'Brainless People Praise Rice'

A Jordanian professor, debating on Arab language television, said people who "sing the praise of Condoleezza Rice lack taste as well as brains."<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The debate on "whether Arabs should employ violence against the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />United States" was telecast on the Al Jazeera network and was translated by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Pro-Saddam Jordanian University Professor Ibrahim Alloush praised "all the resistance fighters – from Venezuela to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Lebanon and Palestine, [and[] especially martyrdom-seeking drivers in Jerusalem." Three Arab terrorists from eastern Jerusalem staged three vehicle attacks in the capital this year, killing three Jews and wounding dozens of others.

His comments sparked his debating opponent, liberal Kuwaiti journalist Sami al-Nisf, to charge that "Saddam [Hussein], with all his big talk, ended up like a mouse in a hole. We have tried this formula a hundred times. This is the same formula of Stalin, Hitler, Kim Il-Sung, Qaddafi, Saddam, and so on. These people destroy their countries."

"Don't you dare talk about Saddam that way!" the pro-Saddam Jordanian professor shouted. The journalist replied that the United States "considers these people to be idiots."

The moderator intervened and turned to Professor Alloush, "You want us to follow in the footsteps of Chavez and of Morales in Bolivia…right? In the recent past – without naming names – many Arab rulers locked horns with the U.S., and said: 'To hell with America,' but what was the result of all this?"

When journalist al-Nisf ,mentioned the name of United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Jordanian professor exclaimed, "These people lack taste as well as brains if they sing the praise of Condoleezza Rice."