"If Colin Powell were to visit the shabby military compound at the foot of a large snow-covered mountain, he might be in for an unpleasant surprise," reports Luke Harding. "The US Secretary of State last week confidently described the compound in north-eastern Iraq - run by an Islamic terrorist group Ansar al-Islam - as a 'terrorist chemicals and poisons factory.' Yesterday, however, it emerged that the terrorist factory was nothing of the kind - more a dilapidated collection of concrete outbuildings at the foot of a grassy sloping hill.

In New York the coalition United for Peace & Justice is in court today suing the city over its refusal to provide a permit for a non-violent peace march February 15th. Newsday noted yesterday that "the lawsuit ... sought a declaration from the court that the city's action violated the First Amendment and for an order permitting a parade of between 50,000 and 100,000 people. The Feb.

Since September 11, a number of pundits have tried to demonize dissent by equating it with support for terrorism. "But none has gone so far as to suggest an actual prosecution for treason simply for voicing one's political views - until now," writes Brendan Nyhan. In a February 6 editorial, the New York Sun begins by praising the New York City government for "doing the people of New York and the people of Iraq a great service by delaying and obstructing the anti-war protest planned for February 15.