Hatred is inherent in insanity, often. If group "X" wants to kill "group Y" it is always because they have been given ugly information about that group. In most cases the vast majority of any group do not have the despicable attributes that are plastered onto them by the hate-mongers. "They" is always someone, and a small minority of any "they" is actually as rabid as they are painted.

Because this is true I get very leery of anyone making grand assertions about hatred.

As to Salam Pak I think the article you presented to is very powerful and persuasive. But I don't think it is true. The reason i do not is essentially that the only reason those who wanted a war with Iraq woul dnot have promoted this interview all over creation is because they (a) knew it would be debunked and knew it to be false or (b) they were too dumb to realize a golden opportunity had been handed to them on a platter to demonize Iraq and everything about the regime therein in one fell swoop. I seriously doubt the latter; however mad these men may be, they are not stupid in managing PR. Short-term, anyway. Given the number of media outlets BEGGING for a jot or tittle of something electrifying to feed their revenues from the Administration, why was PBS's cut-and-dried case for aggression against the U.S. by Hussein never raised on high as a rallying flag for war? Doesn't make sense, given how many other far-fetched or downright false data points the Bush machine has flau8nted as an excuse for all this killing.

So although it is really interesting and compelling data, I have to discount it, on the basis that it is the work of a single source, and lacks certain earmarks of fact that I would expect to see. You will recall a similar cloud of false information about Saddam Hussein and his WMD program was promoted by (primarily) one self-serving Iraqi exile all over Washington, and he storred up a real hoorah's nest with his assertions of WMD that never materialized -- the ones thart Rumsfield confidently said would be found around Tikrit to the north, south, east and west (meaning anywhere at all).

I'd be interested if any other independent sources came up with the same diagnosis of that camp. Independent verification can be very important sometimes. Especially wherte assertions of hatred and manslaughter on a large scale are involved.

A