BBC News, 18/3/2008

Gordon Brown's former press secretary, Charlie Whelan, is leading a campaign against Scottish Water development plans for the River Spey.

Until now Scottish Water has supplied the salmon river of upper Strathspey from Loch Einich in the Cairngorms.

But due to environmental issues, it claims it can no longer meet demand and intends to sink wells into an underground lake beneath Aviemore.

Local anglers and the River Spey fisheries board are opposing plans.

Campaigners including Mr Whelan, who has a home in Strathspey, claim that the radical proposal to supply upper Strathspey with water from underground springs will seriously damage the country's top salmon river.

Scottish Water insists that the operation will have a negligible impact on the river.

The Telegraph, Henry Samuel, 19/3/2008

Nicolas Sarkozy has recruited a 24-year old "cyber spin doctor" to detect and counter Internet attacks and rumours against the French President.

Mr Sarkozy has been under a constant blitzkrieg of cyber-attacks ever since he began running for President, with countless websites and blogs dedicated to satirising and ridiculing the French leader.

According to the Elysee, the new recruit, Nicolas Princen, a graduate from one of France’s top universities, will act as "a sort of Internet early warning system, surveying everything that is making a buzz regarding the President", in order to alert his advisers and prepare a response before irreversible damage is done.

Inter Press Service, Dahr Jamail, 18/3/2008

Devastation on the ground and largely held Iraqi opinion contradicts claims by U.S. officials that the situation in Iraq has improved towards the fifth anniversary of the invasion Mar. 20.

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, during a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday declared the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavour".

According to the group Just Foreign Policy, more than a million Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion and occupation, now entering its sixth year. A survey by British polling agency ORB estimates the number of dead at more than 1.2 million.

Nobel laureate and former chief World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz recently published a book with co-author Linda Bilmes of Harvard University titled 'The Three Trillion Dollar War', a figure it considers a "conservative estimate" of the long-range price tag of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The authors say the Bush administration has repeatedly "low-balled" the cost of the war, and has kept a set of records hidden from the U.S. public.

According to the U.S. Department of Defence, close to 4,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed. The number of British casualties is 175.

"The war in Iraq has been one of the most disastrous wars ever fought by Britain," journalist Patrick Cockburn of London's Independent Newspaper wrote Mar. 17. "It will stand with Crimea and the Boer War as conflicts which could have been avoided, and were demonstrations of incompetence from start to finish."

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than four million Iraqis are displaced from their homes, with roughly half of them outside of the country.

The Iraqi Red Crescent estimates that one in every four residents of Baghdad, a city of six million, is displaced from home.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a report Mar. 17 that millions are still deprived of clean water and medical care.

Iraq's infrastructure is worse on every measurable level compared to Iraq under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, and including 12 years of the harshest economic sanctions in history. During those sanctions more than a million Iraqis died from malnutrition, disease and lack of medical care.

The international aid group Oxfam International released a report last July that found that four million Iraqis were in need of emergency assistance. It found a 9 percent increase in childhood malnutrition, and that 70 percent of Iraqis lacked access to safe drinking water.

The average home in Iraq, even in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq that has been held up by the Bush administration as an example of success, has on average less than five hours of electricity a day.

Oil exports, from which Iraq has obtained over 80 percent of its income, have not for a single day of the occupation matched pre-war levels.

Unemployment, already 32 percent before the invasion, has vacillated during the occupation between 40-70 percent, according to the Iraqi government.

With more than a million dead, more than four million displaced, and another four million in need of emergency aid, a third of Iraqis are displaced, in need of emergency aid -- or dead.

All this Cheney calls a "successful endeavour".

Soon after he said that, a suicide bomber killed at least 32 and wounded 51 near a mosque in the holy Shia city Kerbala, south of Baghdad. Bombings in Baghdad near the Green Zone just after Cheney arrived killed another four, and wounded 13.

Baghdad has become the most dangerous city in the world, largely as a result of a U.S. policy of pitting various Iraqi ethnic and sectarian groups against one another. Today Baghdad is a city of walled-off Sunni and Shia ghettoes, divided by concrete walls erected by the U.S. military.

These areas even fly their own flags; Sunni areas fly the old Iraqi flag, Shias use the new version, and the Kurds have their own flag.

Ethnic and sectarian cleansing strategies, backed by occupation forces, have virtually eliminated all mixed areas of Baghdad.

Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain, also in Iraq, met with Iraqi leaders as part of a Senate Armed Services Committee fact-finding mission. He, like Cheney, said he would support the Iraqi government and maintain a long-term military commitment in Iraq.

"The surge is working," McCain told reporters, referring to the troop build-up in Baghdad.

With "enduring" U.S. military bases established in Iraq, and an embassy in Baghdad the size of the Vatican City, there appears to be no end in sight for the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

The Nation, Tom Hayden, 13/3/2008

The top counterinsurgency adviser to Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq advocates practicing a "global Phoenix Program," alluding to the notorious Vietnam-era CIA operation that provoked a worldwide uproar because of the detention, torture and execution of thousands of Vietnamese.

The mainstream media has never reported on the use of the "global Phoenix program" in Iraq, perhaps because the explosive terminology has largely disappeared from the writings and résumé of Lt. Col. David Kilcullen after he first being referred to it in a forty-eight-page strategy paper, "Countering Global Insurgency" published in the obscure Small Wars Journal in September-November 2004.

Kilcullen, an Australian PhD who served for twenty-one years in the Australian army, was the "chief adviser on counterinsurgency operations" to Petraeus in planning the 2007 US troop surge. He also served as chief strategist in the State Department's counterterrorism office in 2005 and 2006, and has been employed in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia.

The Financial Times, Andrew Bounds and Nikki Tait, 18/3/2008

The Scotsman, 17/3/2008

law.com, Carrie Levine, 17/3/2008

Legal Times' annual Influence 50 report shows nonlobbying revenue driving a record year for the largest lobby shops

The 50 highest-grossing lobbying practices in the country passed the $1 billion revenue mark for the first time last year, thanks in part to strong growth in work that's outside the traditional boundaries of legislative lobbying.

Legal Times' annual Influence 50 survey shows that some of the biggest players in the lobbying world raked in multimillion-dollar increases in fees from public relations, legislative activity monitoring, and grass-roots advocacy. The survey, which covers annual income from lobbying work for 2007, also reveals that law firms are continuing to outpace nonlaw firms in revenue growth -- and last year pulled in more than 64 percent of the revenue among Influence 50 firms.

Overall, revenue among the Influence 50 was up 11 percent. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld ranks No. 1 on the list for the second consecutive year, with $89.8 million in lobbying income. Patton Boggs was a close runner-up, pulling down $89.3 million.

Both firms reported double-digit revenue increases, and Patton Boggs, in particular, saw a big jump in the amount of money earned from less traditional lobbying work. More than half the firm's $18.2 million gross revenue increase came from something other than legislative lobbying.

The Influence survey measures lobbying revenues reported to Congress under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) and to the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). It also asks firms to provide information about state-level and foreign lobbying and other related lobbying work.

It's that "other related work" category that many firms see as a linchpin for future growth. The category accounted for a third of the overall gross revenue collected by the Influence 50 -- or $339 million. That's a 13 percent increase over last year's total, and the fastest growing revenue category on this year's survey.

Aside from Patton Boggs, Podesta Group, in its first year since PodestaMattoon split apart, saw the "other revenue" category rise from 7.7 percent to 12.4 percent of the firm's total gross. Much of that jump came from the firm's efforts in public relations. Those "other" fees became a larger percentage of Arnold & Porter's total revenue, too, jumping from roughly 60 percent to 66 percent, and helping to drive the firm's 110 percent revenue growth in 2007.

BETTING ON THE 'OTHER'

If anything, firms are betting that related revenue will continue to grow. Gregg Hartley, chief operating officer of Cassidy & Associates, wants his firm to help American companies expand abroad. Van Scoyoc Associates is starting a consulting arm targeting educational companies. BGR Holding is moving into corporate transactions.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal added a six-person strategic communications and public affairs practice in June, and credits the practice for boosting that revenue category by almost $2 million, bringing it to almost 49 percent of Sonnenschein's revenue. Last year, it accounted for 44.5 percent.

Hartley says Cassidy is seeing the results of its investment in a federal marketing team that targets government procurement for clients. "It's a place for measured growth," he says. "It tends to be very work-intensive, very hands-on with the client, and so it takes a lot of time to service a client well and you measure your growth as you put resources into it." Hartley adds that the firm has increased its average fee for such work by 50 percent over the past three or four years.

It also helps that congressional Democrats have been stepping up investigations. Clients are turning to firms to help with oversight work, and that's also plumping the bottom line. Patton Boggs' Nick Allard says growth in congressional oversight helped fuel his firm's increase in related revenue. "In fact," he says, "the ratio between that type of work and straight legislative lobbying work might well increase this year."

Some of this, however, is simply cyclical. It's an election year, and that generally means less legislation. The Bush administration is nearing its end, and has less clout to advance a legislative agenda. The close partisan divide in the Senate has contributed to gridlock. And many clients have shifted their focus to lobbying administration officials and regulatory agencies, often at levels too low to trigger LDA reporting requirements.

That said, LDA work still accounts for the biggest chunk of revenue for Influence 50 firms, nearly $617 million of the total. Rich Gold, head of the public policy practice at Holland & Knight, says he expects the focus to shift back to LDA work -- but not until 2009, after a new administration arrives and starts working with Congress on a legislative agenda.

In 2009, he says, observers parsing lobbying revenue numbers will be looking at an uptick in LDA revenue and asking, "Where did that come from?"

LAW FIRMS' GAME

Holland & Knight was one of the law firm players that saw revenue rise across the board in 2007. Like Patton Boggs and Akin Gump, it, too, experienced a double-digit revenue increase. That's a turnaround from 2006, when many big firms posted small gains, or in the case of Patton Boggs, a decline.

So what is it about the big law firms that is catching clients' attention this year?

"You let the game come to you," says Steve Ross, the Akin Gump partner who leads the public policy group, quoting former basketball player and Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J. For the big law firms, he says, "the game is coming to us a bit." By that, Ross says he means that clients are seeking out bipartisan firms with the ability to handle complicated policy and regulatory work -- something the law firms say they're well-positioned to do.

Patton Boggs' Allard says law firms, with their reputation for professional ethics, are benefitting from the recent spotlight on lobbying scandals and new compliance rules, as well as a focus on policy lobbying. "That's because law firms have a reputation for compliance, which is very important," he says.

RELATED LINKS:

See the top 10 lobbying practices, excerpted from the complete Influence 50 report.

Methodology: Readers Guide to the Influence Revenue Report

Subscribe to Legal Times

The Sunday Times,  Jon Ungoed-Thomas, 16/3/2008

The airport operator BAA has used an elaborate network of lobbying and PR groups, headed by senior Labour figures with access to the government, to promote its controversial plans for a third Heathrow runway.

Among the Labour insiders recruited to front pro-aviation lobby groups are Brian Wilson, a former industry and energy minister, and Lord Soley, a former chairman of the parliamentary Labour party.

Jo Irvin, now a member of Brown’s inner circle in Downing Street, not only headed BAA’s public affairs department but also fronted one of the prime lobby groups backing Heathrow expansion.

Another Labour apparatchik, Stephen Hardwick, was closely involved in the same lobby group, as well as being employed as director of public affairs for BAA.

Luke Harding, March 17, 2008, The Guardian

He has been dubbed Europe's last dictator. He is known for jailing his political enemies, closing down theatre productions, and presiding - in the words of one opposition leader - over a "horrible" regime. But Alexander Lukashenko - Belarus' autocratic president - has come up with a novel solution to overcome his pariah status: he has hired the veteran British spin doctor Tim Bell.

According to the president's website, Lukashenko met with Bell last week. The legendary PR guru, who is better known for masterminding Margaret Thatcher's successful election campaigns, was invited to come up with a strategy to improve Belarus' dismal image.

The Independent, Richard Garner, 14/3/2008

Britain's biggest teachers' union has accused the Ministry of Defence of breaking the law over a lesson plan drawn up to teach pupils about the Iraq war. The National Union of Teachers claims it breaches the 1996 Education Act, which aims to ensure all political issues are treated in a balanced way.

Teachers will threaten to boycott military involvement in schools at the union's annual conference next weekend, claiming the lesson plan is a "propaganda" exercise and makes no mention of any civilian casualties as a result of the war.

They believe the instructions, designed for use during classroom discussions in general studies or personal, social and health education (PSE) lessons, are arguably an attempt to rewrite the history of the Iraq invasion just as the world prepares to mark its fifth anniversary.

Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of the NUT, said: "This isn't an attack on the military – nothing of the sort. I know they've done valuable work in establishing peace in some countries. It is an attack on practices that we cannot condone in schools. It is a question of whether you present fair and balanced views or put forward prejudice and propaganda to youngsters."

At the heart of the union's concern is a lesson plan commissioned by an organisation called Kids Connections for the Ministry of Defence aimed at stimulating classroom debate about the Iraq war.

In a "Students' Worksheet" which accompanies the lesson plan, it stresses the "reconstruction" of Iraq, noting that 5,000 schools and 20 hospitals have been rebuilt. But there is no mention of civilian casualties.

In the "Teacher Notes" section, it talks about how the "invasion was necessary to allow the opportunity to remove Saddam Hussein" but it fails to mention the lack of United Nations backing for the war. The notes also use the American spelling of "program".

Addressing whether the MoD should be providing materials for schools, Mr Sinnott said that he did not object, as long as the material was accurate, presented responsibly and contained a balanced view of opinions.

The union has protested to the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, who has referred the complaint to the MoD. In a letter to Mr Balls, Mr Sinnott said: "I have to say that were the MoD pack to be distributed and followed without the legally required 'balanced presentation of opposing views' there would, in my view, be very serious risk of a finding of non-compliance with section 406 (of the 1996 Education Act) at least.

"I do not doubt that there would be many members of this union who would not accept as 'fact' the assertions made particularly in the Teacher Notes, nor, I think, could some of the assertions made in the Student Worksheet be regarded as non-controversial."

Mr Sinnott reminded Mr Balls that a High Court judge had ruled that the film An Inconvenient Truth, by the Oscar-winning former American vice-president Al Gore, could not be used in schools without teachers counteracting some of the assertions made in it.

Mr Balls sought to distance himself from supporting the material.

He said: "I am sure you are aware my department does not promote or endorse specific resources or methods of teaching for use in schools but I appreciate you drawing this to my attention." Mr Balls added that he had instructed his officials "to take this matter up" with the MoD.

A spokesman for the MoD said the ministry had consulted with interested parties over the proposed lesson plan in order to ensure it had the support of the education community. "We did ask the Stop The War coalition to take part although it refused."

The spokesman added that the programme was "a set of web-based resources" whose use was "completely voluntary".

"We have consulted widely with teachers and students during the development of these products and feedback from schools has been extremely encouraging," he added.

"Teachers and students found them to be valuable and fun resources for applied learning.

"They are designed to support teachers in delivering a whole range of subjects across the national curriculum and its equivalents in Scotland and Wales.

"We are happy to engage with the NUT and we will be writing to them."

Union members say they are also worried that armed forces recruitment fairs in schools glamorise the job by citing exotic countries that recruits will visit but fail to mention that they may be required to kill people.

According to an independent assessment of the MoD's recruitment material by the Joseph Rowntree Trust, however, the material concerned was "very dubious". The trust said it had used misleading marketing with advertising campaigns that "glamorise warfare, omit vital information and fail to point out the risks and responsibilities associated with a forces career".

Mr Sinnott said: "On their recruitment material, it tells what an exotic lifestyle this can be, but it doesn't mention that being in the military involves killing people. These things don't feature as they should in a proper, balanced view of what it is like being in the armed forces."

What the MoD's guide says... and what it omits

* "Iraq was invaded early 2003 by a United States coalition. Twenty-nine other countries, including the UK, also provided troops... Iraq had not abandoned its nuclear and chemical weapons development program". After the first Gulf War, "Iraq did not honour the cease-fire agreement by surrendering weapons of mass destruction..."

The reality: The WMD allegation, central to the case for war, proved to be bogus. David Kay, appointed by the Bush administration to search for such weapons after the invasion, found no evidence of a serious programme or stockpiling of WMDs. The "coalition of the willing" was the rather grand title of a rag-tag group of countries which included Eritrea, El Salvador and Macedonia.

* "The invasion was also necessary to allow the opportunity to remove Saddam, an oppressive dictator, from power, and bring democracy to Iraq".

The reality: Regime change was not the reason given in the run-up to the invasion – the US and UK governments had been advised it would be against international law. Saddam was regarded as an ally of the West while he was carrying out some of the worst of his atrocities. As for democracy, elections were held in Iraq during the occupation and have led to a sectarian Shia government. Attempts by the US to persuade the government to be more inclusive towards minorities have failed.

* "Over 7,000 British troops remain in Iraq... to contribute to reconstruction, training Iraqi security forces... They continue to fight against a strong militant Iraqi insurgency."

The reality: The number of British troops in Iraq is now under 5,000. They withdrew from their last base inside Basra city in September and are now confined to the airport where they do not take part in direct combat operations.

* "The cost of UK military operations in Iraq for 2005/06 was £958m."

The reality: The cost of military operations in Iraq has risen by 72 per cent in the past 12 months and the estimated cost for this year is £1.648bn. The House of Commons defence committee said it was "surprised" by the amount of money needed considering the slowing down of the tempo of operations.

* "Over 312,000 Iraqi security forces have been trained and equipped (Police, Army and Navy)."

The reality: The Iraqi security forces have been accused, among others by the American military, of running death squads targeting Sunnis. In Basra, the police became heavily infiltrated by Shia militias and British troops had to carry out several operations against them. On one occasion British troops had to smash their way into a police station to rescue two UK special forces soldiers who had been seized by the police.

* "A total of 132 UK military personnel have been killed in Iraq."

The reality: The figure is 175 since the invasion of 2003. A British airman died in a rocket attack at the airport two weeks ago despite British troops not going into Basra city on operations. Conservative estimates of the number of Iraqi civilians killed since the beginning of the invasion stand at around 85,000.

* "From hospitals to schools to wastewater treatment plants, the presence of coalition troops is aiding the reconstruction of post-Saddam Iraq."

The reality: Five years after "liberation", Baghdad still only has a few hours of intermittent power a day. Children are kidnapped from schools for ransom and families of patients undergoing surgery at hospitals are advised to buy and bring in blood from sellers who congregate outside.

The Financial Times, Andrew Bounds,  12/3/2008

An even more surreal session of the European parliament than usual in Strasbourg this week. The “highlight” was what is known in euroland as a “solemn ceremony” to mark 5o years since the assembly was born.  It seems an odd title for a celebration. At least there was a birthday cake - and plenty of fizz, of course.

Solemnity there was, with the Ode to Joy, the EU’s putative anthem played by the European Youth Orchestra, marked by many members getting to their feet. But jollity, too, with much backslapping and some wonderful music. See more here.

There was also the small matter of nine MEPs being formally docked up to five days’ worth of allowances for their noisy protests at the signing of the charter of fundamental rights in December.

This is not the allowances story everyone is interested in, of course. The confidential internal audit report that showed widespread pocket-lining is still the talk of the town. By parliament’s standards, things have moved fast. The bureau of senior MEPs who run the place have agreed to review the system for employing assistants and hopefully change it before the 2009 elections. At the moment members are given 16,500 euro a month each to hire people. They often use intermediaries and the audit report revealed that some of these are controlled by the members themselves, along with other scams.

The new system will probably see assistants employed by the parliament. That would clean things up but may not save the taxpayer much - officials think they will probably have to take on 20 staff to run the operation.

Then there is the question of other expenses. The European ombudsman Last week the bureau agreed to publish for the first time in a simple form everything an MEP can claim, but not what they actually do. This is not good enough for Malta Today, the paper that filed the complaint. It sould go to court.

They are not the only ones pressing. Paul van Buitenen, the whistleblower whose revelations brought down the commission in 1999, now says he needs to do a similar clean-up of parliament, where he is now a member. He told me that if there is no reform he will start publishing cases of abuse of other allowances. He has already posted a summary of the audit report on his website. “We cannot let the pressure off,” he said.

Members moving house after the election to benefit from generous commuting allowances and those buying property to rent out at parliament’s expense are just some of the examples he has up his sleeve. This one should run and run.

The Press Association, 14/3/2008

MPs were furious and bewildered after the shopping list of furnishings they can buy on expenses for their second home was revealed to the public.

The disclosure of the "John Lewis list" re-ignited the row over their controversial allowances as it emerged they could claim up to £10,000 for a new kitchen and £750 for televisions and stereos.

Senior Commons figures immediately acknowledged the public would be shocked by the sums, which had previously been kept under wraps even from MPs themselves.

The abolition of the £22,000-a-year second homes allowance appeared certain as the uses to which it was put came under renewed fire. But while the Commons is set now to publish the details of claims by every MP, the prospect of a High Court battle over the identity of their taxpayer-funded homes loomed.

Sources said the Commons Commission was considering whether there were any legal grounds for appealing against the disclosure of MPs' second home addresses. It must make a decision within the next fortnight.

The "John Lewis list" - so-called because it is based on prices at the department store - was released after a Freedom of Information Act request. It led to renewed calls for a sweeping overhaul of MPs' expenses.

MP Nick Harvey, a member of the Commons Commission and the committee which is reviewing the allowances regime, said most of his colleagues did not know the list even existed.

"MPs are bewildered by it and I think the public will be bewildered as well," he said, adding: "It's clear the ACA (additional costs allowance) in its current form has to go, but it's a more complicated issue to devise something that's fair to MPs and to the taxpayer. Finding that balance will be the challenge over the coming months."

Many MPs expressed surprise and astonishment at the list, others said they were angry that it appeared in the media before they were informed about it.

Tory leader David Cameron said MPs must be happy to defend their expenses in public, saying: "People want to know that their MPs are working hard and are not taking money that they shouldn't." And Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: "We need to start again and build a system that is transparent, that makes sense and that re-establishes public confidence in the work that MPs do on their behalf."

The Guardian, Ian Katz, 15/3/2008

Former No 10 chief says Irish peace process showed link to enemy needed

Western governments must talk to terror groups including al-Qaida and the Taliban if they hope to secure a long-term halt to their campaigns of violence, according to the man who for more than a decade was Tony Blair's most influential aide and adviser.

Jonathan Powell, who served as Blair's chief of staff from 1995 to 2007 and is widely regarded as having been instrumental in negotiating a settlement in Northern Ireland, said his experience in the province convinced him that it was essential to keep a line of communication open even with one's most bitter enemies.

Powell said: "There's nothing to say to al-Qaida and they've got nothing to say to us at the moment, but at some stage you're going to have to come to a political solution as well as a security solution. And that means you need the ability to talk."

In his first major interview, ahead of the publication of his book on the behind the scenes drama leading to the Northern Ireland peace deal, Powell also delivered a remarkably candid assessment of the Blair years, revealing that:

· He did not think Labour had governed boldly enough because it feared losing power.

· Blair had a tendency to change his mind about things and could be "a bit of a flippertygibbet".

· Blair had failed in 10 years of government to sell Europe to the British.

· Relations between the Blair and Brown camps were so toxic that Gordon Brown did not talk to him for 10 years.

Powell, the most senior member of the Blair circle to survive the prime minister's full term in office, said that he had realised, after reviewing government papers and his diaries, that a secret back channel between the British government and the IRA, first opened in the 1970s, was one of the key factors that contributed to a peace deal three decades later.

"It's very difficult for democratic governments to do - talk to a terrorist movement that's killing your people," he said. "[But] if I was in government now I would want to have been talking to Hamas, I would be wanting to communicate with the Taliban; and I would want to find a channel to al-Qaida."

Powell's remarks will be highly controversial, as all western governments have insisted any contact with al-Qaida would be immoral and pointless. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said last night: "It is inconceivable that HMG would ever seek to reach a mutually acceptable accommodation with a terrorist organisation like al-Qaida."

The government's position on the Taliban and Hamas has been more nuanced: it did communicate with the Palestinian group for a period through an MI6 officer, but broke off contact and now insists Hamas must recognise Israel and end violence before talks can resume. In December Brown ruled out talking to the Taliban leadership, but said he would "support [Afghanistan's] President Karzai in his efforts at reconciliation".

Powell, whose book, Great Hatred, Little Room, will be serialised exclusively in the Guardian from Monday, conceded that the idea of talking to al-Qaida and the Taliban was fraught with practical problems: "Who do you talk to? And what do you actually have to talk about?"

Reflecting on Blair's time in office, Powell said ministers had been slow to act in many areas because "we were mesmerised by the notion that we'd be another Labour government that came in, a flash in the pan, and then disappeared again ... And so the huge emphasis was on not spending all our political capital, hoarding it and saving it to win another election and stay in power".

He said that Labour's first term in office had also been hampered by the poor calibre of many ministers, including the health secretary Frank Dobson, whom he described as "a disaster", and the environment minister Michael Meacher.

Although he said he believed Blair had increased Britain's influence in Europe, one of his biggest regrets was that the government had failed to sell Europe at home. "We didn't manage to change British attitudes about Europe ... Tony made lots of speeches, but we never could do that."

Powell also offered a remarkable insight into the intensity of the years-long Blair-Brown feud, revealing that the former chancellor had walked past him weekly for more than 10 years without ever saying hello.

Periodically, he said, he could hear the two men yelling at each other through the door of the prime minister's office.

Though he said he regarded Blair as a "remarkable, visionary leader" who would go down as one of the greatest British prime ministers, he conceded that he found some of his personality traits irritating, in particular his habit of "not sticking to things once you'd decided them".

He said: "I take a very strong view, once you've decided to do something you should really stick to it and see it through and he would sometimes be a bit of a flippertygibbet about things and change his mind."

Hospital Development, 7/3/2008

The inability of the Department of Health and the Ministry of Defence to get ready for the planned April 2008 switch to the new international financial reporting standard (IFRS) may delay the move to the system by at least a year, according to a report in the Financial Times.

allmediaSCOTLAND.com, 11/3/2008

Scotland’s freedom of information commissioner, Kevin Dunion, has appealed to journalists to take care in both asking for and in the use of material released under the powers of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act.

In an interview in The Sunday Times Scotland, on the eve of the publication of his review of 2007, Dunion said: “There’s no doubt, to be frank, that journalists are the group that most disgruntle public officials. One, because of the volume of information they request. And two, because they get the information, decide there’s no story and make no use of it whatsoever - so the official thinks that a lot of public expense has gone into finding the information.

“At a human level, I entirely understand that. At a professional level, however, I believe that journalists are the backbone of any FOI regime. But I would like to see journalists making use of the information in a way that engages with the genuinely difficult dilemmas that governments face.”

Since he took up his post four years ago, Dunion’s decisions  have been immensely helpful to Scottish journalism. They led to former Scottish Tory leader, David McLetchie, resigning three years ago after his taxi expenses were revealed under FOI by the Sunday Herald’s political editor, Paul Hutcheon.

Speaking in general terms, Dunion told the Sunday Times Scotland: “We’ve got to move into the mindset that it’s not acceptable to justify keeping things secret only for administrative convenience or to avoid embarrassment or controversy.

“Of course, there are things that need to be kept secret, but officials, ministers and politicians too often say: ‘It’s terribly important that we are given space to think about things, and if we put everything in the public domain, we’d have to rush decisions or not look at unpalatable options.'”

Dunion said he understood the mindset, but added: “I don’t think that there should be one ton on one side of the scales, with a feather on the other side for public interest, in disclosure. I’m trying to get that balance more properly considered and we’re making some headway.”

Dunion, 52, is a former editor of Radical Scotland, the influential but now defunct magazine that pressed for devolution in the 1980s. He has also worked for Oxfam and Friends of the Earth.

According to the Sunday Times Scotand, “though previously a member of both the SNP and Labour, his current political views are inscrutable. He persuaded his bosses to allow him to run the commission from St Andrews, well away  from the political cabals of Holyrood and the municipal machine politics of Glasgow”.

The Guardian, David Cronin, 11/3/2008

Spring is the time of year when EU leaders feel duty-bound to recite a cumbersome mantra. In a strange display of secular piety, our presidents and prime ministers commit themselves to building the world's "most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010".

The objective of achieving this makeover was key to the Lisbon strategy, agreed at a summit in Portugal during 2000. Back in those final months of the Clinton administration, policy-makers on this side of the Atlantic seemed eager to show that European capitalists can outfox their American counterparts. But with China now performing better than Britain and poised to eclipse Germany, an eight-year-old obsession with beating the US appears anachronistic.

It is unlikely, though, that any representative of the EU's 27 governments will have the guts to argue that the Lisbon strategy should be abandoned when it is discussed at a Brussels summit this week. Such thinking would be regarded as heretical.

The truth is that the objectives agreed in 2000 were neither attainable nor desirable. But this hasn't stopped our leaders from making the pursuit of more laudable goals subservient to this ill-conceived strategy.

In 2004, for example, they decided that measures (pdf) viewed as necessary to deal with climate change would first have to be assessed from a competitiveness standpoint. This has proven a boon to the car industry, which has successfully lobbied (pdf) to weaken proposals on reducing emissions from new vehicles.

Ever the opportunist, Peter Mandelson has used the Lisbon strategy to foist free trade on poor countries. When unveiling a 2006 paper called Global Europe (pdf), Mandelson stated that Lisbon "must be complemented by an external agenda for improving European competitiveness in the global economy". As part of this agenda, Mandelson has challenged environmental protection measures in Brazil and Mexico and Thailand's (pdf) policies on affordable medicines, because they were deemed hostile to European firms.

Admittedly, the Lisbon strategy alluded to Europe's much-vaunted social model and indicated that it should be preserved. Achieving its goals, however, would necessitate the dismantling of that model. Hard-won rights recognised by EU law such as paid holidays and a limit to the working week would have to be sacrificed on the altar of competitiveness.

It is little wonder that some of the most vociferous supporters of the strategy are American free market cheerleaders hoping to have their country's economic system replicated in Europe. Paul Hofheinz, a genial former reporter with the Wall Street Journal, has set up the Lisbon council, perhaps the most neoliberal thinktank now operating in Brussels.

Hofheinz recently commissioned IBM to write a prescription (pdf) for the European economy. The US computer giant recommended a lowering of labour standards so that it will be easier for bosses to "hire and fire" their workers.

IBM offers a slightly more subtle version of what Milton Friedman, the economist with the most pernicious influence in the 20th century, exhorted European leaders to do in one of the last interviews before he died. According to Friedman, the policies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan should be implemented all over this continent.

It would be one thing if Friedman's followers were having a marginal impact in Brussels. But unfortunately, they are influential. Frighteningly so.

The Financial Times, George Parker, 10/3/2008

Gordon Brown has asked Peter Mandelson if he would like to continue as Britain’s European Union trade commissioner when his term expires next year, according to officials in Brussels, in a sign that one of politics’ most enduring feuds is coming to an end.

Mr Brown discussed the prospect of Mr Mandelson’s staying on in Brussels during an 80-minute meeting last month, described by both sides as “warm”. 

BBC News, 10/3/2008

Ministers and councils have been the subject of almost two-thirds of requests to the Scottish Information Commissioner, a report has revealed.

The figures, contained in the commission's fourth annual report, show a total of 1,574 requests were lodged between 2005 and 2007.

Central government received 267 requests for information, with a total of 677 sent to local authorities.

Applications to government-linked public bodies were also significant.

There were a further 170 cases where people contacted the Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, in a bid to get more information from the police.

The New York Times, 11/3/2008

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia read the funnies over the radio to cheer up New Yorkers during a newspaper strike. President Franklin Roosevelt gave “fireside chats” to bolster Americans during the depression. President Bush used his radio address on Saturday to try to scare Americans into believing they have to sacrifice their rights and their values to combat terrorism.

McClatchy Newspapers, Warren P. Strobel, 10/3/2008

WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report.

He and others spoke to McClatchy on condition of anonymity because the study isn't due to be shared with Congress and released before Wednesday.

President Bush and his aides used Saddam's alleged relationship with al Qaida, along with Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, as arguments for invading Iraq after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld claimed in September 2002 that the United States had "bulletproof" evidence of cooperation between the radical Islamist terror group and Saddam's secular dictatorship.

Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell cited multiple linkages between Saddam and al Qaida in a watershed February 2003 speech to the United Nations Security Council to build international support for the invasion. Almost every one of the examples Powell cited turned out to be based on bogus or misinterpreted intelligence.

As recently as last July, Bush tried to tie al Qaida to the ongoing violence in Iraq. "The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims," he said.

The new study, entitled "Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents", was essentially completed last year and has been undergoing what one U.S. intelligence official described as a "painful" declassification review.

It was produced by a federally-funded think tank, the Institute for Defense Analyses, under contract to the Norfolk, Va.-based U.S. Joint Forces Command.

Spokesmen for the Joint Forces Command declined to comment until the report is released. One of the report's authors, Kevin Woods, also declined to comment.

The issue of al Qaida in Iraq already has played a role in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, mocked Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, recently for saying that he'd keep some U.S. troops in Iraq if al Qaida established a base there.

"I have some news. Al Qaida is in Iraq," McCain told supporters. Obama retorted that, "There was no such thing as al Qaida in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade." (In fact, al Qaida in Iraq didn't emerge until 2004, a year after the invasion.)

The new study appears destined to be used by both critics and supporters of Bush's decision to invade Iraq to advance their own familiar arguments.

While the documents reveal no Saddam-al Qaida links, they do show that Saddam and his underlings were willing to use terrorism against enemies of the regime and had ties to regional and global terrorist groups, the officials said.

However, the U.S. intelligence official, who's read the full report, played down the prospect of any major new revelations, saying, "I don't think there's any surprises there."

Saddam, whose regime was relentlessly secular, was wary of Islamic extremist groups such as al Qaida, although like many other Arab leaders, he gave some financial support to Palestinian groups that sponsored terrorism against Israel.

According to the State Department's annual report on global terrorism for 2002 — the last before the Iraq invasion — Saddam supported the militant Islamic group Hamas in Gaza, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a radical, Syrian-based terrorist group.

Saddam also hosted Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, although the Abu Nidal Organization was more active when he lived in Libya and he was murdered in Baghdad in August 2002, possibly on Saddam's orders.

An earlier study based on the captured Iraqi documents, released by the Joint Forces Command in March 2006, found that a militia Saddam formed after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the Fedayeen Saddam, planned assassinations and bombings against his enemies. Those included Iraqi exiles and opponents in Iraq's Kurdish and Shiite communities.

Other documents indicate that the Fedayeen Saddam opened paramilitary training camps that, starting in 1998, hosted "Arab volunteers" from outside of Iraq. What happened to the non-Iraqi volunteers is unknown, however, according to the earlier study.

The new Pentagon study isn't the first to refute earlier administration contentions about Saddam and al Qaida.

A September 2006 report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Saddam was "distrustful of al Qaida and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al Qaida to provide material or operational support."

The Senate report, citing an FBI debriefing of a senior Iraqi spy, Faruq Hijazi, said that Saddam turned down a request for assistance by bin Laden which he made at a 1995 meeting in Sudan with an Iraqi operative.