The article below gives a fairly balanced view of what went wrong with American intelligence, focussing particularly on Colin Powells presentation to the UN Security Council. Analysis by Paul Reynolds BBC News Online world affairs correspondent A year after the US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the American case against Iraq to the Security Council, attention is turning from the actual failures of intelligence to why they happened. Powell made the case against ...

I once saw a statistic saying that 80% of the American population would always vote for their political party irrespective of it's policies. While I don't believe the number is so high (and I can't find the reference) it seems believeable that many people do indeed always vote the same party. I see it among my friends and colleagues. Worse is the fact that many of them have no idea of who their candidate even is, just which party they stand for. So what's wrong with this? How can it be put right...

In a party conference speach aimed yesterday Tony Blair finally admitted that he got it wrong and that Saddam did not have WMD in 2003. To quote, 'The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons, as opposed to the capability to develop them, has turned out to be wrong. I acknowledge that and accept it.' For the prime minister of the UK to finally admit that WMD did not exist is a major step. He has access to more information and data than anyone short of George B...

O. G. San recently wrote two very interesting articles looking at how the case for a united Ireland has changed over the past 90 years. https://www.joeuser.com/forums.asp?MID=3&CMID=38&AID=28016#123271 https://www.joeuser.com/forums.asp?MID=3&CMID=38&AID=28255#123863 Following his suggestion I'll continue the discussion with the topic of economy. If you wandered around the island of Ireland early in the century and even up to the early seventies, you would have been struck with the...

With all the negative articles about US treatment of pows and the over the top 'USA are benign' counter posts I felt that a more balanced 'what now' post was in order. I'll start with the current facts (as determined by General Taguba). - US torture of pows is systematic in Iraq and Afganistan - mental and physical torture (beatings and sodomy have occurred) have occured - at least 2 murders have occurred (23 other deaths being investigated) - US government was warned by Red Cross,...

I had heard much defense of the US position on Guantanamo Bay and am very surprised at people's belief that it's legal. Based on Brad's suggestion, I've decied to post a new article where this can be discussed. The usual arguement made against it is that it breaks the Geneva convention. In particular Article 4 which reads, As many people point out, this articles does not entitle those held in Guantanamo Bay to POW status as most of them fail to meet all the requirements. What people se...

I'm surprised at the lack of post election analysis on this site. Yes, there are plenty of left v right taunts and insults being thrown but no real examination of the voting trends or turnouts. So I'll attempts to start a debate on these. - Current estimates as of today put the turnout at about 8 million Iraqi's or 60% of the registered voter population. There is no doubt in my mind that this represents a resounding success for democracy in the country. People have turned out in huge num...

Yesterday the US based Human Rights Watch released there 2005 Human Rights report. In a report that gives a very detailed overview of human right abuses acorss the world, the US in particular was singled out as a major factor in eroding global Human Rights. It's opening paragraph on the US paints the proud history of human rights that the US used to stand for. "but the United States has long seen itself to be, and in many places has been perceived to be, an effective advocate for human...

In a major change to previous policy, the UN has asked PWC to handle the tracking of donations for the tsunami relief and also to be responsible for investigating any allegations of fraud, waste or abuse. The UN has obviously learned from the oil for food scandal that handling of such large funds needs to be totally transparent and also needs to be separated from the actual people responsible for spending the money. A step in the right direction. Paul.

The highest court in the UK has rules by an 8 to 1 majority that detaining terrorist suspects without trial is a breach of the European convention on human rights and unlawful. The law lords (equivalent to a supreme court) ruled today that the UK may not detain terrorists under such circumstances. This is the second major legal ruling against the UK on human right abuses within a week and leaves the UK anti terrorist legislation in tatters. Link It's taken a long time but finally ...

In a landmark judgement today, the UK high court today ruled that an Iraqi who died while in British custody in Iraq was entitled to the full protection of the European Convention on Human Rights. In a ruling which has wide ranging implications, the judges effectively ruled that prisoners taken by British troops abroard fell under British judicial juristician, and hence the European Convention for Human Rights applies. This means that all deaths must have full open enquiries, all forms of impr...

This morning I noticed in the news papers that the EU has finally decided to start applying trade tarrifs against the US. 3 years after the deadline for action on a world trade organisation ruling against the US expired the EU has finally had enough of American arrogance and is acting. As of March $200M worth of trade tarriffs will be levied, rising by $40M a month for a year and then rising to the full $4B. Why? Well it all begain a few years ago when the US created tax breaks for export...