The secret Iraqi war files - Al Jazeera

A great report by Al Jazeera on the Iraqi War Diaries which were released by Wikileaks. Be warned some of the images are very disturbing. The photographs of children covered in their parent's blood after their car was fired upon by US soldiers manning a check point are not likely to be forgotten any time soon by anyone who sees them.

Even the figure of 15,000 additional Iraqi dead is likely to be an underestimate according to professor Jacob Shapiro to the Guardian.

Drink for Queen and Country

Drink for Queen and Country, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Government keeps wine cellar contents under wraps

Foreign and Commonwealth Office claim full disclosure of £864,000 collection could 'influence the wine market'

The Guardian

The Guardian interview with Giorgos Papandreou - life style puff piece?

Giorgos Papandreou - Γιώργος Ανδρέα Παπανδρέου, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"He cuts through the water with agility and speed." gushes Helena Smith, the Guardian's Athens corresponent, who then goes on to describe Greece's embatted prime minister as "statuesque" and later swoons over his "Olympian stamina". Guys, get a room.

This kind of journalism was be hilarious if the story behind it was not so tragic and didn't involved the suffering of so many people. Yet, the Guardian's interview with Papndreou is yet another example of how shallow the foreign media's analysis of what is happening in Greece really is.

We find out from the hard hitting piece that, "you have to make tough decisions in politics" and that "as long as I feel I am doing what I think is right and just for my country, for the Greek people, that is enough for me." While Smith does mention the enormous problems that Greece faces, many the result of the policies adopted by Papandreou's own PASOK party when it was in power she allows many claims by the prime minister to go unchallenged.

For example Papandreou insists that he was unaware of the true extent of Greece's financial woes before taking power in September 2009, a claim that the governor of the Bank of Greece refuted in an interview with the investigative journalism TV show "Neoi Fakeloi" (New Folders) which aired on the Skai TV channel May 2010. According to Giorgos Pavopoulos both the former and present prime minister were told during the national election campaign that the country's national debt was rising fast and likely to reach 12% before the end of 2009.

On the other hand Papandreou is allowed to repeat without challenge the oft heard claims that his government will help mobilise youth to change the country through the setting up of new businesses, especially those connected with renewable sources of energy and "green" initatives. While the sentiments are admirable no details are given about such programs and how they are to be funded when money for services as basic as hospital supplies are drying up. Nor does it seem to be having effect on the growing problem of unemployment which is hitting young Greeks hardest of all with over 30% without work, a figure set to rise still further as the economy continues to shrink.

At no time is the fact that many economists belive that the current IMF/EU/ECB bailout plan is doomed to failure according to many of the world's leading economists who think that the austerity package is most likely to lead to a long term depression reminiscent of 1929. Instead the government's tired old line that the there are no alternatives to the measures is repeated and that the economy will be "reinvigorated". No wonder the interview was warmly and repeatedly quoted on the state run ERT TV news.

What we see is yet another example of how "access journalism" reduces reporters to little more than stenographers and cheer leaders for those in power and that by making so many compromises to gain access to their subject the whole point of a newspaper interview is subverted and allowed to become little more than a life style puff piece. The fact it makes its appearance in a newspaper as serious as the Guardian makes it all the more depressing.

Gordon "godfather" Brown

Gordon "godfather" Brown, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"That Cameron guy is going to be sleeping with the fishes"

My take on the Guardian's April Fool spoof Labour campaign posters.

Tony Blair set to sign contract with Louis Vuitton

Tony Blair - The man, the politician, the fashion icon, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"At last we have found Tony Blair's core ­principles, his true ­beliefs, the real third way. It is handbags. He is in the final stages of negotiating a job with Louis ­Vuitton Moët Hennessey. It not so much a corporation as a posh-brand pile-up on Millionaire's Row. Louis Vuitton is a shop that sells dog bags for £1,260 (breathable mesh window is included)."

The Guardian

Copenhagen (COP15) - The Day The Earth Caught Fire

Copenhagen - The Day The Earth Caught Fire, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: "The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport. Ed Miliband [UK climate change secretary] is among the very few that come out of this summit with any credit." It is now evident that beating global warming will require a radically different model of politics than the one on display here in Copenhagen."

Lydia Baker of Save the Children said world leaders had "effectively signed a death warrant for many of the world's poorest children. Up to 250,000 children from poor communities could die before the next major meeting in Mexico at the end of next year."

The Guardian

Gordon Brown accepts his ABC award for best newcomer on West Wing

Gordon Brown accepts his ABC award for best newcomer on West Wing, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Following hot on the heels of Hugh Laurie, Gordon Brown has taken the now well trodden path from British stage to Hollywood screen. Brown's guest appearance on the revival of the 90's classic TV drama, West Wing was enough to get him this year's ABC award for best newcomer.

Twitter News

How Gordon Brown paid West Wing Writers $40,000 for 'tailoring' speech

"Gordon Brown's speech to the US Congress in March earned no fewer than 19 standing ovations, a congratulatory call from President Obama and plaudits for its command of global economics and rousing call to action.

What American politicians did not know at the time was that at least some of it was the work of a Washington-based speechwriting company called West Wing Writers – which charged the prime minister $7,000 (£4,300) for its services."

The Guardian

Adventures in poster activism

FRONTEX - Keeping fortress Europe safe, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"With the “road map of Stockholm” the EU and national governments go on to escalate their border regimes to a real war as Frontex’ role in militarising the borders will be strengthened once again. Many thousand people have died and drowned trying to cross the borders of Europe over the last years, hundreds of thousands have been detained and deported. Refoulement is a daily practice at all hot spots of the EU external border."

clandestinenglish.wordpress.com

"The home secretary, Alan Johnson, is facing growing anger from scientists and government advisers over his decision to force the resignation of his senior drug adviser, David Nutt.

Two other senior scientific advisers to the Home Office told Nutt they were "horrified" at his treatment. The former chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) told the Guardian that Dr Michael Rodd, a specialist in computing who sits on the Home Office Science Advisory Committee, and Professor Sheila Bird, a Cambridge University statistics expert who sits on the same committee, had written to him privately saying "they were unhappy with the way the Home Office had dealt with my case". Neither could be reached for comment."

The Guardian

All inspired by various stories that I came across during the week.

A. A. Gill's Planet of the Apes

A. A. Gill's Planet of the Apes, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

It's a sad, sad day when a British upper class twit cannot massacre the animal of his choice without being criticised. I mean what did we have an empire for?

"Animal welfare groups voiced outrage today after the restaurant critic AA Gill said he shot a baboon on safari "to get a sense of what it might be like to kill."

The Guardian

Trafigura / Carter - Ruck enter the Oxford English Dictionary

The next few months will prove to be an interesting time as far as oil trading company Trifigura and the law firm Carter-Ruck are concerned. After their failed attempt to gag the Guardian from reporting the proceedings of the British parliament, a legal action unprecedented in modern UK legal history, it seems that the Oxford English Dictionary is likely to have a number of new entries to next year's edition. Let me humbly suggest a couple of examples;

Main Entry: ¹ Cluster - ruck

Pronunciation: \ˈkləs-tər - ˈrək\

Function: noun

Usage: often attributive

Etymology: derived from legal firm of Peter Cluster - Ruck

Date: 2009

1 : a collision of several unfortunate incidents happening all at once

2 : awful legal advice leading to public ridicule.

RUBAR , adj

Main Entry: ¹Ru-bar

Pronunciation: \"ru-bər\

Function: adjective

Usage: often attributive

Etymology: Rucked Up Beyond All Recognition. Prob derivative FUBAR.

Date: 2009

1 : a situation caused by excessive use of legal measures in order to obtain a dubious result which reflects badly on those involved.

2 : lack of judgement leading to PR disaster.

Trafigurated, adj

Main Entry: ¹ tra-fi-gu-rat-ed

Pronunciation: \ˈtra - fi - grə - atəd\

Function: adjective

Usage: derogatory

Etymology: derived from oil trading company Trifigura

Date: 2009

1 : to be publicly held to ridicule due to overweening arrogance

2 : to be in dire straits as a result of previous choices.

Carter - Ruck gag Guardian

Carter - Ruck gag Guardian, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.

The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations."

Check out Twitter which is doing brisk business on the #trafigura trend.

Guardian gagging order backfires on Trafigura

The Streisand effect is when in trying to ban something you, in fact amplify it and bring it, inadvertently to a wider audience. Named after singer Barbra Streisand it is of course is not a new tactic as record companies from the 70's knew. Getting a record banned on radio or TV was great for business and often guaranteed top 10 sales.

In the latest example of the phenomenon is brought to us by Trafigura, an oil trading company based in London which has been trying to gag media coverage worldwide of illegal toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast. Despite repeated claims by the company that the waste was completely harmless Trafigura agreed to pay $100 million to 31,000 victims affected by exposure to toxic oil residues dumped just outside the country's capital, Abidjan. Since then Trafigura through it's legal representatives, Carter-Ruck has been waging a campaign across the globe to stop exposure of the incident. This has included law to gag media outlets in the UK, US, Norway and Holland. The latest round has included action against the Guardian newspaper which as it says in today's edition,

"Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.

The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations."

If Trafigura and Carter-Ruck hope to keep the lid on this story then I think they have sadly underestimated the new media landscape that the internet is in the process of creating. Such attempts to bury a story now produce exactly the opposite results as Trafigure already knows, finding itself at the centre of a web based maelstrom. Whatever happens in courts today the deaths and injuries caused by the toxic waste in landfills in Abidjan is likely to fill front pages for days to come.

In the time it took to write this artilce over 5000 new tweets tagged #trafigura have appeared on Twitter and has become one of the top trending topics on the micro-blogging service.