Line Up Your Sources for the War in Iraq

European Perspectives

How the Europeans perceive the Middle East is quite different from the American perspective. I check BBC World News, particularly the Middle East coverage and Agence France-Presse, which, for some reason, is available most conveniently at Yahoo!News Singapore. Another advantage of checking the European services is that they're six time zones closer to the action, so you may get full reports here before the American news services have filed their stories.

Middle Eastern Perspectives

There are a number of English-language Arab-world Web sites. It's critically important to see how U.S. actions are perceived in Middle Eastern countries (generally badly, whether we're dropping bombs or feeding refugees.) Western standards of fair reporting rarely apply, but two that are relatively light on propaganda are the Middle East Times, which is published out of Egypt, and DAWN, which is published out of Pakistan.

The most influential television service in the Middle East, al-Jazeera, updates its Web site only in Arabic. However, Ajeeb, a clearinghouse for news on and services in the Middle East, includes a software service that translates Arabic to English. The software isn't perfect (sometimes only parts of a Web pages are translated, and sometimes you end up with pidgin English), but I was able to read transcripts of bin Laden communiqu¿s 24 hours before they were available on CNN last winter.

Military Analysis

Janes is the most comprehensive digest of military news -- any takers for the "Explosive Ordnance Disposal" newsletter? -- but unfortunately, the individual services are priced in the hundreds to thousands of dollars. Abstracts, generally the first one-third of full articles, are free.

StratFor (Strategic Forecasting) is much more affordably priced at $120 a year, with many free reports. StratFor articles range from a five-part series on likely campaign strategies to hard-nosed analyses of American and European commercial interests in the Gulf; Arab state political interests; plus "situation reports" -- quick analyses of breaking news.

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David Edwards is a portfolio manager and president of Heron Capital Management, a New York management firm. Edwards was a contributor to Harry Domash's Fire Your Stock Analyst: Analyzing Stocks On Your Own available at Amazon. At the time of publication, his firm held no positions in any companies named in this column, though positions may change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Edwards appreciates your feedback and invites you to send it to David Edwards.