As soon as John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate, newspapers cited blogs and other websites as saying that her daughter, Bristol, was pregnant. The Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, quickly put out a statement saying that the personal life of candidates should be off-limits.

The girl in question is a 17-year old adolescent who got pregnant out of wedlock by her boyfriend from Alaska, Levi Johnston. The mother put out a statement after the news of the pregnancy got out, saying that she and her husband were very proud to become grandparents.

After this introduction, it is time to take up the book The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism, by Ron Suskind, a prominent American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner.

The book raised a commotion on both sides of the Atlantic, especially since the writer claims that a British intelligence agent met Taher Jalil Habbush, the head of Iraqi intelligence, in Amman early 2003. Habbush told him that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction; the information was relayed to the then-British prime minister, Tony Blair, but "Cheney's people" insisted on going to war.

We know that the information on Iraq was suppressed and other information was put forward; Suskind's book is further proof that the Bush administration and the government of Tony Blair waged an unjustified war that has killed one million Iraqis.

And now, today's topic: something that appeared in pages 179-182 of the book. Suskind talks about prewar contacts between the head of the Central Intelligence Agency and the former Iraqi foreign minister, Naji Sabri, and says that a Lebanese journalist acted as a middleman between the two sides, and that he took $200,000 for Naji Sabri, in exchange for information about the Iraqi domestic situation.

After the book came out, the website Filka Israel published something that said the journalist in question was my colleague Raghida Dergham, and that the reference to her "spy activity" mentioned in the book was unquestionable. It was said she lived in New York with an Israeli and had a daughter with him, and that she was not the only spy for America and Israel among Lebanese journalists; "most of those working in journalism in Saudi newspapers, and particularly al-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat, are spies, and we have revealed some of their activity on the pages of Filka Israel."

Last month, Suskind published the following denial on his website:
"On p. 179-182 of The Way of the World, I discuss the CIA's prewar contact with former Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri. In this section, I mention a Lebanese journalist who served as an intermediary between the CIA and Sabri, without mentioning the journalist's name or gender. Let it be known, in no uncertain terms, the journalist in question is not Raghida Dergham, the prominent diplomatic correspondent for Al-Hayat. The Sabri intermediary--whose identity remains a secret--is, moreover, a man."

Raghida is practically "one of the guys," as we say, but she is not a spy, and the writer settles the matter. However, the website relayed the accusation to journalists at al-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat. I would like to state the following.

*I do not agree at all with Raghida Dergham in terms of politics, to the degree that last year I asked her not to discuss any Arab politics with me, so that we would not become enemies.

*Raghida Dergham has never visited Iraq, before or after 2003. She could not have carried $200,000 through international airports and made it. I do not think that Raghida would be given $200,000 and give it to a minister or head of state.

*Spies are those who hide behind pseudonyms and secret websites, attack others merely over a difference of opinion. They are backward in terms of democracy and humanity. As for those working at the two newspapers, they are honorable people who give their all when covering the news.

*Raghida Dergham does not live with an Israeli in New York and I know her small apartment, which has not changed in two decades. I know all of her friends and acquaintances. I have known her ever since she worked at al-Hawadith before joining al-Hayat, without us agreeing on anything politically, except that the newspaper should be for everyone.

I will go back to the first part of this column. Even foreigners do not get involved in family matters and get the daughter of a candidate involved in their rivalries. No difference with Raghida justifies seeing her adolescent daughter, who is about to go to university, dragged into it. She speaks broken Arabic and cannot read what her mother writes or understand it, if she could read it. She finds herself facing a lie that her father is Israeli, which puts her life in danger in every Arab and Muslim country.

Those who attack Raghida Dergham and believe these lies should remember the Koranic saying: "No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another."