To: Ilaine who wrote (42027 ) 9/4/2002 9:55:00 PM From: Ilaine Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 281500 >>«A ruling despot is better than a ruling agent» According to Islam-online.net, this is the way prominent Islamic lawyer Yusuf Qaradawi characterized Saddam Hussein during the lecture that he held Sunday night in the House of Egyptian Journalists. During his speech the scholar called to the leaders of Arab states to refrain from any assistance to the United States, but instead lean on the multimillion nations who reject the American injustice». During his lecture, Yusuf Qaradawi also touched on other vital problems for the entire Muslim World. Mr. Qaradawi particularly stressed that the «operations conducted by the Palestinians are legitimate defense against the aggressor who tramples on their rights and insults their honor and dignity». The scholar strongly criticized the US campaign against Islamic charities, while the campaign is being conducted under the guise of blocking financial flows of terrorists, which they are referring to when they freeze the accounts of many Muslim charitable organizations with no grounds or proof whatsoever. In conclusion, Qaradawi one more time called on all the Muslims to refrain from buying American or Israeli products, when their consumption under the circumstances that there are now is a great sin for a Muslim. Meanwhile during the UN summit, which is now taking place in South Africa, Vice Premier of Iraq Tariq Aziz told the journalists that he is planning to meet with UN General Secretary Kofi Anan in order to discuss the crisis between Baghdad and the United States. Tariq Aziz stated that Iraq is ready to let the UN inspectors in, but only after the full normalization in the relations with the US. Most likely, Washington is not going to slow down in its preparations for the war with Iraq. Leaning on the support of its most faithful ally, - Great Britain, - the White House is persistently turning the situation towards the war crisis. According to some information, the Pentagon has virtually completed the transfer of its main war arsenal to the Gulf. Everything is ready for the attack on Baghdad, except for the public opinion and intractability of Arabs. The Bush Administration is doing all it can to break the political isolation of Washington and make the Europeans and Arabs believe that the aggression against Iraq will not lead to the total destabilization in the region, and that nothing threatens the Arab regimes. According to the information that is seeping into the press on a regular basis, the US may attack Iraq this coming October.<<kavkaz.org From Kavkaz.org, the Chechyn rebel website, FWIW.