Surrounded by the groom's female relatives and shaking with nervy excitement, Rihab strips out of her niqab to try on the strappy dress only her husband will see her in.
In a series of conversations in the first months after the bombing, Bandar and Rihab Massoud, his top aide on Khobar, discussed with Anthony Lake, the national-security adviser, and Sandy Berger, who was then his deputy, the implications of an Iranian connection.
Mr. Baetge was one of last year's George London Encouragement Award winners, a distinction that was this year bestowed on seven singers: the tenor Adam Bonanni; the baritones John Brancy, Steven LaBrie and Jonathan Michie; the soprano Marina Costa-Jackson; and the mezzo-sopranos Rihab Chaieb and Shirin Eskandani.
One 18-year-old university student I spoke to, Rihab Ahmed al-Rhabi, told me (in fluent English) of her interest in entrepreneurship.
The most memorable is Rihab El Gamal, playing the eldest of three sisters vying for the same traitorous man.
Mr. Assad normally prays at the Umayyad mosque, the biggest and oldest in Damascus, but on Sunday he chose a much smaller, safer location: the Rihab al-Hamad mosque, which is next to the presidential palace.
Rihab, a woman living in eastern Ghouta near Damascus, which has been besieged by Bashar al-Assad's regime, was quoted as saying: "Fear has taken control.
Rihab, 19, is marrying her 27-year-old camp neighbour tomorrow.
Rihab said: "Here there are no children any more.
The scientists include General Amir al-Saadi, who negotiated with UN inspectors on behalf of the Saddam regime; Rihab Taha, a biologist also known as Dr Germ; her husband, Amir Rashid, a former oil minister; and Huda Amash, a biologist nicknamed Mrs Anthrax by UN inspectors.
Did the C.I.A. inform the president that Rihab Taha, "Dr. Germs," had provided anthrax and other biological agents to Saddam's Republican Guard?
