As if the bloody NATO-led ««Arab Spring»» he has defended in a previous paper were not enough [1-2], US Man in Aleppo and Syrian “opponent” Wasim Maziak [3], warns in a new tribune against the use by Syria of chemical weapons (hookah, shisha, narghile…) believed to be highly lethal for the youth of Florida and the US in general [4]:….
“Abstract: The Arab world is comprised of 22 countries with a combined population of ~360 million. The region is still at the initial stages of the tobacco epidemic, where it is expected to witness an increase in smoking levels and mounting tobacco-related morbidity and mortality in the future. Still, the bleak outlook of the tobacco epidemic in the Arab world continues to be faced with complacency in the form of underutilization of surveillance systems to monitor the tobacco epidemic and prioritize action, and failure to implement and enforce effective policies to curb the tobacco epidemic. Understandably, the focus on the Arab world carries the risk of trying to generalize to such a diverse group of countries at different level of economic and political development. Yet, tobacco control in the Arab world faces some shared patterns and common challenges that need to be addressed to advance its cause in this region. In addition, forces that promote tobacco use, such as the tobacco industry, and trends in tobacco use, such as the emerging waterpipe epidemic tend to coalesce around some shared cultural and socio-political features of this region. Generally, available data from Arab countries point at three major trends in the tobacco epidemic: (1) high prevalence of cigarette smoking among Arab men compared with women; (2) the re-emergence of waterpipe (also known as hookah, narghile, shisha, arghile) smoking as a major tobacco use method, especially among youth and (3) the failure of policy to provide an adequate response to the tobacco epidemic. In this review, we will discuss these trends, factors contributing to them, and the way forward for tobacco control in this unstable region.”
RELATED: Open Letter to Wasim Maziak, Syrian Political Opponent and Head of the US-Syrian «Research» Centre in Aleppo (US-SCTS) [Lettre ouverte à Wasim Maziak, opposant politique syrien et directeur du centre « de recherche » USA-Syrie à Alep (US-SCTS)]. 7 Sep 2013
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[1] Adam Coutts, David Stuckler, Rajaie Batniji, Sharif Ismail, Wasim Maziak, Martin McKee. The Arab Spring and health: two years on. Int J Health Serv. 2013;43(1):49-60.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/HS.43.1.d
[2] Chaouachi K. ““Arab Spring””. Public Health Researchers from Universities of Cambridge, Florida & London School of Hygiene, Deny the Reality of One Million Iraqi Deaths – in pro-NATO Paper [««Printemps arabe»». Dans un article pro-OTAN, des chercheurs en santé publique des universités de Cambridge, Floride et de l’Ecole d’Hygiène de Londres nient la mort d’un million de personnes en Irak]. 10 April 2013
[3] Chaouachi K. Syrian Waterpipegate. Our Man in Aleppo, Head of US Masterminded Screen “Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies”. 19 August 2012
https://hookahhealth.wordpress.com/article/the-syrian-ban-on-smoking-in-534k6mvefph-8/
« Independent Syrian experts are likely right to say that the ongoing pseudo-revolution there (17 months now) is meant, not only to achieve macro objectives in the region but, also, in the end, a certain lifestyle (all independent travellers knowing Syria will understand): the simplicity of daily life, its low cost, Middle East sociability best expressed by Syrian coffee-houses and patios with their gurgling narghiles, etc… What is at stake is the repeated intent, begun in Iraq, to implement the US Great/New Middle East Project at all levels: from the political hyper-structure to the socio-cultural aspects. In the view of their designers and their men in the region, the “Arab way of life” must be shattered thanks to the emergence of a consumerist society essentially based on competition.”
[4] New fund-raising (from pharmaceutical companies [nicotine gums, patches, Bupropion, Chantix, etc.]) “”study””: Wasim Maziak, Rima Nakkash, Raed Bahelah, Abdullatif Husseini, Nadia Fanous, and Thomas Eissenberg. Tobacco in the Arab world: old and new epidemics amidst policy paralysis. Health Policy Plan. published 19 August 2013, 10.1093/heapol/czt055
http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/08/19/heapol.czt055.abstract
The Middle East Peace Pipe (Scientific & Ethical Issues) 