Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 1st September, 2010 The Middle East Peace representative for the Quartet for the last three years and three months Tony Blair arrived in Washington yesterday for the first meeting of Israelis and Palestinians for over two years. But first, with regard to the “journey’s end” jibe – the anti-Iraq war Independent’s choice phrase – today Mr Blair is, correct me if I’m wrong, the only European at the Washington peace talks Perhaps, dear Indy, his journey is NOT yet over. Watch a clip of tonight’s interview with Andrew Marr I managed to see it in the end. It was fine. Not...

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair - Author of The Journey Related Posts:Before and after the SpeakerMPs expenses cartoon – official versionLet’s go global summitsPresident of the Council BlairChannel 4 newsPowered by Contextual Related...

US president delivers on key election promise and thanks troops for 'job well done' – but cautions against triumphalism Barack Obama formally brought an end to US combat operations in Iraq last night, seven years and 165 days after the invasion began, and declared it was time for America "to turn the page".In a televised address to the nation from the Oval Office, the president said America had paid a huge price for the war begun by George W Bush to topple Saddam Hussein."Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country," he said.Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki hailed the restoration of sovereignty to Iraq: "Iraq today is sovereign and...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 1st September 2010 Martin Kettle’s World Exclusive Interview: ‘… he felt “sick, a mixture of anger and anguish” when he was asked by the Iraq inquiry chair, Sir John Chilcot, in January if had regrets over Iraq. “Do they really suppose I don’t care, don’t feel, don’t regret with every fibre of my being the loss of those who died?”‘ BLAIR MEMOIRS  – HE FEELS, CRIES AND DRINKS WOW! You don’t expect us to believe he’s HUMAN? EXTRACTS FROM TONY BLAIR’S WEBSITE DEDICATED TO HIS MEMOIRS INTRODUCTION: (2 pages) “The...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 31st August 2010 ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? THEN HE’LL BEGIN Only 15 minutes to wait, kiddies. According to the dedicated website here – http://www.tonyblairjourney.co.uk/Exclusive_extracts_released – it shouldn’t be long before the press are at it hammer and tongs. The papers and the broadcasters have already leaked a little. One, on Gordon Brown, and two on Mr Blair’s appearance in January at the Iraq Inquiry. On Gordon Brown it is said by one of the leaking papers that Tony Blair has accused Mr Brown of “trying to blackmail me.” Even without the present soul of the...

(Orin Kerr) Back in September 2004, about 18 months into the war in Iraq, I posed three questions for the pro-war blogosphere: First, assuming that you were in favor of the invasion of Iraq at the time of the invasion, do you believe today that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea? Why/why not? Second, what reaction do you have to the not-very-upbeat news coming of Iraq these days, such as the stories I link to above? Third, what specific criteria do you recommend that we should use over the coming months and years to measure whether the Iraq invasion has been a success? I then agreed to post links to the blogs that responded, which you can see here and here, with links to about 70 blogs altogether. I asked the question again three years later to see if opinions had changed. By and...

Memmon al-Maliki has not been seen since being placed in care of UK military medics in 2003The British government has ordered an urgent inquiry into the disappearance of an injured Iraqi child who has not been seen since being placed in the care of UK military medics in 2003.In one of the most bewildering episodes of the Iraq occupation, Memmon Salam al-Maliki, an 11-year-old boy, disappeared within days of being taken to a British base after he was wounded while playing with unexploded munitions. Although his injuries appeared not to be life-threatening, his family have not seen him since.The British authorities told Memmon's father that they had sent his son to an American military hospital in Kuwait for further treatment, but have been unable to tell him its location, or provide...

Baghdad foreign minister says withdrawal without Iraqi government in place is 'embarrassment' for USBarack Obama will tomorrow announce an end to US combat operations in Iraq, but his televised address from the Oval Office risks being undercut by the failure to form a government in Baghdad, and new casualty figures indicating an escalation in violence.Obama is to present as a milestone the reduction in US troops in Iraq, from 144,000 when he took office last January to below 50,000. But the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyer Zebari, said today it was an "embarrassment" for the US to withdraw without an Iraqi government in place. In spite of US claims that violence is on a downward trend, the Iraq Body Count released figures showing that the death toll for August was 495. A further five were...

Zahim Jehad is doing his bit to get rid of weapons in Iraq. So why is he in trouble with the authorities?On a blistering day last month, Zahim Jehad was fossicking around a scrap yard in Basra amid hundreds of live artillery shells. After photographing rusting rounds he took the pictures to Iraq's environment ministry, buoyed by hope he could once again start transforming the lethal relics into sculptures.Six months ago, Jehad's Baghdad office had brimmed with such creations: fish made out of guns, sail boats fashioned from daggers and mortars, and insects crafted from broken-down weapons of war confiscated by US troops. He hired fine-arts students and eventually took on a conga line of handicapped youths to help turn poignant instruments of terror into Iraq's most creative cottage...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 29th August 2010 Abdel Bari Atwan: “That’s the problem in the west here. You always blame the victims.” Laugh? I could have cried The reason for my laughter and tears? Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of al-Quds al-Arabi [more about Mr Atwan and his paper here, below] This remark, THIS, is on BBC TV in self-flagellation Britain where anyone who DARES to question anything … ANYTHING to do with Islam is shunned as a pariah and pushed outside the building to fume away on their little ownsome [for instance Geert Wilders;  and the English Defence League.] Yesterday at lunchtime, before I climbed back on...

Barack Obama says Iraq is now 'free to chart its own course'President Barack Obama said today the end of combat operations in Iraq doesn't just reaffirm the country's sovereignty, but makes good on one of his main campaign pledges.Obama used his weekly radio and internet address to highlight the formal end on Tuesday to US combat missions in Iraq as the realisation of a promise he made as a candidate in the 2008 election.Remaining troops will assume a back-up and training role, a shift that Obama will underscore with a visit to Fort Bliss, Texas, and an Oval Office address to the nation on 31 August, the deadline he set last year for the change in focus. US troop strength in Iraq dropped below 50,000 this week, a milestone which was also highlighted by the administration."In the months...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 27th August 2010 1) H/t to Jihad Watch patcondell | 04 June 2010 Stop the stealth jihad. Petitions against the Ground Zero mosque http://www…. With four and a quarter million views, as I write, Pat Condell seems to be saying what most, if not all of our western politicians are too terrified to say, Geert Wilders excepted. More on him below. ________________ Cordoba Mosque, Mezquita, Spain. Click for source information. ___________ 2) Official Islam Rising Trailer ClockWorxOrange The trailer to the new documentary from PRB Films. Geert Wilders lives with a constant death threat over his head....

In 2003, a month after coalition troops invaded, Jonathan Steele reported from across the country on how ordinary people had reacted to the toppling of Saddam. Before the last US combat troops pulled out last week, he returned to track down the people he had met – and ask how their lives had been affected by the warIn Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, the ruins of the Farouk palace, one of his many mansions, stand bereft and strewn with rubble. It seems only yesterday that I walked through them with the first Iraqi looters in April 2003.During the night Hellfire missiles from US Cobra helicopters had knocked huge holes in the facade above the Tigris, bringing a triumphant end to the three-week invasion 96 hours after the fall of Baghdad.Their guns slung, US troops were wandering...

Dear Brother Thank you for your kind feelings I was also reading in the Bible the words of Jesus the Christ “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’ “– MATTHEW – Ch 4 – verse 4 And I agree with you my brother that without the words of the God, there is something very important missing in our lives For Iraq the situation is getting worse day after day, the radical Muslims and the Nazi Arab baathi are killing and stealing everywhere The weather in Iraq is as usual very hot and dusty with no rain from April to NovemberThe weather temperature is from 48C0 to 53C0 with very few hours of electricity power available So that we pray for the United Kingdom not to be like Iraq God bless the United Kingdom and keep it green...

Insurgents thought to be stepping up attacks as US soldiers prepare to leaveForty-five people in seven cities across Iraq have died when a series of bombs was detonated in what is being seen as an insurgent push to ramp up security fears in the last remaining days before the deadline for the end of the US combat mission.Authorities said the attacks were co-ordinated and led by Sunni militant groups aligned to the al-Qaida worldview. They follow a spate of bombings throughout Iraq this month, bringing the monthly death toll towards 535.If that figure is reached it would mark the first time that the number of people killed in Iraq has remained at such levels for consecutive months in close to two years.The latest attacks come as the political deadlock that has paralysed decision-making in...

The Iraqi government has pledged to help exiled Christians return to their homeland after thousands were forced to flee amid intense persecution. The new Iraqi ambassador to the Vatican, Habbeb Mohammed Hadi Ali Al-Sadr, in a statement following a meeting with the Pope last month, said the government had taken steps to preserve the country’s Christian heritage and culture.It follows years of campaigning on behalf of the decimated Iraqi Christian community on an international stage by Barnabas Fund.Mr Al-Sadr said: “For its part, the government has committed itself to all those who return, to give them a job, a plot to rebuild their homes and 1.5 million Iraqi dinars.”He affirmed that the Iraqi Constitution sanctions the total equality of rights for Christians and also gave them the...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 25th August 2010 David Aaronovitch’s article on The Madness of the Anti-Blair Mob’s blind bias I suppose we’re not supposed to use the below. It was published in The Australian, and I’ve used it in its entirety from there.  The Times can try suing The Australian as my “source” and then me, if they must.  I promise I’ll send them every penny I get for writing this blog. Empty envelope on its way. I have added numbered referenced links to the article so that you can see what Mr Aaronovitch is referring to. But I’m sure you know already. Collective fundamentalist...

The founder of the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website yesterday accused the Pentagon of “dirty tricks” after false rape allegations were made against him, revealing that he has been warned before he could be the target of a “‘honey trap”. Australian Julian Assange (pictured above)dismissed the rape and other sex abuse accusations, saying he had never had sex which was not consensual. The secretive campaigner spoke out in Sweden after authorities there revoked a short-lived warrant against him on a rape claim, saying the accusation against him had no substance. The WikiLeaks website caused a storm last month when it posted 77,000 Afghan war documents online, many highly critical of Allied forces, particularly American forces. US authorities claim that...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 22nd August 2010 PATHOLOGIST: DAVID KELLY’S DEATH A “TEXTBOOK SUICIDE” Nicholas Hunt, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on David Kelly’s body told The Sunday Times: “I felt very, very sorry for David Kelly and the way he had been treated by the Government… I had every reason to look for something untoward and would dearly love to have found something.” The post before last I said I’d be publishing a Pat Condell video, and I will. Eventually. Things keep getting in the way. Little everyday things like a so-called journalist expecting a former prime minister to...

Attack comes amid growing concern that security will deteriorate further after spate of bombings and shootingsAn American soldier was killed by a rocket strike near Basra today, in the first US fatality since the last combat troops left Iraq.The announcement came amid growing concern that the withdrawal of combat forces will allow security in Iraq to further deteriorate. The past three months have seen a spate of bombings and shootings in the centre and north of the country .Details of the incident were not released, but Basra airport base, which is still home to about 4,000 US forces, had experienced increased numbers of rocket attacks in recent weeks as the deadline drew near for the withdrawal of combat troops. Two soldiers suffered minor wounds in a rocket strike early last week, and...

Martin Chulov senses the relief among the last US combat troops to leave Iraq, seven and a half years after the invasionAudio slideshow: 4th Strykers brigade withdraws from IraqIt began with shock and awe and ended with a silent trickle across the border in the dead of night. As the 4th Stryker Brigade, Second Infantry division, arrived at their staging post in the sands of Kuwait, Sergeant Donald Wilms got out of his battle truck and high-fived friends in his platoon. A few hours earlier they had rumbled across the dusty border, becoming the last US combat unit to leave Iraq."We knew we were going to make history," he said. "The whole platoon is extremely proud of the difference they were able to make."Two trucks in front of him, Staff Sergeant Wiley Baker also had a sense of the moment....

UK Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (pictured above) yesterday marked 100 days of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government with an attempt to shift the political agenda beyond the negative issue of public spending cuts and onto more positive territory such as tackling social mobility.  Mr Clegg said the government was “about much more than cuts” and pledged to deliver a “fairer, more open, more mobile society”. Nice try, Nick. But whether social mobility will be possible soon when most of the trains and buses aren’t running due to the public spending cuts and nobody can afford the fares anyway is a moot question. What planet are these people on ? But I suppose little rich boys like Mr Clegg have never deigned to use public...

We have now entered the Holy Month of Ramadan. It is a time for inner reflection, purification and reconciliation. It is also a month of good works and blessings. The biggest blessing Iraq as a whole could have at the moment would be a government. Yet we still wait. And those who want to destroy hope in the future remain active, as we saw again yesterday. Iraqis will come through this testing time, I have no doubt - as they have come through even more testing times in the past few years. They have enormous resilience and courage. They have shown that they want a responsive and accountable political system that delivers peace, security, stability and prosperity. That requires a response from their politicians.  This means not only the party leaderships but each and every one of the...

In two weeks time the USA will start withdrawing troops from Iraq, having judged that conditions on the ground have improved to an extent that allows them to do so. There are some worrying signs though that things are not quite so hunky dory in Iraq . . . It is some months now since there was a general election but the parties involved have still not managed to agree a new Government. The political vacuum thus created is in danger of being exploited by those who prefer the bullet to the ballot as a way to achieve their goals Yesterday, for example a suicide bomber killed 60 army recruits and wounded 125 others in one of the bloodiest attacks in the capital for some weeks and while the level of civilian deaths had fallen from what it once was at the height of the...

Sixty confirmed dead in central Baghdad as new entrants to Iraqi army targeted in attackAt least 60 Iraqi army recruits and soldiers were killed and dozens more injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an army base in the centre of Baghdad this morning.The attack – the deadliest in the Iraqi capital for weeks – comes as the US prepares to end its combat operations in the country, and amid growing fears that al-Qaida is seeking to exploit Iraq's political turmoil to stage a comeback.The blast took place around 7.30am just outside the former Iraqi ministry of defence building that now houses the army's 11th division headquarters. The site receives about 250 new recruits each week as Iraqi forces try to bolster their ranks to fill the security vacuum created by the US...

I have been a little frustrated today by the response to the news that former Prime Minister Tony Blair is to donate all of the money from his autobiography to the Royal British Legion. Even he admits it is to support the amazing work done by those who serve in our armed forces. And so the media ask - an act of amazing generosity or a plea for forgiveness?In my view those who oppose and opposed the war will never forgive Blair. If this is his way of making up for what he did, it won't work. And why would a man which such political skill as Blair think it would? I know we live in cynical times but ...So it leaves me to conclude that, just for once, I want to give Tony Blair the benefit of the doubt. That he wishes to do some good with his auto-biog and for it not to be seen as a way...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 17th August 2010 £4.6M+ – THE BIGGEST DONATION THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION HAS EVER RECEIVED IN ITS 89 YEAR HISTORY Folowing this fantastic news two journalistic Johns have been at it today on the airwaves.  On the pro-side John Rentoul, and on the anti-side John Kampfner. They have been trying to work out quite what to make of Tony Blair’s HUGE donation to the Royal Legion. Correction:  ONE of the Johns has been trying to work out an angle on it. For the “extreme outriders” – Kampfner’s new description for we few, we happy few -  (such as Rentoul, Kamm, Aaronovitch and ME,...

I should hope so to. Whatever people say about his motives and whether or not he did the right thing in involving the UK in the Iraq War (I happen to think it wasn't the right thing), the donation is an act of decency compared to if he kept the money and he should be welcomed for making such a...

In the UK the Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (pictured above), who has taken temporary charge of 10 Downing Street and the Government because Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron is on holiday, said yesterday that the coalition Government had made its case as ”radical and reforming” rather than producing the “insipid mush” some had predicted. Speaking at a Town Hall-style event in London, Mr Clegg was asked how he thought the coalition had performed in its first 100 days in power. He said it would take the fixed 5 year duration of the Government to “sort things out”, but added: “I think there is light at the end of the tunnel”. What crazy wishful-thinking nonsense and an insult to our intelligence. With the economy...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 16th August 2010 Reported at Tony Blair Office, and also at the Royal British Legion website, Mr Blair will donate all the proceeds of his book, including the £4.6M advance to the Royal British Legion’s Battle Back Challenge Centre. You can pre-order (at reduced price) Tony Blair’s ‘A Journey’ here. Due for release on 2nd September, 201o. Click picture to order From Tony Blair Office: The Royal British Legion is pleased to announce Tony Blair will be donating all of the proceeds from his forthcoming memoirs, A Journey, to the Battle Back Challenge Centre, a Legion funded project that will...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 16th August 2010 Following on from this – Rentoul – The Mail – The Times – David Kelly – 9 Doctors – there’s something you may have missed. In all the exclaimed certainties -  “Oh my God, they killed David Kelly” – one thing is seldom, if ever mentioned. Dr David Kelly also believed there were WMD Gilligan reference meeting his source on 22nd May, 2003:  “He [Kelly] has said that, as an expert in the field, he believes Saddam Hussein possessed WMD.” See full MoD statement on Gilligan meeting _______________ CHILDSPLAY In the Blair-Baiting game...

Judge rules that five men arrested in connection with murder of British Royal Military Police officers have no case to answerFive Iraqis arrested in connection with the murder of six British Royal military police officers in 2003 have had charges against them dropped, the Ministry of Defence confirmed today.The armed forces minister, Nick Harvey, has written to the families of the Red Caps telling them an Iraqi judge has ruled that the men had no case to answer.The military policemen, who were training local police, were killed when a 400-strong mob of Iraqis descended on a police station in Majar al-Kabir in Maysan province, north of Basra.The six officers were: Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, from Chessington, Surrey; Corporal Russell Aston, 30, from Swadlincote, Derbyshire;...

Iraqi judge rules that five arrested this year have no case to answer in death of six Royal Military Police officers in 2003Five Iraqis accused of the murder of six British Royal Military Police officers in 2003 have had their charges dropped, the Ministry of Defence confirmed today.Armed forces minister Nick Harvey wrote to the families of the Red Caps, saying the Iraqi judge had ruled that five of seven suspects arrested earlier this year had no case to answer.Two remaining suspects are now expected to face trial over the deaths, according to Harvey.He said: "The judge indicated that, pending confirmation of the identity of one of the remaining two suspects in custody, both will face trial."The Red Caps were killed after a 400-strong Iraqi mob descended on a police station in Majar...

Former Conservative leader says 'growing number of questions' have emerged over death of weapons expert in 2003The former Conservative leader Michael Howard today backed calls for a a full inquest into the death of the government weapons expert Dr David Kelly.His call came after a group of prominent experts described the official explanation for the scientist's death in 2003 as "extremely unlikely".Howard, who is now a Tory peer, said their intervention confirmed his belief that there should now be a proper inquest."In view of the growing number of relevant questions that have arisen and cast doubt on the conclusions reached by Lord Hutton, I believe it would now be appropriate for a full inquest to be held," he told the Mail on Sunday."Recent evidence by the first police officer on the...

This was a chapter about PTSD that never made print in my book `Watching Men Burn` so I thought I would publish it here. It’s a glorious summers day, you have the weekend off from a hard spell in the office, Its Saturday, you drive the family down to your local pizza hut, your children are laughing and asking you for ice-cream, looking in to your wife’s eyes you think what a lucky man I am, squeezing her outstretched hand you mouth “I love you” That’s the last thing you can recall before waking up in intensive care three weeks later. Sat around your hospital bed are your brothers and sisters who have tears streaming down their faces, they can’t bring themselves to tell you the awful truth. On the same Saturday as you were munching your first piece of deep pan pizza a...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 13th August 2010 DAILY MAUL (sort of, not) EXCLUSIVE (Read all about it at The Times) No “exclusive” of course.  The Mail is regurgitating, in a state of high dudgeon, The Times’s story. Its raised pique level at someone else stealing its story deters The Maul about as much as its lying about Tony Blair ever has. The picture above, in case you were taken in,  is my edit. Whether it’s nine or ninety-nine with several dozen zeros, is immaterial. The Daily Mail is at its Hunt The Blair game again. Whatever the season, whatever the reason. Talking about seasons – after a fortnight off,...

Baghdad in Iraq - a land of opportunity? and if so, for who?John Rentoul has risen to new heights of absurdity in his attempts to present the Iraq war as a success, by using a comment article in The Times newspaper by Jeffrey Archer as a source for a claim that Iraq is now a wonderful place to live with a vibrant economy. Archer was found guilty of perjury (i.e lying to a court) and of obstructing the course of justice – and jailed for it, while Blair got off with lying to an entire country by being Prime Minister (1) – (2). Rentoul’s blog post has the heading “Iraq – Land of Opportunity” while Archer’s comment article is headed “wake up you Brits, make a fortune in Iraq’ and claims that Baghdad is now “a boom town, not a...

Original Home Page – And another very early post from this blog Current Latest Page All Contents of Site – Index Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition here Comment at end 12th August 2010 I have been called some names for even writing this blog with the name and picture of the “well-known war criminal” in the masthead.  Not least among those names is “useful idiot”. “Just you wait”, the incredulous know-alls say. “He’ll get his comeuppance. You’ll see!” It seems that some men’s useful idiots are other men’s freedom fighters. Late last night, being an avid late-night BBC World Service listener I caught some of this programme “Useful idiots” (first broadcast 4th August.) Today CIF Watch has this on the...

Prime minister visits military officials after Lt Gen Babakir Zebari called on Barack Obama to keep troops in the countryThe Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has made a sudden visit to senior defence officials a day after the country's most senior soldier declared his forces would not be capable of securing Iraq's borders until 2020.The visit seemed prompted by Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari's remarks yesterday, in which he repeated his claim that US forces would need to maintain a presence in Iraq beyond the end of 2011, the current deadline for their exit."If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020," he said.Iraq and the US are yet to structure an agreement spelling out future defence...

With the official announcement that Ramadan has begun, I should like to wish Iraqis all the blessings that the Holy Month can confer. As well as being a period for reflection and purification, it is also a time for reconciliation and reaching out to others. Among other things I hope this means that Iraqi politicians will be able finally to set aside their disputes and form a new government that will bring real practical benefits to their fellow citizens. Iraq has suffered a lot and deserves all the blessings it can...