re: #262 Ben Hur

Was Totten with him?

Who was with him?

Did anyone back him up?

IF not, that’s also ridiculous.

Sounds like he had company, but Totten was not present.

From Totten’s dispatch:

But later that night, three of our “scoop” brigade—Jonathan Foreman, Michael Totten and Christopher Hitchens—got involved in a street brawl with some thugs of a Syria-loving skinhead party called the SNPN after Hitchens rather gallantly insulted their swastika flag. On our way to a meeting with Minister of State Nissib Lahoud, Hitchens showed me the gashed knuckles and bruises suffered during the punch up. The attackers had apparently come out of nowhere on posh Hamda Street, where they had gone to buy shoes. “I was on the ground,” Hitchens said, “and getting it in the head.” It was a miracle they didn’t pull Kalashnikovs.