Bassem Mroue

The first thing I did when I woke up today was watch television to see what was going on. Tuning between LBC, Manar, NBN, Future, New TV, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya there were no major reports other than air raids here and there during the night. But about half an hour after breaking news began with reports from the southern town of Qana. A building bombed by Israelis and many people are buried under the rubble, the stations said. More than 50 people, many of them women and children, were killed. The strike occurred at around 1 a.m. which could mean that they were sleeping when the war planes hit. The bombing brought condemnation from throughout the world and left Lebanese in shock as they saw bodies of children being extracted from under the rubble by members of the Lebanese Red Cross. It brought back the memories of the April 18, 1996 when Israeli bombing killed more than 100 people in a U.N. base in the same town. The night before I drove around the city but Beirut was not the one I ...

Heading to Baghdad International Airport on Thursday morning, I thought it was a quiet day in the city. The airport road, once known "death road," was not very crowded and the trip was fine. Later I knew it was not. As I was at the airport, four explosions occurred in the central neighborhood of Karradah killing at least 32 people and wounding many others. This is Baghdad where hardly a day passes without dozens of people losing their lives, in markets, coffee shops, mosques or even in their homes. Giving my passport to the immigration officers, he immediately looked at me and asked: "How is Lebanon?" Iraqi Airways flight to Damascus took about 90 minutes and it would have been great had a young boy sitting in front of me not vomited near me. Poor boy, he got sick for it was the first time he rides an airplane. From Damascus' International Airport to the city's downtown, pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah were everywhere. In cars, on billboards, s...

Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat had a good report about the investigation of last years assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The report, quoting well-informed Lebanese sources, said chief investigator Serge Brammertz reached very important information concerning the crime. The sources said Brammertz and his team have information about who was behind the crime and as well as other crimes that hit Lebanon in the past year. Brammertz is almost convinced that there was an explosion underground as well as one above. No wonder that earlier this month we saw a huge tent erected at the scene since it is clear that work is going on in the area. Read the interesting report . Bassem Mroue Beirut May 22, 2006

Al-Hayat today has a nice article about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in which the paper's correspondent Bassel Mohammed quotes three senior Iraqi security officials about efforts to capture the most wanted man in Iraq. One of the officials quoted in the story, Major General Hussein Ali Kamal, who is in charge of intelligence at the Interior Ministry, said he expects al-Zarqawi to be captured soon and that the Jordanian citizen is believed to be in an area south of Baghdad. I strongly believe that even if al-Zarqawi is captured or killed one day this will not have an effect on his group and their attack will continue same as what happened after Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003 and since then the insurgence has been on the rise. read the article. Bassem Mroue Beirut May 7, 2006

The Arab world is changing and many of its people are getting to know more and more about stock markets. Few years back, not many Arabs held shares in local stock exchanges but the recent boom in the Arab stock markets, mainly pushed by returns from high oil prices, helped a lot. We should not forget that business and financial news aired mainly on Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya and MSNBC are attracting more viewers. Asharq al-Awsat has a nice article about how business news women are becoming stars . A friend of mine, who had no idea what the word share meant two years ago, calls twice or three times a week to tell me he bought shares or invested money in local mutual funds. He has been doing well so far despite a major decrease in prices in the past weeks, mainly in Saudi Arabia and UAE. A Lebanese woman I know told me about her Saudi friend who sold his house for about 200,000 U.S. dollars and put all the money in the stock exchange. I don't know whether he is in the red or the black. A...

الشاعر السوري ممدوح عدوان أنا شاعرٌ أو شاهدٌ متورّط لم يلق متكأً له في مفخرة بدم ترى ام بالدموع ملا ت هذي المحبرة وكتبتُ شعراً كي أعزّي أم رسمت على الدفاتر مقبرة نتعمد الإسرافْ لنستّر الفاقةْ الزاد خبزٌ حافْ والنفس أفّاقةْ الدمع نهرٌ جافْ ما بلّل الياقةْ والريح في الأعطافْ ذكرى بلا طاقةْ يبكي لنا الصفصافْ فنحنّ كالناقةْ تابوتنا مصيافْ والقبر ورّاقةْ باسم مروة بغداد 18 اذار 2006

I always wanted to see Saddam Hussein in person but never thought it will be the way it happened this week. Early in the morning we arrived at the court building where the former president is being tried. We waited and waited until the trial session started later than usual at about 2 p.m. We entered the court room and waited again but not much. Few minutes later the judges came in so we all stood up until chief judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman waved for everyone present to sit down. "Call the defendants," Abdul-Rahman told a man sitting at the back of the room. The man, wearing a brown suit, immediately stood up and started calling names written on a piece of paper he held in his right hand. "Defendant Saddam Hussein al-Majid." My eyes were glued to a door where a colleague told me the defendants will come from. The door opened and Saddam appeared in his elegant black suit being escorted by two guards. As I looked in shock at the 69-year-old man walk to his ...

Atwar Bahjat was not only brutally killed along with two of her colleagues this week near Samarra but her funeral ended bloody as well with shootings and a car bomb that left 3 people dead and 10 wounded. What did this woman do in order to be murdered and also be shot at as she was carried in her coffin to her resting place in the Karkh Cemetery near the western neighborhood of Abu Ghraib. Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi said two policemen were killed and five were wounded when the convoy was shot at as it headed to the cemetery. When journalists, relatives and friends were returning to Baghdad later in the day, a car bomb exploded leaving one soldier dead and five others wounded. Luckily Al-Arabiya's team that went to the funeral returned safely to Baghdad. Baghdad is passing these days through a very difficult period. The bombing of the Imam Ali al-Hadi and Hassan al-Askari shrine in Samarra had terrible repercussions. Many Sunni mosques were attacked and near 200...

It was so sad and shocking to know the first thing in the morning when I turned on the television on Al-Arabiya that their Baghdad correspondent Atwar Bahjat and two of her colleagues were killed near the Iraqi city of Samarra. The station said the woman and her two colleagues, Adnan Khairallah and Khaled Mahmoud were stopped by two gunmen Wednesday afternoon near Samarra and shot near their car. They had tried to enter the city earlier in the day to cover a bombing that damaged a holy Shiite Muslim shrine but were prevented. I met Atwar few times in the past three years and was always impressed by how courageous she was in chasing the news whether it had to do with violence or politics. She confidently stood in front of the camera speaking live from Baghdad's dangerous streets. Why was she killed? I hope we will know one day when her killers are captured and brought to face justice. The death of Atwar and her colleagues raised the number of journalists killed in Iraq s...

It was Monday February 14, 2005 and I had some things to do before leaving to Egypt the next day on a 10-day vacation. I left home at about 11 and went to Hamra street where I bought my favorite newspaper, Al-Hayat. Then headed to my barber Ali in Makdisi street since I was in desperate need for a haircut after seven weeks in Iraq. My friend Hamza, who I was supposed to use his flat in Cairo called me and said he will ask the man who takes care of the apartment make sure it is cleaned before I arrive on Tuesday. Not finding Ali, I decided to go back home and give it another try in the afternoon. At 12:55 as I walked in Sidani Street near Bliss street I heard a massive explosion. I asked myself immediately whether what I heard was a blast or Israeli war planes have broke the sound barrier. I picked up my telephone and called my boss who was north of Beirut but confirmed he felt something. Things started getting clear when I saw thick black smoke billowing from downtown Beirut. ...

I was walking in downtown Beirut with my nephew Jad on Saturday night when my cellular telephone rang. I picked up the phone and found that it was my boss. "How are you today? Can you go to Syria now?" he asked?. When I ask what is going on there he said that demonstrators have already burnt the Danish and Norwegian embassies and are marching toward the French mission. "The situation is developing very quickly. If you want to go you have to do it as soon as possible," he said. For days there have been demonstrations in Muslim countries protesting a caricature offensive to Islam's Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper. I took Jad to his parents house then drove home packed quickly and took a car to Damascus. It was my first trip to Syria since Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon in April 2005. Less than two hours after leaving Beirut there I was in the Syrian capital. I was surprised that crossing the border is still as simple as it was in the...

Every time I meet my friend Charbel we remember the big mistake we made two years ago when we both planned to buy stocks in Lebanon construction company Solidere but never did. Then a Solidere share was being sold for 4 dollars while now it reached 25 dollars. It is unbelievable how much people in the region are focusing on Arab stock markets especially when we see how much shares rose last year and how great they have been doing so far this month. Many people, whether in countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain or Lebanon have for sure become rich because of buying and selling stocks. This business is spreading very quickly in the region with some people selling their property to buy shares. During the day when I tune to Al-Arabiya television, most probably I will see Zeina Soufan, Seba Audi or Nadine Hany speaking about stocks. The Saudi Stock Market is by far the largest in the region and is also the most active. Its index rose in the pas...

One of the most interesting assignments that I covered in my 14-year career as a journalist was the Hajj in Saudi Arabia five years ago. Luckily, that year was free of incidents such as what happened two days ago when more than 350 pilgrims were killed in a stampede as they were going to perform the ritual of stoning the devil. I was living in Cairo then and with thousands of Egyptians going to the Hajj, I was not able to find a seat on a plane to Saudi Arabia so I flew to Dubai and from there back to Jiddah, a trip that took about seven hours of flying instead of two hours directly from Cairo. Going to the Hajj, a person wonders how can more than two million people gather in the small area of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the adjacent areas of Muzdalifa, Mount Arafat and Mina, a small tent town that comes to life for few days every year during the Hajj. Most of the stampedes occur when the ritual of stoning the devil is performed, when most Muslims say it should be done before the ...

Most of the people who I asked where they spent New Year's Eve said they stayed at home. I don't know if it is related to the depression many Lebanese are suffering from these days because of the bad security and political situation in the country. What most of them are worried about is that 2006 be as bad, if not worse, than the previous year. On January 1, many people were talking about astrologers who appeared on Lebanese television stations. Lebanon's most famous psychic, Michel Hayek appeared on LBC television but refused to say anything about what he expects to happen in the coming year. In previous years some of the things he expected did happen. People who don't believe in astrology, and they don't appear to be many in Lebanon, say anyone can predict if he or she makes some analysis of the situation. That made me take the decision to make some predictions for 2006, maybe I can quit journalism and become a famous astrologer which for sure makes much more mone...

For years to come, the people of Lebanon will remember 2005 as the year of major and unexpected events. Hardly anyone thought that during this year the Syrian army will leave Lebanon or that former Prime Minister Michel Aoun will return from exile or that Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea will be freed from jail. It was the same year that witnessed dark and bloody events such as the assassination of Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri as well as other politicians and journalists. 2005 was a bloody year for me from the first day. I was in Iraq where I had to cover explosions, suicide attacks and shootings that left dozens, if not hundreds, of people dead in January. Few days after the January 30 elections in Iraq I returned to Lebanon hoping to have some rest after nearly two months of hectic work in Iraq. I thought Lebanon would be violence-free after Iraq but it was not. On February 14, a day before when I was supposed to go on a two-week vacation to Egypt, I heard a massive expl...

It was 8:30 a.m. Friday December 23, 2005 when my cellular telephone rang. I picked it up and my friend Naji asked "are you still sleeping?" I asked him what's up and his answer was that the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. has breaking news about an explosion in downtown Beirut. I told him that I haven't heard anything about such an explosion and did not hear an explosion. Few minutes later I jumped out of bed and headed toward the television and tuned to LBC. "An oxygen cylinder explodes in downtown Beirut," a breaking news tag read. I told myself thank God it is an oxygen cylinder since the last thing Beirut needs these days is an explosion. An increase in explosions in Lebanon in the past months have left most people living in fear. Every now and then rumors spread around the capital about a bomb threat or an expected attack on a major mall. Guards at the entrances of shopping malls and office buildings search people now going in. Guards at public parkings u...

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. this morning and got myself ready for the big day. It is Thursday December 15 and Iraqis are supposed to elect a new parliament. This is the second time Iraqis elect a new legislature after the January 30, 2005 vote for the interim National Assembly. Today they will chose a four-year parliament, which will be called from now on the Council of Representatives. At 6:30 a.m. I left the office with my colleague K and headed toward the City Hall. There were no cars in the streets except for security forces because the Interior Ministry had banned movement of cars for three days staring December 14. The airports and borders were also closed for three days. We drove slowly with the flash lights on until we reached the Khilani Mosque near Sinak Bridge in central Baghdad. One of the many policeman in the area waved for us to stop from a distance and got closer to us carrying a pistol in his right hand. He looks at our press passes then searches the car. The man then said ...

It was Sunday December 14, 2003. I woke up in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and was very sick. It must have been the kibbe, which Mosul is famous for, I ate the night before. I must have been suffering from food poison. At about 12 p.m. my colleague Shaz came to replace me as I was heading back to Baghdad for a day or two before going back home in Lebanon. Shortly after Shaz arrived I left with my colleague A toward Baghdad. The trip took us about four hours and we passed through cities and towns such as Beiji, Tikrit, Samarra until we reached Baghdad. On the way we heard a rumor that Saddam Hussein was captured. The first thing we did when arrived on the outskirts of Baghdad was ask anyone about the news. A, an Iraqi who is known as al-Lubnani or the Lebanese because he says it was his dream to be born Lebanese, asked a traffic policeman whether he heard that Saddam Hussein was captured. The policeman replied "that is what I heard." In Baghdad we turned on the radio, sinc...

Iraqis are getting ready to vote and Thursday's December 15, 2005 ballot battle is expected to be brutal. Politicians are openly criticizing each other and posters are being torn on the streets. Going on a tour in the streets of the Iraqi capital, you feel the fierce competition between candidates. Blast walls that fill the roads of Baghdad are now decorated with elections posters of politicians promising Iraqis security, stability, prosperity and bright future. What makes this week's elections interesting is the expected strong participation of Sunni Arabs after boycotting the January 30 2005 elections. Turnout among Sunni Arabs was very low then after many of them responded to calls by their leaders that they should not vote as long as the country is under occupation. When I used to ask Sunni Arabs in January whether they will participate the answer from most of them was a big NO. Today it is the opposite. I went for a drive in Baghdad and was surprised by the amount of poste...

السلام الوطني المقترح شعر : اسعد الغريري الحان : كاظم الساهر توزيع : عمر خيرت سلام عليك على رافديك عراق القيم فانت مزار وحسن ودار لكل النعم هنا المجد أم وصلى وصام ، وحج وطاف بلاد السلام فبغداد تكتب مجد العراق وما جف فيها بلاد القلم سلام لأرض تفيض عطاء واثرى ثراها دم الشهداء فهذا حسين وذي كربلاء ، الى العز صار لسانا وفم عراق العلوم ونهر الادب ستبقى تراثا لكل العرب وتبقى الى المجد ام واب واكليل حب لخير الامم باور وبابل عهد انتماء ، لأهل الحضارات والانبياء تشرف بحمل اسم رب السماء لتبقى اعز واغلى علم