First Prohibitionist International Conference on ««Waterpipe»» (Emirates, 20-23 Oct 2013). To Celebrate One Decade of Big Pharma Pseudo-Science on the Middle East Peace Pipe
««Waterpipe»» antismoking experts of the world (by coincidence, the authors of the WHO flawed report on the issue)[1], funded, directly or indirectly, by the great names of the pharmaceutical industry (nicotine patches, gums, inhalers, Chantix, Bupropion, etc.), and under the leadership of:
-Wasim Maziak (US-Syrian Centre for anti-««waterpipe»» Tobacco Studies: US-SCTS);
Thomas Eissenberg (US-SCTS);
-Alan Shihadeh (US-American University of Beirut anti-««waterpipe»» centre: US-AUB);
-Ghazi Zaatari (WHO-TobReg and US-AUB);
-and other on-lookers from the same above anti-««waterpipe»» centres;
convene (with some chance, simultaneously with the war against Syria and the Middle East), and in a State viewed as a close friend to Syria, the first international festival of ««waterpipe»» pseudo-science with a strong focus on ««waterpipe»» as a source of cancer and ««nicotine addiction»» [2][3].

What President Obama is proudly brandishing is the official logo of the US-Syrian anti-“”waterpipe”” Centre for Tobacco Studies in Aleppo (Syria)…
Subtitle: « Building Evidence for Intervention and Policy”, whose technical jargon should translate: Fabricating Evidence for Bans and Police Raids on Hookah (Shisha, Narghile) Lounges across the World [4].
For those interested, please register at:
http://nyuad.nyu.edu/news-events/abu-dhabi-events/2013/10/waterpipe-tobacco-smoking.html
An interesting sponsor of that event is the “International Development Research Centre”, known for its involvement in funding ««waterpipe»» “studies” with the help of… the Tobacco Industry (cigarettes)[5][6]…
____________
[1] Chaouachi K.: A Critique of the WHO’s TobReg “Advisory Note” entitled: “Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: Health Effects, Research Needs and Recommended Actions by Regulators. Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine 2006 (17 Nov); 5:17. Doi:10.1186/1477-5751-5-17
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1664583/
[2] Chaouachi K. One Decade of Tricks & Scientific Misconduct on Behalf of «Waterpipe»» «Tobacco Control» Researchers. 26 April 2013
[3] Chaouachi K. “««Waterpipe»» Addiction”: one of the Greatest Fallacies in Tobacco Research. 05 Sept 2013
[4] World FDA Shisha Prohibition Militias Now Training in India
http://in.news.yahoo.com/hookah-bars-raided-again-one-booked-183000917.html
“India, 22 June 2013 “In a crackdown on hookah bars, that are operating in the city despite the ban imposed last year, a team of the Haryana Food and Drug Administration (HFDA) raided a number of outlets in various malls on MG Road on Thursday night and seized a number of hookahs and tobacco molasses containing nicotine […]”.”
[5] Chaouachi K. Big Tobacco & Big Pharma Against “Oriental” Hookah Outsider: Evidence about One Undeclared Funding Source of WHO Shisha (““Waterpipe””-Coded) Antismoking Research. Knol 2011 (25 Mar).
https://hookahhealth.wordpress.com/article/big-tobacco-big-pharma-against-oriental-534k6mvefph-24/
[6] Siegel M. Dishonest Disclosures? Six Articles on Health Effects of Hookah Use Fail to Mention that Research Sponsor Was Directed by a Tobacco Industry Executive. The Rest of the Story (tobacco policy blog). 10 March 2010
http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/03/dishonest-disclosures-six-articles-on.html

Note how all the sponsors, based in Canada or the US (incl. the so-called “”Syrian”” “research” centre…), are prohibitionist organisations funded directly or indirectly by the pharmaceutical industry.
IMPORTANT
See also the second prohibitionist conference (Oct. 2015):