The Mail on Sunday is doing a very good job on the odious Jack Straw’s involvement in torture and persecution. I think that at last the truth has entered the established narrative. There is a little box in the report about my own evidence to Scotland Yard. I will type it out here as the Mail’s box format here is not internet searchable:
“Torture” Evidence Handed to the Yard
Further pressure was piled on Jack Straw last night over the “rendition” of Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhadj after sensitive documents were handed to Scotland tard detectives.
Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, passed the documents to police as part of the inquiry into the behaviour of Ministers and intelligence officials over the detention of Mr Belhadj in Bangkok in March 2004.
The opponent of Colonel Gadaffi was flown to Tripoli, where he claims he was tortured.
Mr Straw, who was Foreign Secretary at the time, has denied ever condoning the use of torture to extract information.
But the documents appear to cast doubt on that position.
One memo, headed “Uzbekistan: Intelligence Possibly Obtained Under Torture” contains minutes of a meeting Mr Murray held with senior Foreign and Commonwealth officials on March 8, 2003 to discuss his concern that the UK could be in breach of international law by possessing intelligence obtained by torture.
The minute, dated March 10 2003, quoted Linda Duffield, then the FCO’s Director of Wider Europe, apparently justifying the use of such material as part of the fight against terrorism.
A second memo, dated March 14 2003, and written by Simon McDonald – the Straw’s principal Private Secretary – to Ms Duffield says Straw has read the minutes and “agrees that you handled this very well”.
Mr Murray is understood to have told police that during Mr Straw’s time at the FCO diplomats were told to only refer to the policy on torture verbally.
Mr Murray said last night “My evidence stated that Jack Straw introduced a policy of allowing evidence obtained by torture to be used. I also told them that written evidence had been destrpyed, and we were told to not commit details into writing.”
There is a slight misquote in the above. It should say Jack Straw introduced a policy of allowing intelligence obtained by torture, not evidence. In fact it was specifically stated such intelligence would not be produced as evidence in court (people were imprisoned without charge or rendered instead). The instruction not to put things in writing was given to me personally, I don’t know if others were told the same. As I was the only one protesting, perhaps not.
These links are to the documents in question.
The first two were obtained by Freedom of Information Act request. Details of the CIA’s colllusion with the Karimiv regime’s torturers have been redacted by the FCO. Last week Jack Straw came out and argued strongly for the effective abolition of the Freedom of Information Act. Now there is a coincidence for you.
Health to you Technicolour” & don’t forget George, I miss his links! Dreoilin thought she was in the wrong forum when ‘spanking’ was mentioned, I refused to play ‘ring o’roses’ with Larry and Suhayl wanted his ‘kingdom for a horse’ – happy days in a forum that now exudes the power of intention…
“There is no “Enemies of Israel” organization.”
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Exactly. It’s a disorganisation. It consists of disparate interests who have been shafted by the Zionist Dream. As a disorganisation which has no formal existence, it can’t fund Western political parties, and especially their more hawkish neocon members. It has no Party treasurers on its books. If it contains any massively wealthy hedge fund managers, they can’t donate to it or foot the bill for Ministers’ offices because it doesn’t exist. It can’t organise sanitised freebies to the New (Arab-free) Jerusalem for pols or lean on both Houses in the US to vote correctly at all times. It is the absoute antithesis of Friends of Israel, and it’s invisible. It could do with a few hints, couldn’t it?
http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/leveson-whistleblower-sibel-edmonds.html
Whistleblower : Sibel Edmonds
Link to her blog below the video.
CHRONICLES OF A REFUGEE
A documentary film series by Perla Issa, Aseel Mansour & Adam Shapiro
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THE NAKBA DAILIES
Sunday May 20th 15:30 – 18:00
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A HOMELAND WITHOUT AN ID
Sunday May 27th 15:30 – 17:30
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THE TALK OF RETURN
Sunday June 3rd 15:30 – 17:30
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THE DAILY NAKBAS
Wednesday May 23rd 19:00 – 21:00
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IDENTITY WITHOUT A HOMELAND
Wednesday May 30th 19:00 – 21:00
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THE RETURN OF TALK
Wednesday June 6th 19:00 – 21:00
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Venue: London Film School, 24 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9UB
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Chronicles of a Refugee presents Palestinian refugees
displaced in 1948, and their descendants. 17 Countries,
18 refugee camps and 36 cities; more than 300 interviews of
Palestinian refugees, the first documentary film to look
at the global Palestinian refugee experience since 1948
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All six screenings are open to the public and are free of charge
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http://palestinianmissionuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/FLYER-PHOTO-VERSION-2904.pdf
Technicolour Everything changes. Nothing stays the same.
There have been reports and eulogies throughout the day on the BBC and tonight on Channel 4 on the death of Vidal Sassoon in Los Angeles.
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We heard of his poverty and how his mother sent him to an orphanage. And ‘he fought in the ‘Israeli’ army in 1948′. If we wrote to the BBC and told them that Sassoon was more accurately in the Haganah, or worse, and that he, with others, was responsible for massive and most cruel ethnic cleansing (a euphemism), we would not get an apology or correction. We know of the gross US and Canadian MSM bias in favour of the Zionist entity, but it is as bad here, though more cunning.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidal_Sassoon
“There’s always a mixture of frustration and glee when mainstream media miss the blindingly obvious, leaving a lowly blogger like me to point it out. Most have focussed on Andy Coulson’s lack of security clearance and BSkyB shares – granted, both important issues. ”No killer blow” have declared BBC correspondents, Sky reporters, journalists, politicos and other assorted lotophagi reviewing the Coulson evidence. I beg to differ.
The Prime Minister has been caught, today, lying. On record. Repeatedly.
Cameron was pulled up recently by MP Chris Bryant for meetings with Rupert Murdoch which had not been declared, despite his many statements to the House of Commons that he had published all of them. The reaction from Number 10 was swift, categorical and bullish. Rupert Murdoch’s lawyers rushed to withdraw the list of meetings attached to Rupe’s statement, and re-submitted it with some of the meetings in question omitted and some shown as “possible” or “proposed”. They could not be confirmed.
Cameron’s spokesman made a statement claiming “We are confident that the list we published was correct. Our list is based on our diary records and we believe those diary records are comprehensive.”
Cameron’s full list can be found here. The relevant extract for July is below:
Not included in the above is a party thrown by Mayor Bloomberg in New York in honour of the PM on 21st July 2010. Cameron has an explanation for this apparently. His spokesman explained that the list “would not include every person who the PM exchanged words with at a large event”.
But the New York party, according to Rupert Murdoch’s evidence may have been preceded by a private meeting. Downing Street denies this, since they claim that their list is complete. The Prime Minister denies this, since he has claimed that he has published all of them.
And here is the killer paragraph from Andy Coulson’s witness statement which appears to have evaded everyone:
“The second post-election meeting with Rupert Murdoch was in New York on the day Mayor Bloomberg organised a party in honour of the Prime Minister. Before the party Rupert Murdoch met David Cameron for around half an hour. He and I met briefly when he arrived, but I did not sit in on the meeting.“
His Director of Communications at the time, a man who seems unable to remember which traffic light colour denotes “stop” and which “go” (it’s red and green respectively, Andy) appears to recall this with crystal clarity. A private meeting. Quite separate from the party. For half an hour. Where is it on your list, number 10?
I have always thought the expression “innocent until proven guilty” a quirk of the English language. Surely it should be “unless proven”… Having observed this Government’s application of that legal principle to Andy Coulson, Liam Fox, Andy Werrity, Chris Huhne, Jeremy Hunt, Peter Cruddas, Rebekah Brooks et al, I am beginning to appreciate the wisdom of “until”.”
http://sturdyblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/gotcha/
Craig can Blog too much or too little. Hes such an amazing person to read at all.
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Now these comment threads still have amazing pearls as well as poos.
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I was just wondering about Sabretache.. his ultimate blog entry http://www.wikispooks.org/blog was last year on Oct 20 2011, “24 Hours To Save XXXXX” (Those people i dunno if we should even mention, because they were dissappeared by the sickos whom our country knowingly returned them too. brrrr.)
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Just check back old guys and gals, now and then, stay for another spell when the time is well. ^^
Macky
Going back to ‘Straw in the Stink’, your comment on Andy Coulson putting his boss in the stink shows how this country does politics. Time is allowed to lapse through delaying processes until the stink has moved from ripe and unbearable stench to ripe and returning to manure.
In Islam Earth is considered clean and cleansing.
The invasion of Iraq was launched with a blatant Crusading intention to Disneyise the country using its own oil trillions. Islamic jihad’s response to that was to frustrate that intention with bloodshed, on the instruction of the Qur’an that Allah has decreed that ‘fitna’, immorality, irreligiousness, interference by Islam’s enemies is worse than ‘killing’.
Did Blair know that Islam would respond to the deposition of Saddam and imposition of its protegees to power in Iraq , in this way. Of course he did, and everybody on this planet knew he was lying when he proposed then and even now is still proposing the idea that wait and see it’ll all come good in the end.
People still believe that lie, because they wanted to believe that lie, same as they still believe Mrs Thatcher’s economic lies, because they still want to believe her lies in spite of global recession.
Islamic jihad’s philosophy is that you can’t get power just by hoping, befriending, and appeasing your enemies. It is a false philosophy because Allah has stated that your circumstances will only change when you reform yourselves. In Iraq and now Syria the power of the imposed dictator has/is being replaced by the direct interference of the agents who controlled the dictator, by detonating bombs and waging jihad on innocent citizens.
Islamic jihad, in taking the sponsorship of the enemies of Islam, hopes that the killing will lead Muslims to return to their God and their religion, and reform themselves. That is a total gamble, because they are just as likely to turn in their religion and embrace the descent of fire, the mini Armaggeddons of Western overwhelming force.
Muslims have been driven to accept the gambles of desperate men. Men who themselves have been tortured and brainwashed by dictators actively run by the likes of Straw and Blair, Hague and Cameron.
Muslims know that the acts of worship that they do in their private lives, in their busy working days and their tired nights, will be rewarded in this life when things settle down and in the next life after the grave.
And they hold onto the certainty that the evil-doers and mischief makers and enemies of Islam, will also receive just reward for their actions, unremitting hell-fire. Amen.
Macky – Maybe with the subjects in question the expression should read ‘guilty unless proven innocent’ – of course agent Cameron is unreceptive to ‘Gotcha’ -such things are counterintuitive in his mind and seem unreasonable in outcome..
If I have to read Ruth’s: ‘Yes, they’ve been caught with their pants down’ one more time, I’m going to scream.
Can’t we have an editorial change of scene, please mods.
Yes, they’ve been caught with their flies undone.
Yes, they’ve buried their dirty shorts at the end of the garden.
Yes, they’ve burned their dirty knickers in the kitchen and called the fire engine.
Their pants were never up, because nobody ever believed them anyway.
If UK politicians ever put their pants up, the whole world would probably grind to an abrupt end.
Could you please fix that faulty false alarm panel.
‘Hi, this is Craig. I’m in a cave at the hospitality of the Taliban.
Normal service will return soon, Allahu Akbar. Please send half a million dollars in used notes to Taliban, Afghanistan.
If you’re all here to make me say something you know i won’t.
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Simply because i have nothing to say.
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:.)
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New post any time you like Craig…but also…no pressure..:.)
Jay’s description of fascism implies that it is an ideology.
No, it is a phase in the political cycle where the political people of greed have been kyboshed by the political people of violence. BOTH WRONG.
When greed prevails over violence, the politicians of violence claim credit for the new affluence. Meanwhile these same instigators of violence, being political people, are the first to line their pockets in the time of affluence. Also being political people they are the ones who record and spy on the ordinary citizens who opposed the policy of violence, in order to discredit them.
Fascism is the process by which the supporters of a failed argument fall back on dirty tricks and insider knowledge to prop up their stupidity. That’s why we all keep repeating the accusation of Fascism, because that is the taste of our experience. Wrong ideas, lapped up by fools, ends up in tears and the ordinary people who knew all along that the ideas were wrong, get the blame.
No, chaps and chappesses. You do what is morally right in the first place and chuck ALL the politicos in the bin, the capitalist caterpillars and the socialist slugs, the Zios and the Jihados.
The proper definition of Jihad is, when you have completed a program of societal self-reform, you stand by it and fight for its obvious merits.
Not, what you have hitherto seen.
Price Waterhouse Cooper collude with the pornographer Desmond in avoidance of UK corporation tax.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17993945#
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Glaxo Smith Kline and others operate similarly.
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This morning the head of PWC was being interviewed reverentially on BBC Radio 4 Today.
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0615
Business news with Tanya Beckett, with Friday boss Ian Powell, chairman of PwC, the worlds largest accounting firm.
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Note: PwC boss Ian Powell’s salary up to £3.6m despite partner profits slump
by David Jetuah
06 Sep 2010
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PwC partners voted to increase Ian Powell’s wages have increased to £3.6m despite partners’ average profits falling to £759,000.
Powell earned £3.3m last year.
Asked whether he believed he had earned his wages, Powell stressed that it was the senior PwC executives who set his remuneration.
“It’s the partners that decide what I earn and I’m exteremely grateful to them for that.”
Powell, who has steered the firm through the worst economic slump in recent memory, added that PwC was well ahead of the chasing pack of other Big Four firms, but in terms of competition there were other players outside of the accountancy industry to consider.
“We still think that we’re the clear leaders [among firms]. But there are so many different players out there.”
The firm is focusing on the growth of its consulting business ts financial services offering, forensic practice and sustainability offerings.
+++However Powell also warned that the government would need to keep the UK fiscally attractive so the overseas business people who spur the economy keep coming here.+++
“We get the best international talent coming here. The economy would be damaged if they didn’t,” he said.
(Accountancy Age)
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WHAT A HYPOCRITE.
Will she stick to this story today? I see that she followed Bliar’s advice to apologize.
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Highlights: Brooks apologizes to UK parliament over hacking
19 July 2011
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CAMERON RELATIONSHIP
“I’ve read many, many allegations about my current relationship with David Cameron, including my extensive horse riding with him each weekend up in Oxfordshire. I have never been horse riding with the Prime Minister, I don’t know where that story came from.
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“I was asked three days ago to disclose the racing horse that I owned with the Prime Minister which I do not and I was asked a week ago why I owned some land with the Prime Minister which I do not so I’m afraid in this current climate many of the allegations … there is a lot out there that just isn’t true.”
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Asked how often she would speak to or meet prime ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron: “On Prime Minister David Cameron, I read the other day we’ve met 26 times, I don’t know if that is absolutely correct.”
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“The fact is I’ve never been to Downing Street while David Cameron has been prime minister, yet under Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Tony Blair I did regularly go to Downing Street.”
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/19/us-newscorp-brooks-idUSTRE76I51H20110719
The Hebrew-speaking spambot above does NOT link to קשר לא מחייב {seret.co.il}, an Israeli media conglomerate. As far as I can tell from the source html (DON’t click it!) it links to something called {yomyom.me.} Also in Israel. Hebrew film download site…possibly.
Rather hard for Beckah to maintain her total isolation from and indifference to Camercon (sic) if there’s anything in this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9253633/David-Cameron-sent-supportive-text-to-Rebekah-Brooks-biography-reveals.html
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Still. Leveson will know the standard advice informally given to serial offenders facing questioning: deny everything.
Mary,
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Wikipedia has it wrong on Aznar: “In 2008, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of News Corporation…”
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Aznar was appointed to News Corp Board in 2006:
“Press Releases
News Corporation Appoints José María Aznar To Board Of Directors
LONDON, ENGLAND, June 21, 2006”
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http://www.newscorp.com/news/news_303.html
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It was likely sorted for him by the cabal’s ‘don’t worry, we’ll see you alright department’. The same dept that placed Blair at J T Morgan’s.
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Interestingly, Aznar wiped his computers before leaving office, destroying all documents, including emails, relating to the Madrid bombings. I believe it quite possible that Yates of the Yard did the same job for Blair during the ‘cash for peerages’ investigation, when Downing Street computers were examined by American experts.
“McCavity’s not there” dept.
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/media/2012/05/why-isnt-osborne-appearing-leveson-inquiry
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Good question.
….Jay then asks about the “keep your head up” message, reported to have come from Cameron.
“It was similar but not direct,” says Brooks.
Broadly speaking, that message was delivered to you? “Yes.”
How do these messages come into the public domain? “Journalists doing their job,” says Brooks.
10.15am: Brooks says she had a number of indirect messages of support from “some politicians, some Tories … very few Labour MPs”.
When pressed, she says she received messages of support from “No 10, No 11, Home Office, Foreign Office”.
Former prime minister Tony Blair sent her a message of support, she says.
@Guano/Mark,
I should clarify that I’m not the writer of the Blog that I linked to; in view of the subject matter, I thought it would be of interest here, especially as Craig himself has posted similar detective work on airbrushed secret meetings.
Today there is follow-up to that Blog post;
Cameron’s Extra Meeting with Murdoch
by sturdyblog
I wrote yesterday about Andy Coulson giving details of a private meeting between David Cameron and Rupert Murdoch in New York, which seems to have eluded the PM’s recollection. I encourage you to read that short post.
Thanks to some collective detective work with @cjjmccray @robindbrant @andrew2186, prompted by @suttonnick, the following has emerged:
– The July meeting in question appears to have been issued by number 10 as an “addendum” months after Cameron claimed to have published the complete list. You can find this document here. The July meeting is buried in a single line on the last page (page 10) of the document.
– As far as I can see, neither the press nor the public were made aware of this extra meeting. The original list which claims to be comprehensive – and which the Prime Minister has described as complete several times – has certainly not been updated.
– The date of the document containing the addendum itself is dubious. It purports to be a November 2011 document, but independent investigations by both myself and @cjjmccray, reveal that the document was updated on the cabinet office server as late as April 2012. See here and here. It also displays no “creator” as other docs on the site do. This may be the result of an technical update, but certainly demands explanation.
– More importantly, in response to allegations from Chris Bryant MP two weeks ago that the original list placed in the Commons library was not complete, number 10 denied this aggressively and never once mentioned the addendum.
– When called by speaker John Bercow to appear in front of the House for an Urgent Question about Jeremy Hunt, as recently as eleven days ago (see Hansard for 30th April 2012), the Prime Minister claimed he had met Rupert Murdoch four times during his tenure. Looking at the list Rupert Murdoch submitted to the Leveson Inquiry, it contains four undisputed meetings and two possible ones – one of which is this New York meeting. We now know that this has been confirmed in the addendum. It makes five.
And so, the Prime Minister has a few questions to answer.
1. When did he recall this extra meeting and why was the House of Commons not informed that the list originally placed in the library was incomplete?
2. Precisely when was the addendum added? Why do electronic checks show the document as having been updated as recently as April 2012?
3. Why was the Prime Minister claiming four meetings with Rupert Murdoch as late as 30 April 2012?
4. Are there any more meetings he may have left off the original list?
I’m sure all this may have an innocent explanation. As I have no “press” standing, I cannot pick up the phone to Downing Street and ask for clarification. Those that can, should.
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My particular thanks to @cjjmccray who stayed up with me well into the night looking into the IT angle of this.
http://sturdyblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/camerons-extra-meeting-with-murdoch/
Thanks JohnDoe ref Aznar.
The flame haired beuaty’s eyes are blinking a lot.
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I like the choice of a plain dark top with a white puritan collar. No jewellery, just her ring.
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Purer and whiter than the driven snow.
Bugger the wrapper. Dogshit in a designer bag.
It’s like watching an undergrad Media Spin practical.
http://www.media-training.info/Media-Training-Articles/Media-Interview-Tips.html
Another guy who sees no evil. Mind you, he has a bit of an excuse…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/01/david-blunkett-news-international-adviser
Murdoch party, Oxo Tower, 2009…
http://dafjones.thirdlight.com/viewpicture.tlx?containerid=80749&pictureid=9753889
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Spot the sleb spot.
More pondlife:
http://prweek.co.uk/uk/news/1131372/Lord-Mandelson-advise-APP-accusations-illegal-logging/
Snippet, some may say trivial, from the enquiry:
{http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jameskirkup/100157469/lol-david-camerons-love-texts-to-rebekah-brooks-could-mean-voters-laugh-at-loud-at-his-expense/}
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But I don’t think the commentators have as much idea about Brooks’ modus operandi as the author of this detailed piece:
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/02/rebekah-brooks-201202
. What is really unforgivable about Cameron’s relationship with her is that a professional politician allowed himself to be played like a hooked trout by a newspaperwoman who smiled nicely at him.
I linked to this guy before without realising the wealth of detail he provides. So here’s the main page for the Murdoch Oxo Tower bash. Think of someone you’ve heard of and type the name into the archive search…they were there. “Lord” Saatchi, Boris Johnson, Ed and Dave Miliband, Billy Nomates Hague, Osborne, David effing Starkey and Ken Words Fail Me Livingston….all taking the Murdoch Moet.
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http://dafjones.thirdlight.com/viewcontainer.tlx?containerid=80749&pictureid=9753942
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. 183 wonderful images for you to enjoy.
We’re all in it together.
Wot! No Fox or Werrity there. There must be something wrong. She has now progressed to her social life with the Osbornes – Gideon and Howell’s daughter that is, not Ozzy and Sharon.
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Her lot must have kept all these Michelin star restaurants going. Troughers everywhere and all on expenses.