Thursday 17 May 2012

BLAIR WARS (14)

On 4 April 2003, the Jewish Neoconservative, Charles Krauthammer, said this in The Washington Post:

"With American troops at the gates of Baghdad, the plan is looking pretty good now… Tommy Franks' plan has fared better than most…
President Clinton had said, 'This war is going to be over in a flash' and 'You're looking at a couple weeks of bombing and then I'd be astonished if this campaign took more than a week'…

We are now fighting a conventional war. And winning, thanks to the Franks' plan and its flexibility, and despite the carping of those who in conflict after conflict see Vietnam in anything short of immediate immaculate victory."
Clinton also once said this:

"Who is Osama Bin Laden? Bin Laden is nothing but a nut wrapped in a bedsheet. I don't have to worry about him at all".
Deep thinkers, these leaders of the 'free' world.

On 6 April 2003, 21-year-old Piper Christopher Muzvuru was killed in action in Basra.

On 10 April 2003, three weeks after the US-led coalition invaded Iraq, the following Janet Daley piece appeared in The Age magazine.

“They got the Iraq war wrong, and they get America wrong. But no doubt the left will just move smartly on...

So, something of a cakewalk after all, then. No major set-piece battles with the ‘elite’ Republican Guard. No massive numbers of civilian casualties - ‘millions of women and children killed.’ as British left-wing politician Shirley Williams, among many others, predicted. No relentless house-to-house street fighting. No insuperable problem with the desert heat - the Iraqi summer seems to have gone the way of the Afghan winter in that earlier impracticable American war effort. No uncontrollably burning oil fields in southern Iraq, leading to intractable environmental catastrophe. Nor has there been a great humanitarian disaster or a flood of refugees across the Iraqi borders…

The capital is being pounded, its civilians endangered and its infrastructure damaged more than the coalition would have preferred. That is because Saddam and his chief henchmen, if they are alive, are remaining true to the last to their wicked delusions. If Saddam is alive and hiding, with no sane hope of any sort of victory, then HE IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEVASTATION OF HIS CAPITAL AND THE DEATHS OF CIVILIANS.”
So Bush, Blair, the Neocons and Janet the warmongering hack will bear no responsibility for civilian casualties. You can shoot them, bomb them, torture them, rape them and drive them nuts but, according to Ms Daley, only Saddam will ever be to blame. Given the no-fault mindset of the Janets, I’m guessing such judgements will apply even after his death. Ms Daley adds:

"With characteristically desperate cowardice, he scurries from his tunnels to his underground bunker while his city is battered and his people terrified. Listening to Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the comically undaunted Iraqi Information Minister, can anyone be left in any doubt that this mad, bad and ultimately absurd despotism needed to be displaced?"
It wasn’t ever up to you to displace him, Janet. That should have been the prerogative of the Iraqi people. But you are a willing footstool of the Great Satan and, as such, the mass slaughter of the innocent will never be the stuff of your nightmares.

“A spokesman for the allied forces was asked the quintessential left-wing question the other day: 'If you fail to find any weapons of mass destruction, will you apologise?' Given that Saddam was given such a generous amount of time by the United Nations Security Council to spirit any such weapons safely over the border to Syria, and that he would be very unlikely to have left them lying around where troops would stumble across them in the course of battle, ‘finding’ them in the past three weeks would have been hugely unlikely. But never mind that.”
‘Never mind’ the WMD, eh, Janet? Never mind the stated reason for going to war. You’re in there now. The oil and the possibility of a greater Israel is yours!

“What I want to know is when THE PERPETRATORS OF THE MYTHS that I enumerated above can be expected to offer their apologies.”
Those who spoke out against the war and told the inconvenient truths = 'The perpetrators of the myths,' according to Bush, Blair and the Janets.

“I have this delightful fantasy of left-wingers throughout the Western world putting their hands up and saying: ‘WELL, ACTUALLY WE GOT THAT A LITTLE BIT WRONG.’ And maybe even deciding THAT, SINCE THEIR ANALYSIS OF THE WAR WAS MISTAKEN, THEIR DIAGNOSIS OF THE PEACE MIGHT BE OPEN TO QUESTION TOO.”
Have you ever apologised for this fatuous gloat, Janet? Have you ever said you’re sorry for the fact that your ‘analysis of the war’ was so unforgivably wrong? Don’t you think warmongering journalists like you and David Aaronovitch should stand trial for war crimes? I mean, you played your fanatically Hebrew-orientated part in the genocide, didn’t you?

“I am off to Washington at the end of the week, where a think tank has invited me to discuss European anti-American attitudes. What shall I say to them? That the obvious truth - America is resented because of its enormous power - is only a fragment of the picture? That the foundation of anti-Americanism lies deep in the pathology of a Europe that has never recovered from ITS OWN GUILT AND SELF-LOATHING over the two great wars of last century?"
What a creepy anti-European slag, eh? Neville Chamberlain and the vast majority of the European peoples never wanted WWII. Chamberlain did his damnedest to keep us out of it. With Jewish-American money, Churchill and the Focus kept the fires of war burning until the great conflagration burst forth and secretly, behind the scenes, FDR and co. were fanning the flames.

And by the way, Janet, America isn’t resented because of its enormous power. It IS resented by some because of its enormous ABUSE of the power it has.

“How to make Americans, most of whom are descended from the most despised and wretched of the populations of the Old World - poor southern Italians, landless Irish peasants, ghetto Jews of eastern Europe - understand that MUCH APPARENTLY POLITICAL RESISTANCE TO THEM IS GROUNDED IN PURE SNOBBERY? The great American virtues - self-improvement, ambition, individualism - are, IN EUROPEAN ESTABLISHMENT EYES, THE CHARACTERISTICS OF VULGARITY.”
What deceitful and chauvinistic bulls***, this Brit-based Yank spouts, eh? Did you notice something about her partial list of New World folk, ladies and gents? The British, who would comprise the majority of the old world settlers, weren’t mentioned. Neither were the French, Germans and Scandinavians. Methinks old blue-eyes and blondie might not be the favourite archetype of this close relative of ‘ghetto Jews’. Oh, and Janet, you forgot to mention the Black and Hispanic folk? Bit racist that, don’t you think?

"The consumer-led culture of America, so embarrassingly coveted by the poor peoples of the world, is crass, sentimental and socially gauche. Of course it is. It is the only popular culture there has ever been that is cosmopolitan and affluent, as opposed to the folk cultures of Europe, which dwell in provincial poverty but have their own ‘integrity’ in patronising terms.”
And sub-prime, the credit-crunch and the world-wide financial collapse of 2008 onwards? Would that have anything to do with your consumer-led (Fat Cat and finacier-led actually) culture? It’s all gone quiet over there.

“The same people who ridicule American culture will tell you that The Sopranos is the best drama series on television and that Philip Roth is the greatest living novelist.”
I don’t know anyone who thinks Roth’s adolescent outpourings are ‘great.’ They’re self-indulgent and masturbatory and I shouldn't think they’d be all that interesting to anyone beyond their teenage years who wasn‘t Jewish.

“But how much reality can the ideologically committed be expected to digest? And when has self-contradiction and incoherence ever been a problem for the left?”
Ask yourself the same question, lady. Trust me, you will find that the self-approving sneerer on the Neocon right is every bit as self-contradictory and incoherent as the self-approving sneerer on the lunatic Left.

On 11 April 2003, British student and photographer, Tom Hurndall was targeted and shot in the head by an Israeli Army sniper in the Palestinian town of Rafah.

After being in a coma for over nine months he finally died on 13 January 2004. Whilst doing his best to guide Palestinian children away from an area where Israeli soldiers in a nearby army watchtower were concentrating their fire, Tom deliberately placed himself between the children and that fire and was shot.

The Israeli army initially disputed this account, but under pressure from Tom's family and the British government it ordered a full investigation.

Anthony and Jocelyn Hurndall were in a British diplomatic convoy entering the town where their son had been injured, when another Israeli soldier, esconced in one of the watchtowers that overlook one of the many checkpoints, fired a shot which passed narrowly over the top of their vehicles. These were readily identifiable by their white diplomatic plates.
Not until the defense attaché, Colonel Tom Fitzalan-Howard, had stepped from the car with his hands in the air was the convoy allowed to proceed.

The incident occurred despite the Israeli Army being given notice of the journey on at least three occasions, the last time just minutes before the convoy arrived.

Jocelyn said:

"Here we were, the parents and brother of someone who has been wounded by Israeli Defense Forces and who then fire a warning shot over our car for no apparent reason. It was a measure of the insanity that can take hold here."
This attack came just a few days after Israeli forces murdered James Miller, a freelance British journalist filming the demolition of Palestinian houses in Rafah.

Tom's parents was shocked by the lack of political reaction to her son's injuries and later death.

Anthony Hurndall said that Tony Blair’s goverment was tacitly condoning ing an Israeli cover-up, despite having promised there would be a full inquiry into the shooting of his son. He contrasted the UK's statement of support for Israel after a British-Asian suicide bombed a Tel Aviv bar, with its reaction to the shooting of UK nationals by Israeli soldiers. This is how he put it:

"I have expressed to the embassy strongly my unease at the fact that immediately following the bombing at the bar in Tel Aviv and the killing of three Israelis, the British government jumped to give a statement of support for Israelis and to freeze funds and make arrests. In contrast, the almost passive reaction of the British government at the shooting of three of its nationals in Israel is very disturbing…

There's an enormous difference between how the British reacted to British citizens' involvement in killing Israelis and the complete lack of cooperation and a complete silence over what happened to British nationals here."
Tom was with the same peace group as Rachel Corrie, who, whilst trying to prevent the IDF from destroying Palestinian homes, was run over by an Israeli bulldozer.

What follows is an edition of a speech made by Tom’s sister, Sophie, at the Palestine Rally in Trafalgar Square, which was held on the 17 of May 2003.

"As many of you may know Tom was shot while trying to save children from Israeli army fire… what Tom and we discovered during our separate visits to Israel and Gaza has caused us deep concern…

My brother Tom was… a caring human being. He travelled to Gaza because he had heard about human rights abuses taking place in the occupied territories and wanted see for himself the way in which Palestinians were living, and to photograph and document what he saw. Tom is now lying in hospital in Israel in a deep coma. His brain has suffered severe damage and the doctors have said he is unlikely to regain consciousness.

In the days before Tom was wounded he sent e-mails home detailing several incidents he had observed in which civilians had been shot by Israeli soldiers and also a helicopter attack in which 46 civilians were wounded, some of whom later died. Tom had already sent us photographs including one of a boy of about 7 or 8, who posed no threat, being shot from an Israeli tank. Tom was himself shot as he was trying to help a group of children.

Waiting at the end of a street in Rafa, he saw machine gun fire being directed at a mound of earth on which about twenty children were playing. Most of the children fled but three young children were too scared to move, two girls and a boy aged between 5 and 8. Tom walked forward and picked up the little boy, named Salem Baroum. Having brought Salem back to safety he returned for the second child. Tom was shot in the head by a single sniper bullet as he leant forward to pick up the little girl.

The IDF released reports that Tom was armed, clothed in army camouflage and firing at the soldiers. They have also released a report saying he was involved in crossfire. These reports have been reflected in media around the world, especially in Israel. These reports are not true. Many of you will have seen photographs of Tom in his fluorescent orange activists vest.

We have photographs of Tom immediately before and after the shooting - from several independent sources. There were over ten eye witness reports of Toms shooting including the accounts of journalists- all of which support the fact that Tom was fired at with no justification. But what is extraordinary is that to this day, not a single one of these witnesses has been questioned by the IDF or the Israeli authorities. How can any credible inquiry be conducted without questioning them? Indeed some of these witnesses have since been arrested, detained and unlawfully deported.

It was clear to all that Tom did not pose a threat to the Israeli army or to anyone else. He was with a humanitarian organization which was involved in peaceful protest and which was known by the army to be present in the immediate area at the time. He acted in a way which every decent human being should have seen as natural and necessary in going to the aid of a young helpless and desperately vulnerable group of children. Many of us would not have had the courage to do what Tom did. In return for his courage and selfless commitment, he is likely to have paid the ultimate price. Tom is the victim of a direct and deliberate shot to the head…

Our request for an explanation about the shooting is not unreasonable. My parents, my two other brothers and myself, have spent much of the last five weeks at Toms bedside in Israel, and also in Gaza trying to find answers.

In spite of numerous repeated requests during that time, through the British Embassy in Tel Aviv and the media, we have been bluntly refused an explanation from, or any communication with, the Israeli forces. My parents have even been shot at while travelling with British embassy officials in Gaza. They have now been refused entry unless they sign a waiver absolving the Israeli army of any responsibility if the army shoots at them as well.
Is that what freedom and democracy are in Israel?

My family is campaigning for an independent, public inquiry into Toms shooting. Not only for Tom, but because every day Palestinian civilians are maimed and killed by the Israeli army. Tom showed us this through the e-mails he sent home. Any act of violence - whether by Palestinian or by Israeli - should be subject to prosecution and a fair trial. Yet clearly this is not happening. It is absolutely unacceptable that innocent people continue to be killed or wounded - whether they are journalists, peace activists or other civilians. Yet an Israeli soldier is very unlikely even to be reprimanded for such outrageously heavy-handed tactics.

We cannot stand by silently and allow people like Tom and Rachel, Brian Avery, Iain Hook and James Miller to become such tragic victims. If we dont make a stand to make the Israeli government accountable for its actions, then there will be no end to this terrible loss of life in Palestine."
Because of the relentless pressure placed upon the British and Israeli government by the Hurndalls, Wahid Taysir was charged with Tom’s killing.

In June 2004, a Westminster cross party Parliamentary delegation visited the place in Rafah where Tom was shot. The IDF shot at them as well.

On the last day of the case, in May 2005, Taysir's defence team tried to place the blame for Tom's death on the medical team who cared for Tom when he got back to Britain. They asserted that doctors at the Royal Free Hospital were 'negligent,' even though he was effectively brain dead from the moment he was shot.

The cost of shipping Tom home to England in his comatose state came to over £17,000. The Israelis reimbursed the Hurndalls with a cheque for only £8,730. The cheque bounced.

In June, 2005, Sergeant Wahid Taysir was convicted of manslaughter at a military court in Ashkelon and sentenced to eight years imprisonment. Taysir was also found guilty of obstruction of justice, incitement to false testimony, false testimony and improper conduct. The court was told Taysir fired at Mr Hurndall from an Israeli army watchtower, using a sniper rifle with a telescopic sight.

Tom's sister Sophie said she felt a 'huge amount of anger' towards Taysir. 'Tom was rescuing a child,' she said, adding that what Taysir did 'was the most despicable action you could carry out.' But she added:

"He's been hung out to dry by the Israeli army who have not taken responsibility for the poor investigation and absolute lack of accountability."
Tom's father expressed concern about the 'culture in which this incident took place' and added:

"We're concerned that there is a policy which seems to be prevalent in Gaza, amongst the Israeli soldiers and army, that they feel able to shoot civilians really without any accountability whatsoever."
All of the above is purely cosmetic exercise. If the outside pressure builds up to an extent whereby it is not possible for the Israeli authorities to sweep the matter under the carpet without criticism, soldiers such as Taysir will receive a token sentence which will be served at something the Israelis will call a prison but is, in actual fact, a glorified holiday camp. The Israelis do not punish their 'heroes.'

In June 2005, Civil liberties group Human Rights Watch accused Israel of investigating less than 5 per cent of hundreds of cases of Palestinians killed since 2000.

Chris Mullin and Mike O'Brien mentioned Tom in the Houses of Parliament in response to a question and David Cameron referred to him indirectly.

Jeremy Corbyn introduced two EDMs commemorating him into the House of Commons. Richard Burden, Anne Campbell, Peter Hain, Brian Jenkins, Parmjit Dhanda and Nick Harvey mentioned Tom in parliament and were critical of Israel in doing so.

Tony Blair never mentioned Tom Hurndall in the House of Commons.

On 23 April 2003, Tony Blair said this:

"Iraq continues to stabilize… I have no doubt at all that it is both our duty and our opportunity to make sure that for the future people in Iraq can live free from fear, free from tyranny, and with a government genuinely representative of the Iraqi people. That is what we are working towards.
We are also doing everything we can to improve the humanitarian situation there and to usher in an era in Iraq…

There is now every chance we can make progress in the Middle East… I have no doubt at all that there is a genuine commitment the world over to make sure we can make a reality of the two-state solution: Israel, confident of its security and recognized by the Arab world, and a viable Palestinian state…

In respect of public opinion, this was a tough battle; it was always going to be… even if people have disagreed with us going to war, they can at least see that the Iraqi people have greater freedom and greater hope today than they had in the years under Saddam…

We are beginning the whole process of trying to identify the possible sites where there are weapons of mass destruction… the world works best when Europe and America are partners together".
On 28 April 2003, a large crowd defied a curfew imposed by the Americans in Fallujah and gathered outside a local school, which the Americans had closed, to demand that it be re-opened.

Apparently, some of the demonstrators' discharged their weapons into the air and soldiers from the 82nd Airborne stationed on the roof of the schoolhouse, then, fired down from their vantage point into the protestors.

13 civilians were killed. A protest against the killings two days later was also fired upon by US troops and two more Iraqis died.

On 28 April 2003, during his monthly press conference, Tony Blair said:

"As I say every time I am asked, I remain confident that they (WMD) will be found… Before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass destruction, I suggest they wait a bit."
On 30 April 2003, 27-year-old Lance Corporal James McCue was killed in an explosion in southern Iraq.

In May 2003, Tony Benn said this on LBC Radio:

"I believe THE PRIME MINISTER LIED TO US AND LIED TO US AND LIED TO US. THE WHOLE WAR WAS BUILT UPON FALSEHOOD AND I THINK THE LONG-TERM DAMAGE WILL BE TO DEMOCRACY IN BRITAIN. If you can't believe what you are told by ministers, the whole democratic process is put at risk. YOU CAN'T BE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH TELLING LIES FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES."
In May 2003, Richard Perle said:

"I think Tony Blair's moral sense is, very much reflected in the thinking of many neo conservatives… Tony Blair does have a fundamental understanding of this. That for justice and liberty to prevail in the world, force sometimes has to be used… I think Tony Blair is a kind of neoconservative, despite himself".
In May 2003, Margaret Thatcher said:

"For years, many governments played down the threats of Islamic revolution, turned a blind eye to international terrorism and accepted the development of weaponry of mass destruction… O

ur own Prime Minister was staunch… But, above, all, it is President Bush who deserves the credit for victory."
So, in May 2003, the creature who destroyed the jobs of British millions and consigned their children to a drug-ridden scrap heap, thought the smirking chimp had won a great 'victory.'

Victory for whom, one wonders? For Big Business and Israel, certainly. But for the working-class British and American dead? For the innocents who would be blown to bits by those who sought revenge upon the West? For the ordinary Iraqi citizenry who have died in their hundreds of thousands. For those who loved and lost all of the above because armchair warmongers like Bush, Blair and Thatcher drooled at the prospect of another war with a tinpot dictator whose country and people had been tortured and broken long before?

If you have the mentality of a traitor, I guess you're likely to tell the world that traitors are great.

After Thatcher's speech, Liam Fox who, in 2005, would stand in the election for Tory leader, said:

"Margaret Thatcher embodies the strength of that alliance and probably represents the high point of co-operation, not just on a practical sense but in terms of philosophical alignment. The world may not see her like again for many years to come."
Hope not, Liam.

In 2011, Fox had to resign as Defence Secretary because of his close friendship with Adam Werrity and their over-close relationship with Israel. Adam Werritty 'plotted with Israel' to topple Iran's President Ahmadinejad

Fox is wont to tell all who will listen that both his grandfathers were miners. If his grandads were alive today I bet they wouldn't vote for him. In fact, I reckon they'd probably, deny he was their grandson.

In May 2003, Tony Benn said this on LBC Radio:

"I believe the Prime Minister lied to us and lied to us and lied to us. The whole war was built upon falsehood and I think the long-term damage will be to democracy in Britain. If you can't believe what you are told by ministers, the whole democratic process is put at risk. You can't be allowed to get away with telling lies for political purposes."
On 2 May 2003, British journalist, cameraman, film-maker and father-of-two, James Miller, was murdered in the Palestinian town of Rafah.

When James set to work making the documentary 'Death in Gaza,' a film intended to demonstrate the effect of Israel state terrorism on Palestinian children, he did not realise he would be documenting his own death at the hands of an Israeli soldier.

Before the IDF realised the incident had been filmed, they categorically stated that James’ death was caused by crossfire. However, as the killing was caught on camera by an Associated Press film crew, they were forced reluctantly to institute a military police investigation in August.

James was approaching an armoured personnel carrier, carrying a white flag which he shone a torch upon, wearing a white helmet and clothing clearly highlighted with media representative markings clearly designating him as a non-combatant.

He was calling out to the occupants of the vehicle, announcing his status as a British journalist and asking them for permission to leave the area when two shots were fired. The second bullet struck him in the neck, the only unprotected part of his body.

The Israeli soldier had lined James up in his telescopic sights from less than 50 yards away and had, undoubtedly, noted his body armour, protective helmet and the fluorescent markings which clearly designated him as a journalist. It was the cold-blooded murder of a defenceless non-combatant.

In November 2003, BBC journalist, John Sweeney, had this to say about his friend and the events of that evening:

"James Miller was a cameraman on the side of the underdog… On 2 May this year he was shot dead by an Israeli soldier in Rafah, in the occupied Gaza Strip…

On the last evening of filming he walked out of a house with his reporter Saira Shah and his fixer Aboud. It was night. They were seeking parley with an Israeli armoured personnel carrier to gain permission to leave the border hot zone without being shot at.

James was shining a torch onto a white flag. A first shot rang out. The team froze. By chance, the team were being filmed by an agency stringer from APTN. The videotape proves that there is no crossfire. They were wearing helmets and flak jackets littered with TV signs. They did not look like Islamic terrorists. The Israeli army has, thanks to the Americans, some of the best night vision technology in the world. Their kit turns nights into day.

Thirteen seconds later a second shot rings out. James was shot in the front of his neck by an Israeli bullet and was mortally wounded. He died soon after...

What gives cause for grave concern is that James' is not the only incident in Rafah… Rachel Corrie, a young American peace activist, was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer. No Israeli soldier has been charged with misconduct.

A month later British photographer and peace activist Tom Hurndall was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier… We showed the APTN film of James' shooting to a serving Israeli soldier. He said: ‘That's murder’."
James’ wife Sophie, said:

"James' family and myself won't rest until his killers are brought to justice and we will pursue it relentlessly."
More than a year after James’ death, she complained that Jack Straw had promised to pursue a transparent inquiry, which, over a year later, had still not come to fruition. She said:

"I've asked him to honour that pledge. We are disappointed with the lack of actual action that this government has taken."
Sophie said it was hard to believe no one had yet been found responsible for the killing.

"We are very frustrated with a very long process. A year is a very long time to wait. It does feel as if we have to push all the time to get the answers from Israel, where we've always asked for a thorough, full and transparent process."
She is concerned that she will be denied access to the heart of the report and that no firm date has been given for its release.

In April 2005, 'Lieutenant H,' the Israeli soldier accused of shooting James, was cleared of any wrongdoing. Earlier a military judge had also dismissed disciplinary proceedings, acquitting the soldier of 'misusing his firearm.' No action will be taken against him.

Last month a judge ruled that the soldier accused of discharging his weapon at the time of the incident could not be proved beyond doubt to have killed Mr Miller. British Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons said:

"I was very shocked and saddened to hear that the disciplinary proceedings that followed the Israel Defence Forces investigation into James Miller's death have ended this way".
What will this 'shocked' and 'saddened' teletubbie do about it, do you think? Sweet FA.

Tony Blair never mentioned the death of James Miller in the House of Commons. Nick Harvey mentioned him in the House and was explicitly critical of the IDF, who killed him.

Brian Jenkins and Parmjit Dhanda mentioned James and asked the government to press the Israeli Government to conduct an independent, public and judicial inquiry. Chris Mullin mentioned James in the Houses of Parliament in response to a question. No other MP ever mentioned him in the House.

No EDM was ever introduced into parliament commemorating James Miller.

The British and Israeli governments have still not made any of their findings known.

On 4 May 2003,Richard Wild, a British freelance cameraman was shot dead in Baghdad.

On 6 May 2003, having been unable to find massive stockpiles of Iraqi WMD, George W. Bush began to talk of 'weapons programmes.'

Tony Blair would soon follow suit. Bush said this to reporters:

"I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein because he had a weapons program."
On 6 May 2003, 18-year-oldPrivate Andrew Kelly died in a shooting accident at his barracks near Basra in Iraq.

On 8 May 2003, 22-year-old Duncan Pritchard, an RAF Regiment Gunner, died in hospital following injuries sustained in Iraq.

On 12 May 2003, three housing compounds used by US and other foreign residents were attacked by suicide bombers in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The attacks took place just hours before Secretary of State, Colin Powell, was due to arrive to discuss the war against terrorism. 35 people were killed and 160 injured, including 9 suicide bombers, during the attacks. One British man, one Irishman, an Australian and 9 Americans died as a result.

On 19 May 2003, Corporal David Shepherd, an RAF policeman, died in Kuwait.

On 22 May 2003, Leonard Harvey, a civilian member of the Defence Fire Service, died in a UK hospital after falling ill in the Gulf.

On 27 May 2003, Donald Rumsfeld said this to the Council on Foreign Relations:

"They may have had time to destroy them, (WMD) and I don't know the answer… It is also possible that they decided that they would destroy them prior to a conflict."
Hans Blix has since said that he believes all Iraqi WMD were destroyed at least seven years before Bush and Blair invaded.

On 28 May 2003, Paul Wolfowitz, one of the two Jewish neoconservatives who had done more than anyone else to bring about the second war in Iraq, finally let the cat out of the bag when he said this in an interview with Vanity Fair:

"For reasons that have a lot to do with the US government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction."
And then, at the IISS Asian Security Summit in Singapore three days later, Wolfowitz casually admitted to the self-interest that governed America's reasons for invading Iraq, when he said:

"Let's look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil".

Of course, Wolfowitz wasn't ever going to admit that Israel's security, territorial expansion and downright spite had anything to do with his wanting Iraq smashed to bits, which is a shame, but, as confessions go, this one's a beaut.

On 12 June 2003, Labour MP, Llew Smith, introduced an EDM into the Commons pointing out the information cited above and adding:

"This House… recalls the comment made by the honourable Member for Blaenau Gwent in the debate on Iraq last September that 'If we should decide to go to war with Iraq, it will not be a war against Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, or terrorism... it will be about oil.' Further recalls that the Prime Minister has dismissed points put to him by several honourable Members, on several occasions, that oil was the reason for the war, as conspiracy theory".
Apart from Llew Smith, just thirty other back bench MPs signed this EDM, when more than 540 were at liberty to do so.

Llew Smith stood down at the 2005 General Election. I've not been able to find out why. He was 61 years old, prime time for a politician. The Blairite babe that the party tried to impose upon the voters of Blaenau Gwent came unstuck. An independent candidate took one of the safest seats in Westminster from New Labour on election night.

On 17 March 2005, Labour MP, David Drew, introduced an EDM which said:

"This House is appalled that the US Administration has chosen to nominate Paul Wolfowitz to the next head of the World Bank; believes that, as one of the architects of the invasion of Iraq, he is uniquely unsuitable to negotiate with the world's poorest countries; notes that he has no history whatsoever of demonstrating any understanding of the needs of those countries; further believes that he is the personification of how out of touch the Bush administration remains in ignoring its global responsibilities; and calls on the Government to take what steps it can to block this nomination."
Apart from David Drew, 45 other MPs signed this EDM.

On 21 March 2005, Labour MP, Tony Lloyd, introduced a similar EDM, which stated:
"That this House calls upon European countries to arrange a confirmation hearing of the type that would normally be held by the US Senate for a Presidential appointment to determine whether Paul Wolfowitz is a fit and proper person to become the President of the World Bank."
Apart from Tony Lloyd, 46 other MPs signed this EDM.

You see, folks, it's not just me who hates the bad guys.

On 28 May 2003, Tony Blair said:

"I have absolutely no doubt at all about the existence of weapons of mass destruction".
On 28 May 2003, Robin Cook, the former foreign Secretary, said this in the House of Commons:

"We were told Saddam had weapons ready for use within 45 minutes. It's now 45 days since the war has finished and we have still not found anything. It is plain he did not have that capacity to threaten us, possibly did not have the capacity to threaten even his neighbors, and that is profoundly important. We were, after all, told that those who opposed the resolution that would provide the basis for military action were in the wrong. Perhaps we should now admit they were in the right."
On the same day, Peter Kilfoyle said he was prepared to report Mr Blair to the Speaker of the Commons for misleading Parliament.

He added:

"This will not go away. The Government ought to publish whatever evidence they have for the claims they made."
In the same debate, Paul Keetch, the Liberal Democrat Defense spokesman, said:
"No weapons means no threat. Without WMD, the case for war falls apart. It would seem either the intelligence was wrong and we should not rely on it, or, the politicians overplayed the threat. Even British troops who I met in Iraq recently were skeptical about the threat posed by WMD. Their lives were put at risk in order to eliminate this threat - we owe it to our troops to find out if that threat was real."
In the same debate, Alan Simpson said:
"If it's right Iraq destroyed the weapons prior to the war, then it means Iraq complied with the United Nations resolution 1441."
In the same debate, Glenda Jackson said:
"If the creators of this war are now saying weapons of mass destruction were destroyed before the war began, then all the government ministers who stood on the floor in the House of Commons adamantly speaking of the immediate threat are standing on shaky ground."
On 29 May 2003, on a flight from London to Kuwait, Tony Blair said:

"I have said throughout and I just repeat to you, I have absolutely no doubt at all about the existence of weapons of mass destruction… Rather than speculating, let's just wait until we get the full report back from our people who are interviewing the Iraqi scientists.

We have already found two trailers that both our and the American security services believe were used for the manufacture of chemical and biological weapons. Our priorities in Iraq are less to do with finding weapons of mass destruction, though that is obviously what a team is charged with doing, and they will do it, and more to do with humanitarian and political reconstruction."
On the 30 of May 2003, Tony Blair said this in the House of Commons:

"We have won a magnificent victory in Iraq."
He also said this as regards the finding of WMD:

"It (WMD) is not the most urgent priority now for us since Saddam has gone".
He would say that, wouldn't he?

On the same day he also said this:

"We regard the United States as our allies and partners. We are proud of what we have achieved together against tyranny and in defence of freedom, most recently in Iraq… The United States is not wrong but right to be tough in dealing with them. We must support the United States".
On 31 May 2003, Tony Blair said this in an interview with Sky News:

"I have no doubt whatever that the evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction will be there… Those people who are sitting there saying: 'Oh, it's all going to be proved to be a great big fib got out by the security services, there will be no weapons of mass destruction' - just wait, and have a little patience."
In June 2003, George Bush said this:

"God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East."
On 1 June 2003, Clare Short, MP, former International Development Secretary, said this:

"I now am convinced that Tony Blair agreed a date for the war with George Bush when he went to Camp David in September. So when he was saying to us, we'll have a second resolution… he, our Prime Minister, had committed us to war by mid February…. We were duped… claiming that the stuff was weaponised and might be used in 45 minutes, was part of the, the secret commitment to a date… We were duped by the Prime Minister… It was all done in Tony Blair's study with Tony Blair on the phone to President Bush...

It became clearer and clearer that there had been some of this duping… given what Rumsfeld has said and what Wolfovitz has said… they were determined to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, and decided to use weapons of mass destruction argument… And I fear that our Prime Minister had secretly made an agreement with George Bush that come what may we would go in to action…

I'm saying there was an exaggeration of what everyone knew to be the case… It's the spin that's put on that to suggest that it's imminently useable, and immediate threat to us in 45 minutes and that there's a potential for al Qaeda getting their hands on it. That's where the spin was… and the point about that is it meant that there had to be very urgent action…

I think on a question as big as this, where lots of people have lost their lives, and lots of people in Iraq have lost their lives, the question of, were we duped… shouldn't we have tried for the better way before we exhausted the possibilities is such a big historical question that we've got to get to the truth…

Baghdad is a disaster. Everything is wrecked. It's completely violent. Lots of people are dying from crime. Electricity is only for limited hours. Hospitals aren't functioning properly. The whole humanitarian system can't work properly… Given that this war was planned, there should have been plans for keeping order".
On 2 June 2003, Tony Blair said this at the G8 summit in Evian:

"Frankly, the idea that we doctored intelligence reports in order to invent some notion about a 45-minute capability for delivering weapons of mass destruction is completely and totally false… The facts are precisely the facts as stated… I stand absolutely 100% behind the evidence based on intelligence that we presented to people."
On 3 June 2003, The Guardian reported thus:

"The infamous weapons of mass destruction were a crucial pretext for Britain going to war against Iraq, but they were not the prime cause. They didn't drive the strategy. The originating, compulsive, inescapable reason was a twin commitment.

First, the American decision that, short of Saddam Hussein being assassinated or going into exile, war was going to happen: a decision, it is now clear, that had been made by last August at the latest. And second, the visceral inability of Mr Blair to contemplate detaching this country from whatever Washington decided. He did this in solidarity with George Bush on September 11.

But arguably it began to happen earlier, when he journeyed to Camp David immediately after Bush's election, returning to pronounce him, contrary to most popular impressions, a wise and balanced statesman…

Rumsfeld admits that he doesn't expect to find any WMD, and blithely claims this doesn't matter. The entire US performance through autumn and winter at the UN can now be starkly seen as a sham, conducted to keep Blair and a few others sweet".
On 4 June 2003, Tony Blair said this in the House of Commons:

"There are literally thousands of sites. As I was told in Iraq, information is coming in the entire time, but it is only now that the Iraq survey group has been put together that a dedicated team of people, which includes former UN inspectors, scientists and experts, will be able to go in and do the job properly…

As I have said throughout, I have no doubt that they will find the clearest possible evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction."
On 8 June 2003, Blair said this:
"I don't concede it at all that the intelligence at the time was wrong. I have absolutely no doubt at all that we will find evidence of weapons of mass destruction programmes."
On 8 June 2003, The Birmingham Sunday Mercury reported thus:

"Saddam Hussein’s family is already living here in the Midlands, the Sunday Mercury can exclusively reveal. Two of his cousins have been resident in Birmingham for more than 10 years. And a leading opponent of Saddam has claimed they were involved in the dictator’s corrupt and murderous regime.
The Home Office last week insisted that Saddam’s daughters and wife would not be allowed to seek asylum in Britain. But six of the former dictator’s cousins are already living here in the UK.

It has become widely known that Saddam’s cousin Izzi-Din Mohammed Hassan al-Majid has set up home in Leeds. The seemingly wealthy 43-year-old has publicly pleaded for political asylum for the toppled Iraqi leader’s two older daughters, Raghad, 36, and Rana, 33, plus their nine children and mother Sajida, 66. But there are two more cousins in Birmingham. Another lives in Scotland, one in Liverpool and one in London.

Last night a leading war crimes hunter criticised the way in which they had been allowed to settle in Britain. 'Members of Saddam’s family are guilty of genocide and have Iraqi blood on their hands,' said Latif Yahia, 39, who went to school with Saddam’s son Uday in Baghdad and was later forced to become his double.

'They have stolen billions of pounds from the Iraqi people and they must give it back,' said Mr Yahia. 'We want to bring them to justice in the high courts. We have found 152 Iraqis who have been living between 10 to 20 years in Britain and who we want to bring to justice. Saddam has at least six cousins who live in the UK - two in Birmingham, one in Scotland, one in Liverpool, one or two in London - and there is Izzi-Din Mohammed Hassan al-Majid, who lives in Leeds.

It is disgusting that he is seeking refuge for Saddam’s daughters and wife in the UK. These people should not be allowed into the country. I am totally opposed to this. I arrived back in this country last week and want to work with the authorities to bring these people to justice. I believe I know where Uday is but I cannot say that I know where Saddam is. I was a victim of his regime.'

A spokesman for the Home Office said they were unable to comment on the claims. But Caroline Spelman, Conservative MP for Meriden, said she was outraged by the news that members of Saddam’s family were in the Midlands.
'If they were involved in the Iraqi regime they should have to face the music in their own country,' she said. 'They will not be subjected to torture if they return to their country because British and US forces should be ensuring law and order is maintained. Now that there is peace in Iraq, there is no reason for them not to go back and face up to their responsibilities. However, Saddam was known to bump off a few of his relatives so existing members of his family may have legitimately sought asylum here.'

Birmingham Labour MP Steve McCabe said: 'Anyone who was co-operating with the regime has no basis for staying here'…

Mr Yahia says he eventually escaped by making contact with American forces in Kurdistan, who ensured him safe passage out of his homeland. He stayed for a while in Vienna then moved to Ireland where he met his wife Karen and stayed for seven years. After Mr Yahia was subjected to racist attacks, the family moved to England and they now live in Manchester."
On the 18 of June, 2003, Tony B Liar said:

"The point of our politics is to exercise power for the good of the people".
The point of Tony B’s politics is to exercise power for the good of Big Brother, Big Business, the elite of world Jewry and the Freemasonic movers and shakers of the New World Order. These days, of course, this gruesome bunch are often synonymous.

Roman Catholicism and anything Scottish ring Tony B's bells as well, it must be said. If anything, this Scots-Irish wannabe Catholic, who regularly attends mass with his RC wife, seems to wish the Protestant working-class majority of England, nothing but ill.

On 20 June 2003, Marie Woolf, The Independent's chief political correspondent, said this:

"Two MPS caused outrage yesterday by comparing the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza to the Nazi segregation of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. Oona King, Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, and Jenny Tonge, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, who visited Gaza last week with the charity Christian Aid, said the situation was getting worse as the area in which the Palestinians live gets smaller.

Ms King, whose mother is Jewish, said: 'No government should be behaving like that - least of all a Jewish government. It's the same in nature but not extent. Palestinians are not being rounded up and put in gas chambers. What makes it similar is what happened to the Jewish people in that time, which was the seizing of land, being forced from property, torture and bureaucracy - control used in a demeaning way over the smallest task. On top of that, building a wall around them, and that is precisely what the Israeli government is doing.'

Ms Tonge said: 'You are almost getting a situation like the Warsaw ghetto - people can't get in or out. They can't work, they can't sell anything. There is this gradual squeeze.'

But Lord Janner, the Labour peer and Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, said it was wrong to draw comparisons with the Nazi era. 'Comparisons with the Warsaw ghetto is horrendously inappropriate and shows a sad lack of historical perspective,' he said.

Yuri Dromi, of the Israel Democracy Institute, said: 'Comparing someone in Gaza to the ghetto is really appalling. I think it is outrageous. The Warsaw ghetto was created to suffocate the Jews and to execute them.'The MPs' comments came as Tony Blair held talks in London with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli finance minister, about the peace process and the state of Israel's economy."
To her credit, Jenny Tonge is still speaking out and saying things she shouldn't.

Oona King, she of the Jewish mum, is not.

On 21 June 2003, Lieutenant General William G. Boykin, appearing in full dress uniform before a religious gathering in Oregon, said that Islamic extremists hated the US.

This, according to Boykin, was because:

"We're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian. Did I say Judeo-Christian? Yes. Judeo-Christian. That means we've got a commitment to Israel. That means it's a commitment we're never going to abandon. Ladies and gentlemen, we will never abandon Israel, we will never walk away from our commitment to Israel because our roots are there.

Our religion came from Judaism, and therefore these radicals will hate us forever… The enemy that has come against our nation is a spiritual enemy. His name is Satan. And if you do not believe that Satan is real, you are ignoring the same Bible that tells you about God."
Boykin then said that George W. Bush 'was appointed by God' to be leader of the United States.

To another religious group in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, General Boykin declared that the true enemy in George W. Bush's wars was 'the principalities of darkness. It is a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy.'

According to a Charisma News Service report of June 4 2002, Boykin told the Community Prayer Breakfast in Fort Myers:

"It is a spiritual enemy we have to contend with. Now is the time to fight."
In the same month that William Boykin told a spellbound US audience that the enemy of the US was Satan himself, George Bush's adminstration promoted him. He is now the Government's Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.

Henry Kissinger once said that military men were 'dumb, stupid animals.' A statement that, generally, I would take issue with. In Boykin's case, however, I won't.

On 8 July 2003, Tony Blair said this to the Commons Liaison Committee:

"I have absolutely no doubt whatever that he was trying to reconstitute weapons of mass destruction programmes… He has always been intending to develop these weapons…

Let us wait and see… let us actually allow this Iraq Survey Group to get going and to do their work… The Iraq Survey Group that is the group charged with going and finding the evidence of these programmes is only just beginning its work now… I have no doubt whatever that in the end these people will talk to us about the programmes and we will have the evidence of those programmes… I don't concede it at all that the intelligence at the time was wrong…

I have absolutely no doubt that we will find evidence of weapons of mass destruction programmes… my view is that I am very confident they will find the evidence that such programmes existed."
In July 2003, Business Week Online eulogised the fat cats’ hero thus:

"Blair is that rare politician who can keep his eye on the big picture. Part of what makes him a European political star is that he almost never allows himself to be ruffled by the daily storms… Blair uses the word ‘radical’ a lot, but the truth is that Britain did not need a revolution when he took office in 1997. His predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, had already done most of the heavy lifting… Blair's main task has been consolidating Thatcher's work".
On 13 July 2003, Tony Blair, in America at the time, said:

"Nobody was in any doubt of the threat posed by Saddam... When we see the Iraqi people making at last the first tentative steps towards self-government announced today and when the United Nations representative is already talking about 300,000 people in mass graves, then I hope that at least one thing that we can all agree on, the world is more secure, Iraq is a better place."
Much was made by Tony Blair and the other liars in Westminster and Washington about bodies in mass graves. Most of the bodies they were uncovering at this time were casualties incurred during the Iran-Iraq war, and Blair knew it. Some of the other bodies will have been casualties incurred during Gulf War 1 and Blair will have known this also.

I'm not for a moment excusing Saddam, the man was a bloody and repressive tyrant, but, for most of his time in power, he was a creature of the West who was eager to do the bidding of the Carters, Reagans and Thatchers.

As for Blair's disgusting assertion that we can all agree that 'the world is more secure, Iraq is a better place,' if he'd ever dared to say such a thing in Iraq, even now nine uears on, he'd get lynched.

If he said it to those who lost loved ones in the Madrid, London and Bali bombings I doubt that he'd get strung up.

But he ought to be.

On 13 July 2003, Tony Blair was doing what Tony Blair does best. He was doing his damnedest to keep the WHOLE truth from us.

On 13 July 2003, the BBC reported thus:

"Tony Blair is appealing to the heads of Western governments to agree a NEW WORLD ORDER that would justify the war in Iraq even if Saddam Hussein's elusive weapons of mass destruction are never found. It would also give Western powers the authority to attack any other sovereign country…

Mr Blair has involved British troops in five conflicts overseas in his six years in office, and appears to be willing to take part in many more. The document echoes his well-known views on 'rights and responsibilities' by saying that even for self-governing nation states 'the right to sovereignty brings associated responsibilities to protect citizens'.

This phrase is immediately followed by a paragraph which appears to give the world's democracies carte blanche to send troops anywhere there is civil unrest or a tyrant who refuses to mend his ways. It says: 'Where a population is suffering serious harm, as a result of internal war, insurgency, repression or state failure, and the state in question is unwilling or unable to halt or avert it, the principle of non-intervention yields to the international responsibility to protect.'

A political row… will add to Mr Blair's difficulties at a time when the American and British intelligence services have fallen out with each other over the question of whether Saddam had been seeking to construct a nuclear bomb. In Washington, the US government has withdrawn the claim that Iraqi agents were in Niger trying to buy uranium. The head of the CIA, George Tenet, has accepted the blame for allowing this claim to be included in President George Bush's State of the Nation speech, in which it was attributed to British intelligence.

The former foreign secretary Robin Cook has challenged Mr Blair to publish any evidence Britain has to back up the uranium story. He told The Independent on Sunday: 'The longer they delay coming up with it, the greater the suspicion will become that they don't really believe it themselves. There is one simple question the Government must answer when the Commons meets on Monday: why did their evidence not convince the CIA?"
On 18 July 2003, Tony Blair addressed the United States Congress and predicted that history would 'forgive' him even if weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq.

"The spread of freedom is the best security for the free. It is our last line of defence and our first line of attack. And just as the terrorist seeks to divide humanity in hate, so we have to unify it around an idea. And that idea is liberty…the liberty we seek is not for some but for all, for that is the only true path to victory in this struggle."
Yuk! He then said:

"If Afghanistan needs more troops from the international community to police outside Kabul, our duty is to get them… Let us help them eradicate their dependency on the poppy, the crop whose wicked residue turns up on the streets of Britain as heroin to destroy young British lives, as much as their harvest warps the lives of Afghans."
In 2000, the Taleban banned the growing of opium poppies. In 2001, UN observers reported that the crop had been practically wiped out. However, after Bush and Blair invaded Afghanistan, opium production increased 20-fold. within a couple of years, 90 per cent of the heroin consumed in Britain and Europe originated in Afghanistan.

Blair was telling an outright and wholly provable lie.

He then admitted this:

"Can we be sure that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction will join together? Let us say one thing. If we are wrong we will have destroyed a threat that, at its least, is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering. That is something I am confident history will forgive."
History, which people like Blair and Bush's speechwriters write down for the rest of us to gawp at, may well forgive him.

But I won't. And neither, I suspect, will the dead.

He, whom history will forgive, continued:

"My nation… takes enormous pride in our alliance (Britain and America’s) and great affection in our common bond".
Well, I don’t know about you, but I take no pride at all in being allied with those who would elect a smirking chimpanzee to be their President.

Twice!

Blair also said:

"We're not fighting for domination. We're not fighting for an American world".
The US neoconservatives were 'fighting for' a 'New American Century,' which they aspire to dominate through military and economic might. This was the stated aim of PNAC, the 'Project for the New American Century,' the leading neocon think-tank.

TB continued:

"Let me… express my gratitude to President Bush. Through the troubled times since September the 11th changed our world, we have been allies and friends. Thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership… Our new world rests on order… Europe must take on and defeat the anti-Americanism…
Being American means being free…

The ending of Saddam's regime in Iraq must be the starting point of a new dispensation for the Middle East… Iran and Syria, who give succour to the rejectionist men of violence, made to realize that the world will no longer countenance it...

Our job is to be there with you. You are not going to be alone. We will be with you in this fight for liberty… the world will be with us."
For this he received nineteen standing ovations. Ater the first, he quipped:

"This is more than I deserve."
Which was true. Finally, he said this:

"The state of Israel should be recognized by the entire Arab world, and the vile propaganda used to indoctrinate children, not just against Israel but against Jews, must cease."
Maybe this was why he received all those ovations. The Prime Miinisterial B-movie actress certainly knew how to say the right things to the dim, corrupt and dreadful of the first world.

On 18 July 2003, 43-year-old father-of-three, Captain James Linton, died in southern Iraq.

On 18 July 2003, the leading government scientist and biological weapons expert, Dr. David Kelly, the man who, reputedly, said that the Iraq dossier had been 'sexed up,' was found dead in a field near his home.

The police stated that he 'bled to death from a cut on his left wrist.' A packet of the painkiller coproxamol and a knife were, alegedly, recovered from the scene. Thus, were we informed that David had committed suicide.

Interestingly, just a few hours before his death, David sent an email to a journalist in which he said that there were 'many dark actors playing games.' His house was subsequently searched by MI5. It is also known that he believed that his phone lines were being tapped.

At a press conference in Japan, Tony Blair refused to answer a journalist who asked if he had blood on his hands.

On 21 July 2003, 25-year-old Peter Rudorf, a diver for Sub-Surface Engineering, was involved in mine clearace for the US government at the port of Umm Qasr, when he was taken ill whilst 'investigating a metallic anomaly in approximately 14 meters of water'. He died shortly afterwards.

'Taken ill', the most oft-used description of what happened to Peter, may be a euphemism, as, in various places 'colleagues... said they heard him scream over a communication system linked to their boat.'

John Scarlett, the former Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, was the man most responsible for allowing Tony B to suggest that the content of the September 2002 'dodgy dossier' was factually accurate in every detail.

On 1 August 2004, Tony Blair promoted him to the post of Head of MI6.

For an alternative assessment of David Kelly's death go to The Murder of Dr David Kelly.

On 24 July 2003, six Royal Military Police soldiers were shot dead at a police station in Al Majar al-Kabir, near Basra.

The Red Caps were set upon as they were carrying out a routine operation to train local police.

The dead soldiers were: (top left) 41-year-old Sergeant Simon Alexander Hamilton-Jewell, 30-year-old father-of-one, Corporal Russell Aston, 24-year-old Corporal Paul Graham Long, (bottom left) 21-year-old Corporal Simon Miller, 23-year-old Lance Corporal Benjamin John McGowan Hyde and 20-year-old Lance Corporal Thomas Richard Keys.

Reg Keys, the father of one of the young soldiers, said this:

"As I waved my son Tom off to war I believed the credibility of this government and the fact that this was a legal war. I now feel a man betrayed by his own government and their legal advisers. My son now rests in his grave, his oath of allegiance betrayed. There has to be accountability for this disgraceful conduct by the Prime Minister and his associates".
On 13 August 2003, Territorial Army soldier, 32-year-old Private Jason Smith died in southern Iraq.

Jason was anxious to prove himself alongside regular soldiers when he was sent to Iraq. However, with only 10 days acclimatisation in Kuwait he was stationed in a sports stadium in Al Almarah, southern Iraq when the temperatures in the stadium were hitting 60 degrees Celsius.

Other soldiers from the King's Own Scottish Borderers say it was a hell hole with no air conditioning and a wind described as being like a hair dryer. The conditions took a heavy toll on the soldiers and many suffered from heat stroke. Jasondied of a heart attack brought on by this condition.
His mother, Catherine, said:

"Nobody could explain, so I eventually asked my GP... he said there must have been something else that went wrong to be in that state and it doesn't happen suddenly."
The more she probed, the more the Ministry of Defence stonewalled. One inquiry into his death was never published and the second report focused on whether TA soldiers were physically fit enough to serve in Iraq.

Jason should have been in hospital with dehydration 13 days before he died. In a letter home he said he was so dehydrated a medic could not find a vein to put a drip in his arm. His friend John Horsman said that so many soldiers were collapsing with heat stroke they were told their unit's leave would be cancelled if any more were taken to hospital.

Ambulance driver Jim Black said Jason would have lived if senior officers had acted on a request from the company Quartermaster for generators and air conditioning.

Three days after Jason died a large generator and air conditioned tent appeared. Jim said:

"It was there because he died, it should have been there before and Jason would be alive today."Andrew Walker, Assistant Deputy Coroner for Oxfordshire, recorded a narrative verdict saying Pte Smith's death was "caused by a serious failure to recognize and take appropriate steps to address the difficulty that he had in adjusting to the climate."
Jason's army medical records have vanished since his death.

On 14 August 2003, 29-year-old Captain David Jones was killed during a bomb attack on a military ambulance in Basra.

On 15 August 2003, Tony Blair said these things to the Hutton enquiry:

"The question of whether we produced intelligence, though, was a very, very difficult question. I mean, on the one hand it is not normal for you to do this."
"I think that we described the intelligence in a way that was perfectly justified."
"There was absolutely no reason for us to doubt that intelligence at all."
On 23 August 2003, Royal Military Policemen, 32-year-old father-of-one, Major Matthew Titchener, 34-year-old Company Sergeant Major Colin Wall and 35-year-old father-of-two, Corporal Dewi Pritchard, were killed in central Basra.

On 27 August 2003, 26-year-old Territorial Army soldier, Fusilier Russell Beeston was killed in an incident in Ali As Sharqi in southern Iraq.

On 28 August 2003, Tony Blair said these things to the Hutton enquiry:

"The question of whether we produced intelligence, though, was a very, very difficult question. I mean, on the one hand it is not normal for you to do this… I think that we described the intelligence in a way that was perfectly justified…

There was absolutely no reason for us to doubt that intelligence at all…
The idea that we authorised or made our intelligence agencies invent some piece of evidence is completely absurd."
On 4 September 2003, 53-year-old bomb disposal expert, Ian Rimell was shot dead in Mosul, northern Iraq.

On 10 September 2003, Blair said:

"We have won a magnificent victory in Iraq."
Between 8 and 16 October 2003, the European Commission conducted a telephone poll.

They asked 7,515 citizens chosen at random throughout the 15 countries of the European community, which country they believed to be the biggest threat to world peace. Israel came top of the poll with 59 per cent.

Smart folk, these Europeans.

On 16 October 2003, Patricia Hewitt, Tony Blair's Australian Trade and Industry Secretary, said this:

"This is about building a new civil society in Iraq after 35 years when we know women were suppressed, and ensuring women have a voice in Iraq."
Saddam's Iraqi society was, whatever its manifest faults, the most secular in the region and women were far more liberated here than elsewhere.

Now he's gone women's rights are disappearing rapidly up the Koran. In fact, The US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council has removed many of the rights that Iraqi women had attained on divorce, marriage, inheritance and child custody. In these matters, Koranic law now appears to take precedence.
Hewitt will have known this when she made her 'women have a voice in Iraq' comment.

On 23 September 2003, Territorial Army soldier, 32-year-old Sergeant John Nightingale, was shot dead in Shaibah, near Basra. A young soldier who was, 'deficient in weapons training,' was subsequently discharged from the Territorial Army and fined £2,750. At his court martial, the judge said:

"The system in Iraq was very slack in weapon handling terms. You have been let down by the Army."

On 31 October 2003, 31-year-old Corporal Ian Plank was shot dead in Iraq.

On 31 October 2003, 34-year-old Staff Sergeant Denise Rose was found dead from a gunshot at the Army base in the Shatt-al-Arab Hotel in Basra.

The MoD said the death was not believed to be the result of hostile action.
Denise, along with Paul Connoly, Jason Smith, and Mark Dobson were found dead of gunshot wounds which were not, as the MOD euphemistically puts it 'the result of hostile action.'

On 6 November 2003, 18-year-old Private Ryan Thomas was killed in Basra, Iraq.

On 12 November 2002, Benito Que, a US expert in biological warfare, was found in the street near the laboratory where he worked at the University of Miami Medical School. He had been attacked by four men armed with baseball bats. He died on 6 December.

A few days later, on 16 November 2002, the abandoned rental car of the American anthrax expert, Don C. Wiley, was found on the Hernando de Soto Bridge outside Memphis, Tennesee. His body was found three days later. For some reason he had jumped off a cliff. Allegedly.

On 16 November 2003, Tony Blair was quoted thus in a News of the World article:

"But for this military action, Saddam Hussein and his sons would still be in absolute control... free to continue the repression and butchery of their people which ... we now know was on such a savage scale that victims number hundreds of thousands."
On 16 December 2003, Blair said this on the British Forces Broadcasting Service:

"The Iraq Survey Group has already found massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories, workings by scientists, plans to develop long-range ballistic missiles."
Within days Blair was contradicted by Hans Blix, head of the Iraq Survey Group, and Paul Bremer, the USA's supremo in Iraq.

The Liar was lying.

On the same day, Blair said this on the BBC's Arabic Channel:

"I don't think it's surprising we will have to look for them. I'm confident that when the Iraq Survey Group has done its work we will find what's happened to those weapons because he had them."
On 20 November 2003, two car bombs were exploded which struck the British Consulate and the HQ of HSBC bank in Istanbul.

27 people were killed including the Consul General, Roger Short, and his personal assistant, Lisa Hallworth. I do not know how many British people died in the Consulate. The Governor of Istanbul, Muammer Guler, said soon afterwards that four of the 16 dead at the consulate were British. He also said that the death toll was likely to rise. BLAIR WARS BLAIR WARS

On 2 December 2003, the BBC quoted Dr. David Hope, the Archbishop of York and Britain's second most senior church leader, thus:

"We still have not found any weapons of mass destruction anywhere. Are we likely to find any? Does that alter the view as to whether we really ought to have mounted the invasion or not? Undoubtedly a very wicked leader has been removed but there are wicked leaders in other parts of the world…

There is a higher authority before whom one day we all have to give an account."
David Hope is now no longer the Archbishop of York. He was replaced by the Ugandan immigrant, John Sentamu.

On 29 December 2003, the BBC website reported Robin Cook, the former Foreign Secretary, thus:

"It is undignified for the Prime Minister to continue to insist he was right when everyone can see he was wrong."
In January 2004, writer, broadcaster Tim Llewellyn, a former long standing BBC Middle East Correspondent, said this:
"To Blair, the Israelis are victims of terror, while the Palestinians are their own worst enemies and must do what they are told…

Blair is very close to Israel. His old crony and party financier, Lord Levy, has been rewarded with the post of special adviser on Middle East matters… Levy is a peer who has close contacts with Israel and a multi-million pound villa near Tel Aviv, his son Daniel Levy worked in the office of Israel’s former Justice Minister, Yossi Beilin.

Israeli security is uppermost on Labour’s mind. Squatting in the gardens of Kensington is the Israeli embassy with many powerful friends and supporters. The Israeli version of events is often taken as the prevailing wisdom."
On 1 January 2004, 30-year-old father-of-one, Major James Stenner and 28-year-old Sergeant Norman Patterson were killed in Iraq when the car in which they were travelling crashed into a security barrier. Both of these soldiers were members of the SAS.

On 4 January 2004, Aljazeera.net reported thus:

"A member of the Likud party has proposed 'massive ethnic cleansing' of non-Jews in Palestine-Israel as a 'final solution' of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Uzi Cohen, a member of Ariel Sharon's right-wing party and a deputy mayor of the town of Raanana, told Israeli public radio on Sunday there was widespread support in Israel for 'the idea of ethnic cleansing'. 'Many people support the idea but few are willing to speak about it publicly,' he said.

Cohen, an influential figure in Likud, proposed that Israel, the United States, the European Union as well as oil-rich Arab states make concerted efforts to create a Palestinian state in northern Jordan. He suggested the Hashimi royal family in Amman 'might view favorably this idea'.

Cohen said Palestinians should be given 20 years to 'leave voluntarily'. 'In case they don't leave, plans would have to be drawn up to expel them by force.'

Cohen's racist ideas have drawn strong reactions from Palestinian leaders in Israel. Israeli Arab Knesset member Ahmad Taibi described Cohen as representing 'Israel's ugly face'. 'This man espouses Jewish fascism and he is trying to foster his venomous ideas, and I must say he is achieving remarkable success. The idea of ethnic cleansing is no longer confined to the far-right parties in Israel; many in the Likud support ethnic cleansing.'

Taibi said tabling a racist proposal for discussion is in itself a grave development. 'It is not important what the result will be. The important thing is that they are going to dignify a fascist proposal like this by discussing it in a formal meeting'…

In 1948, the newly-born Jewish state expelled the bulk of the Palestinian population from what is now Israel and destroyed more than 460 Arab towns and villages. Israel has consistently refused to allow the repatriation of the refugees, arguing that allowing some or all of them back to their homes, many of which no longer exist, would undermine the 'Jewish identity' of Israel."
On 4 January 2004, Tony Blair said this to British soldiers in Iraq:

"Repressive states are developing weapons that could cause destruction on a massive scale… You know how passionately I believed in this cause and in the wisdom of the conflict as the only way to establish long-time peace and stability."
On 7 January 2004, 21-year-old Lance Corporal Andrew James Craw accidentally shot himself whilst training with a new machine gun in Basra, Iraq.

On 11 January 2004, on Breakfast with Frost, Tony Blair began to splutter and wobble thus:

"What you can say is that we received that intelligence about Saddam's programmes and about his weapons that we acted on that… I don't know is the answer…

I remember having conversations with the chief of defence staff and other people were saying well, we think we might have potential WMD find here or there. Now these things didn't actually come to anything in the end… What I do know is that the group of people that are in there now, this Iraq survey group, they produced an interim report…

In a land mass twice the size of the UK it may well not be surprising you don't find where this stuff is hidden."
On 11 January 2004, the former US Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, said this in a CBS’ 60 Minutes interview:

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go. Going after Saddam was topic 'A' ten days after the inauguration, eight months before Sept. 11."
On 21 January 2004, Blair said this in the House of Commons:

"As for the existence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, there can be no doubt ... that those weapons existed. It is the job of the Iraq Survey Group to find out what has happened, which it will do."
On 21 January 2004, 23-year-old Rifleman Vincent Calvin Windsor died in Amara, Iraq.

On 23 January 2004, The Guardian reported thus:

"One British person in seven believes that the scale of the Nazi Holocaust against Jews is exaggerated, according to an opinion poll published today.
The findings of the ICM survey, conducted for The Jewish Chronicle, were described by David Blunkett, the home secretary, as disappointing in an interview with the paper… The poll was conducted to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day next Tuesday. The editorial said:

'We have indeed come a considerable way in recent years towards building a society based on accepting, not fearing difference. But we have part of that journey still to travel. The prize, a modern, genuinely multi-ethnic society, is of incalculable importance, not just for Britain's Jews but for Britons of all creeds and colours'."
Do you get this? 'The prize,' according to The Jewish Chronicle, is a 'genuinely multi-ethnic society' which is 'of incalculable importance' 'for Britain's Jews.' And, to get that prize, 'Britain's Jews' must continue to ensure that the 'six million' Holocaust myth must never be challenged.

Do you understand that, if Cook, Blair and Gapes and co. had managed to introduce the truth-quelling legislation that the rest of Europe implemented some time ago, 'one British person in seven' would fall foul of it?

Wake up, England.

On 25 January 2004, Tony Blair said this in The Observer:

"I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the intelligence was genuine. It is absurd to say in respect of any intelligence that it is infallible, but if you ask me what I believe, I believe the intelligence was correct, and I think in the end we will have an explanation."
On 26 January 2004, 23-year-old Private Jonathan Kitulagoda, of the Territorial Army Rifle Volunteers, was killed by a suicide bomb, whilst serving in Kabul with the International Security Assistance Force.

On 31 January 2004, 22-year-old Sapper Robert Thomson died in Basra, Iraq.

On 28 January 2004, Lord Hutton vindicated Tony Blair and criticised the BBC over the David Kelly affair. Most of the media and country denounced his findings as an establishment 'cover up' and a 'whitewash.'

Blairite placemen, Gavin Davies and Greg Dyke, who didn't do what they were hired to do, who, bravely, refused to do what was required and support The Dear Leader against all comers, throwing their weight instead behind the BBC, were both forced to resign as a consequence.

The Jew, Michael Grade, whom The Daily Mail once described as 'the pornographer-in-chief,' was, thus, parachuted into power as the new Chairman of the BBC. From this point on the BBC would become progressively gentler in its approach to all things Tonified.

On 3 February 2004, Tony Blair said this to the Commons liaison committee:

"What is true about David Kay's evidence, and this is something I have to accept, and is one of the reasons why I think we now need a new inquiry - it is true David Kay is saying we have not found large stockpiles of actual weapons."
David Kay was the former head of the Iraq Survey Group.

On 4 February, 2004, Tony Blair told the House of Commons that he was unaware that the '45 minute' claim referred to battlefield weapons only, when he urged MPs to vote for war in March 2003.

On 12 February 2004, 29-year-old father-of-three, Corporal Richard Thomas David Ivell, was killed at Shaibah Logistics Base in Iraq.

On 25 February 2004, Tony Blair said this in an interview with The Observer:

"I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the intelligence was genuine. It is absurd to say in respect of any intelligence that it is infallible, but if you ask me what I believe, I believe the intelligence was correct, and I think in the end we will have an explanation."
On 5 March 2004, Tony Blair said:

"From September 11th on, I could see the threat plainly. Here were terrorists prepared to bring about Armageddon… who saw WMD as a means of defending themselves against any attempt external or internal to remove them…

The global threat to our security was clear. So was our duty: to act to eliminate it. First we dealt with Al Qaida in Afghanistan… then we had to confront the states with WMD. We had to take a stand…

We know now, if we didn't before, that our own self interest is ultimately bound up with the fate of other nations… The best defence of our security lies in the spread of our values… If it is a global threat, it needs a global response, based on global rules… It is a new type of war… It forces us to act even when so many comforts seem unaffected, and the threat so far off…

I called for a doctrine of international community, where in certain clear circumstances, we do intervene, even though we are not directly threatened… in an increasingly inter-dependent world, our self-interest was allied to the interests of others…

We went to war to enforce compliance with UN Resolutions… Our primary purpose was to enforce UN resolutions over Iraq and WMD…

We should do all we can to spread the values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, religious tolerance.. however painful for some nations that may be… at the same time, we wage war relentlessly on those who would exploit racial and religious division to bring catastrophe to the world…

Though we know Saddam had WMD; we haven't found the physical evidence of them in the 11 months since the war. But in fact, everyone thought he had them."
Everyone thought he had them?

I didn’t. Did you? B Liar continues:

"Iraq in March 2003 was an immensely difficult judgement… I have never disrespected those who disagreed with the decision… there was a core of sensible people who faced with this decision would have gone the other way, for sensible reasons. Their argument is one I understand."
However, on 16 February 2003, Tony Blair made the following obscenely arrogant statement, the day after two million British people marched in protest against the looming war in Iraq:

"I read the anti-war sites and listen to the protesters and I realise that they haven't a clue, or worse, they just don't give a damn."
So, when Tony B said that he 'never disrespected those who disagreed with the decision' to go to war, he was doing what he does best.

He was lying.

In March 2004, a survey of 5,000 children aged between 12 and 18 was carried out in the teen magazine, Bliss.

The survey found that 76 percent thought Tony Blair was wrong to go to war with Iraq and 82 percent 'didn't trust' him. Maybe, one day, children such as these will make up for the foolishness of their immediate ancestors.

On 18 March 2004, 29-year-old telecommunications engineer, Scott Mounce, was killed with 16 other foreign workers when a 1,000lb car bomb destroyed the Mount Lebanon Hotel in Baghdad. Forty-five others were injured including 31-year-old Giles Ash, who was working with Scott restoring the telephone system.

Scott, who had only been in Iraq for one week, was working for an Italian communications company at the time of his death.

On 21 March 2004, David Owen, former Labour Foreign Secretary and leader of the SDP said this on GMTV's Sunday Programme.

"Iraq is far from being a success. In fact it's been disastrously handled…

I heard the other day that there was no meeting of the defence and overseas policy committee for six months before Iraq. That's inconceivable to any of us that have been involved in the past that you don't have round-the-table, informal, minuted discussions - a dialogue on intelligence with the chief of staff and the foreign secretary and the defence secretary being able to put their view."
On 28 March 2004, Security contractors Christopher McDonald, a Royal Irish Regiment Colour Sergeant, and 38-year-old former Royal Marine, Andy Bradsell, who was Canadian, were ambushed and killed outside Mosul, Iraq. They were working for Olive Security at the time of their death.

Chris was still a serving soldier at the time of his death but, due to quit the army, was on 'resettlement leave,' which freed up his time and saw him working for Olive. Andy had provided security for such noteworthies as Madonna, Robert DeNiro and Jean Claude Van Damme before losing his life in Iraq.


In April 2004, photographs of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib were flashed around the world.



In September 2005, Lynndie England, the most well known of those American soldiers who participated in this abuse, was sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Before this, Megan Ambuhl, Armin Cruz, Ivan L Frederick II, Charles A Graner Jr, Jeremy Sivits, Javal S Davis, Roman Krol and Sabrina Harman were all found guilty of treating Iraqi prisoners brutally.

Graner, the father of England's child, was sentenced to ten years in jail. At the various trials it was said that England, Graner and the other soldiers were just 'joking around' and 'didn't think it was that serious (or) that big a deal.'

'Basically it was just for fun... and to vent their frustration,' said one investigator.

This image is that of US soldier, Sabrina Harman, 'venting her frustration' on an Iraqi prisoner who had just died.

She was jailed for six months.

This is how young America gets its kicks.

On the day the Congressional report into 9/11 was published, an official military report was also released on the oh so quiet. This document exonerated everyone, above the lowest political and military level, of the abuse carried out in their names at Abu Ghraib.

On 8 April 2004, 38-year-old former paratrooper, John Michael Bloss, was involved in a gunfight near the town of Hit, in Iraq. He was protecting civilian contractors at the time and managed to get them all to safety before he was shot dead.

John was working for Virginia-based security firm, Custer Battles, at the time of his death.

On 26 April 2004, 22-year-old Lee Martin was murdered outside the Kansas Fried Chicken takeaway in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester.

Lee was a soldier on leave from Iraq. If he had been killed out there, his death might made the national news. However, as he was beaten to death by a gang of Asian thugs in the land of his birth, his death was only ever mentioned a couple of times on the third page of The Manchester Evening News.

The few lines accorded stated that Lee was critically ill after having been 'savagely attacked' and 'kicked several times in the head.'
His attackers were described as 'Asian and in their twenties.'

A week later, in an even smaller report, the paper said that Lee had died. There was no mention was made of the ethnicity of his attackers on this occasion.

At the Guardian web site alone, from a time 5 years and 5 months after Stephen Lawrence’s death, that is, from the 1 September 1998, until 21 June 2004, Stephen's name was mentioned 1,638 times. Lee has never been mentioned in The Guardian or any other mainstream newspaper. He has been mentioned just once at the BBC website.

Which, in 2004, was disappointing. One hoped for more than political correctness gone bonkers from the BBC back then. Nowadays, such behaviour is the norm.

Dumaine Lander would later be found guilty of Lee's manslaughter and jailed for just five years. I don't think Dumaine is an Asian name. Lee may have been attacked by light-skinned Blacks. As long as Lander refuses to name his accomplices, all we can be sure of is that non-natives killed Lee Martin.

On 29 April 2004, 50 former British ambassadors sent a letter to Tony Blair.

This is it:

"We the undersigned former British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and senior international officials, including some who have long experience of the Middle East and others whose experience is elsewhere, have watched with deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States…

The decision by the USA, the EU, Russia and the UN to launch a Road Map for the settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict raised hopes that the major powers would at last make a determined and collective effort to resolve a problem which, more than any other, has for decades poisoned relations between the West and the Islamic and Arab worlds…

Britain and the other sponsors of the Road Map merely waited on American leadership, but waited in vain. Worse was to come. After all those wasted months, the international community has now been confronted with the announcement by Ariel Sharon and President Bush of new policies which are one-sided and illegal and which will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood.

Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land…

This abandonment of principle comes at a time when rightly or wrongly we are portrayed throughout the Arab and Muslim world as partners in an illegal and brutal occupation in Iraq. The conduct of the war in Iraq has made it clear that there was no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement.

All those with experience of the area predicted that the occupation of Iraq by the Coalition forces would meet serious and stubborn resistance, as has proved to be the case. To describe the resistance as led by terrorists, fanatics and foreigners is neither convincing nor helpful…
However much Iraqis may yearn for a democratic society, the belief that one could now be created by the Coalition is naive. This is the view of virtually all independent specialists in the region, both in Britain and in America…

The military actions of the Coalition forces must be guided by political objectives and by the requirements of the Iraq theatre itself, not by criteria remote from them. It is not good enough to say that the use of force is a matter for local commanders.

Heavy weapons unsuited to the task in hand, inflammatory language, the current confrontations in Najaf and Falluja, all these have built up rather than isolated the opposition.

The Iraqis killed by coalition forces probably total between 10,000 and 15,000 (it is a disgrace that the coalition forces themselves appear to have no estimate), and the number killed in the last month in Falluja alone is apparently several hundred, including many civilians, men, women and children.

Phrases such as `We mourn each loss of life. We salute them, and their families for their bravery and their sacrifice,' apparently referring only to those who have died on the Coalition side, are not well judged to moderate the passions those killings arouse…

There is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure".
On 11 May 2004, a video was released of the beheading of Nick Berg, an American civilian. Immediately prior to the killing, the executioner said this:

"We tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins ... slaughtered in this way."
On 14 May 2004, former SBS soldier, 47-year-old Brian Tilley, who was working as a Security contractor in Baghdad, was tortured and executed, along with his fiancee, Iman, her sister, brother-in-law and one of their daughters in Baghdad's notorious Dawra district.

They were killed by five members of the Iraqi police force.

Before he went to Iraq, Brian had been the bodyguard of David and Victoria Beckham. Curiously, Merrick McDonald, another of their former bodyguards would also be killed in Iraq.

The US-backed policemen who ended the lives of Brian and three others that day thought everyone in the house was dead but, despite being shot in the face, Iman's niece, Mariam, survived. She would later identify three of them. Subsequently, all five were arrested.

When they came to court, an Iraqi judge freed them. They are now back serving in the Iraqi police force.

This is what Tony Blair took the Brians to war for. For this, they and many, many decent Iraqis died.

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