** former aide says US president made up his mind to go to war with iraq long before 9/11, then ordered his staff to find an excuse

"The one time the president does become engaged in economic policy discussion in Mr Suskind's book, it is to question the orthodoxy of his own administration's policy during a White House discussion of a second round of tax cuts in November 2002, following triumphal midterm election results.

According to Mr Suskind, who says he has a transcript of the meeting, the president asks: "Haven't we already given money to rich people? This second tax cut's gonna do it again."

The president suggests instead: "Shouldn't we be giving money to the middle?" But Mr Rove, who has masterminded Mr Bush's election campaigns since his days in Texas, jumps in at this point in the transcript to urge the president: "Stick to principle. Stick to principle."


** carnegie endowment for international peace official report on "systematically misrepresenting the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction"


** uncertain tony

"Paul Keetch, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said it was "disingenuous" to blame intelligence reports when the prime minister had taken the decision to embark on the conflict. "Intelligence is not an exact science. But if he is now saying he's unsure whether there were WMD or not, one would have assumed that uncertainty would have been apparent at the time," he said."


** US Supreme Court has allowed the Bush administration to keep secret the names and other basic details of terror suspects it has detained

"History shows that, in times of crisis and fear, executive officials are prone to overreact, especially in their treatment of minorities in their midst."


** indonesia -> africa theory plausible

"So absorbed was the Asian influence that by the time the white man came he never noticed it."


** death - reality soap opera that may never end - back to middle ages?