Sir William Patey, then head of the Middle East Department at the Foreign Office, said the UK had been aware "of the drumbeats from Washington" when it came to regime change but wanted to "stay away from that end of the spectrum".
Sir William - now ambassador to Saudi Arabia - acknowledged that international support for the sanctions policy in place against Iraq since 1991 - which underpinned the policy of containment - was steadily breaking down at the time.
Then, following the attacks of 9-11, the tone in Washington changed, and the concerns about Saddam Hussein became even stronger. "It was clear from late autumn [2001] that Iraq was being considered in a different light in light of the 9/11 attacks," he explained.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is set to testify later this week.
As word of the Climategate scandal spreads and more people become aware of both the scientific buffoonery surrounding the manipulation of science, and suppression of dissent, questions are beginning to arise as to whether this will "kill" the concept of AGW.
Further damning email revelations point to a criminal conspiracy to defraud the people of the world. How was consensus arrived at? By suppressing dissenting voices -- even peer reviewed scientific voices.
“This was the danger of always criticising the skeptics for not publishing in the “peer-reviewed literature”. Obviously, they found a solution to that–take over a journal! So what do we do about this? I think we have to stop considering “Climate Research” as a legitimate peer-reviewed journal. Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers in, this journal. We would also need to consider what we tell or request of our more reasonable colleagues who currently sit on the editorial board…What do others think?”
“I will be emailing the journal to tell them I’m having nothing more to do with it until they rid themselves of this troublesome editor.”“It results from this journal having a number of editors. The responsible one for this is a well-known skeptic in NZ. He has let a few papers through by Michaels and Gray in the past. I’ve had words with Hans von Storch about this, but got nowhere. Another thing to discuss in Nice!”
Meanwhile, news of this outrage on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and CNBC has been zero.
While exact numbers for the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca known as Hajj are always difficult to pinpoint, Saudi officials admit that concerns about the Swine Flu have impacted this years pilgrimage as many Muslims fear contagion.
While Muslims from all over the world will gather for the Hajj, official estimates of domestic pilgrimage within the Kingdom is for about a 40 percent drop as a result of fears about the flu.
"There is no risk of the illness spreading as we are well-prepared and have taken the necessary measures," said a Saudi health official, although four pilgrims have thus far died from the H1N1 virus at the Hajj, while another sixteen cases have been confirmed, with four of them in critical condition.
The Hajj officially begins today with an expected two million Muslims expected to trek to the holy city.
The prosecution has called for a sentence of 40 years in the case of 67-year old Kaing Guek Eav, the prison chief who oversaw the death of an estimated 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng prison during the infamous rule of Cambodian thug Pol Pot.
Kaing, also known as Duch, has cooperated with the United Nations backed war crimes trial, exchanging leniency in exchange for testimony against others involved in the massacre of an estimated two million Cambodians.
"In order to express my most excruciating remorse, I have fully and sincerely co-operated with the court whenever it is needed of me," Duch told the court.
"I acknowledge that I was a member of the Pol Pot force and accordingly I am... psychologically accountable to the entire Cambodian population for the souls of those who perished."
Even so, Duch fell back upon the "only following orders" defense. "I could do nothing to help," he said. "Pol Pot regarded these people as thorns in his eyes."
A verdict and sentencing is not expected until next year.
Recent comments