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It seems, according to the Independent, that the Americans now believe that the storming of the police station in Fallujah was carried out not by those elusive foreign militants but by Iraqis. I believe that the fight in Fallujah was an event of the first importance, for several reasons. For a start, this was no…

Rybkin Says He Was Abducted Well, I know this is late, but as I covered the Rybkin story we might as well deal with this. Apparently he was kidnapped in Kiev and drugged: “Speaking to reporters in London, Rybkin said he had been lured to Kiev by a false offer to hold peace talks with…

Yahoo! News – CNN Says It Overplayed Dean’s Iowa Scream The US TV network has admitted overemphasising the now notorious “scream” footage of Howard Dean at an Iowa rally. People who believe this sort of thing claim it did for his campaign. No surprises that word got around, though: CNN played the tape on the…

BBC NEWS | Politics | Clampdown call for ‘gangmasters’ Now John Denham, a Home Office minister who resigned over Iraq, is shouting about new legislation on gangmasters. “John Denham says employers of illegal labour should face the seizure of their profits, in the way that drug dealers, can have their assets confiscated.” Right on, but…

qwghlm.co.uk: alastair campbell’s wheel of retribution More from the people who brought you the Blunkett policy wheel.

For the commenter who wanted documentation for my post on Nicosia, its sewers and ways towards peace. The Guardian Cyprus Conflict(note – I don’t guarantee this) Despite much googling, it seems very difficult to grip a general account of the story. Numerous passing references abound, but there is little detail. Most search results seem to…

Link The MP for Morecambe Bay has claimed that she wrote to the Home Office asking what they were doing about cocklers who “Unable to speak English and under the control of a gang master, these people were being paid one fifth of the standard rate for their work. They were also being transported 20…

1973 Document Puts Bush on Guard Base (washingtonpost.com) The White House has released a document that, it says, proves George W. Bush really did turn up for duty with his Air National Guard squadron in 1973. Unfortunately, it’s the record of a dental examination taken on the 6th of January 1973, which proves that he…

Something I don’t think many people noticed occurred in yesterday’s Independent. Alastair Campbell’s “presidential appearance at the foot of a grand staircase” on Huttonday was described as an “event arranged by Downing Street”. Now this is interesting. I (and everyone else, I’m sure) suspected as much. What is Private Citizen Campbell doing as the Prime…

qwghlm.co.uk: blunkett policy maker An amusing device that produces Blunkettish policy at the click of a mouse. Thanks to Supermum