I have added a few links to my page for people to go to some of my favorite sources directly. I added the English version of al Jazeera even though it is a temporary site for coverage of the War On Iraq. I didn't add the regular al Jazeera site because I didn't think most of my readers would be able to read the Arabic. My own Arabic studies have progressed to the point that I was able to translate a headline today after 10 minutes with extensive reliance on a dictionary. The headline stated: Franks Visits Saddam's Palace and Bush Calls for Lifting of Sanctions. It helps if you have read the news elsewhere.

While our attention has been diverted to the happenings in Iraq, there have been other things happening in the world. (Besides SARS, I mean.) The Israelis have continued building a wall around the West Bank to separate the Palestinians from the Israelis. Funny thing is, though, the wall doesn't follow the pre-1967 borders of the West Bank, called the Green Line. It cuts a snaking line considerably within the West Bank in order to keep illegal Jewish settlements on the Israeli side of the line. "The barrier coils around Qalqilya's 40,000 residents, reaching some seven kilometres into occupied land to take in the Jewish settlements of Zofin and Alfe Menashe to the north and south. The area sits on the Western Aquifer Basin - the second largest fresh water resource in the region - and nearly 20 wells will be embraced by Israel's new "security zone" around Qalqilya. Furthermore, six [Palestinian] villages will be stranded between the fence and the Green Line." BBC 17 April, 2003. In many places, the fence separates Palestinian agricultural lands surrounding the villages from the people who cultivate them.

"There is also talk of an Eastern Wall that would seal off the Palestinian areas from the other side, enclosing the West Bank populations in the discontinuous cantons - a concept Palestinian leaders are thought to have rejected during the 2000 peace talks at Camp David." BBC 17 April, 2003

I found a link to an interesting Blog from a guy in Baghdad. The last post was March 24, but the archives are rather interesting. I added a link to his blog to the left of my main page. Here's a sample in the form of an open letter to the West he posted last December:

The whole region is a cesspool. dictatorships are all around the arab region. Turkey and Iran fair just as bad as the rest of the lot. But the benevolent western eye looks at Iraq only.
Thank you for your keen interest in the human rights situation in my country,
thank you turning a blind eye for thirty years,
thank you for providing the support for my government to send 2 million Iraqis to war with Iran and getting them killed,
thank you for not minding the development of chemical weapons by a nut case when you knew he was a nut case,
thank you for not minding that members of the Iraqi communist party get acid baths (you don't think that this was used for the first time in Kuwait do you?, the government used these baths since the late 70's),
thank you for ignoring all human rights organizations when it came to the plight of the Iraqi people,
thank you for keeping sanctions which you knew only weakened the people and had no effect on the government.
Thank you for knowing all this and not minding.
For all your efforts I salute you with a hearty FUCK YOU.

There isn't a single bit of information which is not old and has been rehashed by many human rights organizations before, so what makes you so worried about how I manage to live in this shit hole now?

I forgot to thank all the western construction companies who have built the mentioned prisons, and the eastern European countries who provided the training.

So now you care? I don't know whether I am angry, sad or scared. You had the reports all the time and you knew. What makes today different than a year ago?