As Pres. Bush hails the success of the referendum in Iraq and Iraq's movement toward democracy and the lessening of terror in the world - all very suspect and in respect of which the jury has to still be out - today comes news [as reported in Times on Line] that the judges to try Saddam Hussein have been secretly undergoing training in the UK. A number of countries have been involved including Australia. Why this has all been kept under wraps is a questionable matter. That aside, knowing that the judges have been "trained" should instil confidence in the trial process!!!!!
There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives? In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...
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