The Yorkshire Ranter

Various media sources have been reporting supposedly “anti-terrorist” demonstrations in Iraq, including to its shame the BBC (what’s going on there at the moment?). It seems, though, that portraying the demos as pro-CPA just because they are anti-Ba’ath might be unwise at best. “One group that mobilized its cadres for this demonstration was the Iraqi…

So, apparently the boss of the Iraqi secret service we’re creating (to replace the 300 out of 700 soldiers who have deserted from the Iraqi army we’re creating? It’s true that intelligence can make up for a shortage of manpower, but this is ridiculous!), one Iyad Allawi, is a former Ba’athist spook – what a…

We welcome three outstanding blogs – Living with Caucasians, a blog covering goings-on in Georgia, Slugger O’Toole and the Broom of Anger – two excellent Northern Irish newsbloggers. If you didn’t read this – you wouldn’t know that the “Police Fund IRA spies” story has been debunked. And you do now.

“On Dec. 6, according to a union spokesperson interviewed by phone, a convoy of 10 Humvees and personnel carriers descended on the old headquarters building of the Transport and Communications Workers union, in Baghdad’s central bus station, which has been used since June as the office of the Iraqi Workers Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU).…

Watching the 10 O’clock News and then (as yer do when you’re a politics addict) Newsnight last night I was shocked – really! – by the BBC’s performance. It was as if Conservatives on heat had invaded TV Centre and declared a coup d’etat. Where did they get the idea of illustrating the pre-budget report…

Iraq Spy Service Planned by U.S. To Stem Attacks (washingtonpost.com) So, not only does Iraq now have a police force, a border patrol force, a civil defence brigade, a new army, the “facility protection service”, and a special paramilitary militia, but she will soon be blessed with a new-old internal secret service. Not surprisingly, “……

“It wasn’t exactly a kidnapping, but the managers did not go by choice. When an alarmed Iraqi employee called out to ask where they were being taken, one of the managers began to respond, but a worker smacked him in the head, a Washington Post reporter observed. Workers led the managers by their arms to…

The Daily Torygraph reported over the weekend that they had found the “senior Iraqi officer” who was the source for the now infamous claim that Iraq could use weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes’ notice. Lieutenant-Colonel Al Dabbagh was supposedly the commander of an air defence unit in the western desert of Iraq and…

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The new Europe minister, Denis MacShane, has launched a rant demanding the resignation of Romano Prodi on the grounds that he is spending too much time preparing his return to Italian politics. Whilst Macca has a point, it’s alarming that he went off like this. No.10 has now officially disowned the member for Rotherham’s brain…