Washington Scene:

MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 3/08/2002: When it comes to international affairs and matters relating to the Middle East serious and honest people should keep away from American University in Washington, DC. There's plenty to be said about some of the other universities in the Washington area, but AU stands out as particularly and outrageously crass -- and, well, second rate and third class.

Over the weekend AU will embarrass itself and squander scarce time and resources once again. At a time of tremendous historic moment the confused and mislead "Center for Global Peace" has teamed up with two "characters" to propagandize the students and mislead the public about the Palestinian predicament and what can be done about it -- and they have the audacity to call it a "Palestinian Town Meeting".

James Zogby and the "Arab American Institute" (AAI), co-sponsors of the meeting, have fed like parasites off the Palestinian conflict and along with others in Washington have helped grossly mislead the Palestinian people to today's desperate and worse than ever situation. This is a guy who along with his cronies recently pocketed millions of "Builders for Peace" funds after publicly fronting for the Clinton Administration, the "Oslo Peace Process", and even, believe it or not, Israeli-agent Martin Indyk himself. Nothing positive resulted for the Palestinian people from all the millions devoted to the "Builders for Peace" program; but Zogby and accomplises got their own big bucks out of it. Indeed, the U.S. Congress funded "Builders For Peace"-- launched at the White House itself -- and it is one of those as yet uninvestigated mini-scandals with Zogby personally among the prime perpetrators. As for poor Mubarak Awad who calls himself "Nonviolence International" and is the other co-sponsor of the AU meeting this weekend, he's a simple-minded Christian pacifist of limited capabilities whom hardly anybody takes seriously, other than a few churchy types that is, along with AU which uses him as a kind of Nigger Palestinian. Oh yes, that's also in a sense how the Director of AU's "Center for Global Peace" got there many decades ago in the first place. Professor Said is himself a fellow of limited ability, few real convictions, and one whose public utterances are usually full of little but platitudes and truisms. Said came to AU a long time ago trading on his then rare in the US Arab name; and he has stayed in place ever since, no one really interested in having him elsewhere. Add to this that AU has a long history of contacts and interactions with all kinds of U.S. government departments, including intelligence agencies, making it quite a cozy little place for such types.

Indeed, AU has quite an amazingly suspect record when it comes to matters relating to the Middle East. It actually put on a major building in full public view the name of an arms swindler who gave the school a great deal of money on behalf of the Saudis -- that's Adnan Kashoggi. It still houses old Arab League crony Clovis Maksoud -- himself right up there with Zogby with those who truly deserve to drown in their own self-serving rhetorical babble. A few years ago they had none other than Shimon Peres as their commencement speaker, gave him an honorary doctorate degree, and ordered the few student protestors to move away from the doorway outside the auditorium to a place where they wouldn't be seen. And, worst of all in a sense and the final straw that earns AU "third class" status, year after year the university admits dozens of completely unqualified primarily Saudi students -- sons and daughters of the Saudi elite -- because they not only pay the full expensive tab but manage to get from them other sums of what is essentially bribe money to help keep AU prospering. In recent years AU has also made a big deal with the United Arab Emirates -- again for still more big bucks.

Mid-East Realities

www.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/3/686.htm