The Sunday Times, September 25 - As the US special forces Hercules flew low over the desert in March 2003 before landing behind enemy lines, Hazim al-Shalan prepared to step onto Iraqi soil for the first time in almost 20 years.

Shalan — the exiled leader of a Shi’ite tribe with 1m members worldwide and 250,000 in southern Iraq — had already been helping British and American intelligence for several months.

NCRI, September 2 - Fars News Agency, affiliated to Ahmadinejad’s faction, quoting Ali Motahari, a close associate to Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the clerical regime reported on August 29 that the Islamic world should unite to get rid of injustice. "The Islamic Republic (of Iran) should be thinking of establishing a United States of Islamic Republics instead of seeking rapprochement with Europe. According to Islam and Moslem scholars no one is allowed to kill the innocent civilians of an aggressive state within the context of legitimate defense. But Israel is an exception and this rule does not apply and as the people of Israel are aggressors themselves, therefore, the Islamic scholars believe that although fighting the Israeli soldiers takes priority, but attacking and killing Israeli people is justified in this fight,”  according to Fars.

ABC News web, Aug. 31 -  The State Department says Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a terrorist, but will grant him a visa anyway, ABC News has learned.

The State Department has issued a legal finding that Ahmadinejad is ineligible for a U.S. visa because of section 212(a)3(b) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act, which says anyone with terrorist ties cannot be granted a visa.

By Toby Harnden, Chief Foreign Correspondent

Sunday Telegraph, August 21 - British soldiers in Iraq are being killed by advanced "infra-red" bombs supplied by Iran that defeat jamming equipment, according to military intelligence officials.

The "passive infra-red" devices, whose use in Iraq is revealed for the first time by The Sunday Telegraph, are detonated when the beam is broken, as when an intruder triggers a burglar alarm. They were used by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group against Israel in Lebanon from 1995.