Diary Prequel Package — page 92

disallowing settlements. Clearly, one of the most stimulating evenings I have spent. The Jordanians are truly wonderful people and very friendly and affectionate to Americans. The food was incredibly good. Feb. 28, 2004 - Visited the King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman. Dr. Samir Khleif showed us around the modern facilities that have NIH-style telemedicine in real time. Toured the pediatric cancer wards with patients who had ALL, squamous cell carcinoma of ear and other tumors. There is a Jordanian Program called Project Iraq in which selected patients are chosen from sick Iraqis and are transferred to the Cancer Center for treatment. We say several Iraqi mothers with their sick children. Had a nice warm conversation with Princess Ghaida Salaam who is married to Prince Talal ibn Muhamed (Nephew of the late King Hussein) and Princess Dina who is also married to the nephew of the late king. Both women were beautiful, articulate and spoke perfect English. Princess Ghaida is the Chair of the Board of the Center and she recognized me from TV and said that she always wanted to meet me. I showed her my Harrison's textbook in the KHCC library. She spent years in DC and graduated from Georgetown in the 1980s. After the tour we had lunch and discussed the various programs. Afternoon was free and we visited archeological ruins in Amman. That evening, we had dinner at the home of Princess Ghaida. This was a most unusual evening; I was incredibly impressed by the Princess's husband Royal Prince Talal bin Muhamed. He and Princess Ghaida both graduted from Georgetown in the 1980s. He gave me a wonderful history of the Muhamed family that descended from King Faisal I, hundreds of years ago. The family split and one line took over Jordan and the other first went to Syria and then Iraq. He knew Sadam and his sons since he was a little boy and he feels that they were horrible sociopaths. He used to play with them as a child during visits to Iraq and vice versa for Jordan. Sadam gave him several guns as gifts. In Arab countries, a gift of a gun is a show of respect and affection. Talal was the favorite of his uncle King Hussein and told many stories of his loving relationship with the King. He proudly showed me his incredible gun collection (rifles, shotguns, and pistols). He was in the Jordanian paratroopers, is a polo player and rides motorcycles. I feel that this person could really be my friend if circumstances allowed. Very intellectal and stimulating discussion at dinner regarding the war in Iraq and the Israel-Palastine situation. He fees that the USA should have military rule in Iraq for 5 years before even considering handing over the government to the Iraqis. He said that the Iraqis would understand and respect this since what they want most is security. He feels that a situation similar to MacArthur and Japan would be desirable. We discussed how this would not be feasible politically in the USA, i.e. having a long-term occupation of Iraq. He is afraid of the instability that would follow in Iraq and the region if we handed the control of the government over to a governing council (which he feels is made up of some good people, but some people with no credibility such as Chalaby). In addition, he feels that the US military is so respected for their force and discipline, that this is the reason why the Iraqis fled. He stated that the Iraqis are a "fierce" and proud people and if the UN or the Poles and Spanish took over the security, the Iraqis would chew them up and anarchy would prevail. He states that no Arab country wants the USA to leave any time soon.