Articles from the author

August 2nd marked a dozen years since Iraq's surprise invasion of Kuwait. That day is indelibly imprinted on my psyche. I can never forget my own emotions when I first learned the shocking news from an irate colleague while at my desk in Dubai.

Remember the early days of the year 2000 when the respected Nobel Peace Prize recipient and veteran leader of the Palestinian people President Yasser Arafat was one of the most frequent visitors to the White House?

The Israeli government knows the importance of propaganda, but rather than use the equivalent of Lord Haw-Haw or Hanoi Jane, it encourages more subtle ways of indoctrinating an unsuspecting world in its favour, attempting to turn public opinion against the Palestinians and their supporters.

The latest slurs by certain members of Congress on the name of Princess Haifa Al Faisal, youngest daughter of the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, are indications of just how low some political manipulators are prepared to stoop.

As speedily as Communism was dismantled in the former Soviet Union to be replaced with relative democratic freedoms, American citizens are willingly sacrificing many of their civil liberties and much of their privacy on the altar of Homeland Security.

At a time when the U.S. government is attempting to buy space on Arab television networks to air propaganda programmes focusing on the 'pleasant'‚ lives enjoyed by Muslims in America, hundreds of mostly Arab and Iranian temporary U.S. residents and visitors have been handcuffed and imprisoned. Many were shackled and hosed down with cold water.

Ever noticed that just when you think events are as bad as they can possibly get, they sink to even greater depths? That is just what happened in Israel last week.

Cyprus, that green and pleasant, but long troubled, eastern Mediterranean island, represents a microcosm of all the political divisions, rivalries and hatreds ongoing in the world today. An intriguing melting pot of different ethnicities and religions, Cyprus has become used to turmoil and instability.

Following George Bush's speech to a large gathering of Romanians last Saturday during his whistle-stop tour of Eastern Europe, his self-satisfied grin was almost as large as the applause.

President Kim Jong Il of North Korea has obviously failed to comprehend that only those countries sanctioned by America and its close allies are permitted to develop nuclear weapons in this unipolar world.

The idea that France's aristocratic president, the suave and deliciously animated Jacques Chirac, is on tenterhooks wondering when he will be invited to mosey on down to his American counterpart's favourite burger joint in Crawford, Texas is, frankly, laughable.

Israel may still be able to choose between making peace with the Palestinians and its neighbours, or it can evolve into a pariah state relying on charitable handouts for as long as they are forthcoming. It can make the choice between peace and prosperity or a permanent state of war.