IRISH PASSPORTS, ASSASSINS ONLY NEED APPLY.

By: Latif Yahia

www.latifyahia.com

In recent days we have seen a huge diplomatic scandal explode; the use of European passports by alleged Mossad agents in the death squad sent to kill Hamas member Mahmoud al- Mabhouh on January 20, 2010 in his Dubai hotel room.

It is not the first time that Mossad has used this ploy and probably won’t be the last, other examples are the use of British passports in 1987, Canadian passports in 1997 and New Zealanders passports in 2004, but among the British and French passports used in the 20/01/2010 mission were Irish passports.

When the news broke it didn’t really surprise me, Mossad and Hamas have had a long and brutal relationship and both sides will go to any lengths to win, Britain and France are truly multi-cultural countries and have very established minority (although some would challenge the term minority) communities. So to attempt to portray oneself as British or French while not being as milky as ball of buffalo mozzarella is not difficult, the Irish however have managed to maintain their milky-ness as it is only in the last 15-20 years that they have truly experienced an upsurge in immigration.

When I arrived in Dublin in late 1997, I was easily spotted in the street, something that would work in reverse in London or Paris. In those days I was happy to stand out, it meant that there were not a lot of Arabs, but more importantly Iraqis in Ireland.

Having fled continental Europe from the long reach of Saddam, Uday and the regime that had been able to reach me as far away from Baghdad as London, Dublin seemed thankfully distant from it all. Life became relatively quiet for me and I was grateful.

So then, why am I writing this article? Well I did say life was “relatively” quiet for me in Ireland, I have never been one to see something wrong and shut my mouth, if I had then I probably would have died by Uday’s side or instead of him in the villa, a good little body-double to the end. So what really irks me about this whole passport situation is it is not the first time that the wrong people have gotten their hands on something that the Irish government tell me is valuable!

To give you a feel for my frustration I am giving you an excerpt from one (of many) letters that I have received from the dept of Justice regarding my own application for Naturalization

“ applications for naturalization must be processed in a way which preserves the necessary checks and balances to ensure that IT IS NOT UNDERVALUED AND IS ONLY GIVEN TO PEOPLE WHO GENUINELY SATISFY THE NECESSARY QUALIFYING CRITERIA.”

Okay, I know what you’re thinking, what has my citizenship application got to do with Mossad agents with Irish passports. Well, more than you might think, I am presently on my third application for citizenship and of course if they ever decide after the three years that I am waiting to give me an answer in the negative, I will indeed pack my bags and turn my back on the only country that has felt like home in my19 years outside Iraq. I could go on about having an Irish wife, kids etc but that’s another article.

My point here is that as far as I am concerned the Irish don’t value their passport because if they did then they wouldn’t give citizenship to people like Bahaa al-Araji a member of the Iraqi Parliament representing Al-Sadr party (for those of you unfamiliar with Iraqi politics, it is like Sinn Fein being the political wing of the IRA but I wouldn’t want to give the IRA a bad name) and the Head of Law in the present Iraqi government, someone who openly in the media said ‘fuck the Irish, I got what I wanted and so what if I used a fake name” if you were to ask him why he used a fake name I’m sure he would use the tried and tested ‘for my safety’ line, I have used this line, I will not deny it, but I meant it and have several scars to prove that I was under threat and barely escaped. Less about me, more about Bahaa al-Araji, he was unknown to the Iraqi opposition before 2003, he was a corrupt lawyer in Iraq but never actually went to court because he couldn’t get clients no matter how much he tried to undercut his contemporaries fees. He lived in Dublin on social welfare and drove his Nissan Micra, after the fall of Saddam he started to buy up properties in Dublin and it may be an exaggeration but only a small one, for me to say that he owns a quarter of the property in Dublin’s City centre. He now drives a bullet and bomb proof Mercedes around Dublin on his visits and also owns property in London and Dubai. Just for your own information his brother Hazim al-Araji a Shi’ite fundamentalist is a Canadian citizen and has openly declared that ‘all Sunnis should be killed’, he is the right hand man of Muqtada al-Sadr who is the commander of the al-Sadr militia, which is supported by Iran. But where are the Irish officials in the midst of all this, are they happy that they gave their valuable passport to Bahaa?

I suppose I was shocked at the response of the Irish Minister for foreign affairs Mr. Micheal Martin when questioned on radio and television about the use of Irish passports by Mossad, he seemed speechless firstly (typical of the Irish politician, eh.. ummm.. well…), and then after calling upon the Israeli envoy to Ireland Zion Evrony, stated that he ‘had nothing useful to tell Ireland’, embarrassing? I would think so.

The case continues..

While I am on the subject of Iraqis seeking refuge can I just say that pre 2003 there were a lot of Shi’ite Muslims coming out of Iraq looking for sanctuary, Saddam was an equal opportunities Dictator, he terrorized all equally, you got in his way he ran over you Shi’ite, Sunni or Kurd. After the fall of Saddam all Iraqis got themselves new ID, one with a Sunni name, the other with a Shi’ite name so they could produce identification to whichever side they encountered. But it is still mainly the Shi’ite that arrive in Europe, many now claiming that they are Sunni, because they are more likely to achieve refugee status. This is a very dangerous situation for Europe, the Shi’ite are backed by Iran, since 2003 the population of Iraq has grown immensely, when you take into consideration how many people have been killed, are refugees in Iraq, outside Iraq or have disappeared for the population to go from 20 million in the 90’s with war and sanctions to 32 million now, you have to ask, where did they all come from? The answer is easy, Iran. I have mentioned sleeper cells before, I am not a scaremonger, they exist.

In the early to mid-nineties a doctor called Abu Hasan came to Ireland, he practiced as a doctor in one of the hospitals in Dublin until the day he realized that there was no Shi’ite mosque, realizing the potential in this he laid down his stethoscope, dressed himself in clerical robes and headed to Iran. There he received funding to open a shi’ite Mosque, he then bought land and built a block of apartments supposedly in the name of the mosque in one of the most expensive areas in Dublin and went about renting them out to refugees, He enlisted many of the patrons of his mosque and they have become his eyes and ears in Irish government departments. Most notably Basim, he is abu Hasan’s eyes and ears in the department of Justice, as an interpreter he meets nearly every Arab that seeks asylum in Ireland and knows every Immigration officer personally, each case is reported to abu Hasan and then to Iran. Those whom he has not been in the interview room with usually come to him freely later on, as he is advertised in the Arabic community as ‘the go to guy’ for citizenship applications and refugee status, whether he purports it or someone does it for him, for 500 euros he supposedly puts your application in front of someone that will ‘do the job’. Obviously I have never tried him, it is not my level, maybe I should have, I may have had more luck! Again, Abu Hasan and Basim are both Irish citizens, as are most of the Arabs that attend Abu Hasan’s Mosque. I’m sure that they don’t undervalue the Irish passport.

There have been many passport scandals in Ireland dating back to when Mr Haughey was in charge, Charles Haughey (ex Irish Prime Minister) was an open book, he made no secret of his ducking and diving. But even the Irish had enough when he sold passports to rich Arabs for 1,000,000 Irish pounds each. Since then passports have been sold to rich Russians, manufactured by entrepreneurial Nigerians and now ‘faked’ by assassins.

There seemed to be a difference between the passports used from Britain, France, Ireland, Germany and now Australia, but it seems that they were existing passports with the wrong photos everything else was perfect, as far as I can discern the passports were older technology, in the case of the Irish passports issued at the latest in 2004. In 2005 the holographic page with biometrics was introduced making it difficult to forge. How do I know this? Well as I said earlier, Irish wife and kids.

Having spent the best part of thirteen years in Ireland I used to (and still do) become frustrated at the people who attain Irish citizenship, I found it mind bending that these people who couldn’t speak English, didn’t work and claimed social welfare for the whole time they were in the country were being sent out letters saying “Congratulations, welcome, new Irish citizen” while I was being refused, without reason I may add. I used to think, ‘these people aren’t right for the country’ but now I know that it’s not them that is unsuitable for Ireland it is me, for I have seen enough now to admit that if it’s a million euros they want for it, or they are happy with forgers and frauds then I don’t want to be Irish. In a country that links itself to the famous and powerful like the woman that used to baby-sit the cousin of someone who’s famous, Mohammed Ali, Barack and Michelle Obama being the latest with Irish links, I think I’ll take my chances elsewhere.

Soon enough my movie The Devil’s Double will be in the cinemas and we’ll see who’s doing the running then.

Best regards,
Dr.Latif Yahia.

This is a very interesting article that I read, I thought that I would share it with you, just something to think about.
Sacred surprise behind Israeli hospital

The marble Shiite prayer area at Israel's Barzilai Medical Center.

Special to The Times, May 21, 2008
From the Los Angeles Times
By Batsheva Sobelman

JERUSALEM — The city of Ashkelon has been in the headlines lately, and not for its pretty beaches. The city of 110,000 has sadly joined Israels southern front line as rockets fired from the Gaza Strip improve in range and technology.

Last week, a rocket hit a shopping mall in town; the dozens of injured were treated at the city's Barzilai Medical Center.

It turns out the hospital grounds contain an interesting bit of history: a site holy to certain Shiite Muslims, thousands of whom have come to pray there over the years. Ashkelon has 5,000 years of recorded history, but when the hospital was first built in 1961, nothing indicated that the hill out back was anything special.

The consecration of the site dates back to the early days of Islam. The decades that followed the death of the prophet Muhammad in 632 were marked by a bitter and bloody dispute over succession, a conflict that ultimately marked the split between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

In a nutshell, Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, was passed over for the position of caliph -- leader of the young Muslim nation. Ali's followers eventually rebelled, touching off years of conflict.

After Ali was assassinated in 661, his sons Hasan and Hussein carried on his struggle. Hussein and his small rebel army were slaughtered in 680 in what is now the Iraqi holy city of Karbala. His head was delivered as a trophy to Yazid, the victorious caliph, in Damascus, while his body remained in Karbala. Shiites commemorate Hussein\'s death annually in the intense day of mourning known as Ashura.

Both Karbala and Damascus became sites of Shiite pilgrimages. Sunni rulers, displeased with the phenomenon, decided to relocate Hussein\'s head to the far edge of the kingdom -- Ashkelon. It remained there for several centuries, until the legendary Muslim leader Saladin sent the head to Egypt for safekeeping from the invading Crusaders.

What was once the far end of an ancient Muslim kingdom is now a grassy mound behind an Israeli hospital.

A millennium after Hussein's head was removed from Ashkelon, the site is still revered by Shiite offshoots, mostly from India and Pakistan. The pilgrims include those from countries with no diplomatic ties with Israel, hospital officials say.

About a decade ago, a Shiite spiritual leader arrived at the hospital with an unusual request : to be allowed to erect a prayer area for the pilgrims.

"How do you know this is the site?" asked Dr. Ron Lobel, deputy director of the medical center.

"I walked out to the mound with him," Lobel said. "He took out a shovel and started digging. To my astonishment, a meter or so deep, he exposed the cornerstone of the ancient mosque that had been built where the head had been buried, and was later destroyed by the Crusaders."

With the hospital's blessing, the worshipers imported the most valued marble in India. The prayer area, built seven or eight years ago, is open to the pilgrims.

"They are quiet, peaceful people. They come in silence, sometimes barely uttering a sound," said Lobel, who has become the resident expert on the subject. "An island of Shiite Muslim prayer in an Israeli hospital in a Jewish state. It really is unique."

Message From My friend to the World

Consider this, my friend: You are where you are . . . think about it; we are determined by where we are, what we expose ourselves to, our environment. Not just our genetics. Now consider: You are what you eat. Okay now, if what you eat is not grown where you are, what are you??? This site is the realization and release of my 50 years study, work, sojourn on this planet. For 20 of those years I traveled to some two dozen countries, and to a host of Indigenous Nations not recognized by the United Nations (a real Travesty!) working on community-based projects and teaching ecological design, environmental restoration and self-sufficient organic home gardening. In 2005, as part of its 2020 Vision Programme, the United Nations released the Millenium Ecosystems Assessment (MEA). www.millenniumassessment.org. Some 1500 top world class scientists from some 95 countries collaborated over a 5 year period to assess the world’s ecosystems – from Mangroves and Estuaries, to Temperate and Sub-Tropical Rainforests to Savannahs and Prairies to deserts and Tundra. They came to the startling conclusion that we have already irreversibly damaged or destroyed or at least impacted fully two-thirds of the worlds ecosystems. They reckoned one-thirds of the damage has been caused by Industrial Agriculture (the fat cat culprits know who they are and should be ashamed). The MEA got a total of 3 days world media attention. EcosystemsServices http://www.actionbioscience.org/environment/esa.html are those services to humankind that Nature provides free of charge. Who says there is no “Free Ride”? There is not a government budget that accounts for ecosystems services. There is not a business plan out there, except for new forests fund, http://newforests.com.au and maybe a handle full of other enlightened long-range vision companies, that has a balance sheet for Nature. What do we mean by ecosystems services, in a nutshell? Clean air, pure water, live soil, carbon, biodiversity, hydrological mediation, climate mediation, seeds, oils, foods, medicines, habitat for All of God’s Creatures, and billions of micro-organisms we know nothing about. My mission is to help people understand their “ecological footprint.” That is, each of us, over our lifetime, uses up a certain amount of all these resources. It is our imperative responsibility to take account of ourselves. We cannot do that without understanding, as the Ancient Greeks did, and all of the Indigenous cultures I have ever been exposed to, that we are all of us connected to the Living Planet (GAIA), and to each other. And so I offer this effort, this mission, this passion, this love, this determination to all those souls there who are awake, all my brothers and sisters, and indeed All My Relations . . .I hope you will take the time to study what this site has to offer and to educate yourself to your duty to the Creator, The Great Spirit, Allah, the Heavenly Father, the Mother Earth Goddess (Gaia) or whatever you choose to call and worship as The One God. If you can help with funding, social networking, or in any capacity please let me know. Thank you. Peace, love, light and laughter be with you. Thomas
www.millenniumassessment.org
Source: www.millenniumassessment.org

Be a citizen of the world !!!

Can I tell you how I changed myself and maybe we can use the experience as an excperiment, maybe we could all try it for one day and see how we feel afterwards?
The first step is to stop being whatever it is that you are (American, Afghani, Iraqi, Iranian, Israeli, Palestinian, Ukrainian, or anything else!)You must now look upon youself as a citizen of the world, a world as it was created millions of years ago with no borders and no passports.
This is how you breakdown the political rule.
If you make every country your country then you will never want to hurt it or anyone that comes from it, I suppose it is a bigger sense of national pride, International Pride!
A very small percentage of people will always cause harm, there are three reasons for this.
1. Mental Illness
2. Propaganda (media, political, religious)
3.Money (maybe I should have put money 1st)
If we look upon the whole world and each religion and culture as our own we will be less likely to look down on anyone as we would be looking down upon ourselves.
There are common threads in all religions, we should always remember that instead of focusing on the differences. Stop saying I am and say we are.
I look at everyone without a political or religious tag, that way I can talk happily with everyone without all the crap that happened to me clouding my mind and I am far happier for it! If for instance I started thinking differently, Oh Americans are in my country, Israeli's are hurting Palestinians, Palestinians are suicide bombers etc Iraqi's are murderers, Afghani's are the drugs dealers to the world, Iranians want to be a superpower to destroy the world, Ukraininas are selling dirty bombs to the terrorists and the third world.Do you think if we continue to think like this that there will ever be peace in the world? Who perpetuates all of these stereotypes? the media? Our governments? Ourselves? The biggest proof for me that our views are nutured not natural, was when the jeep overturned in the dessert. NO-one cared whether the person inside was this or that we all just jumped to help! This means that inside us we are human and as humans we care!
It is important to have transparency in our disscussions, maybe we could start with "This is what I was made to believe" and maybe we can end with "This is what I CHOOSE to believe"
Maybe people may think that I am a dreamer but sometimes dreams come true if you work hard and honestly with all your heart. Not for us now but for our children and grandchildren are we breaking the ice.
Best regards,
Dr.Latif Yahia.
working for peace around the world

What would happen when nine strangers from Diffrent enemy countries come together.

Breaking the Ice between cultures, Religions and Nationalities, we strive for tolerance and understanding in the belief that our humanity will unite us. Our journey from Jerusalem to Tripoli 5,800 km, through the Sahara desert took us the participants; Mohammad azzam Al-arjah of (PALESTINE) Colonel Ray Benson (USA) Gil Fogiel (ISRAEL) Galit Oren (ISRAEL) Yevgen Petrovich Koshushko (UKRAINE) Neda Sarmast (IRAN-USA) Capt. Daniel Patrick Sheridan (USA) Dr. Latif Yahia (IRAQ-Ireland) one month to complete with no influence from the outside world these disparate people had the time to get to know one another without the prejudices that the world places upon them. It is a monument to the fact that when all the misconceptions and cultural stereotyping is taken away we can all live together and like each other. This Peace Misssion took place in March of 2006.
http://www.youtube.com/LatifYahiaChannel

لطيف يحيى شبيه عدي صدام حسين ، دعاية للفلم الوثائقي ( بديل الشيطان ) عام Saddam Son٢٠٠٩

القصة الكاملة التي سوف يستكمل العمل بها عام ٢٠٠٩ والتي تروي الاحداث التي مر بها لطيف يحيى الملقب في الغرب بشبيه عدي صدام . هذا الفلم سوف يروي القصة الكاملة لحياة لطيف يحيى بدون تحريف اعلامي كما تفعل قنوات التلفاز العربية والغربية على السواء ، وكيف عرقلت وتعرقل المخابرات الامريكية انتاج هذا الفلم لما يحتويه من معلومات خطيرة يحتويه هذا الفلم ، وكيف حاولت المخابرات الامريكية تجنيده ولما رفض حولت حياته الى جحيم ،ومعلومات مفصلة عن الذين استلموا الحكم بعد سقوط النظام العراقي عام ٢٠٠٣ بالوثائق، وغيرها من احداث مهمة وسرية الفلم بالانكليزيه والعربي

First Iraqi meets Shimon Peres in Israel (never seen before footage) For Peace.
I was the first Iraqi to legally enter Israel in the history of the state for Peace, meets with Shimon Peres President of Israel in the Peres Centre for Peace. Joined by his colleagues from Breaking the Ice, the Sahara peace mission. I and my comrades set out to walk across the Sahara desert from Jerusalem to Tripoli, this is just one of the highlights from that Peace mission and his forthcoming documentary.

The other side of the coin (never seen before footage)
I was with Breaking the ice visiting the Palestinian territories. After we meeting with Shimon Peres, the BTI team went to meet with the Palestinian authority and we visit Yasser Arafat's grave. It is very important to listen to what the representatives of Israel and Palestine have to say, they both say that they want Peace and harmony between the Isrealis and the Palestinians, so who, or what is the cause of the conflict between the two sides and can it be resolved? Once again we see that as individuals we are happy to interact with one another it is only when we focus our attentions on ethnicity, religion or politics we point fingers.

Latif Yahia

Interesting article I read today

An Open Letter to Palestine :: Drop the Gun, Lift the Olive Tree, Speak to the World's Heart ::
by Mohamed Khodr
(Saturday, February 23, 2008)
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"The Arab world has failed for 60 years to liberate one inch of Palestine. It’s time for a new, different, and media based strategy."
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Peace and Freedom Be with You, God’s beloved Palestine!

No one earth can possibly imagine what our beloved Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, are enduring or feeling every day and every night of their lives under the brutal illegal and evil occupation by Israel, an Apartheid Zionist state forcibly imposed on an indigenous population by colonial powers who today proclaim themselves the guardians of democracy, freedom, human rights and the military exporters of liberty to an Arab world they mapped and installed autocratic puppeteers.

I am among the millions around the world who are pained daily by the suffering of men, women, and children in Palestine. I am more angry and in greater despair at the internal discord that is often violent amongst the already suffering Palestinians.

It is hard to imagine a competitive disaster to the occupation, but the Fatah and Hamas infighting comes close. It is hard for the world that empathizes with Palestinians, often in silence and often outside the Arab and Muslim world, to see precious Palestinian blood shed by Palestinians themselves.

Isn't the daily death and destruction committed by Israel sufficient for your minds and hearts? Must you add your guns to an occupier’s tank and missile already aimed at a child’s heart? Are you heartless and mindless too?

This is pure madness, beyond human comprehension. Israel is laughing at you all the way to the morgue, a morgue you compete with your occupier to fill.

Palestinians have never been blessed with an intelligent, savvy, military or media sophisticated leadership. I lived in Beirut during the tragic flaunting of Palestinian power that turned the Lebanese, even those who supported your cause, against the innocent Palestinian refugees far removed from the wealth and corruption of their alleged leaders and defenders.

My beloved Palestinians, you know more than anyone else on this planet that you have no one to depend on for your freedom but yourselves. The Arabs sold you , their souls, and their people for a dollar and a chair of power.

Israel and its powerful lobbies have succeeded in monopolizing the history and narrative of your existence.Neither you, nor the Arabs, nor the Muslims in the entire world have had the mindset to understand the western psyche, a psyche whose lifestyle, attitudes, and opinions are shaped by the multi-national entertainment and media industry. What comes out of the television box emanates from the western mouth the next day.

While in the west image is everything, in the Arab world pathetic hollow and grandiose lies and lip service to Islam, Muslims, and oppressed Arab and Muslim populations are the norm.

The entire Arab and Muslim world is lost given its divided subservient and dictatorial leadership. While American politicians out Jew and out-Israel each other, Arab leaders out Bush each other. To American and Arab leaders Palestine is remembered during times of political expediency such as a prospective bombing or invasion of an Arab country, or during conferences, summits, meetings, and celebratory occasions. They sell Palestine words while they sell Israel oil, protect America's interests, and buy their weapons, the same weapons that massacre our beloved Palestinians on a daily basis.

Paradoxically, while Israel has defied every U.N. Resolution and International Law, the Arabs in their impotence still adhere to such international measures as their political strategy.

How shameful that the Arabs plead and beg the very superpower that supports and arms Israel to do its killing of Arab “brethren?

Stop the bellicose speeches. Stop the charade of photo op meetings, handshakes, and smiles across Europe and the White House. Stop betraying your faith and your people for a joke of government power. None of your leaders can leave his office or home without permission from Israel or fear of being killed. How dare you imprison and torture your own people? Palestine, you have way too many political parties and militias, and for what? Rather than dedicating yourselves as one people to free Palestine from bondage you’ve all become bonded and hostages to outside influences playing you against each other for their own agenda, certainly not to your benefit.

For God’s sake, stop the internal strife. Stop the useless rockets. Just stop all these failed strategies.

First unite. Then lay down your arms and launch daily peaceful protests throughout Palestine, but without guns and the idiocy of shooting them in the air for any excuse imaginable, remove all masks, and refrain from hot blooded speeches and loud speakers. Simply carry banners of peace and flags of the U.N. Security Council nations. Invite all religious and civic leaders in Israel and in your territories to march with you.

Stop the hysterical media pronouncements that the entire Arab world is sick of. We've had enough of long meaningless speeches whose only intent is to bow and praise the useless leaders. It is incredulous that our media in the G.C.C. nations proclaim that their kings, emirs, and sultan are worthy of human sacrifice. May Allah (swt) forgive their stupidity and arrogance. Do such leaders deserve to be called Muslim leaders or is it the fault of the brainwashed demoralized masses who accept their life long hold on power?

Palestine will be liberated through intelligent strategies, peaceful protests, and a brilliant media and public relations campaign and not through the childish futile Qassam rockets or counterproductive suicide bombers.

The Arab world has failed for 60 years to liberate one inch of Palestine. It’s time for a new, different, and media based strategy. The west lives, dies, fights, buys, and elects according to media hype, the Delphi oracle of the western hemisphere.

Thus start an image campaign. Begin with a professional makeover of all governmental websites that are poorly designed and developed, usually written in poor Arabic fonts, rarely translated into proficient English, and often under eternal construction. Imagine the world's most worthy humane cause is disconnected from a world eager to know more about official Palestine.

Rarely, if any, are eloquent personalities and speakers traveling across America to present the historical and humane Palestinian perspective.

From my own observance I would highly recommend that such laudable individuals as Drs. Hanan Ashrawi, Nabil Sha'ath, and Moustapha Barghouti.

Where are the Palestinian Christian leaders? They carry the greatest weight in this country given that many American churches are struggling alone to present your story, to divest from Israel, boycott Israeli products as well as Caterpillar whose bulldozers are demolishing your homes and building extravagant Arab cities and projects.

Where are your artists, dance troupes, musicians, products such as dresses, embroidery, jewelry, and artifacts that the west so admires and needs to see?

Fifty seven Arab and Muslim Ambassadors are totally non-existent, much like ghosts, in the American media. They live for parties, receptions, photos ops and as you'll understand--Non-Islamic behavior.

You need to come here in force and populate the television and print media. Rarely does one see an op-ed or letter to the editor from a Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim leader in western newspapers or magazines.

Perhaps I’m being idealistic, far fetched, and unrealistic to hope for a new strategy for Palestine’s independence, a nation stolen under the very eyes and feet of Arabs. But what is the alternative other than the status quo?

Does anyone actually believe that this year's Bush driven to make up for Iraq peace process will amount to anything? No one should be this delusional.

Nothing is ever given by superpowers only taken. The question is the path and strategy to reclaim one’s freedom, rights, and stolen land.

In today's world, especially after 9-11 violence is dead on arrival and only peaceful protests and a media savvy campaign gets results.

I pray to God that Fatah and Hamas will see the folly of their ways and together work toward the light of independence. You both struggle for a sense of false power in a land not under your control. Yet none of you are able to feed a single hungry Palestinian child living in total darkness in Gaza who’ll awaken tomorrow to play in contaminated water and sewage.

The world supports and loves you but you must earn this love and support and not lose it through your arrogance and failed strategies. It must be said that in modern history perhaps the most misguided resistance movement has been the Palestinian movement.

To Fatah and Hamas, may God help your hungry, sick, and unemployed people if you as alleged leaders are unable to unite for the freedom and welfare of your people.

The fastest way to your independence is by talking and touching directly the hearts of the western masses and not through photo-op meetings with politicians. Western politicians are beholden to their domestic constituencies and not to any foreign cause. You must come here and impact the citizens who vote for these politicians. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the reservoir of good will many Americans have toward Palestinians. They just need to see and hear your narrative told in a most compelling manner.

For once our beloved Palestine take the initiative from Israel, hold the upper hand and place your destine in the hands of God.

Begin by announcing to the world that you abandon all military resistance and seek a peaceful two state solution as called for in U.N. Resolution 242: 2 states-- 4--2 peoples.

Proclaim that Israel has one year until Bush's term ends to reach a final settlement based on United Nations Resolutions and the Arab League Peace Plan presented for the third time and rejected by Israel. Place the onus directly upon Israel in the court of world opinion.

If Israel fails to accept the plan after one year than for God's sake UNILATERALLY DECLARE YOUR INDEPENDENCE. Whatever happens can’t be worst than what’s happened to you for sixty years. What else can Israel do, invade and occupy your lands?

Many in the world will fill the streets in your support beginning with the oppressed and suppressed one and a half billion Arab and Muslim masses.

Declare your independence on January 20, 2009, the day a new American President is inaugurated. A new President will have no choice but to flaunt his power to gain worldwide credibility and will halt any Israeli onslaught. There will be victims for sure but Palestine has given up thousands of its children for decades and has never achieved independence. In due time many nations from South America, to Africa and Asia, will recognize Palestine after such a dramatic and potentially risky endeavor.

The world is sick of superpower hegemony and fear of American retaliation against those who speak or act ill toward Israel. Your declaration of liberation will reverberate and liberate the world once and for all from Israel’s political hegemony and intimidation.

Do it and only fear God, not America and not Israel. The Arab leaders will react to your declaration after first checking with the new President, most likely Barack Obama.

God be with you our beloved Palestine.

I Never give up !

This latest book was quite a trial for me, with the other two I suppose I had backing from the biggest Publishers in the world because the books supported the official Western line on Saddam. The Black Hole however left me struggling to find a publisher because it shone a searchlight on CIA practices in Europe, my treatment in the West has in part been worse than my treatment in Iraq. To some my story might seem fantastical, a figment of my imagination, to those people I say that truth is often stranger than fiction and the truth of my life is among the strangest.

In a world where we strive for truth and freedom of speech, it still amazes me how those who try to speak the truth are shot down, ridiculed and derided, I am not the only person trying to speak out there are many, many more and always when they are filmed peacefully protesting or gathering support they are portrayed as "hippies" "liberals" "tree huggers" anything that deflates their cause and questions their intelligence.

As I wrote and spoke out against Saddam Hussein and his regime in Iraq, I have and will write and speak out against the same system here in the west, it is not because I escaped one Dictator that I can sit back and let another rule me. I have heard the rhetoric, "oh, but you are free now, you should be thankful" yes I am thankful to be out but not thankful to be brought to another corrupt system. Yes there are varying degrees of dictatorship and the ones here in the west may not have reached the heights of murderousness that Saddam did, (well at least not on their home soil) but is that enough reason for us to put our heads down and pretend that nothing is wrong?

It has been made very clear to me especially in the recent past that if the citizens of the country that I reside in are not interested enough in changing the flaws in their government and it's policies that they certainly don't want me a foreigner doing anything about it either, thank you very much.

A government is supposed to represent the people, a government is employed by the people, a government is supposed to be elected by the people (although in recent years one has to wonder) so why is it that when a government isn't doing the job that we put them in power to do, we don't do or say anything? There is a prevailing lethargy, a belief that their term will be over soon enough and they'll be out so we don't have to do anything about it. Yes, but then we elect a new batch and although the faces change the policies and strategy stay the same, (it worked for the last lot why wouldn't it work for them?) and why? Because we as the people, their employers and their electors, didn't make it clear to them what we were and were not going to accept. I have heard it said that we get the government we deserve, well that maybe very true, did Iraq deserve Saddam? Does Zimbabwe deserve Mugabe? Does the great Nation of America deserve Bush? You may argue that Saddam and Mugabe weren't elected, but initially they were, can we also positively say that about Bush? Does it not seem farcical that a President whose own election was dubious should go around the world overthrowing those that he deems undemocratic?

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, you don't need to have read George Orwell's 1984 to see that his novel was prophetic, the constant state of war against an ever changing mysterious enemy, "Big Brother" the phrase Orwell himself coined is an everyday term for the eyes and ears that constantly watch over us, we are aware but for some reason buy into the idea that it's all for our own good, ask yourself a question, there is no right or wrong answer, just your own perception.

Is there less Terrorism in the world now, even though we have CCTV, Patriot laws, Guantanamo bay and stricter airport controls?

At what point did you notice your world change?

Who benefits from confusion?

What is foreign policy and who makes really it?

Latif Yahia

Michael McDowell the Saddam Hussein of Ireland ?

There is one thing that we all share each year, that is reflection, each New Year we refelect upon the year that has passed and as we ourselves grow older, we reflect upon our lives, what we have achieved and our goals for the future.

As Frank Sinatra once sang “regrets, I have a few, but then again, too few to mention”

There are certain points in your life that are integral to the person that you have become, rights of passage, character building events and in my case life changing situations, would I be the person I am today had I not had my life?

Of course not!

I make no apologies for my life, it has not been all good nor has it been all bad, it could not be everyones life because everyone would not have survived it. I am grateful for my life, in that I am still here to live it. I can wake each morning to the certainty that I am loved.

What more could a man ask for?

Well, if you were to really push me… a country to call home would be nice.

For many years, I roamed Europe and the rest of the world, it didn’t matter to me much and at times I quite enjoyed the impermanence of it all, I actually loved Hotels and the fact that each day the room was scrubbed clean to appear as if no-one had been there before you.

Maybe it is age, or actually finding somewhere that I would like to call home that has changed that for me.

Ireland in 1997, seemed so ideal, small but fairly modern, Europe but different, friendly people and a burgeoning economy for business.

Now, that is just a memory for me, having just made my third application for Irish citizenship ( will the third time be a charm for me?) it is getting through my thick skull that I am not necessarily wanted here. I grin weakly at people from all over the world that assume that I received citizenship in Europe the moment I put my foot outside Iraq ( or a team of bodyguards for that matter), no, I’m afraid that part of the screenplay didn’t make it into the final cut.

And why have I been refused Irish citizenship twice, I hear you ask, well on the first application which took five years to process and was seemingly the longest case on file, it seems that I applied three months too early. It only took the threat of a High court action against Mr. McDowell to make a decision for them after five years to point that out.

(Irish naturalisation law, deemed at the time that a decision would be made on any case within six to eighteen months of application, I waited five years, it’s quite possible that I could still be waiting)

Obviously it was the only excuse they could come up with.

I should like to point out at this time that I do not have a criminal record, not even a parking ticket.

In the Autumn of 2001 three black GMCs pulled up outside my hall door, I instantly recognised the men in suits and sunglasses (yes, in real life they do dress like they’re in the movies) As I opened my door and invited them in, it seemed almost like De ja vu.

They were American, they were from the CIA and they had a proposition for me, do remember that the invasion of Iraq did not start until March of 2003.

I was offered a job, to work for them in Ireland, as usual I told them were to go and as usual they told me that they would make my life here hell and I should never think that I would get anything from Ireland.

Maybe this time they were telling the truth.

My second application which was lodged shortly after the first refusal was met with a letter from the Dept of Justice stating that I should not contact them until early 2008, it was 2006 at the time, infuriated, I made my case on the Gerry Ryan radio show, in which I called upon the then Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to meet with me face to face in the radio station to discuss the matter on air and let the listeners decide if I were fit to be an Irish citizen. Unsurprisingly he declined my invitation, but did find the time in his hectic shedule to refuse my second application “at the Ministers discretion” two weeks later. It seems that at some point Michael McDowell had changed immigration and nautralization laws to disallow appeals of his decision and also naturalization through marriage to an Irish National.

But I was free to apply again, which I did.

It is also noteworthy that any application no matter how complete/incomplete can be accepted or declined by the Minister for Justice, he has the final say, no matter what and can grant or refuse as he wishes. He at his discretion can waive certain requirements to issue naturalisation or in reverse can refuse an application simply because “ In the ministers view and upon reccomendations made to him , the minister does not feel that you would be a good citizen for Ireland”

I have received my letter confirming receipt of my application and have also been told that I may contact the citizenship dept, but anyone who has had the misfortune of trying to make that call knows that the chances of getting through are the same as winning the Irish lottery.

On the one occasion that I did get through,as soon as I gave my name I was immediately put on hold while the person on the other end went in search of a supervisor. The lady in question informed me that because of a backlog of 17,800 cases it could be “ Two and a half, three maybe four years before we get to look at your case.”

Now when I sit in a district court on any given day and see some of the people who have been granted citizenship to this fair land, who cannot speak English well, write their names or on one particular occasion didn’t actually know what it was they were there for, getting citizenship, I do ask myself why?

Is it so wrong to be educated, slightly famous/infamous (you choose) be married to an Irishwoman and have three Irish born children?

Or maybe I should just forget about it and find somewhere that might actually want me.

I think the latter is the better option, don’t you?

This a letter between the Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland and the Minister of Justice, Equality and Law reform, Mr Michael McDowell. One of twenty, the Taoiseach Mr. Bertie Aherne represented my interests in all cases, you can see that the Taoiseach had no influence over his Minister with regard to my application for Naturalisation.


Me and prime minister of Ireland Mr.Bertie Aherne.

This is a letter from the Minister of Justice Mr McDowell to me, I had asked for a personal meeting to explain my case, he declined to meet me and as you can see from the letter itself that he asked me not to contact his office until the first half of 2008, the send date on the letter was 2006.

This is a letter from Minister McDowell informing the Taoiseach Mr. Bertie Aherne of his decision to decline my application for naturalization, the decision was made just weeks after I appeared on the National radio station on a famous radio show The Gerry Ryan radio show, I had been speaking to Gerry about my applications for citizenship and the fact that the Minister Mr. McDowell had declined to meet with me and I had asked Gerry to again ask the Minister if he would meet with me on the show he declined, I pointed out on the show that the Minister's dept was full of corruption and I had the proof, the Minister chose not to defend or refute my allegations. The Minister did however find the time to look at my application and refuse it, even though from his previous letter he assured me that due to the backlog of 7,000 cases in front of mine he could not look at my case until the first half of 2008. Mr. McDowell lost his Ministry in the 2007 Elections and also lost his seat in The Dail (Irish Parliament).

Will the game of cat and mouse between me and the Dept of Justice ever end?
Has my file with a big black X just been passed from one Minister to the next or will the new Minister for Justice read my file with an open mind?
People have said that I am a politician, this is not true, politicians have two and three faces, I cannot, I cannot be like them I speak my mind, it is something that I have always done and cannot change now and would not want to. I believe in freedom of speech, justice and equality for all, I would just like to find some.
According to Irish Law if you are resident in the state of Ireland for five years you are entitled to apply for naturalization, (I am here nearly 11 years).
If you are married to an Irish citizen for three years or more you are entitled to apply for naturalization ( my Irish wife and I are married for seven years, we have three Irish born children)
Under the terms of legislation for naturalization, a refusal can be made if you have a criminal record, I do not, I don't even have a parking ticket.
When Mr. McDowell took his position as Minister for Justice he repealed several laws with regard to naturalization, you cannot appeal his decision in the High Court which was the case, marriage to an Irish citizen is no longer a reason for naturalization, having Irish born children no longer a guarantee of Irish naturalization and if both parents are non-nationals the child if born after 1st January 2005 is not automatically an Irish citizen.
Some of these changes are fair others not, but at the end of the day the Minister for Justice has the power to grant or refuse any application at his discretion no matter what the circumstances. Mr McDowell also refused to sign off on an anti-racism law to which most of Europe subscribe. Is this democratic? Or was Mr. McDowell the Saddam Hussein of Ireland?
Under Mr. McDowell's watchful eye crime in Ireland surged by 28% racism in Ireland grew by 32% these figures are confirmed by Amnesty International which I am a member of.

Best regards,
Latif Yahia

vice Magazine

The hand that rocks the oil pumps controls the world. Between 1979 and 2003, that hand was Saddam Hussein’s. He would also use it to sign death warrants on dissenters, to murder his own countrymen, to plot disastrous wars with neighboring countries, and to be the puppet master of his entire population. In September 1987, Saddam—or more accurately, his son, Uday—picked up my strings. Uday wanted a double, and I was unlucky enough to resemble him.


his was not my first encounter with Uday. Because of my father’s wealth I was sent to the best school in Iraq, and a young, spoiled, arrogant Uday became my classmate. We all hated him even then. He would cruise the streets in his cars and, with the assistance of his bodyguards, would pick up girls whether they wanted to go with him or not—and most did not. At least one girl who refused to be taken by him was kidnapped and thrown to his starving dogs. In class he would act like his father, showing no enthusiasm for lessons and acting threateningly toward anyone who crossed him. A teacher who reprimanded him for bringing his girlfriend into class disappeared and was never seen again. My classmates used to tease me and call me Uday because even at that age I resembled him. I used to imitate him for laughs.

When my second encounter with Uday came about, I was a captain on the front in Iraq’s pointless war with Iran. My unit’s command received a dispatch saying that I should be sent to the presidential palace. I was taken there and informed that I was to become Uday Hussein’s fiday, or body double. This would involve attending functions, making appearances, and assuming his persona when rumors of assassination were circulating. Saddam had several fidays already, and Uday obviously longed for one just like his daddy. I was to be his first. My initial refusal was met with a long spell of solitary confinement and mental torture in a cramped cell without so much as a toilet to maintain my dignity. Eventually, this treatment, and vile threats against my family, forced me to agree to Uday’s demands.

Throughout a lengthy period I was trained to act like him and to speak like him. I was also, through cosmetic surgery, made to look even more like him. Indeed, having my front teeth filed down and being given a set of caps that mimicked Uday’s gave me a lisp just like his. I was, during my “training,” desensitized to the ugly barbarity of the regime by being forced to watch endless, excruciating videos of real torture, mutilation, and murder perpetrated by them on dozens of men, women, and children of Iraq, usually prisoners or prisoners’ family members. These films also served as a warning as to what I could expect were I to decide to challenge the regime at any time in the future.

My first public appearance as Uday was at a football match in Baghdad’s People’s Stadium. My job was to wave at the crowd from a dignitaries box and present medals to the players at the end. When Uday saw the appearance on television he was impressed. He congratulated my trainers and accepted me as a member of his circle, albeit on the outer reaches. He could not allow anyone to become too close to him, particularly anyone from outside the Tikriti clan from which the majority of the regime was drawn. Indeed, I had been the first fiday to be plucked from the outside world.

From then on my days were spent living in his palaces, effectively a prisoner, as I was not allowed to do anything without permission. But it was a prison of opulence and luxury, with access to the finest food and drink the world had to offer. Swimming pools and other such charmed diversions made the time a little more bearable.

ut the captivity grew stultifying. Most of the time I would not be making appearances; I would be bored out of my mind, intellectually and socially unchallenged. I had graduated with a degree in law and had dreamed of following in my father’s footsteps and becoming a businessman. This had never been part of my master plan. I was living a brainless, useless existence with no independence or exercise of free will. But worse was to come. I got sucked closer to Uday and he started to treat me as one of his bodyguards, taking me out with him as protection against assassination at the hands of any of his multitude of enemies. This is when I witnessed the depravity of Uday firsthand. I saw him rape, murder, bully, and destroy anyone who dared to question his will. This could be anyone from friends of his father to innocent passersby. On one occasion a honeymooning couple, the wife of which Uday took a liking to, was split apart forever when she threw herself to her death from a balcony after being raped by Uday.

I was saved by the beginning of the invasion of the US-led forces, which seemed to give the regime other things to think about. Uday came to visit me one day. He had me shaved from head to toe and dumped on the doorstep of my parents’ home. My mother discovered me but did not recognize the bald, skeletal figure at her feet until I spoke to tell her who I was.

I eventually managed to flee to Austria, but Uday was not finished with me. Two of Uday’s men arrived at my family’s home and told my father that Uday wanted to see him in his office. They said the meeting would not take too long and that they would pick him up and bring him back. The meeting took place in the headquarters of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, the organization led by Uday more as something for him to do than through any interest he might have had in sports. At 4 AM my father was dropped off at home. The family was still awake, terrified that he had been kidnapped, tortured, or murdered. He said he did not feel well, and just sat there in the lounge, obviously in some distress. In time he started to feel dizzy. Everyone assumed he was tired, as the past few hours would have been a serious drain on his physical resources. But his skin was changing color, at first unnoticeably but eventually unmistakably, to a sickly shade of yellow. He eventually keeled over and took his last breath.

A few hours after my father was dropped off, Uday’s bodyguards arrived at the house and imposed a no-funeral rule. They told my family simply to put his body in a grave and unceremoniously bury him. They must have known he would be dead by then, which confirmed to anyone in any doubt that he had been deliberately poisoned. Their rationale was that he was killed because he was the father of Latif Yahia, in their view one of the country’s greatest criminals, one of its traitors, who was working alongside the CIA to overthrow Saddam.

I continue to blame myself for the death of my father. And I cannot see the day when I will forgive myself. I could have stayed in Iraq and faced the music. Perhaps I would have been the one to accept the orange juice, to have my bones broken, my soul forced through the mangle. Perhaps then my father would have been the one blaming himself—for sending me to the same school as Uday, for being wealthy. Who knows? It is pointless thinking about it. All I knew was that he was the biggest thing in my life—my father, my friend, my teacher, my confidante, a line of continuity in a place where arbitrary acts of violence and mayhem kept its inhabitants in fear and obedience. And now he is gone.

LATIF YAHIA

Uday Hussein's double visits Israel

Latif Yahia who served as a double for Saddam Hussein's son Uday visits Israel to take part in journey to promote peace. Yahia recounts horrors of dictator's rule, says under U.S. occupation Iraq ceased to exist

Roee Mendel

Published:

03.05.06, 21:43

The man who faced the crowd of journalists wore a black suit, sunglasses and a moustache adorned his face. It was difficult to not be impressed with the tragic resemblance between Latif Yahia and Uday Hussein, the son of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein - a resemblance that dictated Yahia’s course of life. Yahia, 42, a lawyer by profession, arrived in Israel to take part in a special journey from Jerusalem to Libya organized by the Berlin-based Breaking the Ice organization, along with a group of other members from rivaling countries.

Yahia. Carries the scars

Uday Hussein. Raped and tortured his victims Photo: Al Jazeera

The group will departure from Jerusalem, and arrive in Tripoli, Libya, 5,500 kilometers away, passing through Ramallah, Jericho, Beit Shean, Amman, and the Suez Canal.
Both participants and organizers hope that the journey will help create trust and maybe help foster an atmosphere of dialogue between western and Muslim countries.

Rape, murder and torture

Yahia, who represents Iraq in the journey, says he had served in the Iraqi army during the Iran-Iraq war until he was summoned to the Presidential Palace in Baghdad one day where he was told he is to begin serving as Uday Hussein’s look-alike.
According to Yahia, Saddam Hussein himself informed him of his new role, which he said will earn him a father-son relationship with the Iraqi dictator.
Years of torture in jail, and news of his father having been poisoned by the Mukhabarat (intelligence services) were the price Yahia paid for refusing to desert his family for a fake life as Saddam Hussein’s son.
But the refusal came only after having witnessed the evil nature of Saddam’s sons whose acts of serial rape, murder and torture are no secret.
As Uday’s double, Yahia was ordered to accompany Saddam’s son for long days and nights during which he witnessed the daily crimes of a family that lacked dignity and respect for human life. Yahia recounted that when a woman caught Uday's eye, he would stop his car, shoot her companion and take her to his palace. There he would rape her, shoot her and throw her from the window.
Yahia piled his evidence of the Saddam era atrocities in two books published in the nineties. I wanted to tell all what I had seen and it was important for me that everyone knows what had happened there, Yahia explained. I never thought about making money out of this. I donated all the money to charity, he added.

The many torture scars that cover Yahia’s back are only a backdrop to the emotional symptoms of insomnia and nightmarish nights which haunt the former Iraqi soldier until this day.

"We agree on some issues, and on some we don’t. I joined this delegation to say 'enough', enough to violence and war. We're only human," he said.

Pictures of the bodies of his former boss’ sons killed in a U.S. air strike did little to comfort Yahia. I wanted both of them to stand trial, he stated. I wanted to face Uday in court, point at him, tell to the whole world of his acts, and see him sentenced for his cruelty, he said. The trial of Saddam Hussein is but a “game” that serves the propagandist agenda of the United States, Yahia said.

Once there was one Saddam, now there are millions

Fifteen years ago, Yahia was smuggled from southern to northern Iraq and then on to Turkey and Austria. American assistance in the mission saved his life as Saddam had given orders to do away with him.
But Saddam’s long hand attempted to assassinate Yahia in Austria: his wife, who turned out to be on the pay roll of the Mukhabarat, disclosed her husband’s whereabouts.

Pictures of U.S. tanks rolling down the streets of Baghdad triggered mixed emotions in Yahia. The daily violence in the war-torn country, three years after the U.S. invasion, is saddening indeed and certainly worse than the Saddam era. Today Iraq doesn’t exist. Bush’s U.S. destroyed it, he said.

Latif did not hesitate to blame the American President for the dire situation in his country. Before Bush declared war on Iraq there was one Saddam Hussein and one Bin Laden, Yahia said. Look at what’s happening today: there are a million Saddam Husseins and a million Bin Ladens, he concluded.

'I'm not anti-America, I'm anti-Bush'

"Look at what's going on in Iraq, it's a civil war. Unlike Saddam's era, there were no religions and factions. I am Sunni and my sister is married to a Shiite. It's like a death sentence. My family stays with me in Dublin, but my 30 years old brother is still there. He has been shot four times by the militias but still choose to stay there".

Despite the hard words, Yahia stressed: "I must make it clear – I am not anti-America, I am anti-Bush, and noted he has two American friends in the delegation who know how he feels.

For many years Yahia was exposed to incitement against Israel by the Iraqi media. During Saddam's era, Israel was depicted as a cruel, abusive occupier of Palestinians, he says.

"I imagined the Jews as two-headed beasts rather than humans," Yahia admits.

Still, he says he will never forget the first time he met an Israeli in Vienna.

"We befriended each other, did business together and visited each other's family," Yahia said. "He even invited me to come to Israel, but I was afraid. A lot happened since then. Today I have many friends from Israel."

The Iraqi double said that when he arrived in Israel he expected to undergo strict searches and possibly denied entry, but was allowed through without an incident while Americans around him were thoroughly screened. Yahia says he was stunned by the respectful behavior.

"Israel is amazing and I'm excited to visit here," he concluded.

Hodgepodge of Jews, Muslims and Christians cross the Sahara for peace .
By Associated Press March 20, 2006
In this photo released Sunday, March 18, 2006 by the group Breaking the Ice, members of the group ride camels as they trek in the Eastern Sahara desert in Egypt. (AP) Ex-Israeli fighter pilot Gil Fogiel reads an English copy of the Quran. (AP) Ex-Israeli fighter pilot Gil Fogiel rarely talked about being a prisoner of war in Syria, until he sat across a campfire in the middle of the desert with people he long considered his worst enemies - Iraqis, Iranians and Palestinians. Breaking into tears, he recounted being shot down over Syrian-controlled Lebanon in 1982, floating down 14,000 feet (4,270 meters) while his co-pilot crashed and spending two years being tortured in a Damascus prison. Now 49, Fogiel is one of 10 people - including a former double for Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, a Palestinian accounting student and a New York City firefighter who survived 9/11 - trekking from Israel across the Sahara Desert to Libya on a mission to promote Mideast peace. The expedition is sponsored by Breaking the Ice, a nonprofit conflict resolution group that wants participants to confront divisive religious and political issues in a setting where they depend on each other for survival. Traveling by camel, on foot and in two 1960s-era German trucks, the group left Jerusalem March 7 and hopes to reach the Libyan border by Tuesday. If Fogiel and a second Israeli on the expedition are permitted to enter Libya, which does not have diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, they would be the first Israelis to enter the desert country. Carrying an olive tree from Jerusalem as a gesture of peace, the travelers hope to plant it in Tripoli at the end of their more than 5,470-kilometer (3,400 mile) journey. If the Israelis are denied entry, the group will stay together in Egypt. "If attitudes change from my actions, I'm honored," Fogiel said. "Somebody's got to make that first step." After an overnight ferry ride across the Red Sea, a day touring Cairo's pyramids and three days in Egypt's white desert, the team began the difficult task of crossing the Sahara's barren dunes. A trucks' diesel tank ruptured in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, delaying the group an extra day. Two main roads running to Libya were suddenly declared closed military zones when the team came through. The red tape and long car rides quickly took their toll. "It was a honeymoon at first, with people feeling like brothers and sisters. It was beautiful," said Stanford Siver, a team mediator who is a Ph.D. candidate in the psychology of conflict. But after the hectic travel schedule, "people started to get a little cranky and more interpersonal stuff came up," he said. "They're laughing and sharing one another's music and jokes, but deep down, some closely held views aren't being challenged," Siver said. "They're not testing the waters and interacting on things that are more complicated." They are, however, taking the first step of becoming friends and sharing personal experiences. Latif Yahia, a former Iraqi army captain who was forced in 1987 to undergo plastic surgery and training to act as Uday Hussein's double, is coming almost full circle on this trip. Yahia, who still walks around with shrapnel in his body from the real Uday Hussein's gun, said he contacted then-Defense Minister Dick Cheney after the first Gulf War and headed to a CIA base in northern Iraq. Yahia said he spent two months at the camp before being choppered out of the country to Turkey in November 1991. "I've been tortured, I was in prison, and after I left Iraq, Uday Hussein killed my father," said Yahia, 41, who now owns a detective agency in Ireland. "War never brings anything good to people. That's why I'm here." In the Sahara Desert, Yahia and Fogiel find themselves in an incongruous relationship - joking around and protecting each other, when 20 years ago they could have just as easily killed one another. "There is a basic hatred, but much of it is only because of brainwashing. People are told to hate and then they hate. But if you just change the message, peace is possible," Fogiel said. Daniel Patrick Sheridan, a captain in the New York City Fire Department who lost 343 fellow firefighters in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, is still looking for answers. He wants to know what possessed the perpetrators of the attack to fly airplanes into U.S. buildings. "I'd like to not only find out about them, but let them find out about me," Sheridan said. "I was hoping there'd be a real Bin Laden-type guy here, someone I couldn't communicate with at all. But all these people are so friendly and nice. It's like this is conflict-light." Heskel Nathaniel, 44, an Israeli businessman living in Germany, founded Breaking the Ice in 2003 after surviving leukemia. A year later, he took four Israelis and four Palestinians to Antarctica. The idea is for participants to shatter stereotypes even after they leave the desert, a mission that seems too complicated for Col. Raymond Benson, 61. After serving in the U.S. Army for 22 years and surviving two tours in Vietnam, "I myself am pretty set in my ways," Benson said. "Is this going to change the world? No, but there are a lot of people doing nothing. We're doing something," he said. "When you remove politics and religion, we can get along out in the desert alone." Neda Sarmast, 37, an Iranian-American, went to Iran for a two-month summer vacation in the early 1980s. Denied an exit permit by the Iranians to return to her studies in the United States, Sarmast spent the next two years dodging gunbattles at the height of the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war. Now, Sarmast is joking and sharing Bedouin food with Yahia, who was on the other side of the guns' sights during that war. "If we can cross this terrain together, we become ambassadors of peace, showing other people that if we can do this, anybody else can too," Sarmast said.