WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Recognizing that sometimes the pen is mightier than the sword, the CIA has a colorful history of planting false information in media outlets overseas, with results ranging from irritating the Soviet Union to paving the way for a coup in Latin America.

Disinformation measures were a common tool in most CIA covert operations, and the Soviet Union elevated the practice to an art form during the Cold War, intelligence experts say.

"You would try and recruit a journalist and he would become an agent of influence," a former U.S. intelligence officer said.

George Monbiot, Tuesday 25 February 2003

By tearing up the global rulebook, the US is in fact undermining its own imperial rule

The men who run the world are democrats at home and dictators abroad. They came to power by means of national elections which possess, at least, the potential to represent the will of their people. Their citizens can dismiss them without bloodshed, and challenge their policies in the expectation that, if enough people join in, they will be obliged to listen.

Matthew Engel, Tuesday 25 February 2003

The caricature of the current state of public opinion is that there are these two polarised continents: Europe, where everyone is against a war on Iraq except Tony Blair and some Spanish bloke with a moustache, and America, where everyone is absolutely gagging for it.

That is worse than an over-simplification. The polls vary, depending on what question is asked and how it is phrased, but on the whole the same lack of enthusiasm for the venture pervades every set of findings, and the difference between one side of the Atlantic and another is not all that marked. And there is an altogether more mysterious phenomenon: it is surprisingly hard, even in the US, to find people who share their leaders' enthusiasm.

Jonathan Steele, Tuesday 25 February 2003

Blair's gamble depends on a UN role in the post-war occupation

Tony Blair's efforts to keep George Bush on a UN route in Iraq are increasingly focusing on the aftermath of war. As lobbying starts for a new security council resolution, getting a powerful presence for the UN in Baghdad once Saddam Hussein's regime has fallen is seen as no less important than getting a UN mandate for military attack.

British Government plagiarises document

In what is regarded as behaviour common to lazy students, it appears our government has been copying other people’s documents and passing it off as their own, MAB learned this morning.

Last week, they released their third ‘dossier’ on the Iraq situation entitled “"Iraq - Its Infrastructure Of Concealment, Deception And Intimidation". The document claimed to draw "upon a number of sources, including intelligence material"

M. Abdullah Saleem, November 1999

Concerning the different rituals of worship of salah and fasting in Islam, one may not be made to depend on the other. Similarly, Eid-ul-Adha and Hajj are two separate rituals of worship, not dependent upon each other.

Looking at the history of the prescription of the two rituals, Hajj was made fard in the sixth year of Hijrah (lam’at commentary on Mishkat), whereas, Eid-ul-Adha was instituted since the first year of the Hijrah.

Reported on the authority of Ibn Umar (RA): Rasulallah (SAW) lived in Medina for ten years and made sacrifice each year. (Tirmidhi)

http://isgkc.org/qurbani.htm

It is an important ibaadah (worship), and is from among the Sha'aair (symbols) of Islaam. It is not a custom of 'Eid or a source of merry-making and gaiety; but it is a shar'ee (religious) command to renew the commemoration of the Sunnah of Ibraaheem alayhis Salaam and create the spirit and desire of selflessness and sacrifice.

The Qur'aan says:

It is neither their flesh nor their blood, that reaches Allah; it is your piety that reaches him. (22: 37)

Thus, the actual purpose of Qurbani is to create piety, devotion and a desire for obedience and submission in a human.

Brian Whitaker, Monday 24 February 2003

Brian Whitaker explains what 'creative destruction' and 'total war' mean in the context of current US foreign policy

Faced with obstruction from the French and Germans, ransom demands from the Turks, and opposition from millions of demonstrators around the world, the desired invasion of Iraq has fallen behind schedule.

But not to worry. The process of selecting the next candidates for regime change is already under way.

In a meeting with American congressmen last week, the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, nominated three countries to be tackled after Iraq: Iran, Libya and Syria.

John Pilger, Independent (London), 23 February 2003

zmag

Dr Al-Ali is a cancer specialist at Basra's hospital and a member of Britain's Royal College of Physicians. He has a neat moustache and a kindly, furrowed face. His starched white coat, like the collar of his shirt, is frayed.

Uri Avnery, February 23, 2003

zmag.org

"Don't eat Belgian chocolate," the Israeli consul in Florida ordered the large Jewish community there.

In Israel, anti-Belgian curses reached an ear-splitting new crescendo. Miserable Belgium! Mad Belgium! Megalomaniac Belgium! And again and again: Anti-Semitic Belgium! Neo-Nazi Belgium!

The Israeli ambassador was, of course, recalled from Brussels. No wonder, how can Israel keep an ambassador in the world capital of anti-Semitism?