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I left Iraq 22 years ago. There was no way I could live any longer under the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein. The Iran-Iraq war was just beginning and I, luckily, managed to get a visa to come to Britain as a student. I remember thinking that I would have gone anywhere, India, Rwanda, even Afghanistan, to get away from Saddam. It was a huge struggle, financially and mentally. I know that many people tried to leave after me; few succeeded. Saddam Hussein has destroyed my family and effectively sent me into exile.When I was recently asked by the Fabian...

German Justice Minister Daeubler-Gmelin won't be in New Cabinet Justice Ministry: Five affadavits confirm Daubler-Gmelin's version in the controversy over the Bush Hitler comparison. If the SPD wins the election, - she'll not be appointed into the new cabinet. Berlin - Federal Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin (SPD) according to the Justice Ministry has five affadavits, which confirm their version in the controversy over the alleged Bush Hitler comparison. Regardless of its it - independently of the election results - will have to give up their past office. As was reported from government and SPD circles in Berlin, Federal Chancellor Gerhard...

My wife is from Germany and is taking her first college course in the theater department in Interpretive Reading. Both required reading books are full of multi-culti evil, white, male American stuff. For some reason, the instructor is asking the question: What makes for the ideal American?I thought this would be a good question to post here too. What do you think?

Baby-wipe billionaire demonstrates his technique.

Check out PaPa iNk for children's art on their reaction to 9/11 and the aftermath. Have kleenex ready. Sorry I didn't find this earlier, would've been perfect for Wednesday.

IN WHAT SHOULD go down as one of the most under-discussed revelations of the war on terrorism, an unnamed "senior counterterrorism official" told the Washington Post Tuesday that the CIA is aware of credible reports documenting Saddam-al Qaeda coordination in northern Iraq, but hasn't checked them out. Someone remind me why George Tenet still has a job. In March, the New Yorker ran an exhaustive--16,000 words--account by Jeffrey Goldberg detailing the plight of the Kurds in Northern Iraq. It was an extraordinary piece of journalism--the kind that journalism awards are created to recognize. I distributed the article to dozens of...

<p>A young woman sips tea in Tehran's first Internet cafe, Dec. 8, 2001 (Photo: AFP).</p> <p>In a busy downtown Tehran Internet cafe, young people are taking turns checking the news and sipping tea while talking about closure of another reformist newspaper by the conservative judiciary.</p>

What was the significance of Yaser Arafat’s speech yesterday to the Palestine Legislative Council? Reading the Arabic news services this morning, you would be hard-pressed to come to any clear conclusions. Was it a breakthrough, or was it, in the words of one senior Israeli military figure cited this morning, BS? In order to understand better the contents of Arafat’s speech, I turned to two Arabic sources. The first is Al-Ayyam, the official mouthpiece of the PNA in Ramallah; the second, An-Nahar, an independent Lebanese newspaper. The two sources differ tremendously regarding the emphasis they place on the different aspects...

The importance of the massive US-UK air raid over Western Iraq Friday night, September 6, cannot be exaggerated. Although the Bush administration is bidding hard for broad international support for the US offensive against Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, DEBKAfile ’s military sources report that, since last month, a combined American-British air blitz has been proceeding to systematically knock out the first line of Iraq’s air force and air defenses.This week, the limelight moves to New York, where President George W. Bush prepares to address the UN General Assembly Thursday, September 12, the day after ceremonies marking...

Cleaning a Mosque in Afghanistan Labor of Love for Muslim Marines Wednesday, January 2, 2002   Hamed Aziz of Roswell, Ga., a Muslim member of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, takes a break from cleaning a damaged mosque for prayer near the U.S. Marines' base at Kandahar airport in Afghanistan last week. (Gannett News Service file photo) BY GORDON LUBOLDGANNETT NEWS SERVICE    KANDAHAR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Afghanistan -- Hundreds here are working to clean up this airport base, but Petty Officer 1st Class Russell Scott may be following higher orders.     Scott is sweeping a battered mosque about 100 yards...

Poverty today is truly miraculousBy Leon Louw(Filed: 01/09/2002) Mud oozed between the village woman's toes, as she made her way between the shanty houses. Not plain mud, but mud containing rotting garbage, human and animal faeces, urine, and years of decaying vegetation. She milked an emaciated cow.The stench in this small village in north India was appalling. A gaunt man vomited from the window of a dilapidated bus. Children sat in wet dung and urine making dung pats to dry for fuel; a man rummaged in a garbage heap, like the pig and goat nearby, for whatever might be edible.This...

Let there be lights: Senior Constable Craig Sharkie will one of many emergency service workers turning on their car lights on September 11.Picture: David Caird Shine on, VictoriaBy RUSSELL ROBINSON29aug02 VICTORIANS are asked on September 11 to shine on as a mark of respect to the thousands who lost their lives. The Herald Sun wants motorists to turn on their headlights at 8.47 on the morning of September 11 -- the moment in New York a year ago when the first hijacked passenger jet hit the World Trade Centre. The tribute is the suggestion of school teacher Paul Gyulavary,...

ABU NIDAL’S NEMESISDEBKAfile Exclusive Report - IIServing Americans, al Qaeda et al. 20 August: After 12 years of obscurity in Libya, Abu Nidal surfaced in late 1997, taking up residence in Cairo with a small band of trusted partisans. What was Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak thinking of when he opened the door to this notorious purveyor of death? Thereby hangs an extraordinary tale, which DEBKAfile reveals here for the first time. Faced with virulent threats from extremist Islamic terror groups, Egyptian political and security leaders persuaded their opposite numbers in Washington that groups like Osama Bin Laden’s al Qaeda and...

ABU NIDAL’S NEMESISDEBKAfile Exclusive Report - ITerror As a Thriving Business20 August: Abu Nidal - once Yasser Arafat’s best friend; later turned fierce foe - was shot dead early Friday, August 16 by gunmen who burst into his home in Baghdad. DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror experts have no doubt that the ailing 65-year old terrorist was murdered by Iraqi military intelligence.  Sabri al Banna, who went under the nom de guerre of Abu Nidal – Father of the Struggle, self-appointed secretary-general of the “Fatah Revolutionary Council” – was the leading evil genius of the terrorist world in the last quarter...

Fox News headline only, FBI seeks new associates of 9/11 hijackers. Just wanted to start this thread as a spot to post the news as it breaks.Speculation? In US or outside US? Are Saudis helping? Financial or logistical support? Where did the intelligence come from? Afghanistan?Up to now, there hasn't been a single document found used to plan the 9/11 attack. Maybe they've found some documents. Maybe they have a defector.

President Bush no longer seems able to restrain anti-Islamic rhetoric By Deborah Caldwell In the last six weeks, a major Protestant leader has described the Prophet Muhammad as "demon-possessed pedophile;" a well-known conservative columnist suggested that Muslims get "some sort of hobby other than slaughtering infidels;" the head of a conservative activist group suggested American Muslims should leave the country; and evangelist Franklin Graham described Islam as inherently violent. Meanwhile, the University of North Carolina is being sued by the Family Policy Network, a conservative group, for asking incoming freshmen to read a book called "Approaching the Qur'an: The...

Girls With Guns II or Islamonazi Nightmare! What the Islamonazis seem to fear most is a strong woman. If they can't lock them up at home wearing sack cloth and ashes and make them bow to their every demand, they beat them with sticks or rape and kill them. That is why we in civilization love this sort of thing. Go get them, Vanessa! Airman Vanessa Dobos of the 58th Training Squadron poses with a Gatling gun at Kirtland Air Force base in New Mexico August 7, 2002Dobos is to become the first woman aerial gunner in the USAF, with...

Iraq: In all but name, the war's onBy Marc Erikson How do you tell a war has begun? This is not the 17th or 18th century. There are no highfalutin' declarations. Troops don't line up in eyesight of each other. There are no drum rolls and bugle calls, no calls of "Chaaa...rge!". When did the Vietnam War begin? When, for that matter, World War I? When mobilizations were ordered setting in motion irreversible chains of events or at the time of the formal declarations of war? The lines of battle and the timelines to overt battle and full-scale combat have...

The Man Who Set Off an Immigration Timebomb By Philip JohnstonThe Daily Telegraph | August 13, 2002 As a career diplomat for 35 years, serving as ambassador to both Syria and Saudi Arabia, Sir Andrew Green was unused to the limelight. An Arabist, who spent half his career in the Middle East, most of his work on behalf of the nation was carried out discreetly behind the scenes.Over the past week, however, Sir Andrew has been the object of more media scrutiny than anything he endured in the Diplomatic Service, from which he retired in June 2000.As founder of the...

I scored a coup by getting an interview with Jon David, who hacked al-Queda's homepage. I wish I could have had a little more time to talk with him but considering that he's been getting interviewed by the likes of CNN, ABC, and the Washington Post today I was lucky to get him at all. John Hawkins: How long have you been going after terrorist run/al-Queda related web sites? Jon David: Since September 11th. I felt powerless at first like everyone else, then thought that the one thing I do know is the Internet. So I took it upon myself...