On the second anniversary of the Iraq war, Panorama reveals how several of the claims Tony Blair made in public during the build up to the war – and afterwards – conflict with what we now know was going on behind the scenes, as evidenced for instance by government officials and documents.

“The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the United States . . . in prohibiting, investigating, and prosecuting all acts of torture."

George W. Bush

United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture: June 26, 2003

SMH Letters

Facts are like a string of pearls, one come after the other but ninety per cent of the time someone-somewhere chooses the colours and the patterns... the chain can break... some pearls can "go" missing...

From the sorry David Kelly affair to small media outlet being given scoops on defectors by “commercial branches

The almost 120 Cardinals from around the world that gathered to choose a successor in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel were stunned and expressed amazement.

Cardinal Mohoney, the Vatican spokesperson had this to say: "We in the conclave are all shocked. We cast our votes using these new electronic voting machines. The results overwhelmingly favoured George W. Bush over all the Catholic candidates. The last Pope, John Paul, was a superb linguist, fluently speaking 11 languages: this one can't speak fluently in one language. We just don't know what to say."