A Vast Conspiracy

The read of the day for me is Michael Totten's Drinking with Christopher Hitchens and the Iraqis. It's a description of half a dozen men at a Washington bar discussing politics.

We went to The Palm in downtown Washington. "We" included the following big-shots, along with little-shot me: Christopher Hitchens, author, journalist, and cantankerous polemicist; Andrew Apostolou, Director of Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Ahman Al Rikaby, former Director of Radio Free Iraq and current Director of Iraq's Radio Dijla; Entifadh Qanbar, Special Envoy from the Iraqi National Alliance; Ghassan Atiyyah, Director of the Iraq Foundation for Development and Democracy; and Hassan Mneimneh, Director of the Iraq Memory Foundation.

They argue. In due course the bar closes. But Hitchens has an idea.

We have to go back to my house. It never closes."

"You left New York City for this?" I said.

He nodded and rolled his eyes.

"The bar at our hotel is open," Jim said. "It stays open until 2:00."

"Are you sure?" Hitchens said. He was highly suspicious.

It was. They ordered red wine and carried on the discussion. If you've ever wondered what it's like to sit around with "a drink in one hand and a Rothmans cigarette in the other", don't watch Foreign Correspondent, read the blogs. Hitchens doesn't though.

I asked him if he reads blogs.

"No," he said. "Not really. I could spend all day reading blogs and not get anything done."

"You can't afford not to read blogs," I said. "Because of who you are and what you do for a living, you'll be hopelessly behind if you don't."

"Yes," he said. "I know, I know," but I wasn't sure he really meant it.

Later he told me he recently saw "that little weasel" Juan Cole speak in public.

"You know about that flap he had with Omar and Mohammed from Friends of Democracy?" (I am referring here to Omar and Mohammed of Iraq the Model. They also founded Friends of Democracy.)

I could tell by the look on his face that he didn't.

"He floated some conspiracy theory about how Omar and Mohammed, whom you spoke to over the phone on C-SPAN today, are possibly CIA plants."

He stared at me gape-mouthed.

"He completely disgraced himself," I said. "Most of the blogosphere piled on. You should have seen it."

"You mean I stood right there in front of both him and his fans without that ammunition?"