of Fatah al Islam. Following is text and video I prepared on Monday:

So I thought the Lebanese army was a small army!? Well, no longer.

It looked like an endless stream of soldiers and their gear drove passed us in Tripoli, in Lebanon's north, on Tuesday. Jeep after jeep, tank after tank, APC after APC. If this is a small army, how does a large army look like?

But enough words. Just watch below a, rather chaotic, video I shot in Tripoli of the victorious Lebanese army entering town. Loud Arabic music (a little bit repetitive - guess the music guy had only one tape in his speaker system). Still, very good street party.



Later that day, this huge army convoy moved partly towards Beirut. Everywhere they arrived - again - large crowds along the Beirut-Tripoli highway. It took me around four hours to get back to Beirut. Who says people in the Middle East can't have fun? (Eh...30.000 Palestinians now without a home, Lebanese shiia who weren't celebrating at all, the war in Iraq, position of women in Saudi Arabia - and in every other Arab country, etc, etc.).

But enough with these depressive topics, today was finally time for some serious happy faces!

Harald Doornbos

Exhausted

After having run around the Nahr al Bared camp for most parts of Monday, I'm kind of exhausted. Nothing compared to the soldiers of course, whose faces here show signs of total happiness or utter exhaustion. It is very clear the camp has been liberated. Most soldiers extremely relaxed. Saw long columns of Lebanese army tanks and trucks leaving the area.

During the afternoon though, a sudden fire fight erupted. Around half way the main highway (the one leading right next to the camp), around seven militants suddenly appeared and attacked some soldiers. Five militants were killed, two escaped. At the moment of the fighting me and my translator were around three kilometers away from the place where it all took place. So we couldn't see it. But we heard - for about half an hour - sporadic machine gunfire and around five loud explosions.
"Oh, don't tell me that it is still not over," my interpreter said.
"Oh please," I replied.

But after a while it was all quiet again. Due to this incident though, the main road was closed for around two hours. It just shows how volatile the situation here still is.

Well, it was a day filled with happy soldiers, although many had hearing problems. "Oh man," soldiers would tell you, "All these explosions during all these weeks kind of fucked my ears up."

A lot of walking too as we tried to get closer to the fighting and had to cross a lot of mud and the Nahr al Bared river - my shoes and pants are screwed now.

And - especially - a lot of waiting in insane traffic. It seems every Lebanese with a car wants to be around the camp.

Nahr al Bared is still strictly off limits for everybody except the Lebanese army. I have no clue when they are going to allow us in. Need some sleep now.

Big congrats though to all Lebanese soldiers who so bravely fought Al Qaeda - the Army of Mordor!

Harald Doornbos

Nahr al Bared liberated - Northern Lebanon becomes one huge street party!

Well, it took a while. But after exactly 15 weeks the Lebanese Army has defeated Al-Qaeda inspired militants in the Nahr al Bared refugee camp (or what is left of it) in northern Lebanon. Fatah al Islam is no longer, the islamists have been crushed. Here is the story and some pictures I took.



I am currently (Sunday afternoon/evening) in the north and I can tell you: It is a total mess here! Literally thausands of civilians are standing, jumping and singing on the roads here in Tripoli, around 10 kms away from the Nahr al Bared camp. It looks like Lebanon has won the world cup soccer. A huge street party.




And Lebanon wouldn't be Lebanon if many civilians didn't run around with their private Kalashnikovs. Sooooo much shooting going on. This time not because of war, but because of celebrations. Man, my ears still hurt from all this firing in the air. That, by the way, doesn't only proof that the mainly Sunni population in Tripoli knows how to throw a party, it also shows that Shi'a Lebanese aren't the only ones owning guns in this country.




Anyhow, it is so completely crowded on the roads here (cars, army checkpoints, jubilant crowd) that I'm kind of stuck in Tripoli. Unfortunately I cant upload some pictures and video's I shot today. So the moment I arrive back in Beirut, hopefully later tonight, I'll post some nice pics and video's on this blog (I'm back in Beirut now. Put pics on this blog, video isn't gonna work - can't get my clips from my mobile phone uploaded to youtube. Some kind of different system...)




The party here will last until late. Soldiers are being hugged by the crowds. Everywhere a sea of Lebanese flags. People here are truly happy - and relieved - that it is all over. 158 deaths on the side of the Lebanese army - that's a lot. That's why Samir, 23, told me just now: "Fatah al Islam? - well fuck these guys. We won and we are very, very happy."




According to the Lebanese Army: Fatah al Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi was killed on Sunday. I'll try to visit Tripoli's morgue tomorrow to see it for myself.

Harald Doornbos

Thank god - conspiracy Nr. 1 in poll

A couple of days ago Harryzzz organized a highly exclusive poll. You can see the questions on the right side of your screen. At the question: What was the Flying Terrorist? 45 percent of the voters answered that I made a propaganda clip. 42 percent thought it was indeed a Flying Terrorist. And 11 percent saw something flying but wasn't sure what.

That makes conspiracy theorists Nr. 1 in this poll! (Thank god, otherwise this wouldn't be a real blog from the Middle East, just check this list)

The lesson of this all: Even if you have it on camera people won't believe it. Makes me wonder why the hell I actually risk my life doing this?

Harald Doornbos