Like the US, the UK has spent far more than it could afford on the war in Iraq. And like the US, the UK's social services have been threatened by cuts. But to hide this fact, Tony Blair has been diverting money raised by the UK's lottery into these services. "Between a quarter and a half of the cash originally intended for sport, culture, art and other such causes has been diverted to health and social projects, says former UK Prime Minister John Major, who founded the lottery 10 years ago. "I think that's grand larceny," said Major. When Labour won its second term in 2001, Blair pledged to spend 100 billion pounds improving roads, schools and hospitals. The Treasury is now striving to limit spending after running up a budget deficit of 37 billion pounds [thanks to the war] in the fiscal year through April 2004, the most since 1997.

Independent: "Tony Blair believes that the Labour Party will emerge from the next election more "Blairite" than before, despite the growing number of MPs who are critics of the Iraq war." Alas, the UK Parliament appear to be made of even wishy-washier stuff than the US Bush-whipped Congress! Against the overwhelming objections of the British majority, Blair shipped hundreds of more UK soldiers off to Iraq while MPs did nothing but mutter or bluster ineffectually about how if too many of them are killed, well THEN they might do something stern - pathetic! Meanwhile, the overempowered Blair has told friends that two-thirds of the new Labour MPs elected at the next general election will be Blairite." So what's next? Will the MPs stand by muttering uselessly while he crowns himself "King Tony"?

IC Newcastle: "Pro-war MPs are turning against Tony Blair over the war in Iraq just as ministers are ready to agree to a US request for British troops. One North-East MP warned the Prime Minister he would lose support among his own backbenchers if he acceded to American calls for help. Blyth Valley's Ronnie Campbell spoke out just as Mr Blair promised any soldier sent to assist Americans would be home by Christmas [yeah - sure they will]. "MPs are very uneasy about this," he said, "I was talking to one of my colleagues this week and he was thinking very hard about the whole thing. He was just in favour of it but only just and I think there are quite a few like him."

Tony Blair is probably one of the most despised leaders on the planet, whose popularity in Britain is in the basement. He refuses to step down, thereby admitting he is a big fat loser who dragged his nation into a bloody illegal war with calculated lies. But now he may have found an "honorable" exit that makes it appear that he's being "forced out": Become a Catholic. (PM's must be Church of England) Although Blair says that these rumors pop up every year, we find it interesting that they are popping up just before the US election: If Bush loses, Blair will NEED to beat a hasty retrest.

There are three stock things used by Bush and Blair whenever they are under fire: Terrorist alert warnings, new Osama Bin Laden videos, and newly discovered 'Saddam mass graves.' Of course, the media usually doesn't follow up with the revelations that about half of the OBL videos are phony, that most of Bush's "orange alerts" are not credible, and that many of the "mass graves" found in Iraq are Iraqis or Iranians killed in the Iraq-Iran war by weapons supplied by the Reagan Administration and have nothing to do with Saddam's "inquisition." The timing of Blair's "discovery" is just a wee bit too convenient - and follows the pattern

Independent: "[Tony Blair] angrily rejected an accusation by Tory leader Michael Howard that he did not "accurately report" the intelligence on Saddam Hussein's WMDs. Blair accused Howard of "playing politics" over the war. Mr Blair dismissed a demand by the Conservative leader to "say sorry" for the way he had presented the intelligence in the run-up to the war. He said that while he had apologised for information which had subsequently turned out to be wrong, he would not apologise for ousting Saddam. "What I don't in any way accept is that there was any deception of anyone," he told MPs."I will not apologise for removing Saddam Hussein. I will not apologise for the conflict. It was right then, is right now and is essential for the wider security of the region and the world." Gee, we can think of someone else who refused to ever admit they were wrong. His name was Saddam Hussein.

Guardian: "The Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, led fresh demands yesterday for Tony Blair to apologise for his handling of the Iraq war and its aftermath or risk having his reputation permanently tarnished by 'bad faith as well as bad judgment'. Mr Kennedy seized on weekend disclosures of Whitehall papers confirming pre-war doubts about the consequences of the March 2003 invasion which has resulted in at least 10,000 Iraqi deaths and more than 1,000 among coalition forces. The documents from the Cabinet Office and Foreign Office suggest that in March 2002 Mr Blair was concerned primarily about regime change rather than, as he subsequently said, weapons of mass destruction. Invasion simply for regime change would have been contrary to international law. The Foreign Office yesterday acknowledged the documents were genuine."

Overempowered a*sholes have a tendency to throw temper tantrums when things don't go their way. That's been the story with Bush and Cheney, and now its happening with their sidekick Tony Blair. "Tony Blair was letting his frustration show as the talks that could end with the IRA being disbanded and the Good Friday Agreement being rescued dragged on into last night. The Prime Minister startled officials and Northern Ireland's politicians by using some of the most colourful language they had ever heard pass his lips as he met the province's leaders in the unlikely setting of Leeds Castle in Kent." In short, when things didn't go Poodle Boy's way, he showed his true class: NONE.

Guardian: "Gordon Brown is still on course to become Prime Minister after the next election, friends of Tony Blair said last night...Allies of the Prime Minister signalled that, despite public protestations that he wants to go on and on, Blair is privately expected to step down some time during the next Parliament, leaving the door ajar for his Chancellor. Last week's return of the arch-Blairite Alan Milburn - and the diminution of Brown's influence over the election campaign - once again brought the two camps dangerously close to all-out war, with claims that the Prime Minister had reneged on a pre-summer deal to quit." I.e., Blair is being forced out, kickin' and screamin'. Just as Bush will be in Nov.

"On the 8-26-04, a group of MPs published a report on the potential impeachment of the Prime Minister for High Crimes and Misdemeanours in relation to the invasion of Iraq. The report sets out compelling evidence of deliberate repeated distortion, seriously misleading statements and culpable negligence on the part of the Prime Minister. This misconduct is in itself more than sufficient to require his resignation. Further, the Prime Minister's conduct has also destroyed the United Kingdom's reputation for honesty around the world; it has produced a war with no end in sight; it has damaged and discredited the intelligence services which are essential to the security of the state; it has undermined the constitution by weakening cabinet government to breaking point and it has made a mockery of the authority of Parliament as representatives of the people. You can download a copy of the report from this website... and register your support for the campaign by signing up to the mailing list."

Adam Price, a Member of Parliament from Wales, writes: "Today a number of MPs, including myself, are declaring our intention to bring a Commons' motion of impeachment against the prime minister in relation to the invasion of Iraq. This is the first time in more than 150 years that such a motion has been brought against a minister of the crown, and it is clearly not an undertaking we enter into lightly. We do it with regret, but also with resolve. For our first duty is to the people we represent, who feel they were misled, whose trust was betrayed, who have been placed in harm's way by the irresponsible actions of this prime minister. It is in their name that we impeach him. It is in their name, and with all the authority vested in us, that we implore him now to go."

"Tony Blair is refusing to fly to the US to receive a medal bestowed on him by the nation for his support over last year's Iraq war. Bush has put huge pressure on his closest ally to pick up the Congressional Medal of Honor in person. Blair is immensely popular with large sections of the American public [not!] for his staunch support of the Iraq war and the White House believes a visit by the prime minister now would provide a much-needed boost to Bush's re-election campaign... 'But he has refused for more than a year now and for good reason. He cannot possibly accept an award for the Iraq war when British and American troops continue to risk their lives there.' Blair is concerned also that a trip to the United States now would effectively be giving a boost to Bush ahead of November's presidential elections.'The Democrats are watching the situation very carefully and there would be uproar if Tony travelled to Washington to meet Bush so close to the presidential elections.'"

Two weeks ago on a BBC program, chief investigator to the Intelligence and Security Committee John Morrison spoke frankly about Tony Blair's past claims that Saddam had WMDs that could be immediately deployed. "The prime minister was going way beyond anything any professional analyst would have agreed," Morrison said. Within days, Blair sacked Morrison. Former chief of Defence Intelligence Sir John Walker, who worked with Mr Morrison," was shocked." "John Morrison was an extremely experienced, extremely good intelligence operative. I had the highest regard and respect for him. He has broken ranks, together with people like Dr Brian Jones and David Kelly, because of a considerable concern about what was going on. Sir John added: "If people of John Morrison's calibre break rank, it's very serious. These are people who for a lifetime have been loyal honest hardworking servants of the state." Their only failure? Not kissing Tony Blair's pompous butt.

Even though recent UK polls show that Tony Blair's approval rating is an abysmal 36%, with 58% of the public saying the Iraq war was a mistake, and even though polls also show that Blair is sinking the Labor Party, the party remains astoundingly out of touch with reality - just like the GOP. The Guardian reports: "Among Labour voters 77% give [Blair] their approval." And while 55% of general voters believe Blair is a liar, 67% of his "base" in Labor think he is "trustworthy." " As for the longer view, [when asked] whether Britain has become a fairer country in the 10 years since [Blair] became the Labour party leader, only 22% said they believed Britain was a "fairer" place, and surprisingly only 43% of Labour voters made the same judgment." Yet they refuse to dump Blair! The image of lemmings near the cliff comes to mind....

Mail and Guardian: "Downing Street has admitted to The Observer newspaper that repeated claims by Tony Blair that '400 000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves' is untrue, and only about 5 000 corpses have so far been uncovered. The claims by Blair were given widespread credence, quoted by MPs and widely published, including in the introduction to a United States government pamphlet on Iraq's mass graves. In that publication -- Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves produced by USAid. Blair said last Nov.:: We've already discovered, just so far, the remains of 400 000 people in mass graves.' " How many other grotesquely inflated claims and outright lies will be revealed in coming months?

Independent: "Tony Blair was warned before the Iraq war by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, that a UN court could rule Britain's invasion unlawful, The Independent on Sunday has learnt. The warning was in Lord Goldsmith's so far undisclosed legal opinion from 7 March last year, less than two weeks before the conflict began. Fearing that the International Court of Justice could rule it was illegal to go to war without the express authority of the UN Security Council, the Attorney General put senior barristers and international legal experts on standby to help to prepare the Government's defence if needed, legal sources said." Although legal advice from the Attorney General to the PM is considered confidential, Blair's reckless endangerment of national security apparently prompted Goldsmith to come forward.

Independent: "In an astonishing admission after the disclosure of the cover-up in yesterday's Independent, Tony Blair's official spokesman said MI6 decided not to tell the Hutton inquiry - set up to investigate the death of the government scientist David Kelly - that crucial intelligence on Saddam's chemical and biological weapons was unsound. The security services, he said, felt it was "too sensitive'' to be made public. [yeah - too sensitive to Tony Blair's political well-being]. The head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, also decided not to tell Mr Blair. The inquiry began on 11 August. Giving evidence, the Prime Minister, Sir Richard Dearlove and John Scarlett, the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, all failed to mention the withdrawal of intelligence. All three insisted that intelligence from agents in Iraq was believed to be reliable." Blair admits a near-treasonous lie. Blair obviously believes admitting to a crime somehow lets him off the hook!

Independent: "[Tony Blair's] Labour Party suffered a key by-election defeat and saw its majority slashed in a formerly safe seat in a bad night for the Government. The Liberal Democrats overturned a 13,000 Labour majority to come from third place to win Leicester South. Labour acknowledged voters had punished it over the war in Iraq. But it said the results showed the Conservatives' hopes of victory at the next General Election disappearing. Liberal Democrats said in many areas of Britain they had overtaken the Tories as the only party that could beat Labour. Leicester South, previously seen as a safe Labour seat, saw Liberal Democrat Parmjit Singh Gill elected to become the party's first ever ethnic minority MP."

Guardian: "Tony Blair's claim that Saddam Hussein posed a 'current and serious' threat to Britain is challenged by dramatic new allegations today that Britain's spy chiefs have retracted the intelligence on which it was based. The supposed proof that the Iraqi dictator was still trying, even in the run-up to war, to produce chemical and biological weapons became crucial to the Prime Minister's case for urgent military action rather than waiting for inspectors to finish their task. Yet, according to a senior intelligence source interviewed by BBC1's Panorama tonight, MI6 has since taken the rare step of withdrawing the intelligence assessment that underpinned the claim that Saddam had continued to produce WMD - an admission that it was fundamentally unreliable. The charge leaves Blair open to serious questions over why, if the nature of the proof had changed, he did not tell the public that the evidence of WMD was crumbling beneath him."

Guardian: "Tony Blair's response this week to Labour's worst election results since WWI has been a characteristic display of self-righteous defiance. "No politician can afford to be deaf to the voice of the electorate," he declared, but then went on to reject every message the voters had sent him. No, he will not apologise for the decision to invade and occupy Iraq - he will be "shown to be right" about that and the majority of the people wrong. 60% of the electorate want him to go before the next general election and a string of opinion polls have shown that Labour would attract more support with Gordon Brown as its leader than if Tony Blair clings on to power." But although it is "clear that a change of leader before the election is in the interests of Labour as a party...with Labour's rules rigged against an open party challenge," the party seems bent on self-destruction

The day after the results of an election that saw Blair's Labor Party lose nearly 500 seats due to public opposition against the Iraq war, Tony Blair defiantly - delusionally, in fact, if David Kay is right - called for 3,000 more troops to be sent to the war zone. Alas for the UK, Blair and Bush have shown themselves to be more similar than anyone imagined.The story broke on June 13 that Blair is deeply involved in a fundamentalist relgious education crusade in the UK, backing a foundation that is taking over UK schools and turning them back to the Middle Ages - teaching Creationism as "science." So is it a stretch to suggest that Blair, like Bush, sees Iraq as a "glorious religious crusade" - an effort to fulfill the rantings of Rapurists longing for Armageddon - which must start in 'Bablyon' (now Iraq)? http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=530984

Independent: "A controversial chain of schools teaching Biblical "creationism" [and aggressively seeking to take over secular schools] has been given Tony Blair's personal support despite serious doubts raised by parents and teachers. Mr Blair, said to be the most religious PM since [Victorian era] Gladstone, has backed the millionaire car dealer Sir Peter Vardy [hmm...sound's like a Bush type!] in his attempt to take over seven comprehensives and turn them into Christian Academies promoting Old Testament views of the world's creation. This includes the claim that it was made in six days, 10,000 years ago [and people WONDER what's wrong with Bush/Blair "science"?]. Last week, parents launched a campaign of opposition to his attempt to control a fourth school through his Christian Vardy Foundation."

Zap2it: "Michael Moore isn't content to rest on his laurels when it comes to speaking out against the Iraq war. The 50-year-old filmmaker has new prey in sight: British Prime Minister Tony Blair. 'I personally hold Blair more responsible for this war in Iraq than I do George W. Bush, and the reason is Blair knows better. Blair is not an idiot. What is he doing hanging around this guy?' says Moore. The director adds that Blair is like an older brother to Bush, and therefore must be held to a higher standard when trouble arises, much like what happens in a family." Some say that Bush has some highly damaging "scoop" on Blair [secret cross-dresser? Torrid love affair on the side? The possibilties are endless!] that has blackmailed the PM into unquestioning compliance. But, maybe we're all wrong: Maybe Blair really is just an idiot!

Independent: "A BBC survey showed Labour on course for its poorest showing in town hall elections in recent times. Its share of the vote dropped five points since last year's local elections, while both the Tories and Liberal Democrats were up three points. If the pattern is repeated when another 73 local authorities count their votes today, the results would push Labour into third place and provoke another bout of speculation about Mr Blair's future and demands for him to stand down before the general election. Labour officials predicted "very poor" results. One Labour source said: "There is a backlash over Iraq. It is not confined to Muslims and professional workers inside the M25. It is hurting us among working and middle-class people, too."

Observer: "Tony Blair was branded 'delusional' yesterday over his continued insistence that weapons of mass destruction might still be found in Iraq. The charge was made by the man who headed the hunt. Following claims by the Prime Minister on Friday that the search might still turn up illegal weapons in Iraq, David Kay, who led the Iraq Survey Group after the invasion, insisted that the weapons did not exist, and called on Blair to apologise for being wrong. 'Anyone out there holding - as I gather Prime Minister Blair has recently said - the prospect that ISG is going to unmask actual weapons of mass destruction is really delusional,' he told the BBC. 'It is amazing that occasionally they slip back into talking about it. The problem is the unwillingness to take the responsibility of saying a few simple words: "We were wrong". " Meanwhile, Bush has gone beyond delusional: see http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml

TONY Blairâ??s government was last night given a warning that rocketing fuel prices could trigger nationwide protests like those that paralysed the country in 2000...the OPEC oil cartel warned it may be powerless to contain panic in international markets that has pushed prices up by almost half in the last year...Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, sought to capitalise on the growing crisis by dropping a heavy hint that hauliers and farmers planning nationwide fuel protests would have his support. The protests in 2000 drove the Labour governmentâ??s popularity to its lowest ever. A repeat of the direct-action campaign now would be an even heavier blow to Mr Blair, who already faces a summer of discontent amid crippling transport strikes, ongoing chaos in Iraq and a surge in anti-European feeling at next weekâ??s elections.

Go George Go! (And we don't mean G.W.) ITV.com reports: "Controversial MP George Galloway has spoken of his plans to prosecute Tony Blair and two other Government figures for war crimes. Mr Galloway was suspended from the Labour party after he accused Mr Blair and President George Bush of invading the Middle East nation like 'wolves'. Speaking as he launched the anti-war Respect Party's upcoming election campaign he said: 'We are amassing a dossier of evidence. 'We are talking with families in Iraq who have lost family members, who have family members illegally detained and have reason to believe family members are being mistreated or even tortured." Now when will someone on THIS side of the big puddle show similar guts?

Now we KNOW Bush and his buddies at the CIA must have some really juicy dirt on Tony Blair. Because we know the man isn't this stupid! As members of his own party begin to call for him to chose between them and Bush ...As his approval ratings with the public dive well below 37%...as his Rumsfeld counterpart Hoon is being exposed for lying to Parliament....Does Tony Blair think of the British people? Of human decency? Of personal honor? Nope. He swears undying devotion to G. W. Bush.

Independent: "Tony Blair's government was in confusion and disarray last night after ministers were accused of misleading Parliament in their rush to disown knowledge of two damning reports on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Labour backbench MPs yesterday were openly questioning the ability of Mr Blair to survive until the General Election unless he restores his authority over his beleaguered government after a disastrous 24 hours of misleading answers by senior ministers. In the first of two humiliating retreats by the Government, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was forced yesterday to contradict Geoff Hoon over the role of Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the then senior British representative in Iraq; 24 hours earlier, the Secretary of State for Defence told the Commons that one of the reports by the International Committee of the Red Cross had gone to Sir Jeremy."

Daily Telegraph: "Tony Blair was struggling to avoid a collapse of confidence in his leadership last night as Labour MPs denounced his alliance with President George W Bush and the chaotic handling of allegations of abuse against Iraqi prisoners. Labour backbenchers said contradictory statements from ministers and signs of a lack of grip at the highest levels of Government during a time of crisis had sent morale lower than at any point since the conflict began. The sense that Mr Blair was becoming dangerously isolated was reinforced when Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary [and the UK' foremost waffler], used far stronger language than the Prime Minister to condemn the way US soldiers had abused Iraqi detainees."

Ha'aretz: "Support for Britain's Labour party has hit its lowest level in 17 years, according to a poll carried out after reports of abuse of Iraqi prisoners emerged. The Times said support for Labour had fallen two percentage points to 32 percent, the lowest rating since 1987. The opposition Conservative party saw its support increase by two percentage points to 36 percent in the Populus poll over the weekend that asked: 'How would you vote if there were a general election tomorrow?' Prime Minister Tony Blair, already under fire because of his support for the war in Iraq, has seen speculation about his future increase after a U-turn on a referendum on a European Union constitution and an immigration policy widely seen as bungled."

Prime Minister Tony Blair, dogged by speculation about his future, faced a call for his resignation on Sunday by a senior member of his Labour Party. Lord David Puttnam, a Labour peer and personal friend of Blair, said months of negative headlines about Iraq would damage the party's electoral prospects and the prime minister should make way for Chancellor Gordon Brown. "The prime minister is synonymous with Iraq, and Iraq will only deliver bad news," Puttnam told ITV News television in an interview, the ITV Web site said.

How fortunate for Bush and Blair that they have both have a claque of mindless minions who will rally round them no matter what, at the expense of the public and welfare of their nations. The Independent reports: "Senior ministers rallied round a beleaguered Tony Blair yesterday as they sought to quash speculation that he might stand down as Prime Minister this summer amid fears that he has become dangerously isolated inside his own Cabinet and party. Although Blair aides dismissed the idea he might quit as 'nonsense' and 'tittle-tattle', the move to bolster his position by loyalist ministers was seen as a clear sign that the Prime Minister is facing the most testing period since he won power seven years ago. The Cabinet meets today against a background of continuing problems for Mr Blair over Iraq, Europe and immigration."

Tony Blair's approval rating with the UK public is at an abysmal 37%. His Labor Party is losing ground, largely because of the public's identification of the party with Blair. 52 seasoned and respected UK diplomats sent the PM a letter that was scathingly critical of his blind adherence to disastrous Bush policy. Yet even after this, Blair continues to defend Bush, even describing the ill-advised (by nearly all nonBushie diplomats and miltary experts) assault on Fallujah. This seems not like the action of a "good friend," but of a man being seriously blackmailed. So what's the deal, Tony? Does Bush have a photo of you in drag? Perhaps statements by London hookers? What are you so desperate to hide?

In an historic move, 52 veteran diplomats from the UK sent a letter to Tony Blair pleading with him to change course in Iraq and the Middle East. BBC reports: "The ambassadors accuse the US-led coalition of having 'no effective plan' for Iraq after the war and an apparent disregard for the lives of Iraqi civilians. They condemn Mr Bush's decision to endorse an Israeli plan to retain some settlements in the West Bank as an illegal and one-sided step... '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.' They urged Blair to act urgently to challenge the UK's portrayal as a partner in US policies condemned by the Arab and Muslim world." The diplomats include former ambassadors to Baghdad and Tel Aviv. Full letter text: http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=515676

Remember a little while back when Tony Blair pledged to send more troops to Iraq soon? Well, that's off the board now. Within days of the release of the latest UK polls showing Blair's approval at an abysmal 37% and UK support for the war at an alltime low, ABC.au reports "Britain has no plans to increase the number of its troops in Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair says, after suicide bombers killed at least 68 people in the British-patrolled southern city of Basra. 'We are satisfied that we have sufficient troops in Basra,' Mr Blair told parliament. 'We don't have plans to increase the number.' Britain has the largest number of troops in Iraq, after the United States." Meanwhile, many reports have shown that British troops in Iraq are becoming increasingly frustrated at what they view as the US mishandling of the situation.

In a classic example of British understatement, the Guardian reports that Tony Blair's "personal rating remains in the doldrums at minus 20 points [this translates, we discovered to a 37% approval rating in US terms]. " If that's the "doldrums, we'd hate to see what "unpopular" means! The poll also shows that "support for the war has slumped from 53% in January to 41%. The percentage of people prepared to support the anti-war case and argue that the invasion was unjustified has grown from 41% to 48%. The survey also found that two-thirds of British voters have little or no confidence in the Americans' handling of the situation in Iraq, with 79% saying it is too dangerous for civilians working for British companies to be in the country."

The Guardian: "A collapse in the number of Labour party members is jeopardising the party's election prospects, amid claims that the total has hit a 70-year low." When Blair triumphantly swept the 1997 election, the Labor's had about 407,000 members. Today, in the wake of Blair's friendship with Bush and the war in Iraq, the numbers have plummeted to 248,294 - a loss of nearly 40%. Blair has been reduced to the humiliating task of writing the 40,000 members who have left since 2001 and pleading with them to return. As it stands, "A shortage of volunteers to put up posters, stuff envelopes, deliver leaflets, canvass and knock on doors to get people to vote threatens to undermine the campaign in June's local and European contests as well as next year's general election."

Tony Blair has ordered Labour ministers and officials not to become embroiled in the US presidential race in an apparent attempt to avoid offending George W Bush...Mr Blair's intervention, which will prevent his Labour colleagues from offering their traditional support to the Democrats, has astonished ministers who remember the close links Labour had with Bill Clinton during previous presidential campaigns...In the past, up to 10 Labour officials and a few MPs have attended the Democrat convention informally...Mr Blair's intervention has prompted speculation that he is privately hoping for a Bush victory to avoid being isolated internationally on the war on Iraq.

The Independent reports that the UK's liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy "has warned Tony Blair he may never regain the trust of the public who no longer know when they listen to the Government whether 'what you are being told is accurate'." Kennedy said even those who supported Labour are now doubtful. "I think it's very difficult for the Prime Minister to regain the level of trust that existed a few years ago. Very difficult indeed," he said. "That may be the inevitable consequence of events or the passage of time but it strikes me that there is just a fundamental sense out there that you can't quite be certain what you are being told is accurate. And that is very corrosive for a government - any government."

Before even offering formal condolences to the Spanish people, Tony Blair on Friday March 13 was dishing out self-serving spin. The tragedy, he strongly implied, "proved" he had been right to attack Iraq: The Independent reports that Blair "insisted that the country 'must never be afraid' to lead efforts to combat the terrorists and 'fight back' alongside allies such as Spain... Mr Blair, his voice cracking [and eyes no doubt filled with crocodile tears], said 'this new war' on global terrorism was as serious a challenge to his generation as Nazism had been to his father's generation." The big difference, Poodle man, is that your father's generation didn't invade Germany and incite the Nazis to violence. The UK and US fought an honest defensive war. It's also likely Spain would not have been targeted (if it proves to be Al Qaeda) if it had not aided and abetted Bush.

The UK Independent reports: "Ivan Rogers, Blair's principal private secretary, told Sir David King, the PM's chief scientist, to limit his contact with the media after he made outspoken comments about Bush's policy on climate change." Sir David wrote a scathing article in Science Magazine attacking the Bush administration for failing to take climate change seriously. "'In my view, climate change is the most severe problem we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism,' he wrote. Since Sir David's article in Science was published, No 10 has tried to limit the damage to Anglo-American relations by reining in Sir David. In a leaked memo, Mr Rogers ordered Sir David to decline any interview requests from British and American newspapers and BBC Radio 4's Today."

Tony Blair is now spreading the story about how he "suffered" as a boy, and that his is a real "rags to riches" story. What qualifies him for "suffering"? He spent one night on a park bench as a teen after voluntarily leaving home to seek his fortune in London, like about half the other young folk in England. But Blair now bills himself not just as a a "homeless teen," but as an Abe Lincoln "poor boy to PM" hero who "understands" the suffering of the homeless. Sort of like stretching part time flying for the National Guard for less than 2 years into "several years" of being a crack war time pilot! We wonder if Blair is taking the Bush Correspondance Course!

Tony Blair manipulated intelligence to promote an immoral and unnecessary war. Blair manipulated the media to undermine intelligence reports, causing the death of David Kelly in the process. Blair obviously abused national intelligence resources by allowing, if not promoting the use of said resources to spy on UN officials. But now that he has been called to answer for his colossal abuses of power, he condemns his accusers as "treasonous" (Katherine Gunn) or "deeply irresponsible" (Clare Short). Hey, Tony - these two women have more real guts and integrity in their pinky fingers than you and your soul mate Bush put together will ever have.

BBC: "Libya's prime minister has told the BBC his country does not accept guilt for the Lockerbie bombing or the shooting of Wpc Yvonne Fletcher. Shukri Ghanem told Radio 4's Today the Wpc Fletcher issue was 'settled'. 'Although Jack Straw vehemently denies this clarge, 'Dr Ghanem's comments have sparked questions about Tony Blair's proposed visit to Libya. Earlier, asked if paying compensation over Lockerbie did not mean acceptance of guilt, Dr Ghanem agreed that it did not - and said the effect of sanctions had prompted a deal. 'We feel that we bought peace. After the sanctions and after the problems we faced because of the sanctions, the loss of money, we thought it was easier for us to buy peace and this is why we agreed on compensation." Aboard the plane were CIA agents, who were about to blow the whistle on deeper Iran-contra intrigue. This has fueled some interesting speculation ever since.

The Independent reports: "Sir Nigel Wicks, the outgoing standards watchdog, has warned Tony Blair that he will face another series of damaging scandals in the wake of the Hutton inquiry unless he takes urgent action to protect civil servants from bullying. Sir Nigel also blamed the Government for failing to adopt recommendations designed to curb the power of ministers' special advisers and rebuild public trust. Sir Nigel suggested that the David Kelly affair might have been prevented if proposals to help civil servants with problems at work had not been ignored. His comments coincide with the publication of his committee's annual report yesterday to introduce a 'standards check' -­ auditing the behaviour of ministers and civil servants. In it he blames the Government for failing to strengthen the 'standards framework for MPs and ministers' and to introduce a law which would mean MPs who take bribes would face criminal charges."

Earlier this week, AP reported that Bush's approval rating had nose-dived to 47%. Americans have had it with Dubya. Now the UK Independent reports that the same trend is following fast for Brits: 51% of Brits want Tony Blair to resign, while "54% believe he lied to the nation over the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. It also shows the Tories are ahead of Labour in popularity [thanks to Blair]. The Conservatives are on 36%, with Labour on 35% and the Liberal Democrats on 24 %. But when those polled were asked how they would vote if Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, was leader [instead of Blair], Labour regained the lead."

BBC News reports: "Prime Minister Tony Blair should resign because he failed to ask 'basic questions' on claims made in his Iraq dossier, Michael Howard has said. The Tory leader seized on Mr Blair's admission he did not know the claim Iraq could use weapons within 45 minutes referred to battlefield arms... Former Commons leader Robin Cook has said he knew before his pre-war resignation that the intelligence referred only to battlefield arms and it was difficult to believe that Mr Blair had not been told too. Tory leader Mr Howard said it was a 'grave dereliction of duty' for Mr Blair to fail to ask such a basic question when he was sending troops to war. Calling on the prime minister to resign, he told BBC Radio 4's World At One: 'I cannot imagine a more serious failure to carry out his duty as prime minister.'"

"The intelligence official whose revelations stunned the Hutton inquiry has suggested that not a single defence intelligence expert backed Tony Blair's most contentious claims on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction... Brian Jones, the former leading expert on WMD in the Ministry of Defence,declared that Downing Street's dossier, a key plank in convincing the public of the case for war,was 'misleading' ... 'In my view, the expert intelligence analysts of the DIS were overruled in the preparation of the dossier in September 2002, resulting in a presentation that was misleading about Iraq's capabilities.'"

"The British government has seen 'categoric' evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction ahead of the war to unseat Saddam Hussein, one of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's top ministers insisted today. The decision to go to war based on that intelligence had been 'right', said Peter Hain, who is Leader of the House of Commons and a key supporter of the prime minister." Oh really?

"In the wake of the Hutton Inquiry report exonerating Prime Minister Tony Blair of any blame for events leading up to the death of whistleblower Dr. David Kelly, Blair has declared himself and his government vindicated and urged the resignation of all those who suggested he had lied about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in advance of the war. However, the consensus view in the British press was that Hutton's whitewash of Blair was so crude as to have virtually no legitimacy, and cautioned the government against its heady triumphalism."

"Tony Blair has been embarrassed by his wife's displays of open animosity towards Bush, according to a forthcoming biography of the Prime Minister. Cherie Blair is said to have made no secret of her conviction that Mr Bush 'stole' the presidential election, and picked an argument with him over the death penalty during a private dinner."

Tony Blair visited Basra - in daylight! - and gave a powerful denunciation of the Bush regime. "No government that owes its position to the will of the people will spend billions of pounds on chemical and biological and nuclear weapons whilst their people live in poverty," Blair said. You're absolutely right, Tony! The unelected Bush regime is spending billions on exactly such weapons, while 1.7 million Americans fell below the poverty line last year, bringing the total to 34.6 million, over 13 million of them children. Blair continued: "Brutal and repressive states that don't actually have the support or consent of their people that are developing weapons which can cause destruction on a massive scale are a huge, huge liability to the whole security of the world." That describes Bush perfectly - and that's exactly what millions around the world said during the protests against Bush and YOU.

Clare Short says Tony Blair will not lead Labour into the next election and has called on him to stand down for the honour of the country. The Scotsman reports Short as saying John Profumo (Secretary of State for War 1960-3) may have lied to the Commons about having an affair with a prostitute - but Mr Blair had been deceitful over a war. Ms Short, who belatedly quit the Cabinet over the war in Iraq, said the intelligence agencies knew Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction - the premise for the war. She had "enormous regrets" about the Prime Minister's mishandling of the situation. She said Britain should have been a friend to the US, but not an "unconditional lackey"." You go, girl!

"Tony Blair and George Bush's love-in has collapsed over the rebuilding of Iraq. The two leaders have fallen out over plans for the reconstruction of the country and the heavy-handed action of American troops against the civilian population. And the rift has been deepened by a Washington ban on a proposed morale-boosting visit by the PM to British troops in Iraq during the Christmas holiday. According to diplomats, relations between the allies have gone into 'deep freeze' since the capture of Saddam Hussein last weekend. Bush was incensed that Mr Blair stole Washington's thunder by being the first Western leader to confirm that the former dictator had been arrested by US troops... when Mr Bush - six hours behind London - was still in bed. Blair's decision was partly out of anger over a US veto on his proposed visit to British troops in Iraq during the Christmas holiday. [Karl Rove] wanted Mr Bush to be the sole leader to make a Christmas visit to troops in Baghdad."

Britain got through World Wars I and II without eliminating civil liberties. During the Blitz, hundreds of thousands of Brits rose to the occasion when a REAL ENEMY THREAT was present without being "ordered" to. Now the Blair Reich is proposing sweeping new "anti-terrorism" laws that, in effect, give him Emperor-like powers over the British people in the case of a "civil emergency", which, of course, can be anything Blair decides it should be. Will the British people roll over and play dead the way the American Congress did after 9/11 or will they rise up and reaffirm what a FREE NATION is all about?

"The [Blair] Government was being asked searching questions yesterday about why British diplomats in Istanbul were left to work in temporary offices vulnerable to an attack despite repeated warnings of an imminent terrorist threat. The suicide bombings on Thursday, which show that Britain is in the direct line of fire from al-Qa'ida and its allies, have led to calls for a fundamental review of security for missions around the world." (Independent) The only review that will help is to ask why creeps like Bush and Blair are allowed to sacrifice lives to the altar of their images. Bush ignored summer 2001 warnings of imminent attack as his poll numbers plunged, while Blair conveniently ignored warnings that, to have acknowledged, would have meant suggesting the Bush trip was placing British lives in peril.

Daily Mirror "spy" Ryan Parry reveals that Tony Blair lied to the public and media about his recent heart trouble. He asserted publicly that his visit last month to the hospital had been solely due to "too much coffee." But now it turns out Blair HAS had past heart trouble. This info comes from the royal mouth: Seems Queen Elizabeth stated very clearly -- though in private and NOT to her subjects -- that Blair has had similar heart problems in the past and that she was very worried about him. Yet when Bill Clinton remarked that Blair had a heart problem, Blair issued a denial. So does Tony Blair EVER tell the truth?

The media in the UK are nearly as dedicated to kissing government butt as they are here. As a result, the only place you can go to get the REAL opinion of the British people is to the fiercely independent UK Independent, or to SCOTLAND! While mainstream media in both the UK and US crank out on-demand "state poll" results showing "most Britons" favoring the war and Bush's visit, the Independent (with over 10,000 people polled) show that 90% of Brits don't even want Bush to set foot on UK soil! Now here, in the Scotsman, we find that not only do most Brits have no respect for Bush, most have little for Blair. And a majority now say the war in Iraq was a big mistake.

Tony Blair "knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction ready for use within 45 minutes, former foreign secretary Robin Cook has claimed. He said that before the war started Mr Blair privately admitted that Saddam Hussein had no weapons posing a 'real and present danger'. Mr Cook - who resigned as Leader of the Commons in protest at the conflict - makes his claims in a book based on his diaries, being serialised in the Sunday Times... Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said a full inquiry should now look into whether Britain went to war on a 'flawed prospectus'. 'If these allegations are true they are explosive,' he said. 'Robin Cook's comments, the failure of the Iraq Survey Group to find any weapons, and the likely conclusions of Lord Hutton's Inquiry will all make for a torrid autumn for the prime minister.'"

"Margaret Thatcher has savagely undermined Tony Blair's case for war against Iraq. In her first reported comment on the conflict, the Tory leader who took Britain to victory in the 1982 Falkland Conflict, has told friends that the war against Iraq was a 'mistake'. Baroness Thatcher has warned that British troops could be tied up in a mission without end for years. 'Britain should never have been involved and it will be very difficult to get our troops out in anything like the near future,' she told Tory peers at a private meeting last week. She also believes a judicial inquiry should be set up into the Iraq conflict rather than the 'tightly defined' Hutton inquiry."

"The former Cabinet ministers Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers today warn Tony Blair he has become dangerously close to Resident George Bush and needs a more traditional Labour agenda. The two loyal Blairites, who have been asked by the Prime Minister to produce ideas for Labour's general election manifesto, have joined forces to tell Mr Blair he must change direction to regain the lost momentum after a year devoted largely to Iraq. In a warning shot from inside the Cabinet, Peter Hain urges Mr Blair not to support American NeoCons in future conflicts and makes a coded attack on Bush for his 'axis of evil' speech...'If some of the wilder exponents, some of the extremists, were to be curbed in terms of their axis-of-evil type of fantasies, that would be a good thing.'"

AP: "A British Broadcasting Corp. report that the government 'sexed up' the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was so damaging that Prime Minister Tony Blair's former communications chief wanted to publicly identify the weapons inspector suspected of being its source, diary extracts showed Monday. Alastair Campbell... said at an inquiry that had the BBC report been true, the prime minister would have been forced to resign. Extracts from Campbell's diary show that he and Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon thought weapons expert David Kelly could play an important role in disproving the report by BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan if the scientist's name were made public. Hoon, 'like me, wanted to get it out that the source had broken cover to claim that AG [Andrew Gilligan] misrepresented him,' a July 6 diary extract said. But Blair 'was nervous about it.' 'We kept pressing on as best we could at the briefings, but the biggest thing needed was the source out,' an extract three days later said."

Tony Blair and his PR machine have mimicked Bush and his mainstream media machine step for step. So when Blair started to sink in the public's opinion, an amazing array of public opinion polls were cooked up to show that although Blair and his Party were losing popularity, it wasn't really that bad and certainly not bad enough to lose an election, even if it was close. The Bush propagandists are currently doing the same thing - even when unable to hide the tide of opinion on specific issues like Iraq and the economy, they always manage to keep his overall approval rating artificially pushed to above the critical 50% mark. Now Blair's Labor Party has suffered a stunning defeat in a key election - and it wasn't even close! We predict the same trend, with a vengeance, in the U.S. elections 2004.

"Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered a stinging electoral defeat at the first popular vote since a British weapons expert took his own life and the government tumbled into crisis over war on Iraq. The north London seat of Brent East, whose member of parliament Paul Daisley died earlier this year, should have been iron-clad for Blair's Labour Party, which has held it for years. But in a stunning reverse, the count in the early hours of Friday morning showed victory for Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather. Crucially, Britain's third party opposed the Iraq war. Daisley won at the 2001 election with 63 percent of the vote and a majority of over 13,000. Teather won a majority of 1,118.... Bernie Paul, 58, who is unemployed, said he voted for the Liberal Democrats. 'I can't stand Blair. He is a puppet to the American Resident,' he said. Blair, once seen as his party's greatest asset, was barely mentioned by the Labour campaign."

"Brian Jones, head of the scientific wing of the Defence Intelligence Analysis Staff, and a colleague described as the country's foremost authority on chemical warfare, told the inquiry that they were so concerned about the veracity of the evidence being put into the September dossier that they sent a detailed series of corrections to Mr Cragg [a UK intelligence deputy]. 'The fact remains that Brian Jones is a highly respected man and his views should have been taken into account. This was not just splitting hairs, it is very real concern being ignored. One of the complaints levied against David Kelly was that he made his criticism of the '45 minutes' thing through unofficial means - a journalist. Well Dr Jones and his colleague stuck to the official channels and that got them nowhere. Seven senior members of the Cabinet were shown the intelligence assessment which warned that invading Iraq would increase the threat of a terrorist attack on Britain.'"

"Another of Tony Blair's main justifications for war on Iraq was blown apart yesterday by the disclosure that intelligence chiefs had warned that deposing Saddam Hussein would increase the risk of terror attacks on Britain. The Prime Minister told Parliament and the public earlier this year that the West had to act against Baghdad to prevent chemical and biological weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists. But exactly two years after al-Qa'ida's 11 September attack, a committee of MPs revealed that the Mr Blair had been told that the threat from Osama bin Laden 'would be heightened by military action against Iraq'. The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), chaired by the Labour MP Ann Taylor, also criticised the Government's dossier on the Iraqi threat, concluding that key claims should have been omitted or heavily qualified. The ISC's report put further pressure on Geoff Hoon... accusing him of giving 'unhelpful and potentially misleading evidence.'"

"Two thousand soldiers prepared to leave for Iraq yesterday as Tony Blair denied a decision had been taken to send them. Although no official announcement had been made last night, defence sources have revealed that commanding officers are ready for an imminent deployment to help beleaguered forces in Basra. The denial was part of a day of confusion which saw the PM publicly slap down two Cabinet ministers for demanding extra ground troops... He said the Government would only add to the 11,000 troops at the request of military commanders, adding: 'The position on troops is that we keep it constantly under review. But unless there is a recommendation from our commanders that they require more troops we don't provide them.'"

Tony Blair "was dealt a devastating blow today when two intelligence officers revealed there were deep concerns about the strength of the language used in the Iraq intelligence dossier, with one complaining the document was shaped for political purposes. Brian Jones, a retired branch head of the defence intelligence analysis staff, told the Hutton inquiry there were several concerns about the 45 minute claim and one of his staff felt some of the assessments of the threat posed by Iraq were 'over-egged' in the dossier... There were fears 'spin merchants' had been too involved in the dossier's production... Then, in a bombshell revelation, it was revealed David Kelly was intimately involved in the dossier and knew of concerns about claims the Iraqis could launch chemical weapons within 45 minutes of an instruction to do so - the central allegation that sparked the bitter war of words between the BBC and the government."

Last week, as Blair was forced to admit that he was indeed involved with outing David Kelly, the Great London Blackout occurred. This week, in the wake of the heart-breaking testimony of Kelly's widow, we have "ASTEROID ON CRASH COURSE WITH EARTH." This headline appeared in the Independent online (the only paper so far to take the bait). In reality, there are dozens of "dangerous asteroids" now listed, with new ones found every week. Here's a current list of "dangerous asteroids" (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Dangerous.html). If to compete with the defense contractors for funding, the astronomers have to claim we may all be annhiliated by asteroids, why not? The "terror tactic" sure garners billions for the Pentagon.

"'History' is another important theme in '1984.' In many ways, Orwell's novel reads like a history book. '1984' warns readers that the Oceania universe will be the future, if people fail to learn the lessons revealed by major historical events and figures such as WWI, WWII, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini (to cite examples from Western and Eastern Europe). The Party understood the power of history. A citizenry educated to understand history would not allow the Party to survive. Thus, the Party eliminated nearly everyone who remembered the past before Big Brother, created a new, post-Big Brother history, then manipulated history through the Ministry of Truth so much that it was impossible to ever know what was happening or what had really happened."

The UK Independent reports: "A new 'Department of Truth' headed by a top-ranking civil servant is to be set up in Whitehall after the departure of Tony Blair's leading spin-doctor, Alastair Campbell. The decision to appoint a new Permanent Secretary in charge of the entire government communications network will be part of an effort to end damaging publicity about the role of politically appointed 'spin-doctors'. But one rumour causing grim amusement in Whitehall is that the brain behind the strategy is Peter Mandelson, the former Labour Party communications director who is credited with being the first of the new wave of spin-doctors when he worked for the party in the 1980s."

"Alastair Campbell has announced he is to leave his Downing Street job in a shock move mid-way through the Hutton inquiry," reports the Guardian. "Despite early indications from the judicial inquiry looking good for Tony Blair's director of communications, it was always suspected he would leave the government after the affair... However, the former political editor of the Daily Mirror has become the centre of criticism about the government's preoccupation with spin and media presentation for at least the past three years... A hardened political bruiser - and close ally of Neil Kinnock while he was still a journalist - Mr Campbell was often seen as the 'dark side' of the more charming Mr Blair in a 'good cop/bad cop' routine. He softened his favourite adjective for stories he believed to be inaccurate from 'bollocks' to 'garbage' for the benefit of the TV cameras."

The Scotsman reports: "Geoff Hoon yesterday blamed Downing Street for masterminding the strategy of naming Dr David Kelly, the weapons expert, as a mole and claimed his role was simply to implement decisions made by civil servants and No 10. The Defence Secretary said he had 'played no part' in preparing the controversial Ministry of Defence strategy of dropping clues about Dr Kelly's identity and that his department had activated a 'fallback plan' at the behest of the Cabinet Office... In an extraordinary defence of his actions in the period leading up to Dr Kelly's death last month, Mr Hoon broke with the established government line of defence and claimed he had never wanted Dr Kelly to be named."

CNN reports: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told an inquiry that if a report accusing his government of 'sexing up' intelligence on Iraq had been true, it would have merited his resignation. Blair gave evidence Thursday at a judicial inquiry into the apparent suicide of weapons expert David Kelly at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London. Referring to the BBC allegation that the Iraq dossier had been exaggerated, Blair said: 'This was an absolutely fundamental charge. This was an allegation that we had behaved in a way which ... if true would have merited my resignation.'" But it is true -- and you should resign!

"A crucial claim in the British Government's case for the Iraq war - that Saddam Hussein could threaten the West within 45 minutes with chemical and biological weapons - was seriously undermined at the Hutton inquiry yesterday," reports the News Zealand News. "John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, which was in charge of compiling the Iraq weapons dossier, revealed that the alleged threat related not to long-range missiles but 'battlefield mortar shells or small-calibre weaponry' that did not threaten Britain or even Iraq's neighbours." Funny, the US mainstream media reported this story as Scarlett "supporting" Blair's 45-minute claim! That isn't just "slanting" a story - that's flattening it into an outright "horizontal lie"!

Bloomberg reports: "U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair asked for a claim that Saddam Hussein could make an 'improvised nuclear device' within months be put back into a dossier days before its publication, the Financial Times said, citing documents published by a probe into the death of a scientist. John Scarlett, the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, refused on the grounds that there was no supporting intelligence, the paper reported. 'The prime minister . was worried about the way you have expressed the nuclear issue . can we not go back, on timings, to 'radiological device' in months?' Blair's head of communications, Alastair Campbell, wrote to Scarlett in an e-mail, according to the newspaper."

UK Guardian reports: "Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's director of communications, could be recalled to the foreign affairs committee to face questioning over whether he 'sexed up' the dossier on Iraq. John Maples, the Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon and a member of the committee, yesterday accused him of having 'seriously misled' the committee when he claimed he had suggested only 11 changes to the dossier instead of the 15 revealed in a letter to Sir John Scarlett, chair of the joint intelligence committee, released to the Hutton inquiry. Crucially, one of these suggestions relates to the issue of whether Saddam Hussein was capable of activating WMDs within 45 minutes."

The UK Herald: "Government documents have revealed officials tried to stop Dr David Kelly airing doubts on the Iraqi weapons dossier on which Tony Blair based the case for war in Iraq. The documents emerged yesterday during the Hutton inquiry into the apparent suicide of Dr Kelly, who was identified as the source of a BBC story claiming the government had 'sexed up' the dossier to strengthen the case for war. The inquiry was also told that Alastair Campbell... considered secretly briefing a single newspaper that the possible source had been uncovered... An official note, written on July 14, ... said the scientist was be briefed by the deputy chief of defence intelligence (DCDI) about his appearances at the foreign affairs committee and intelligence and security committee on July 15 and 16. 'DCDI is to brief Dr Kelly this afternoon for his appearance tomorrow before the FAC and ISC and will strongly recommend that Kelly is not drawn on his assessment of the dossier,' the note said."

The UK Guardian reports: "One of the prime minister's closest advisers issued a private warning that it would be wrong for Tony Blair to claim Iraq's banned weapons programme showed Saddam Hussein presented an 'imminent threat' to the west or even his Arab neighbours. In a message that goes to the heart of the government's case for war, the Downing Street chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, raised serious doubts about the nature of September's Downing Street dossier on Iraq's banned weapons... Downing Street also faced severe embarrassment yesterday when the Hutton inquiry was told the prime minister's official spokesman in an email had described the government's battles with the BBC as a 'game of chicken'. The email revealed how senior Downing Street officials - and on occasion Mr Blair himself - became intimately involved in the events which led to the death of the government scientist David Kelly."

AFP reports: "An email from Blair's director of communications Alastair Campbell to chief-of-staff Jonathan Powell, dated September 5, disclosed that the dossier was being substantially rewritten ahead of its publication on September 24. Documents released to the inquiry Monday showed that the dossier should be altered 'as per TB's discussion' -- an apparent reference to Tony Blair. It said: 'Re dossier, substantial rewrite with JS and Julian M in charge, which JS will take to US next Friday, and be in shape Monday thereafter. Structure as per TB's discussion. Agreement that there has to be real intelligence material in their presentation.' JS apparently referred to John Scarlett, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, while Julian Miller was the Cabinet Office's chief-of-the-assessment-staff. The US stood for the United States... It remains to be seen who will take the political flak for the crisis, but many commentators have named Hoon as the likely government scapegoat."

Fraser Nelson writes in a Scotsman editorial: "It took just four days for the Hutton inquiry to find the smoking gun hidden underneath Geoff Hoon's ministerial pillow. We are now in a different ballgame. The trail now leads to Cabinet - and to Tony Blair. Dr David Kelly was forced to go in front of the camera and be monstered by the foreign affairs committee because Mr Hoon personally forced him to - using his powers as Defence Secretary to override the civil service. And Mr Hoon is not a big enough player in the Blair government to have made such an important decision himself. He was acting on orders - and he answers only to the Prime Minister... it seems the Prime Minister was indeed micromanaging the witchhunt which led to Dr Kelly" Under 'Kelly - The Key Questions': "Was Geoff Hoon acting on his own initiative before he rejected his civil servants' advice not to hand over Dr David Kelly to the Foreign Affairs Committee for questioning? Or was he acting under orders?"

The UK Independent reports: "The Government changed the title of its September 2002 dossier on Iraq at the last minute, to portray a situation in Iraq that some of its most senior experts did not accept as valid. Documents released by the Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly show not only that the claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were strengthened in the two weeks before the dossier's release, but also that a crucial alteration was made to the title. The last draft of the dossier available to the inquiry from 19 September was entitled 'Iraq's programme for weapons of mass destruction'. But the title on both the Downing Street website and printed versions is simply 'Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.'"

"Senior BBC journalist [Barnaby Mason] was told that Tony Blair was 'involved' in sending the September Iraq dossier back to the Joint Intelligence Committee to harden up its content. The source of the report is understood not to have been the late David Kelly. The likely existence of an additional intelligence source for the BBC's reports on the disputed Iraq weapons dossier comes as the Government fights a rearguard action to regain public trust on the eve of the Hutton inquiry. Andrew Gilligan, the defence correspondent whose 29 May report [started the scandal] is to give evidence on Tuesday. He will be followed by Susan Watts, the BBC's science correspondent who has kept a tape recording of her conversation with Dr Kelly, in which he is said to mention Mr Campbell, and special correspondent Gavin Hewitt. [Mason's report] strengthens the [BBC's] hand."

The Scotsman reports, "Downing Street was yesterday forced to admit that one of its top officials smeared Dr David Kelly, the late government weapons adviser, as a 'Walter Mitty character' three days before his funeral. Tom Kelly, one of two official spokesmen for Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, has privately admitted that he was the source who cast aspersions on the credibility of Dr Kelly, the weapons expert who is to be buried tomorrow. His confession humiliated No 10, which had categorically denied any of its staff had attempted to blacken Dr Kelly's name in a bid to discredit him."

"[British] Defense chiefs were preparing to burn paperwork with Dr David Kelly's name on it three days after his death," reports the UK Mirror. "[Ministry of Defense] security guards who found the papers labeled 'media plan' called the police. An MoD spokesman said: 'There was a security breach when a 'burn bag' which should have been locked away was left uncovered. We are treating it as an internal breach of security and no further action is anticipated.'"

The UK Independent reports: "Tony Blair was accused yesterday of war crimes including genocide, as a dossier of 22 alleged incidents involving British troops in Iraq was lodged with a new international court in The Hague. The complaint, brought by Greek lawyers, also mentions Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces Minister, and five others, including the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Mike Jackson. Members of the Athens Bar Association delivered their dossier in person yesterday with the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo."

As the headline in the "Scotsman" puts it, the noose is now tightening on Tony Blair, as source after source - some of them high level government officials who know the PM well, comes forward to assert that Blair was involved intimately in the David Kelly tragedy. One source close to the PM said Blair's "fingerprints were all over it" while a close friend of Kelly's says he's sure Blair is directly connected to the death. One former minister, who is regarded as a moderate figure close to Gordon Brown, said: "I can't believe that such a key decision [leaking Kelly's identity] would be taken without passing it to someone in Downing Street." Meanwhile, in true Bush style, Blair continues to throw everyone else he can grab overboard, including his PR minister, all the while campaigning for his next term as if nothing had happened. Talk about cold-blooded reptiles!

"Monday's CNN/Time poll, conducted by TNS in the UK, Germany and France, showed 51 percent thought Blair had deliberately misled voters [on the reasons for invading Iraq]," says a CNN.com report. "This view was highest in France (58 percent), followed by Germany (53 percent), then Britain (42 percent). The poll also showed that 26 percent of respondents thought the U.S. and UK were right to invade Iraq based on uncertain intelligence, with 66 percent against." Wow! Just think what the breakdown against Blair would be if this had been a REAL poll -- as opposed to a CNN/Time corporate poll!

"Sources have also told The Observer that the BBC is increasingly confident of its claims that Alastair Campbell, Number 10 director of communications and strategy [Blair's Karl Rove], was behind efforts to ['sex-up'] intelligence. In a taped conversation with Newsnight journalist and science editor Susan Watts, Kelly is believed to mention 'Campbell' or Downing Street three times unprompted... The tape, described as 'a few minutes long', will be sent to the inquiry this week. Broadcasting sources says that it backs up much of [BBC reporter Andrew] Gilligan's original claims" that Campbell "sexed up" the British intelligence dossier on Iraq by manufacturing the lie that Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons in 45 minutes.

"What began as a very British row blew up into a major global story as the accusation that Tony Blair has 'blood on his hands' was repeated by the world's media," the Scotsman reports. "Newspapers from LA to Islamabad carried details of the Iraq dossier spin saga, which was uniformly described as the biggest threat to the Prime Minister's administration since he swept to power in 1997. In the US, [many newspapers] reported how Mr Blair had stared in silence after being challenged about any influence he may have had in the death of Dr David Kelly. Il Giorno, an Italian newspaper, said the suicide 'threatens to unleash a political storm with unpredictable consequences'. In France, Le Monde described Dr Kelly as a 'government scapegoat'. Its rival, Le Figaro agreed: 'His ghost may well haunt the corridors of power, the Defence Ministry and Downing Street in particular for a long time to come.' Even in South Korea, Mr Blair was unable to escape the news."

"Downing Street [British 'euphemism' for Tony Blair] overruled senior Ministry of Defence officials who wanted to protect the identity of David Kelly and prevent him appearing before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee," reports the UK Independent. "Dr Kelly is understood to have been given guarantees from the [Ministry of Defense] that his identity would remain secret. The revelation calls into question Downing Street's assertion that the MoD took the lead in dealing with Dr Kelly after he admitted he had met Andrew Gilligan, the BBC journalist who claimed No 10 had 'sexed up' a dossier on Iraqi weapons." This certainly puts Blair's smooth speech-making power in a new light - his silver tongue is FORKED and hides the venom.

"Tony Blair and his Labour Party have tumbled in public opinion with the political storm over the death of a government scientist at the centre of a row over Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. An ICM poll published in Tuesday's Guardian newspaper showed public faith in Blair's trustworthiness had slumped by 12 points in the past month to just 39%. It also showed Blair's personal approval rating down to minus 17 from plus seven on the so-called ''Baghdad Bounce'' in the immediate aftermath of the war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. At the same time the government's lead over the opposition Conservatives dropped to just two points from 12 two months ago, according to the telephone poll taken shortly after the discovery on Friday of the body of weapons expert David Kelly. The poll showed Labour support at 36% compared to the Conservatives who were static on 34%."

"The BBC has disclosed that Dr David Kelly was the principal source for its controversial report claiming Downing Street 'sexed up' an Iraq weapons dossier. BBC director of news Richard Sambrook broke the news after speaking to the family of the Iraq weapons expert, who was found dead on Friday. He said the corporation believed it correctly interpreted and reported the information obtained from Dr Kelly during interviews. BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, the author of the report, added that Dr Kelly had not been 'misquoted or misrepresented'. In an e-mail reportedly sent to a New York Times journalist hours before his death, Dr Kelly had apparently warned of 'many dark actors playing games'."

AP reports, "David Kelly's family reported him missing late Thursday when he didn't return to his home in Southmoor, about 20 miles southwest of Oxford, from an afternoon walk... Television journalist Tom Mangold said he had spoken to Kelly's wife, Janice, on Friday morning, and she had said her husband felt stressed after appearing before a parliamentary committee to face questions about the BBC report. 'She told me he had been under considerable stress, that he was very, very angry about what had happened at the committee, that he wasn't well, that he had been to a safe house, he hadn't liked that, he wanted to come home,' Mangold told ITV news. 'She didn't use the word depressed, but she said he was very, very stressed and unhappy about what had happened and this was really not the kind of world he wanted to live in.'"

British authorities say they believe a body found this morning in Oxfordshire is that of Dr. David Kelly, a WMD expert who admits meeting several times with BBC investigative reporter Andrew Gilligan. Gilligan has accused Blair's own Karl Rove, Alastair Campbell, of "sexing up" the Iraq intelligence dossier that falsely claimed Saddam's troops could deploy WMD in "45 minutes," which has created a huge controversy in Britain comparable to Yellowcake-gate here in the US. But Campbell and the BBC adamantly refuse to name their source, so Blair's government has been conducting a witch hunt. Kelly told his boss at the Ministry of Defence that he met with Gilligan, but did not discuss the "45 minutes" issue, since he was not involved in preparing . Kelly was grilled by a Labor committee on 7-15, and some MP's concluded Kelly was NOT the source and was made a "fall guy" by Blair. Kelly's death is causing an earthquake in England. Stay tuned...

BBC News reports: "Tony Blair's troubles are set to worsen - and he should quit as prime minister before things get 'ever nastier', former cabinet minister Clare Short has said. The ex-international development secretary - repeating a warning she made soon after leaving the government - said Mr Blair faced increased 'muttering' among union leaders and was losing support among voters... He had been guilty of 'half-truths, slight deceptions, exaggeration' in the run-up to the war, she said. Ms Short added: 'I'm sure he's convinced that what he did was right but I'm also sure that he fooled the country in a series of ways in a way that's intolerable when it's a matter of war and peace and human beings' lives and the future of a country.'"

In the past few months, the world has watched Tony Blair use, one by one, every political trick he had stuffed up his sleeve. We've gone from "I have SMOKING GUN evidence of WMDs" to "Iraq must have a regime change to keep the world safe" to "Well I tried to work out an alternative to war, really I did!" Now, most pathetic by far, we have Blair invoking God, in true rightwing Bush Christian fundy style. The Scotsman reports, "Blair said he would be able to justify to his 'Maker' the momentous decision to wage war on Iraq, which ultimately led to the loss of hundreds of lives. The Prime Minister declared that he was ready to answer to God for the people 'who have died or have been horribly maimed as a result of my decisions.'" So, just like "good Christian" Ken Lay (or Saddam's righthand man, a Catholic), Blair is on the "buy now [with other people's blood and money], pay later [by making 'deals' with God] plan."

UK Guardian reports, "Robin Cook, the leader of the Commons and a former foreign secretary, today resigned from [Blair's] government in protest over the prime minister's stance on Iraq. Following a weekend of fervent speculation - and silence from Mr Cook himself - the minister left Downing Street before the start of today's emergency cabinet. Mr Cook said: 'It is 20 years ago that I first joined Labour's shadow cabinet. It is with regret I have today resigned from its cabinet. I can't accept collective responsibility for the decision to commit Britain now to military action in Iraq without international agreement or domestic support.'"

While the U.S. newspapers claim victory for Tony Blair, the reality of the situation is outlined in the UK Guardian. Blair suffered a stunning defeat of a magnitude not seen in the House of Commons in over a century. The British MP's said "No" to war, including 122 members of his own party. An amendment was approved which backs the French and German position. "The vote demonstrates there is no public support for a war. The prime minister has failed to convince the public or the party," said the left-winger Jeremy Corbyn. "This is a really sophisticated vote. Tony now knows he has to go along the UN route, which he didn't know on his own. It needed the demonstrations and this vote and it's what Britain should do." The ramifications of this revolt "undermines Mr. Blair's belief that he can send 40,000 British troops into action" if France or Germany vetoes a second resolution.

"Tony Blair's 'moral' case for war in Iraq appeared to be in tatters last night after Downing Street admitted that Saddam Hussein would be allowed to stay in power if he disarmed fully. The Prime Minister told the Labor spring conference at the weekend that it would be 'inhumane' to 'leave Saddam in place'. But his official spokesman stressed that government policy had not changed to the moral argument for 'regime change', and its focus remained Iraq's failure to comply with UN demands over weapons of mass destruction. The confusion came as a new opinion poll showed the first clear majority of Britons opposing a war against Baghdad. The Guardian/ICM poll shows 52% do not want military action, while Blair's personal approval rating plunged to minus 20 points...'"

Like a good poodle, Tony Blair is learning quickly from his master/mentor George Bush. The UK press has this pesky habit of being much more independent than the whipped and cowed U.S. media. Several UK newspapers, like the Guardian and Independent regularly print challenging, questioning stories. So now Blair is using his wife's recent run-in with the press as an excuse to investigate "media intrusion." Like Bush, Blair is trying to pull a bait and switch. He says now that the investigation will only focus on intrusions into private folks' lives. But a good 10 bob wager says that by the time it's through, Blair will be calling for an across the board muzzle of the British media - just in time for his illegal joint war against Iraq.