Colonel Wilkerson, in your prepared testimony, you write that “as I compiled my dossier for Secretary Powell, and as I did further research, and as my views grew firmer and firmer I had to reread that memo (of February 7, 2002), “I needed to balance in my own mind the overwhelming evidence that my own government had sanctioned abuse and torture, which at its worse had led to the murder of 25 detainees and at least 100 detainee deaths.

from Crikey ….. 

Powering Sydney with the sun? Not if the pols can help it 

Alex Mitchell writes: 

We shouldn’t be surprised to hear that George Bush dined with a group of historians on Sunday night. The president has spent much of his second term pleading with history. But however hard he lobbies the gatekeepers of memory, he will surely be judged the worst president the United States has ever had. 

*After Air Force One landed at Heathrow at 1.45pm, George Bush flew in his helicopter Marine One to Windsor Castle, where he spent 45 minutes with the Queen. She gave the President and Laura Bush a tour of her Berkshire palace's White Drawing Room. They were joined by the Duke of Edinburgh and America's ambassador to London, Robert Tuttle, and his wife Maria, for afternoon tea, sandwiches and cakes. 

President Bush, the ultimate conviction politician, showed that his elongated time as a lame duck president with the lowest ratings in history has given him a chance to reflect on his contributions to the world.

Talking to the Times on board Air Force One, the president bemoaned his image as a warmonger suggesting that "in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric".  

The Family organises Washington politicians into intimate "prayer cells", influences foreign policy, inspired the creation of the president's Annual Prayer Breakfast in 1953 and sponsored President George Bush's faith-based policy of transferring social welfare responsibilities to religious groups in 2001.

It has actively narrowed debate, limiting what change might be possible. 

When George Bush announced that he favoured keeping troops in Iraq for decades, the media apparently didn't think the opinion of Iraqis mattered. 

Education Minister John Della Bosca has quit the ministry pending the outcome of a police investigation into events that took place at a Gosford nightclub last weekend. 

Speaking in Bathurst after Premier Morris Iemma told a press conference the minister had been stood down, Mr Della Bosca insisted that he had done nothing wrong. 

from Crikey ….. 

You're unpleasant Belinda, but you're no LBJ 

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes: 

Panorama investigates claims that as much as $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or not properly accounted for in Iraq.  

There are contracts for caterers, tanker drivers, security guards and even interrogators, many of them through companies with links to the White House. Now more than 70 whistleblower cases threaten to reveal the scandals behind billions of dollars worth of waste, theft and corruption during the Iraq war. 

Independent experts, however, said that government could take at least three other steps that could force oil and gasoline prices down immediately. Neither Bush nor McCain nor Obama endorse any of them. 

Perhaps the quickest action, the experts said, would be ordering curbs on financial speculation. Financial industry heavyweights have acknowledged in recent testimony before Congress that such speculation is driving oil prices higher. 

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush late on Monday during a speech on the House floor.  

We’re going to hear those fateful words 'Mission accomplished' about Iraq again, unless I am very much mistaken. The British recognise that they have to get their forces out of the country soon after next January 1 because the UN could consider the presence of the American-British force illegal.