Deceitful Charade Of Blair's Parade

The Blair circus is in town with the slippery showman set to be savaged by dead sheep at the Chilcot whitewash. A question for warmongering Blair: Why did you murder thousands with an illegal invasion?

A huge security operation is underway with taxpayers footing the £250,000 bill for Judgment Day and the disgraced ex-PM sneaking in by the back door.

But Blair is protected by his own ring of steel, with the dark forces of power and influence and the mandarin mentality of the old boys club of Brown's Chilcot placemen.

With not a lawyer among them and no 'evidence' under oath, none have the skill nor experience in forensic questioning to penetrate the slick veneer of Barrister Blair.

Two top FO international lawyers have told Chilcot the war was illegal. It was a breach of international law and therefore a crime. That's enough for the Orange Party. Why continue with the charade and allow Blair to massage his ego?

If Chilcot isn't a 'trial' then cut to the quick. Issue an arrest warrant for war crimes and let a court decide. The legal precedent is there after someone tried it on with a planned visit of an Israeli foreign minister.

A deep sense of anger and frustration has set in for the families of many of the 179 UK soldiers killed in Iraq. Chilcot is a waste of space. Thousands of vital documents remain classified. All roads lead back to Blair. His lasting legacy is a country and families shattered by an illegal war.

Slippery Blair changed his tune while cosying up to Fern Britton with a crafty pre-emptive strike at Chilcot. With brazen cheek, the master wriggler now says he would have backed the invasion even if he had known beforehand Iraq had no WMDs.

A gung-ho war to topple evil Sadam. But illegal regime change rather than hunting invisible WMDs. An arrogant PM who took the country to war on the back of a pack of lies.

Seven years and hundreds of thousands of lives lost later, the shame and scandal of the greatest moral and political disaster in recent history continues. Until today the low point was a gut-wrenching performance by Blair's shameless spin doctor-in-chief, Campbell, backing up his boss.

Now, even the former PM's weasel words will be a mere side show. Bunkered Brown is set to be dragged before Chilcot - denying that a war even took place on his treasury watch.

But Brown did not set up Chilcot to a tight remit only to indict himself, Blair or the New Labour cronies.

It's not there to "apportion blame" but to "identify the lessons that can be learned". A line so often used when a culprit is looking for an excuse to soldier on.

But after the Hutton whitewash into the mysterious death of government scientist David Kelly, who blew the whistle on sexed up WMD dossiers, it's now down to the last chance of Chilcot to hold those responsible to account.

As In The Loop's Armando Iannucci writes today, it's time for Chilcot to flex their ageing muscles: "Despite the disastrous failings of intelligence, the obvious lack of preparedness and the horrendous whiff of deceit, no one so far has apologised or got sacked. Heads did not roll; they got knighted."

Blair duped parliament and the people to launch his aggressive illegal war, motivated by displaced deference to the powerful Bush administration and a warped sense of the "right thing to do".

Passed over for his lifelong dream of the plumb EU job, Blair has been left to wander the world with his ill-gotten gains, blood on his hands, guilt on his shoulders and thousands of pounds from a City hedge fund which raked in fat profits from the banking crisis.

And this is the secret weapon New Labour hopes to use to win over the marginals in the election?

Now disgraced Blair is trying to salvage what little remains of his tarnished reputation. The deceitful charade of the Chilcot parade looks set to give him that chance.

UPDATE 6pm: Blair was heckled, booed and branded "liar and murderer" after hours lecturing Chilcot and leaving with no regrets.

Top picture: The Times

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Who Killed Dr David Kelly?

The official 'suicide' of government weapons expert, Dr David Kelly, has been called into question by a group of doctors hoping to overturn the controversial verdict and a new documentary which sheds fresh light on the mysterious death of the scientist whose body was found in Oxfordshire woods six years ago this week.

Kelly's death came just days after he was at the centre of a government witch-hunt for the source of embarrassing leaks over now discredited Iraq weapons of mass destruction.

The Hutton Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death and the controversial suicide ruling led The Independent to clear its entire front page with one giant word - WHITEWASH.

The death in 2003 prompted reporters to ask prime minister Blair the chilling question whether he had "blood on his hands" as Kelly's apparent suicide came days after he was grilled in the commons and exposed as the source of a BBC news report questioning the "sexed up dossier" on Iraq’s alleged WMDs.

Now the circumstances surrounding Kelly's death are set to return to haunt the government in a two pronged attack by leading doctors who question the suicide verdict and US television investigators who claim Kelly was writing a book exposing the murky world of anthrax and “suicides” of five government germ warfare scientists from around the world.

Many have long argued Kelly's death wasn't suicide with the more likely explanation that he was murdered by enemies in the course of his work as a weapons inspector.

The Orange Party doesn't believe government agents were part of a dastardly assassination plot. More likely part of a bungled botched-up attempt to cover-up his death as an apparent suicide.

LibDem MP Norman Baker in a forensic investigation for his book The Strange Death Of David Kelly reaches a similar startling conclusion putting him at odds with Blair's spin doctor Campbell, and his part in the 'dodgy dossier' that was used to justify the Iraq invasion.

Claims that this had been "sexed up" sent Campbell into a spin, waging a fierce campaign against the BBC, eventually leading to Kelly's death.

The 90-minute documentary, Anthrax War, by investigative journalist Bob Coen already aired on Canadian public television, claims Kelly's death may have been linked to the secret world of germ warfare research and adds to the calls for a full and proper inquest into Kelly's death.

The film exposes Kelly's links with Dr Walter Basson and his notorious work for the South African apartheid regime using chemical and biological weapons research to ethnically cleanse the black population.

The assassination scenario is strengthened by revelations that a team of 13 specialist doctors who worked closely with Baker have compiled a detailed medical dossier that rejects the Hutton conclusion that Kelly died from loss of blood. Those revelations in the Mail on Sunday also claim they think it is highly likely he was assassinated.

Reports in today's Sunday Express reveal Kelly, an expert in biological warfare and a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, was writing a highly damaging book before his mysterious death.

That was due to reveal the claim that he'd warned Blair that Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction as well as lifting the lid on the scandal of his own secret dealings in germ warfare with the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Following his death, Kelly's computers were seized and many involved in probing the mystery of Kelly's death, including Baker, have also found material on their computer had disappeared.

Critics have long regarded the Hutton report as a 'whitewash'. Blair remains acutely sensitive to the accusation that he has 'blood on his hands' over the scientist's death.

The only official verdict came from the Blair commissioned Hutton Inquiry, which concluded that Kelly died from loss of blood after cutting his wrist with a blunt gardening knife.

In a highly unusual move, a coroner's inquest into the scientist's death was suspended before it could begin by order of the then Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, which is now set to be challenged by the doctors.

The Hutton Inquiry included the chilling testimony from a former British ambassador who quotes Kelly as having said, “I will probably be found dead in the woods” if Iraq were invaded.

Anthrax War which will be screened privately in London on July 17, the sixth anniversary of Kelly’s death, includes this extract which centres on the biological weapons expert following an anthrax scare after 9/11.

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Auntie No Longer Knows Best

Auntie has got her knickers in a twist over Pratsgate. Any hope that suspending Ross after his obscene outburst would draw a line under this vile issue is both naive and arrogant. The Corporation is at a crossroads. Now politicians must decide whether the BBC is a licence-payer funded state broadcaster or a commercial outfit. The BBC cannot have it both ways. 

The Pratsgate scandal exposed once again issues which lie at the heart of the BBC in terms of accountability and checks and balances. It exposes the sheer arrogance of an organisation which clings on to the belief that Auntie knows best.  

Now surveys are showing the public don't like what's happening to their beloved organisation which they pay for. 

Today, the PoliticsHome Phi5000 Public Opinion Tracker shows the BBC’s approval rating plummeted in this week of the Ross/Brand affair. In just four days, it has fallen a huge 24 points to only 6.   

But the BBC has only itself to blame. 

After days of indecision, the BBC Trust finally acted. But Ross will be laughing all the way to the bank. Three months without pay is a drop in the ocean for this hugely overrated and overpaid licence-payer funded celebrity. For some perverse reason, the BBC needs Ross. 

At the centre of this is the Director General, Mark "three times lucky" Thompson. Queengate, vote rigging and now this. What other organisation would tolerate a chief executive presiding over three monumental scandals in the space of a year.

Accepting the resignation of the Radio 2 controller was done almost with regret. Sorry old chap but you'll have to go. 

As the ultimate line manager responsible, she should have been sacked on the spot, along with the cretins who allowed this disgusting pe-recorded broadcast to be transmitted in the first place. 

This sorry episode only scratches the surface. At the heart lies a political battle which has been lingering since the sexed up dossier scandal and the BBC's part in the creation of nanny state where nanny knows best. 

It has been compounded by the belief that the BBC can cling onto its old Reithian philosophy, while at the same time controlled by a New Labour bunch of media elite. 

Pratsgate came just days after the Osborne saga, reported with such glee by the BBC while the Mandleson connection was buried, reinforcing claims of bias. This bias throughout news and current affairs output has been highlighted by the Orange Party and many others on numerous occasions. 

The BBC has never recovered from the sexed up dossier affair which put it in direct and bitter conflict with the New Labour propaganda spin machine. 

Since Hutton, it is clear the BBC has been allowed to spin itself off into lucrative commercial enterprises, while at the same time receiving huge amounts of licence-payers cash. Just as long as it toed the government line. 

That must end. But for now, license-payers will have to put up with a BBC that will continue to make embarrassing cock-ups while being a mouthpiece for party political government propaganda. 

The BBC will continue in its present form as long as it remains staffed by politically correct, urban liberals and kids with a keyboard calling themselves journalists. All fronted by TV news, delivered in an infuriatingly condescending and patronising matter. 

It is time for the BBC to be cut loose from its antiquated funded arrangements and floated off as a true commercial organisation, with taxpayer funding reserved for the public service parts of its broadcasting. At the same time, it needs a structure put in place which ensures the full checks and controls already found in commercial terrestrial broadcasters. 

In June, the Orange Party asked why are we forced to pay the BBC Tax, highlighting the obscene £240 million of our money it pays out to celebrity presenters and the £110 million it spent on its websites. 

What is needed is a drastic rethink in the way the BBC is funded and the way it is accountable to the public. The Pratsgate scandal and the way it was handled has done nothing to change that view. 

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Battle Lines Drawn Over Afghanistan

The hopeless and unwinnable war in Afghanistan is under fire again, as the government prepares to spin its way out of the Iraq frying-pan and into the Afghanistan fire. It is no coincidence that foreign secretary, David Miliband writes in today's Sunday Times with a weak case for keeping troops in Afghanistan, while new defence secretary, John Hutton, makes a "surprise visit" to Iraq. 

The UN mandate for US-UK led occupation of Iraq runs out at the end of the year. And the timetable for withdrawal has already been agreed by Baghdad and Washington, as part of Bush's legacy. 

The troop numbers game still has to be played out though, as the government here continues to use the Iraq troop numbers as a political tool. Brown's sudden appearance in Iraq during last year's election that never was, with a troop withdrawal announcement that never was, still leaves a bitter taste.

Miliband in the Sunday Times begins with the classic schoolboy device so beloved of spinners to capture an argument. 

"Christina Lamb is an excellent journalist. But...". He then goes on to try to rationalise why UK troops will continue to be sent to the killing fields of the new Vietnam. 

Lamb, a seasoned corespondent, made a powerful case for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan "What a Bloody Hopeless War" in last week's Sunday Times, backed up today by Simon Jenkins, once a lone voice, in what is called today this "mad war" in Afghanistan.

If Miliband had stuck with just praising Lamb as "an excellent journalist" and stopped there, he would have been right and his case for war demolished. 

The Orange Party has made no secret of its distaste for the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, warning back in July, that this was a war that could never be won and was developing into the new Vietnam. 

Fighting a Bush-Blair war on two fronts will go down as one of the most expensive and politically disastrous follies of recent decades and the most outrageous loss of life and human suffering since pompous generals and politicians ordered Tommy over the trenches at the Somme.

Troops will be withdrawn from Iraq, leaving a small historically traditional base, to that tightly controlled timetable, to coincide with when the government feels it will give them the best political advantage. 

Switching troops to Afghanistan will continue to escalate, until ministers stop copying Blair and his "taste for war". 

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Lifting Lid On Sexed Up Dossier Secrets

A three year battle to expose the truth behind the "sexed-up" Iraq dodgy dossier has received a major boost, with the Cabinet Office being told to release e-mails and memos, to show whether intelligence was manipulated before the dossier's publication.

Investigative journalist, Chris Ames, has been fighting to get the material released under freedom of information laws and expose one of the most shameful episodes of Blair's premiership. 

In a 20-page ruling, the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, said there was "a strong public interest" in exposing messages exchanged by 'political figures' and there was "evidence that the dossier was deliberately manipulated in order to present an exaggerated case for military action."

Ames, a freelance writer and investigative journalist, has written extensively about spin doctor involvement in the 2002 dodgy dossier and is the author of the iraqdossier.com website.

An account of the background to the dossier and Ames' investigation is given on his website and reported extensively in the Independent and Daily Telegraph and, using PA copy, in the Guardian. But no report, at the time of writing, from the BBC!

Commenting on the ruling, Ames said: "The commissioner has laid bare the Government's farcical cover-up, which included shamelessly playing the national security card. He has also given a strong hint that the Government has concealed evidence of sexing-up to save political embarrassment."

The Cabinet Office has 35 days either to publish the information requested by Ames, or to appeal.

The "sexed-up" dossier, with its now de-bunked '45 minutes weapons of mass destruction' claim, was published in 2002 as Parliament returned and Blair needed the dossier to boost his case for the Iraq invasion. 

Intelligence chief, John Scarlett, who was in charge of the dossier, allowed changes to be inserted by Downing Street spin doctor, Alastair Campbell. 

Campbell's Diaries reveal how he reacted furiously to a report by Andrew Gilligan on the BBC Today programme, implying that he had inserted a key claim in the dossier stating weapons could be launched in 45 minutes. 

Ministry of Defence weapons expert, Dr David Kelly, who met Gilligan to discuss the dossier, was found dead in Oxfordshire, following a witch hunt by the government for Gilligan's source.

The Hutton Inquiry whitewash into Kelly's death found that Campbell proposed a number of changes to the dossier before its publication, some of which were accepted.

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