Felicity Arbuthnot | ukwatch.net

False Propheteering

Ellie Keen — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:27:57 +0000

“And thus I clothe my naked villany,
With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ
And seem saint, when most I play the devil.”
Richard 111, William Shakespeare.

There were two of those “this cannot be real” moments, during March. One was that a man who enjoined a “crusade”, has barely had a passing acquaintanceship with the truth in years, has joint responsibility for over a million Iraqi deaths in five years and those of an average of six thousand Iraqi children a month from his tenure beginning 1997 through March 2003, is to teach subjects including “Faith” at Yale University. (The aforementioned deaths added to the silent slaughter of a nation, starting in August 1990.) The second surreality is that he is to address the congregation on “Faith” from the pulpit at London's (Roman Catholic) Westminster Cathedral, on the 3rd of April, at the invitation of no less than a Cardinal: Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor.
For those who have been vacationing on another planet for approaching eighteen years, meet Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, QC., who embraced Catholicism in time for Christmas, was welcomed in to the arms of the Church by the Pope himself and the Cardinal. “If he wants a public platform, it should be from the Dock at the War Crimes Tribunal at the International Criminal Court at The Hague”, remarked a friend, pithily. At least the Catholic church cannot be accused of being elitist, embracing a man accused of involvement in an illegal war, responsible for carnage equal to many of history's most shameful bloodbaths and facilitator-in-charge of the lies which have led to the destruction of the cradle where his “faith” was nurtured.

Can the Cardinal be unaware that his speaker shares responsibility for the damage - thought irreparable - to Ur, where Abraham, Father, for believers, of his religion and of Islam and Judaism was born? Has the destruction of Qurna, thought to be site of the Garden of Eden, also passed him by?

Perhaps Blair might reflect publicly from the pulpit on the enormity of his wickedness and read from Revelations: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city…” and since it was all about oil, reflect from the same Book: “Behold, I come as a thief” and also on: “Those men who have not the seal of God on their foreheads”. Catholics are big on confessions and they are not needed more than by the man who helped destroy the region of wonders, where his “faith” was born and beliefs flourished. Gut wrenching ironies in evil do not come greater

This man who has, arguably, “not the seal …” could perhaps explain his statement of March 16th 2003, four days before the illegal invasion of Iraq, where he said from the Azores - having met with his (“we pray together”) partner in crime George W. Bush and Spain's then Prime Minister Aznar: “... Saddam (remains) armed with weapons of mass destruction ... disarmament never happens.” Two days later, he lied to the House of Commons saying that the Iraqi regime's behaviour had resulted in the departure of the weapons inspectors. The weapons inspectors of course fled before the (illegal) four day bombing of Christmas 1998, warned by their then Head, Australia's Richard Butler, another man who, it was subsequently established, sometimes found truth a confusing concept. That Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, Blair assured Parliament, was “palpably absurd”.

Catholic sources stated that Mr Blair would have had to attend confession in the days leading up to his reception in to the Church, in order to seek pardon for his sins. They must have been long days, with quite a list. Surprising he had time for anything else. The Book of Proverbs is fairly explicit about the most deadly of sins, all of which, an impartial observer would surely perceive, Britain's former barrister Prime Minister to have broken on a massive scale:
* A proud look
* A lying tongue
* Hands that shed innocent blood
* A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations
* Feet that be swift in running to make mischief
* A false witness that speaketh lies
* He that soweth discord

Blair has, arguably, hit the sinners' jackpot. The “mother of all sinners”, some might conclude. Whereas Collins describes faith as: “A specific system of religious beliefs”, “faithless” seems more apt in the case of this former figurehead of the “Mother of Parliaments”: “Treacherous or disloyal” (Collins) certainly describes the ignominy to which he has reduced and to where he led Britain, in the eyes of much of the world, during his tenure as Prime Minister.

Ironically, his conversion took place within forty eight hours of the ninth anniversary of another illegal assault on Mesopotamia, the four day (illegal) Christmas blitz of 1998, “Operation Desert Fox”, which also coincided with the great Islamic and Jewish festivals. A few mea culpas for that would not go amiss.

Blair's beliefs even fly in the face of one of Catholicism's sanctities, the right to life of the unborn child. He voted for abortion and as John Smeaton, National Director of the Society for the Unborn Child commented: “During his premiership Tony Blair became one of the world's most significant architects of the culture of death, promoting abortion, experimentation on unborn embryos, including cloned embryos, and euthanasia by neglect.”

He will also be speaking exactly two weeks after the body of the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was found in a shallow grave, possibly murdered, as so many of the real believers of Blair's new faith, since the invasion, whose kind lived and worshipped in the region for nearly two thousand years.

Will he reflect on his responsibility in the deaths of so many and the flight of an estimated half of Iraq's Christians? Will he reflect that his enjoined “crusade” indeed mirrors the slaughter, flight and terror of those against whom Salahadin's forces fought against those earlier, never to be forgotten, marauding, invading blood lettings? Will he reflect on another Christian, Tareq Aziz, Iraq's former - or for many, still - Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, held with other Ministers and legal representatives of the Republic of Iraq, illegally and without charge?

As this man of a “faith”, so flimsy that he has said he could not talk about it during his premiership in case he was regarded as “a nutter”, speaks from the pulpit, will he reflect on those of real belief, who stayed in Iraq through unimaginable hardships and ongoing bombings for which he bears much responsibility, the priests, the Bishops and Cardinal Emmanuel Delli, who, with their Muslim and other Faith counterparts, stayed throughout, to help and comfort?

The Church, however, is not all as welcoming to potential war criminals as Cardinal O'Connor. The Catholic organisation Pax Christi is holding a silent vigil for Blair's arrival and a protest to drown him out, with musical instruments of every kind, drums, cymbals, sirens, whistles, horns, rattles, cowbells, drummers, percussionists and students from the Royal Academy of Music, have vowed to make Blair's pulpit debut unforgettable. Brian Eno, musician and Producer of U2, Coldplay, David Bowie and other internationally renowned performers, will be there; diversity includes a Catholic nun with a burglar alarm. (See: http://www.stopwar.org.uk )

The burglar alarm may have resonance for some who have read the United States “Camp Victory” website recently. Under “Freedom Facts” is:
“The (US Army) Gulf Region Division has met its oil projects goals by increasing crude oil infrastructure capacity to 3 million barrels per day; increasing the natural gas infrastructure capacity to 800 million standard cubic feet per day....... The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers budget invested $1.7 billion in Iraq’s oil infrastructure.”

Blair is to link his address on “Faith” with “globalisation”. Stop the War's Media Officer, David Wilson comments: “or ‘Why I think it's good to invade other people's countries’”.

The former Prime Minister's alleged adherence to Mammon before God is a separate article. Another anomaly which deserves a place here, however, is the Messianic certainty of the “rightness” of the decisions he has shared with George W. Bush. Both, it would appear, seem to believe to have been directly guided by God.

The address at Westminster Cathedral as the fifth anniversary of their “crusade” is commemorated, is a week (depending on where you are on the planet) of the bringing down of the statue of Saddam Hussein on 9th April 2003.

The beliefs of fundamentalists in some “Judeo-Christian” traditions is that this is the date of Christ’s rising from the dead. The date of Easter changes from year to year, so that it coincides with the astronomical setting at the time of Christ's resurrection. April 9th, 30 A.D. has been shown to be the day the resurrection occurred, they believe.

Further: “... the Bible gives a very specific date and hour for the birth of the Church. Though the Bible does not speak to us in terms of the Roman calendar date for the birth of the Church, yet very obviously it speaks in the language of the Hebrew liturgical calendar as given by Moses. The birth of the Church took place about ‘the third hour of the day’, on the ‘Day of Pentecost’, as recorded in Acts 2. This was ‘50 days’ after the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Christ was on the ‘day after’ the Jewish ‘Sabbath’ that occurred during ‘the Feast of Unleavened Bread’. Now all that is very specific language. Translated into Roman calendar dates, Christ was resurrected from the dead on Sunday morning of April 9th, 30 A.D. Exactly 50 days later the Church was born on Sunday morning, about 9:00 A.M., May 28th, 30 A.D., the day of Pentecost.(http://www.2think.org ) This has been described as 'the time of rapture of the Prophets'.*

This all gives rise to serious questions as to whether there really are those in high places prepared to not alone ram raid for oil, but who believe in fundamentalist dominance from: “The Nile to the Euphrates”.

Back to Mammon. Catholicism's new son commands huge sums for his spoken offerings. This publication has failed to confirm whether his Cathedral address is free. London's Evening Standard newspaper “believed” this was the case.

Oh yes - and Westminster Cathedral was built on the site of a jail. Some may feel the irony of Blair's choice for the place of his newest self reinvention.

See also: London Review of Books, 20th March 2008 : Frank Kermode: 'Did it Happen on 9th April?' Review of “The Resurrection”, by Geza Vermez., http://www.lrb.co.uk

Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist and activist who has visited the Arab and Muslim world on numerous occasions. She has written and broadcast on Iraq, her coverage of which was nominated for several awards. She was also senior researcher for John Pilger's award-winning documentary,
"Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq". http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partID=4
and author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of “Baghdad” in the “Great Cities” series, for World Almanac Books (2006.)
http://www.amazon.com/Baghdad-Great-Cities-World-Nikki/dp/0836850491/sr=...

Please also see:

It Goes Back to 1990: Activist's Memoir of the Iraq War, By Felicity Arbuthnot

Terrified, humiliated – and innocent: the evidence against 42-day detention

Understanding Evangelical s Prophesy of War and the End Times: finding Hope in the Era of the Neo-Crusades

Boris in Baghdad & Other Tales

Tim Holmes — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:54:11 +0000

In a world where Tony Blair, who should be standing in the dock in the Hague for his part in the illegal invasion of Iraq, is appointed 'peace envoy' and his Chancellor who wrote the cheques for the murderous debacle and should also be shackled and on a plane for the Netherlands, is made Prime Minister (the public not consulted) little should surprise anymore. Meet the Conservative Party candidate for next year's election for Mayor of London : Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (known simply as Boris Johnson.)

Johnson, M.P., for the delightful - and wealthy - constituency of Henley on Thames, since June 2001, has been dubbed a philanderer, a buffoon, chaotic and often has all the sartorial elegance of an unmade bed. Polly Toynbee in the Guardian wrote of the '..desparate state of the Conservatives, that they will put a clown up to run a global city.' Yet Boris seems pretty harmless, if distasteful to some. The educational record, however, of the New York born, former Editor of the right wing Spectator magazine, shows him as anything but stupid. (See: http://www.TheyWorkForYou.com)

Political Satirist Paul Merton quipped: 'Vote Boris ... Boris is the best person to lead this country back to the 17th century'. Johnson has been dubbed 'gaffe prone', but his 'gaffes' and views are at best, deeply unpleasant and at worst, alarming, especially from a man aspiring to become Mayor of a city of seven million souls, comprising hundreds of nationalities. The former shadow Minister for Higher Education (he resigned on announcing his Mayroral bid) described the citizens of Papua and Guinea as indulging in : 'orgies of cannabilism and Chief killing.' The High Commissioner in London was suitably outraged.

Commentator David Wearing (http://www.ukwatch.net) calls Johnson the ; '..political equivalent of arrested development' and cites one of his columnists at the Spectator, during his tenure as Editor, the repellently opined, aptly named, 'Taki'. Revealing, writes Wearing : '... was Johnson's approach to Spectator columnist Taki while Johnson was editor of that magazine from 1999 to 2005. Taki's racism is of the decidedly non-casual variety. In his Spectator columns New York Puerto Ricans have been described as "a bunch of semi-savages ... fat, squat, ugly, dusky, dirty" and black people referred to as "Sambo". After Charlene Ellis, 18, and Latisha Shakespeare, 17, were shot dead in Birmingham in 2003, Taki blamed "black thugs, sons of black thugs and grandsons of black thugs," adding for good measure that "West Indians were allowed to immigrate after the war, multiply like flies and then the great state apparatus took over the care of their multiplications'.

Regarding Ken Bigley's kidnapping and subsequent killing in Iraq, in 2004, it was alleged he had a hand in an editorial which described the people of Bigley's home town, Liverpool - whose hearts went out to the Bigley family in a show of characteristic northern warmth - as wallowing in 'vicarious victimhood'. Former Conservative leader Michael Howard, sent him packing, up to Liverpool to do a series of mea culpa media interviews. They were less than convincing performance. On one radio programme, Bigley's brother, Paul rang in, to tell Johnson he was a : 'self centred, pompous twit - get out of public life.'

However, it is his writing regarding the Iraq invasion in his book: ' Lend Me Your Ears', paperback 2007, remaindered in discerning bookshops and on Amazon (summary of which, gratitude to the current Mayor, Ken Livingstone's column in the Morning Star, 4th August 2007) which displays not alone 'arrested development' , but a distinctly concerning turn of mind. Johnson, who voted for the invasion of Iraq. describes his visit there, in April 2003, as statues fell, the country's heritage was looted, its great institutional buildings burned - along with every record pertaining to its citizens - and as children who have been described by experts as 'the most traumarised child population on earth', shivered and shook as the bombs fell yet again and US and British tanks invaded familiar, friendly neighbourhoods and normality died.

Of this carnage, Boris of Baghdad writes breathlessly of his love-in with the U.S., miliary: ' We pass the ... Strike Eagles, ninety two of them on either side, like a guard of honour ... four billion £'s worth of testosterone, wrapped in steel and titanium'. Further: ' When I first became a journalist fifteen years ago, America had not yet reached the pitch of technological virtuosity, of being able to drop a bomb on any home in any Third World capital, at a time of her choosing'.

'It was mesmerising', he warbles, in April 2003, to stand in Baghdad and look at the contrast between the Americans and the people they had liberated. The Iraqis were skinny and dark, badly dressed and fed. The Americans rode in their Humvees (a vehicle that is eloquently bigger than out Land Rover ... bigger tyres, cooler.' ) Iraqi's unique dignity versus American (and British) marauders, law breakers and squatters, passed him by.

'The marines had the shades with the click little nick in the corner. They were taller and squarer than the indigenous people, with heavier chins and better dentition. They looked like the master race, from outer space ...' Boris's Ottoman heritage seeps in, as he lauds: 'America's formidable performance ... an astonishing military achievement ...' even though 'Saddam ...turned out to be a paper tiger' (Well, no, he sent 11,800 pages of accounting for the weapons he did not have to the U.N., in December 2002, which were stolen - there is no other word for it - by U.S.,officials at the U.N.)

'If we know the Pentagon, there must be a very good chance that this will be an outstandingly successful and stress-free war, with computerised drones queueing up over Baghdad and Basra to pulverise the relevant silos and barracks', trills testosterone man, delusion reaching a - well - climax: ' You know, whenever George Dubya Bush appears on television, with his buzzard squint and his Ronald Reagan side-nod, I find a cheer rising irresistably in my throat ... Yo Bush baby, I found myself saying, squashing my beer can in my hand like some crazed redneck: you tell 'em boy. Just to tell where to tell those pointy head liberals where to get off'. Away from Iraq, by Bush's refusal to sign up to Kyoto: 'He was doing what was right for America and right for the world'. If the planet is on self destruct, courtesy of the human race led by the Humvee nation's greed and gas guzzling, bomb dropping for recources, we should enjoy it whilst we can, he writes - broadly.

In the nightmare scenario of Boris Johnson becoming London's Mayor, a black joke is doing the rounds - down comes the Union flag on City Hall and Britain will finally, overtly, become the latest star on the Stars and Stripes, which will proudly fly next to the Swastika.

Discredited, Deluded, Disgraced

Tim Holmes — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:15:16 +0000

'There are times that try mens' souls.' The American Crisis, Thomas Paine (1737-1809.)

Poor George Orwell, if only he had hung on another seventy years or so. What he could have added to his 'war is peace ...' What he could have done with : 'warmonger is peacemaker ...' What would he have done with Blair, the first Prime Minister in history to be questioned - three times - by Scotland Yard (the last time just days before he left office) in a criminal investigation - regarding allegations that generous donors to his party were rewarded with peerages - being chosen by the UN., US., EU., and Russia as Middle East Peace Envoy.

An 'honest broker'?

But 'cash for honours' pales against this vain, delinquent politician joining the wholesale slaughter in Muslim countries, which posed no threat to the US., or UK., based on the mother of all lies, seemingly cooked up in Number 10 Downing Street, the residence of the Prime Minister of 'the mother of parliaments.' The man who enjoined his country in George W. Bush's 'crusade', who after the recent failed bombings in London and Glasgow, called British Muslims 'absurd', nurturing a 'false sense of grievance' that they are being oppressed by Britain and the United States, according the the Guardian. Given the abbatoirs that Afghanistan and Iraq have become at US and UK hands, or under their watch, ditto the Balkans in 1999 (by some sleight of hand declared legal, as Afghanistan, more for Orwell) with more Afghans being killed by allied US troops than 'insurgents', resistance,

Taliban - plus the charnel house Mesapotamia has become, having lost lost certainly a minimum of two and a half million in excess deaths between the thirteen year embargo and the four plus year occupation, with four million fled or internally displaced. If the recent London/Glasgow incidents were what we are led to believe and not some 'black' operation closer to Whitehall (it is hard to trust official assertions ever again) grievance in the Muslim community would hardly be unreasonable. 'These are people who are prepared to bomb innocent men, women and children, families in their homes or going about their business', trumpet officials, complicit in doing just that, on near unimaginable scale.

Further, as Stephen Lendman writes in his excellent 'Reinventing a war criminal': 'He joined in cutting off essential aid to the Palestinian people and renounced its democratically elected Hamas government without ever giving it a chance to prove itself. He also supported Israel's aggressive war against Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, and, in short, partnered in backing war and avoiding peace. He now has a new title in his new job. His mission is the same. He'll bring no peace to the Middle East nor does he intend to.'

Arms from the US., have been flowing in to Israel, with Britain's backing, to kill Palestinians at crossings, children going to school, families picnicking on beaches. Heavy machinery has demolished family homes, trashed municipal offices, villages, so foreign settlers or multinational businesses can 'legally' steal and build on ancient land, the heritage of families, handed down over generations; machinery which destroys their farms, citrus and olive groves. Where has been 'peace envoy' Blair's unequivocal condemnation? Where has been even a bleat of protest? Did he read recent reports of a village where Bedouin have lived for sixty years, where Israeli forces were in such a hurry to demolish for more settlers, they allegedly even dragged babies out of homes, still in their play pens?

'"A true friend of the State of Israel," said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of his outgoing British counterpart Tony Blair "Tony Blair is a very well-appreciated figure in Israel," said Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. According to an Israeli government statement, Israel "will provide [him] with all necessary assistance in order for him to carry out his duties", writes Arjan El Fassad (Electronic Intifada). You bet. Moreover: 'In his speech at the Annual Reception of Labour Friends of Israel in September 2006, Blair said: "I have never actually found it hard to be a friend of Israel, I am proud to be a friend of Israel."' No doubt his role to 'advise' on 'institutional reform' in Palestine will provide him with a front row seat at the sort of 'reform' he has been party to in his invasions - destruction of life, limb and that left of Palestine's civil society.

He should be quite at home in another invading, occupying country, which has also divided Palestine as he and Bush planned to divide Iraq - and where, like Iraq, communities are walled off from each other by the policies of 'democracy'. The Messianic Blair, having bought lock, stock and barrel in to the neo-cons 'crusade', 'clash of civlisations', has never openly backed off from some seriously disturbing bedfellows.

In John Gray's newly published 'Black Mass', he refers to the apocalyptic influence in the American Christian right, reminding again of another not too well bolted down on all four corners, Admiral William Boykin, who declared that the enemy in the 'war on terror' was 'a guy called Satan.' Gray's analysis of Blair's grasp on history does not bode well for Palestine and the region (as if they do not have enough problems) ' ...he was led into the Iraq debacle by the belief that history was on his side. Actually he knew very little history and what he did know he refused to accept when it undercut his hopes.' Further, Blair is ' ... an American neo-conservative and has been all his life and with Bush has embraced a 'missionary style of politics.' Hardly the man to bring peace, light and hope in the hearts of those in one of the most hurting, complex regions on earth, even without the smouldering ruins of Iraq and Lebanon as baggage and the blood for ever ingrained on his hands.

Blair has 'signally failed in everything he ever tried to do in the Middle East' writes Robert Fisk, of Blair's appointment, remarking that when he heard of it, he checked the calender to ensure it was not April Fool's Day. He refers to Blair's 'blend of ruthlessness and dishonesty ... slippery use of language' and compaares him to another man who thought he could be a peace envoy in the Middle East, former SS officer, Kurt Waldheim, who also could not believe he had ever done anything wrong. A correspondent to the Independent letters page wrote simply: 'Is that "peace envoy" as in "Atilla the Peace Envoy?"' Abdel Bari Atwan, Editor in Chief of Al Quds Al Arabi, referred to Blair as: 'the most hated man in the Middle East after Bush.' "He does not have a good background and a good reputation in the region," Hamas Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told Reuters (July 1st.). In the Sunday Herald, political Editor Jim Cusick wrote: '... he will not be a helpful figure in solving the region's strife because he comes with too much baggage that mirrors the political positions of both the US and Israeli governments.'

Carsten Kuhntopp, ARD Middle East Correspondent in Amman, reminds that former Middle East Envoy to the Middle East, Alvaro de Soto, in his final Report, described how American diplomats had threatened to cut US., subsidy to the UN., if it, in the form of the Quartet did not follow US., demands. De Soto described how the US 'pushed for an armed confrontation between(democratically elected) Hamas and Fatah'. One US 'diplomat' said: 'I like this violence .. it means Palestinians are resisting Hamas.' He concluded that with the US., as Israel's closest ally, there is no one to plead the Palestinian cause. Kuhntopp ends: ' Tony Blair as Middle East envoy - truly putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. But given the Quartet's disastrous policies, it somehow fits.' Blair's standing in Britain itself was reflected by the left wing Morning Star and the right wing Daily Mail again agreeing, with the former commenting on his resignation: 'Good riddance' and the latter 'The day Blair became an irrelevance.'

Another commentator remarked on Britain's final plunge in to ignominy and irrelevance under Blair: 'From bulldog to lapdog'. A US., Administration official, however, referred to Blair's 'star quality' (perhaps he was speaking from a psychiatric ward.)

Blair reportedly also has plans to establish a faith foundation to promote understanding between Islam and Christianity ('you couldn't make it up'country, again) and it seems, plans to become a Roman Catholic. Perhaps they 'are short of serial killers in their congregation', pondered Craig Murray, former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan. Murray repeatedly sent extensive memos and flew back to London to inform the government, via the Foreign Office, that the 'intelligence' the UK., and US., were gaining from this close ally, was obtained under torture, extreme even by Abu Ghraib standards. Methods included boiling humans to death. For his integrity, concerns and considerable courage, a Whitehall inspired smear campaign was mounted, so vicious, it culminated in his having a nervous breakdown. (Read: Craig Murray: Murder in Samarkand, Mainstream Publishing http://www.craigmurray.co.uk)

Here then, an inadequate background to Charles Anthony Lyndon Blair, Q.C., a man who has brought shame to the Office of Prime Minister, made the people who elected him targets, throughout the world for possibly decades to come. The man who has collided in destruction, broken lives and heartbreak beyond counting. Now the latest Middle East 'Peace Envoy'. A bit like making King Herod, Minister for child welfare. If there is an upside, it might be that it may take the entire Israeli Defence Force to ensure his safety, leaving them less personnel for child killing and home demolitions.

In the unlikely event Blair is thinking of reading up even a little on the Palestinians plight, two suggestions: ' I Saw Ramallah', by Mourid Barghouti, the story of a young man who was at university in Cairo when the 1967 war broke out. It took him thirty years to obtain a permit to return home - for a brief visit. His story mirrors millions. The other is: 'Hamas, Unwritten Chapters', by Azzam Tamimi. To begin to understand, he should turn first to page 147 and read the chapter heading, by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin: 'I want to proclaim loudly to the world, that we are not fighting Jews because they are Jews. We are fighting them because they assaulted us, they killed us, they took our land and our homes; they attacked our children and our women; they scattered us. All we want is our rights. We don't want more.'

Oh yes and since this former 'war' (read 'illegal invasion') Prime Minister has never been in close proximity to missile or bullet, the environs may be somewhat unsettling, Heaven forbid it should affect his apparent heart problem. However, should tragedy strike, a listener thoughtfully sent in an obituary to a radio station: 'Here lies a rotter. Here rots a liar'.'