The realities of withdrawal
Claire Spencer
August 20, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/claire_spencer/2007/08/the_realities_of=
_withdrawal.html
When Gordon Brown stood alongside George Bush at Camp David in late
July to say that decisions about UK troop levels in Iraq would be
based "on the military advice of our commanders on the ground", senior
British commanders must have felt they'd heard the best news in a long
time. British defence sources, including the Chief of Defence Staff
Sir Jock Stirrup, had already been hinting at an end of mission mood,
but the tone this summer has been noticeably muted compared to the all-
but-open mutiny against Tony Blair's approach to Iraq earlier this
year.
Although difficult to sustain, a more subtle alliance between the
Brown government and the British military appears to be emerging to
confront the biggest challenge they both face: engineering as casualty-
free as possible a withdrawal of British forces from Basra in the
coming months without inflicting extensive damage on Britain's
transatlantic alliance.
Listen like mother
Vicky Frost
August 20, 2007 2:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/vicky_frost/2007/08/listen_like_mother.=
html
Good news! Radio listening figures are up, as we all find new ways to
listen to the wireless with digital technology the unlikely saviour of
this comfortably old-fashioned medium.
That podcasts and the mobiles and listen again features are helping
this resurgence is reassuring - if only because it makes radio
diehards sound (for once) as though they might be the kind of dynamic
early-adopters, rather than a) music geeks, b) boring middle-class
parents, or c) people so dull they can't decide which Westlife album
to put on, so plump instead for an annoyingly upbeat DJ to choose for
them.
Life on Daily Mail Island
Nick Angel
August 20, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nick_angel/2007/08/my_daily_hell.html
Please excuse me if I seem a little peculiar. I have just returned
from a country where bubonic plague has broken out, violent criminals
roam the streets, and child slavery is commonplace.
Millions of its inhabitants are malnourished, and danger lurks in
seemingly innocent places - like milk, bread, and garden sprays.
Ponies - yes, ponies - are slaughtered for the gastronomic pleasure of
the country's neighbours. A Stasi-style surveillance state is secretly
plotting to turn them all vegetarian, and to top it all there's even a
Wicked Witch who - until very recently - exerted a malign influence
over the nation's ruler.
The tent commandments
Open Thread
August 20, 2007 1:15 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/08/the_tent_commandmen=
ts.html
The Camp for Climate Action week has drawn to a close and tomorrow
protesters are expected to pack up and head home from their holiday in
Heathrow. But what have they achieved?
Essential misreading
Seumas Milne
August 20, 2007 12:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/seumas_milne/2007/08/essential_misreadi=
ng.html
There's now a well-established tradition in Britain of recantations by
people who have moved from left to right, and either try to justify
their embrace of the powers-that-be or, alternatively, insist they
haven't changed at all, it's their former allies who've abandoned
their principles. The genre goes back at least to the anti-communist
tome The God that Failed, published at the height of the cold war, and
includes the gruesome Thatcherite Right Turn collection of the late
1970s.
Andrew Anthony's book The Fall-Out: How a Guilty Liberal Lost His
Innocence, serialised in yesterday's Observer, is firmly in this
mould. But it's also very clearly a product of the attitudes of the
small but vociferous group of British cheerleaders of the wider US
neocon project who emerged in the aftermath of 9/11 to champion the
Iraq war and one version or another of Samuel Huntington's notorious
"clash of civilisations".
Shooting the messenger
Ali Eteraz
August 20, 2007 11:45 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ali_eteraz/2007/08/shooting_the_messeng=
er.html
The San Francisco based million-blogger strong blogging platform
Wordpress was recently informed by the legal representative of Turkish
writer Harun Yahya that under orders from a Turkish court "access to
Wordpress.com has been blocked in Turkey." The letter listed a number
of "defamation" blogs - "all" of which make allegedly "slanderous"
remarks against Harun Yahya. This ban is significant for the larger
ripple it casts in Turkey's new Islamist democracy.
Harun Yahya, which is the pen-name of Adnan Oktar, is a sort of
spiritual head of a vast Islamic apologist outfit in Turkey, which has
reached Islamic publishers in London, Canada and the US. Though Harun
Yahya is described as a "charlatan", he has made inroads with Muslims
all the way from Indonesia to America.
The Wendy wobble
Lesley Riddoch
August 20, 2007 11:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lesley_riddoch/2007/08/the_wendy_wobble=
..html
Scotland appears to be sleepwalking into another minor feminist
triumph.
Back in 1999 a twinning mechanism saw equal numbers of male and female
Scottish Labour MSPs enter the first Scottish parliament helping
Scotland to burst onto the world charts at number four in the
parliamentary gender equality league table - behind Rwanda, Sweden and
Finland. That lofty ranking has since slipped to 12th.
Prophet sharing
Inayat Bunglawala
August 20, 2007 10:15 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/inayat_bunglawala/2007/08/prophet_shari=
ng.html
ITV aired an interesting documentary last night - presented by Melvyn
Bragg - called The Muslim Jesus which looked at some of the main
Islamic beliefs about Jesus and listed the key similarities and
differences with the Christian narrative.
Both sides agree on the big picture: namely, that God created the
universe, that our actions on this Earth are being witnessed and that
on the day of judgment we will be either rewarded or punished, but
when it comes to the person of Jesus Christ, strong disagreements
begin.
Environmental bullies
Valdis Dombrovskis
August 20, 2007 9:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/valdis_dombrovskis/2007/08/environmenta=
l_bullies.html
Instead of helping all EU member states to meet their own Kyoto goals,
the European Commission is shifting what should be a shared burden on
to its newest members, which are already the most environmentally
efficient in the European Union. In doing so, the commission is
rewarding inefficiency and reducing the effectiveness of its
commitments to clean up the environment.
The commission's decision on Latvia's National Allocation Plan (NAP)
for 2008-2012 left only 55% of the CO2 emissions that Latvia
requested. Similarly, Estonia and Lithuania received only 52-53% of
their requested quotas. Serious cuts were also made to other new EU
members' quotas, prompting Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia,
as well as Latvia, to launch legal challenges. Yet almost all of the
old EU members received more than 90% of the requested quotas.
The propaganda machine
Jonathan Cook
August 20, 2007 8:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_cook/2007/08/the_propaganda_ma=
chine.html
It is an honour of a kind, I suppose, to briefly have the most active
thread on the Comment is free site. But not much of one when 95% of
the posts rarely rose above the level of vitriolic name-calling. The
posters probably know that by now I am immune to playground taunts of
"scum" and "Nazi", but the abuse, I suspect, is meant more as a
warning to others who might criticise Israel. Keep quite - or else.
Volcanic outbursts of hatred on Cif greet anyone who objects to
Israel's policies: in my case, I sinned by pointing out that its
leaders have turned the small community of Jews in Tehran into pawns
in a struggle to persuade the world that Iran is a genocidal threat to
world Jewry. My point was that Israel's concern is entirely hollow. It
simply wants to mobilise support for an attack on Iran, either by
itself or the US.
The cost of the bomb
Randeep Ramesh
August 19, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/randeep_ramesh/2007/08/the_cost_of_the_=
bomb.html
After the hoopla of 60th birthday celebrations, the bubbly tastes a
trifle flat in New Delhi. Instead of cheer, the Indian prime minister,
Manmohan Singh, finds himself duffed up by the left and the right over
the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Mr Singh, a cerebral economist, says the pact is a triumph of
diplomacy, a partnership between democracies. His detractors say it
sells-out to Washington, infringing on India's sovereignty. MPs in the
parliament have barracked and heckled the prime minister. The left
threatens to pull the plug on the government.
Yepsen: Obama may be biggest debate winner
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20070819/NEWS=
/70819007/1001
DAVID YEPSEN
REGISTER POLITICAL COLUMNIST
August 19, 2007
One of the big questions going into today=B9s debate among the
Democratic
presidential candidates in Iowa was whether Hillary Clinton can win
the
November election.
That question still hangs over the race today. Clinton swatted at it
with answers she=B9s used before but she failed to conclusively knock it
down.
Obama: Experience can be a bad thing
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20070820/NEWS01/=
708200340/1001/RSS01
Candidate says rivals hesitant to tell truth
By PHILIP ELLIOTT
The Associated Press
August 20. 2007 12:21AM
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama yesterday sought to
quiet questions about whether he has sufficient experience as a first-
term senator to win his party's nomination.
During a morning exchange on ABC, Obama, only three years out of the
Illinois legislature, cast himself as a force for change who would
overcome the nation's broken political system. He sought to make his
rivals' experience a cause for concern, not credit.
Aiming at Obama may backfire
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattlepolitics/archives/120307.asp
Democratic presidential candidates, egged on by moderator George
Stephanopoulus, again attacked Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as too
inexperienced to sit in the White House during a debate on Sunday.
Politics is a contact sport, but in continuing to inflict blows on
Obama they risk making him even more formidable. Sen. Hillary Clinton,
D-N.Y., is the clear front runner but she doesn't have Obama's
likability. By sparring with Obama she risks increasing her
negatives.
Obama fires back on experience issue at Iowa debate
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-debate_for_webaug20,0,43590=
89.story
By Rick Pearson | Tribune political reporter
11:15 AM CDT, August 19, 2007
DES MOINES - The Democratic presidential contenders used their Iowa
debate Sunday to buttress their call for change in the nation's
leadership, questioning Sen. Barack Obama's experience and arguing
over how best to leave Iraq.
"To prepare for this debate, I rode in the bumper cars at the State
Fair," said Obama, the Illinois senator, defending himself after
rivals' criticism of his foreign policy declarations and his vow to
take nuclear weapons off the table.
Be On Notice, Hillary: Momma Obama Don't Take No Mess
http://www.northstarwriters.com/mc020.htm
The prominent and combative roles Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Edwards
play in their respective husbands' campaigns send an overt message to
each other and Team Clinton: Don't go messing with my man. More
pragmatic political considerations lie hidden in the vitriol from
these desperate-for-the-White House wives.
At a "Women for Obama" rally last week in Chicago, Michelle Obama
condemned those who question if Barack is "black enough" to call
himself black. Michelle Obama stated, "What are we saying to our
children if a man like Barack Obama isn't black enough? Then who is?
Who are they supposed to be?"
JFK replay: 'Naive' Obama right on foreign policy
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20070820/OPINION0=
1/708200302/-1/SPORTS04
THEODORE SORENSEN
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
August 20, 2007
As America's standing and credibility in the world - and thus the
security of our citizens - continue to plunge with each passing month
of the Bush administration, foreign-policy judgment increasingly
becomes the overriding criterion for the selection of our next
president.
Those Democratic contenders who, as U.S. senators, voted to authorize
the most disastrous blunder in U.S. foreign-policy history - the
mindless, needless invasion and endless occupation of Iraq - are
trying now to regain ground not by stopping the continuing tragic loss
of American blood, billions and moral authority in Iraq, but by
questioning the foreign-policy credentials of the one serious
candidate who opposed the war even before its launch - Sen. Barack
Obama of Illinois.
BLOG | Posted 08/19/2007 @ 7:11pm
Obama Attacked for Being Right About Afghanistan
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=3D1&pid=3D224928
The Republican National Committee has for some time now made itself
the mouthpiece for extreme pro-war rhetoric, despite the fact that
substantial numbers of Republicans - some of whom sit in Congress -
oppose the Bush-Cheney administration's misguided approach to the
occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. In this context, the RNC spends
most of its time attacking Democrats who express sentiments no more
radical than those mentioned by mainstream Republicans.
The current target of the RNC's comically over-the-top wrath is U.S.
Senator Barack Obama =A4, the Illinois Democrat who is a leading
contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.
If Iowa Moves, is Obama Screwed?
http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/20/91142/2499
by Mike Connery, Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 09:11:42 AM EST
Cross posted at Future Majority
It appears that our shifting primary schedule may be throwing a wrench
into the gears of the Obama turnout strategy.
Right now, the Iowa Caucus is set for Monday, January 14th. I was
listening to The Gabfest - Slate's political podcast - this morning,
and heard that January 14th, which is a Monday, doubles as the first
day of classes for most Iowa universities. That's great for Obama - it
means that lots of out-of-state kids are back at school and eligible
to vote in the Caucus. It means that tens of thousands of potential
supporters are centrally located in a few hubs across the state. It
makes the turnout game that much easier for Barack in a race where he
needs to at least come in second if he's to blunt Hillary's
momentum.
Bush is now the embarrassing uncle the Republicans just can't hide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2152157,00.html
With the departure of Karl Rove, the stench of failure hangs over the
president - and his party wants to ignore the smell
Gary Younge
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
George Bush likes his sleep. While campaigning for the presidency in
2000 his prize possession was a feather pillow. On the night that
Saddam Hussein was executed he went to bed at 9pm with strict orders
not to be woken. When the then CIA director, George Tenet, tried to
alert him to news of the first night's bombing of Iraq he was sent
away. "He is the type of person who sleeps at 9.30pm after watching
the domestic news," Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah told Okaz, a
Saudi newspaper.
Pakistan can work it out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2152158,00.html
Bhutto represents the country's best hope of taking its place among
democratic nations
Roy Hattersley
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
I first met Benazir Bhutto when she was in her last year at Oxford.
Wearing a tweed suit and silk headscarf, she looked the perfect Sloane
Ranger. When I last saw her she was the prime minister in the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan. She still wore a headscarf, but the suit had
been replaced by a shalwar kameez.
The change of style seemed symbolic. Between our first and last
meeting, I came to the firm conclusion that - whatever the truth of
the allegations that her enemies have made against her - she
represents Pakistan's best hope of taking its place among the
democratic nations of the free world. I think that still. Someone has
to build a bridge between Islam and what its most devout adherents
regard as the degenerate universe outside its theological boundaries.
Bhutto has always been willing to attempt that daunting task. Last
week on Newsnight she talked about returning home. If she does, the
reception that she receives will demonstrate how far along the road
from dictatorship Pakistan has travelled since it became an
independent nation.
Don't tell me GCSEs are too easy when millions are failing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2152161,00.html
Our current education system only serves to further disadvantage
children who lack the requisite head start
Lynsey Hanley
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Fifteen years ago this week, a man in late middle age with whom I'd
barely exchanged greetings yanked off his glasses, burst into an
unfettered grin and gave me a bear hug. He was a deputy head teacher
at my secondary school, and he'd been moved to the point of over-
familiarity by my GCSE results. From our school year of 120, a dozen
of us had achieved five or more passes at grades over C.
A dangerous acquiescence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2152159,00.html
Once again, UN staff are being sent to Iraq in order to provide cover
for predetermined US policy
Salim Lone
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
That August day four years ago in Baghdad, I was standing in the
rubble of Canal Hotel, the UN headquarters that had been devastated by
a huge terrorist bomb. In a break from my non-stop media briefings - I
was spokesman for the UN's Baghdad mission - I was talking to Ronnie
Stokes, a senior American colleague. Then, abruptly, I turned around.
In front of me lay 12 neatly-draped white sheets. I found myself
becoming breathless, and in the panic did not know what to feel, think
or say. I saw the tips of a pair of feet sticking out from under a
sheet. I remember thinking how pale and white they were.
The Bourne misogyny
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2152162,00.html
The Matt Damon trilogy obeys the action movie rule: women just stand
around looking anxious
Sarah Churchwell
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum intending to write a piece
comparing the three films and the books by Robert Ludlum that inspired
them. Ludlum's Bourne is a Vietnam veteran whose adversarial
relationship with government turns into an ultimately idealised
collaboration with a CIA manned by upright true-blue Americans. The
films, by contrast, register a profound suspicion of government - in
this latest instalment, the CIA is the only enemy - that seems to be
about America's doubts regarding Iraq.
Open door
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2152139,00.html
The style guide editor on ... when 'irony' is just a mildly amusing
coincidence
David Marsh
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Guardian readers are always ready to point out our linguistic
shortcomings, as I mentioned last week when discussing our use of the
words icon and iconic. We welcome this dialogue, and many readers'
suggestions have found their way into the style guide.
The next edition of the Guardian stylebook, the printed version of the
guide, includes extracts from readers' emails and letters, ranging
from the effusive ("What a wonderful find! Your stylebook is engaging,
lucid and delightfully sensible") to the less complimentary, if
succinct ("Aaaargh, no!").
Kurds flee homes as Iran shells villages in Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2152324,00.html
=B7 Guerrillas in clashes with Revolutionary Guards
=B7 Conflict threatens stability of Kurdistan region
Michael Howard in Irbil
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Iraqi Kurdish officials expressed deepening concern yesterday at an
upsurge in fierce clashes between Kurdish guerrillas and Iranian
forces in the remote border area of north-east Iraq, where Tehran has
recently deployed thousands of Revolutionary Guards.
Jabar Yawar, a deputy minister in the Kurdistan regional government,
said four days of intermittent shelling by Iranian forces had hit
mountain villages high up on the Iraqi side of the border, wounding
two women, destroying livestock and property, and displacing about
1,000 people from their homes. Mr Yawer said there had also been
intense fighting on the Iraqi border between Iranian forces and
guerrillas of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), an armed Iranian
Kurdish group that is stepping up its campaign for Kurdish rights
against the theocratic regime in Tehran.
The minister and the liver transplant - South Africa's Aids row gets
personal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/southafrica/story/0,,2152333,00.html
=B7 Health chief faces claims of alcoholism and theft
=B7 Fresh revelations renew calls for her dismissal
Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
As South Africa's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been
vilified as an accomplice to genocide for failing to provide treatment
for the millions of people with HIV. She has been the subject of
international ridicule for promoting garlic and vitamins as an
alternative to Aids drugs. And she has survived it all.
But yesterday the minister was facing fresh revelations that may prove
more damaging, as the bitter political battle over Aids turned
personal. Dr Tshabalala-Msimang was accused of abusing her position to
hide chronic alcoholism and obtain a liver transplant earlier this
year, and of robbing patients under anaesthetic while a hospital
superintendent in the 1970s.
March of the mines sees islanders facing loss of ancestral homeland
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/20/endangeredhabitats.conser=
vation
President's 'war on poverty' has multinationals eyeing mineral and
metal reserves
Ian MacKinnon in Mindoro, Philippines
The Guardian Monday August 20 2007
For farmers like Ramil Baldo, making a living has never been easy.
Venturing out from his bamboo shack, which lacks electricity, running
water and sanitation, he harvests whatever he can. Mainly it is
bananas and other fruits from the jungle-clad uplands on the
Philippine island of Mindoro. Only a stunning mountainous panorama
above and a river bubbling below his hilltop settlement offset the
privations.
But it appears things may soon become a lot harder for the 34-year-old
farmer and at least 5,000 other Mangyans given the plans of a British
based multinational mining company to remove residents from the land
they have farmed for six centuries, land that houses their forebears'
sacred ancestral burial grounds.
Taylor war crimes trial postponed until January
http://www.guardian.co.uk/westafrica/story/0,,2152681,00.html
Mark Tran
Monday August 20, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Judges today agreed to delay until January the trial of the former
Liberian president Charles Taylor on war crimes charges.
The trial at The Hague - the first time an African leader has faced an
international tribunal - was to have restarted this month.
Mr Taylor faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity
for allegedly backing the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel group
that killed, maimed and raped thousands of people in neighbouring
Sierra Leone during a war that lasted 11 years.
Israel vows entry ban on Darfur refugees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2152320,00.html
=B7 Sudanese sent back over border to Egypt
=B7 Asylum issue stirs row on Jews' stance on sanctuary
Laurie Copans, Associated Press in Jerusalem
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Israel yesterday said it planned to turn back refugees arriving from
Sudan's war-torn Darfur area, prompting arguments over whether the
Jewish state had a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.
David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman, said people from Darfur
would not be immune from Israel's ban on unauthorised migrants.
Texas defies federal court with plan to execute man who did not kill
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2152334,00.html
=B7 Controversial state law led to murder conviction
=B7 Accomplice had sat in car 25 metres from shooting
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Texas is poised to execute a man for a crime he did not commit. While
the perpetrator of the murder in San Antonio was executed last year,
Kenneth Foster, who was sitting in a car 25 metres away at the time of
the shooting, was sentenced to death under the "law of parties".
The controversial Texas law removes the distinction between the
principal actor and accomplice in a crime, and makes a person guilty
if they "should have anticipated" the crime.
Israel vows entry ban on Darfur refugees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2152320,00.html
=B7 Sudanese sent back over border to Egypt
=B7 Asylum issue stirs row on Jews' stance on sanctuary
Laurie Copans, Associated Press in Jerusalem
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Israel yesterday said it planned to turn back refugees arriving from
Sudan's war-torn Darfur area, prompting arguments over whether the
Jewish state had a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.
David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman, said people from Darfur
would not be immune from Israel's ban on unauthorised migrants.
Khomeini 'sought to drop Death to America chant'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2152314,00.html
Robert Tait in Tehran
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
One of Iran's most powerful politicians has provoked controversy by
suggesting that the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the
country's Islamic revolution, wanted to drop its signature chant,
Death to America.
The claim is made by Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatic conservative and
former president, in the newly-published latest volume of his memoirs,
entitled Towards Destiny. Mr Rafsanjani discloses that a decision was
made during Iran's 1980-88 war with Iraq, when he was speaker of the
Iranian parliament and one of Khomeini's closest confidants.
Afghan weddings bring limos and bling
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2152387,00.html
Marriage season sees import of a little luxury amid the potholes and
poverty
Declan Walsh in Kabul
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Blink and it could be Las Vegas. Crowds swarm into giant, mirrored
buildings with ritzy names and flashing neon signs. A giant replica of
the Eiffel Tower looms at the end of the strip. A white limousine
cruises by.
But this is Kabul, where the wedding season is in full swing, bringing
extravagant displays of bling, Afghan style. One evening last week
Waheed Ullah, a 24-year-old Afghan American, and his young bride
stepped from their limo outside the Crystal Hotel, a wedding hall with
marble floors, glass chandeliers and satin-covered chairs. "In our
culture weddings are very important. They have to go well," he said.
Terror suspect's family claims he was tortured by Spanish police
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,2152194,00.html
Duncan Campbell and Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
The family and legal team of a British resident jailed in Spain as a
terror suspect claim he is the victim of the Spanish equivalent of
Guant=E1namo Bay. Mohammed Fahsi has been detained for more than 18
months after being arrested by Spanish police who claimed to have
struck a blow against a recruiting network that was sending suicide
bombers to Iraq.
Mr Fahsi, 40, was granted residency in Britain two years ago after
marrying a Nottingham primary school teacher, Khadija Podd. They have
three children.
Strip club visit hurts Australian party leader
http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2152381,00.html
Barbara McMahon in Sydney
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Australia's opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, who is well placed to win
the general election due soon, has been forced to apologise for
visiting a strip club during a taxpayers-funded trip to New York.
Mr Rudd, the Labour leader, acknowledged he had made a "foolish
mistake" by visiting the Scores gentlemen's club in Manhattan four
years ago. Revelations about the visit were published yesterday in
News Ltd newspapers throughout Australia, denting his clean-cut image
as a committed Christian and devoted family man.
Maradona and Ch=E1vez laugh over 'hand of god' goal on chat show
http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,2152474,00.html
Rory Carroll in Caracas
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Diego Maradona taunted England over his "hand of God" goal yesterday,
on a television show hosted by Venezuela's president, Hugo Ch=E1vez. The
Argentine footballer told a cheering audience in Caracas, Venezuela's
capital, that he cheated in the 1986 World Cup quarter final and had
urged his team-mates to cheer the strike into the English net to fool
the referee into awarding the goal.
Peter Shilton, the England goalkeeper, was very tall and Maradona
could not reach the ball with his head, he said. "The goalkeeper had
the advantage of grabbing with his hands. It was too high for me and I
stuck out my fist."
First Lady seeks political redesign
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2152386,00.html
Helena Smith in Istanbul
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian
Turkey's first lady-in-waiting has commissioned a cutting-edge
designer to "modernise" her contentious headscarf ahead of the likely
election later this month of her husband, foreign minister Abdullah
Gul, as president of the staunchly secular republic.
With the neo-Islamists' parliamentary majority all but assuring Mr Gul
victory in the third round of the ballot which begins today, his wife
Hayrunisa, left, is studying ways of making her headwear more
palatable to the millions of Turks who decry it as the symbol of
creeping political Islam in Turkish public life.
Forget eating your greens: red and blue foods are the cancer fighters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/aug/20/sciencenews.cancer
=B7 Health properties detected in new laboratory tests
=B7 Pigment can slow growth or even kill tumour cells
Ian Sample, science correspondent
The Guardian Monday August 20 2007
Natural pigments that give certain fruit and vegetables a rich red,
purple or blue colour act as powerful anti-cancer agents, according to
a study by American scientists.
The compounds, found in foods such as aubergines, red cabbage,
elderberries and bilberries, restricted the growth of cancer cells and
in some cases killed them off entirely, leaving healthy cells
unharmed.
Obese men at more risk of deadly form of prostate disease
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/aug/20/medicineandhealth.cancer
Ian Sample
The Guardian Monday August 20 2007
Obese men have a greater risk of developing one of the most aggressive
and life-threatening forms of prostate cancer, scientists warn today.
Researchers in Sweden found that while obese men have an overall lower
risk of getting prostate cancer, those who do are more likely to
develop a severe form of the disease that quickly spreads around the
body and is more likely to kill them.
Leading Article: Less than a model democracy
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2878763.ece
Published: 20 August 2007
Kazakhstan, which suddenly had independence thrust upon it in 1991,
has tended to enjoy a more positive image than some of its former
Soviet Central Asian neighbours. This is partly because its President
for all that time, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is a dab hand at public
relations, and partly because his regime has been genuinely more
benign than some of the regional horrors.
When the comparisons are with the regime of the late President Niyazov
in Turkmenistan, who erected a golden statue to himself, and President
Karimov's rule in Uzbekistan, where political dissenters have been
boiled in oil, the bar is set pretty low. The judicious, if belated,
appearance of a national sense of humour over Sacha Baron Cohen's
Borat has also played to Kazakhstan's international advantage.
Leading Article: The flight from truth about climate change
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2878762.ece
Published: 20 August 2007
The scuffles that broke out yesterday between police and protestors in
the vicinity of Heathrow airport had been on the cards since this
particular climate-change demonstration was first mooted. From the
initial - failed - effort of the British Airports Authority to slap an
injunction on more than 15 protest groups to yesterday's show of
strength by police, a sense of confrontation was in the air.
Obama rises above sea level
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5444.html
By: Roger Simon
Aug 19, 2007 01:59 PM EST
Barack Obama predicted the Democratic debate in Des Moines on Sunday
was going to be like a game of bumper cars. Instead, it turned out
more like a ride on the Tunnel of Love.
John Edwards said Hillary Clinton "did a terrific job" in fighting for
health care in the 1990s.
Afrobella of the Week - Michelle Obama
http://afrobella.com/?p=3D316
August 20, 2007
While I certainly have my own political leanings, my goal with this
post isn't to sway anyone. Although I do work for the "liberal media,"
I actually have friends of all affiliations. So I know how bloody
obnoxious it can be when someone tries to shove their beliefs down
your throat, and I never want to be that person.
However, regardless of your political affiliation, I think everyone
can agree that we're living in interesting political times. The two
most-talked-about democratic candidates are a white woman and a black
man. No matter how you slice it, the upcoming American presidential
election will be historic.
Camp Obama & the '08 Ground War (w. Video)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/20/111123/090
by viralvoice
Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 08:11:22 AM PDT
After putting more than 2,000 organizers through intense two-to-four-
day training sessions in Chicago, Camp Obama expanded to four more
regions in August.
Camp Obama is proof positive of Obama's truly being a "fifty state
campaign" far beyond what any other Democrat can accomplish in 2008.
It gives Obama the ability to turn those much-talked about 258,000
(and growing number of) small donors into an unprecedented field
organization.
Obama: He's like butter
http://blogs.dmregister.com/?p=3D8093
Jason Clayworth
August 20th, 2007 :: 10:51 AM
Former Iowa State Fair butter sculptor Duffy Lyon has endorsed Barack
Obama through a butter sculpture of his campaign logo.
Obama's campaign unveiled Duffy Lyon's butter work last week while
campaigning in Iowa.
What Karl Rove REALLY Had in Mind for a "Permanent Republican
Majority"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/what-karl-rove-really-had_b_60947=
..html
Posted August 17, 2007 | 11:26 PM (EST)
Most of us, myself included, tend to take our democratic institutions
for granted. They were there when we were born. They were there for
200+ years. The idea that the US could somehow no longer be a
representative democracy does not resonate at the gut-level, even when
events should demonstrate the vulnerability of our system.
Yet, twice in the last 4 decades, the US Constitution has come very
close to extinction. Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, each
occurred in the setting of a war begun with a series of lies, and
continued beyond the point when everyone knew the ultimate outcome
would be unaffected, but was pursued just for the vanity of those in
power.
Kansans: Don't Move Gitmo To Our State
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/20/kansans-dont-move-gitmo_n_61069.ht=
ml
Chicago Tribune | Kirsten Scharnberg | August 20, 2007 08:33
AM
As high-profile Republicans increasingly join Democrats and civil
rights groups in denouncing the U.S. holding of alleged terrorists at
Guantanamo Bay, a proposal to move detainees to this historic Army
post in the geographic heart of America is gaining widespread
political support.
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