Archived Blogs

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The Matt Drudge Primary

(pasted from my Telegraph blogs, which has been taken down because of too much traffic from Drudge!)
Posted by Toby Harnden on 23 Oct 2007 at 07:30 Tags: Blogging, Politics, USA, democracy, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Drudge Report, Matt Drudge

So who is the most influential media figure in the US election? Seems like the consensus is it's Matt Drudge, the reclusive mastermind behind the Drudge Report, which first came to prominence during the Lewinsky scandal and has been my internet home page - and that of hundreds of thousands of others - for eight years now.

Today the New York Times carried a page one report - linked, naturally, by Drudge - which breathlessly reported how Drudge was now in league with Hillary Clinton as well as various shadily-portrayed Republican operatives. Being chums with Drudge, the piece suggests, is the route to victory in 2008.

In the echo chamber that is the US political media (OK, I'm guilty too), there were soon reports of how Barack Obama was not averse to a bit of Drudgery either while others leapt to defend the Hillster - and let's face it, any politician who doesn't want the good news about them (or the bad news about an opponent) getting a million web hits probably hasn't got what it takes anyway.

The notion of a Matt Drudge primary was first floated by Salon back in May. A year ago, the "Washington Post" gave the blogfather multiple mentions in a piece about the influence of new media on politics. Among the Drudge aficionados, it said, was Lynne Cheney, aka Mrs Darth Vader.

And then there was a hilarious piece in "New York Magazine" over the summer that described Drudge as "America's most influential journalist" (fair comment - Bob Woodward, eat your heart out) that spent 6,000+ words describing how the reporter had failed miserably to locate him.
Most of the commentary portrays Drudge as a sinister Right-wing loony whose courting by campaigns somehow subverts the political process.

Well, the truth is simpler and less of a conspiracy than that - Drudge often spots the real story that the reporter has buried in the 17th paragraph. He's entertaining, populist and cuts to the chase - which is probably why so many British papers (including the Telegraph and occasionally my own pieces) are linked to.

It's classic on-line democracy really. If Drudge served up partisan rubbish designed purely to push a particular agenda then he would have faded from prominence years ago. I doubt whether he links to anything just because an operative from a particular campaign alerts him to it - he chooses his links according to his own quirky judgement, which clearly reflects the on-line desires of millions.

The MSM and much new media is mucho sniffy about Drudge. Jeff Jarvis branded it "the notoriously unreliable political gossip site" while the "New York Times" piece today describes it only a little more kindly as a "potent combination of real scoops, gossip and innuendo".

As Don Surber notes here, most of Drudge's content is pretty straight news. Yes, stuff on there should be checked before it's believed but isn't that the case with the "New York Times" also? And, come to think of it, doesn't Drudge pretty frequently run previews of big NYT stories ahead of time? Doubt he gets those by hacking into their website.

As with Hillary, with the NYT it seems to be a case of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". And who could seriously deny that Drudge isn't performing a public service by keeping every presidential candidate on their toes and giving the NYT a run for its money?

If Hillary thinks she's got Drudge in her pocket I'd say she's more foolish than she seems. A candidate who tries to live by the Drudge might well find herself dying by the Drudge too.

#posted by Toby @ 6:27 PM

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Kendall Myers Comments on US/UK "special relationship"

Comments were made at S.A.I.S. in Washington on 28th November 2006 by Kendall Myers, senior analyst at the US State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Analysis and an adjunct professor of European Studies at SAIS.

Articles on this can be found on the Telegraph website www.telegraph.co.uk and on my blog at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/tobyharnden

On the "the myth of the special relationship"

"There never really has been a special relationship or at least not one we've noticed."

"As a State Department employee, now I will say something even worse: it has been from the very beginning very one-sided."

"The State Department and the American Embassy in London, by God they'll be pushing the special relationship till the end of time."

"The last prime minister to resist American pressure was Neville Chamberlain who was a much more brilliant figure in British diplomacy [than Winston Churchill]."

"We typically ignore them and take no notice. We say, 'There are the Brits coming to tell us how to run our empire. Let's park them'. It is a sad business and I don't think it does them justice."

On what happens next

"It's hard for me to believe that any British leader who follows Tony Blair will maintain the kind of relationship he has. There'll be much more of a distant relationship and certainly no more wars of choice in the future."

On Vietnam

"Harold Wilson was a great deal more clever in my opinion than Tony Blair. He managed to fool us all on Vietnam."

"The deal was not one cent, not one Bobby, not one Johnny, nobody, not one participant in the Vietnam war. Wilson succeeded by sounding good but doing nothing…Blair got it the other way round and in the end joined in this Iraq adventure."

On Tony Blair's legacy

"I would have to say that one of the most brilliant prime ministerships of modern times was brought a cropper by the Iraq war. He'll never recover in my opinion. It's been ruined for all time. That is tragic."

Why did Blair go into Iraq?

"You would have to say that the key fact was the British perception of the special relationship that when the Americans decide a major issue of national importance the British will not oppose. The way that Iraq developed it would have been extremely difficult for Tony Blair to have done a Harold Wilson."

"Tony Blair's a modern Gladstone. He really believes it. He may not have believed WMD - I don't know anybody knew that - he essentially believed this was in the West's interest to remove this evil dictator."

"Unfortunately, Tony Blair's background was as an actor and not an historian. If only he'd read a book on the 1920s he might have hesitated."

"I think it was probably a done deal from the beginning. It was a one-sided relationship and that one-sided relationship was entered into I think with open eyes. Tony Blair perhaps hoped that he could bring George Bush along, that he could convince him but of course George Bush has many other dimensions politically and intellectually."

What did Blair get from the Iraq war?

"I can't think of anything he got on the asset side of the ledger."

On Blair's verbal skills versus those of Bush

"I suppose he [Blair] explained the war better than us. Whenever the two...would appear together it was always Tony Blair who sort of made sense. When Tony said it, at least the words were strung along eloquently."

On Conservative leader David Cameron

"He's taken some distance from the US and politically it's a shrewd, astute move."

"This one sounds right and looks good and even sounds a bit like Tony Blair, shockingly."

On Rumsfeld's March 2003 comments that British military help was not essential

"That was sort of the giveaway. I felt a little ashamed and a certain sadness that we had treated him like that. And yet here it was - there was nothing, no payback, no sense of a reciprocity of the relationship."

On Britain’s "fundamental ambivalence" towards Europe

"The more serious issue that confronts Britain is not the strength of the special relationship but the strength of ties to Europe."

"In a certain sense I hope they break it with us because rather personally I want to see the British more closely attached to Europe."

"Tony Blair could sound European on a good day, could occasionally pronounce French well and he wears blue jeans with the best Americans. I just think the role of Britain as a bridge between Europe and the United States is vanishing before our eyes."

"What I fear is, and what I think is, that the British will draw back from the US without moving closer to Europe. In that sense, London's bridge is falling down."

On Blair and the Labour Party

"The Conservative party has a long and distinguished tradition of knifing its leaders in the back the moment a leader looks like a liability. Otherwise they remain absolutely loyal. While the Labour party belittles, attacks its leaders in and out of power from day one to the end as it turns out they'll never remove a leader."

"I would say that Tony Blair will become the Ramsay McDonald of the Labour party and the legacy will go on for a long time. But the difference is that the Labour party lacks the sense of the jugular. They will not remove him."

"He stood up to the Labour party and they haven't had the courage or audacity to remove him, to do what the Conservative party did when Margaret Thatcher became a liability. She had to be removed and they did it."

On the ascendancy of Scots in British politics

"It's like Sicily taking over Italy."

When accused by an audience member of sounding negative

"We're talking about post-Iraq and it's very difficult if one is being realistic not to sound pessimistic. This is a bad moment, let's face it. To be realistic we have not only failed to do what we wanted to do in Iraq but we have greatly strained our relationships with others."

"If you're looking at this from the moon it's Iraq, Iraq, Iraq and it does not look too pretty."

The Silver Lining

"There is one quite brilliant achievement. It's Northern Ireland."

"Clinton delivered on it with Sinn Fein and I think in a way Bush is helping to deliver the Protestants."

"Northern Ireland is a success story of Britain and Anglo-American policy."

Sunday, October 29, 2006
Cranky flight attendants

Announcement on an American Airlines flight from Indianapolis to Chicago on Saturday: "Happy Birthday to Mary Brown! If you are wondering why the flight attendants are a little cranky this morning, it's because they had hotel rooms next to Mary Brown and her friends with the Future Farmers of America. Don't worry Mary - what happens in Indianapolis stays in Indianapolis."

#posted by Toby @ 1:58 PM

Friday, September 29, 2006
Swearing

#posted by Toby @ 4:14 AM

Friday, September 15, 2006
Bill Clinton Interview



My piece on the interview http://www.tobyharnden.com/us_archive_2006.htm#16sep06 is running in this week's Spectator. It's already been picked up by the New York Times, London Times, Guardian and Mirror, which is gratifying. Thanks to Stephen Voss www.stephenvoss.com for this photograph of me intently scribbling down Clinton's every word.

So what was Bill like in the flesh? Well, I have seen a few politicians close up in my time and no one comes close to Clinton - he's a natural, to borrow the title of Joe Klein's insightful book about him. After speaking for 12 minutes - a perfect blend of rallying the Democratic troops, sticking it to the Republicans, flattering the candidate (Mike Beebe, running for Arkansas governor) and self-justification - he spent nearly an hour just soaking up the love from his people. He took time to talk to anyone who wanted to talk to him (including me!) and created a little one-on-one zone with each interlocutor.

Most politicians would have been irked at a cheeky British reporter turning up like that and peppering him with questions about the Labour leadership, Hillary and Iraq. But Clinton was supremely good-humoured. He answered everything pretty much directly and eloquently - he had clearly thought about the future after Blair (which I go into in the Spectator piece). At the end of the event I shook his hand (picture posted below) and he did what everyone says he does - looked me in the eye, asked my name, joked about a Brit being in Arkansas. He would not let go of my hand (I'd say he held the grip for 40-50 seconds - I was becoming uncomfortable because I needed to write down what he was saying). It is impossible not to be affected by that kind of schmoozing, which is why he is the ultimate retail politician.

George W. Bush is also very good in small crowds - he too takes the time, builds connections with individuals and comes across as altogether more likeable, relaxed and quick-witted than he does in formal setting such as Oval Office addresses. I spent about 45 minutes with him on his campaign plane in July 2000 and found he certainly had a winning way with people. He is more understated than Clinton who has such an aura, force of personality and kind of verbose intelligence about him that it is almost overwhelming.

#posted by Toby @ 3:39 PM

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Iraqi Insurgent Darwin Awards

Back in February last year, I wrote a piece for the Spectator about Lt Col Jim Stockmoe, a divisional intelligence office based in Tikrit, compiling a list of Darwin award nominations for hapless (and mostly dead) insurgents. http://www.tobyharnden.com/iraq_jan_march_2005.htm#05feb05 Col Stockmoe has just been promoted to full-bird colonel and is studying at the US War College. True to his word, he has supplied me with the final list of nominations:

Iraqi Insurgent Darwin Awards

During TF Danger's operations in Iraq in 2004-05, the following incidents were reported. While most of the insurgents in Iraq were lethal and tenacious, these particular insurgents made some egregious errors. The incidents occurred as stated, although the details such as names, dates, and units have been sanitized. Unfortunately several images were lost which showed the extent of the Darwin recipients' idiocy.

- Jim Stockmoe/Former TF Danger G2


Unlucky #13

A patrol from the Qoria Iraqi Police was engaged by small arms fire in Kirkuk causing no damages or injuries. The passenger of a red Opal had exited a vehicle, engaged the patrol with a 9mm pistol, and then the driver fled in the vehicle leaving the passenger who was detained by the Iraqi Police.

- -----------------------------

Darwin Award #12

A 32 year old Arab detainee attempted suicide at a Forward Operating Base detention facility by hanging himself with a scarf. When the guards took the scarf, he ran into the concertina wire. Medics treated his wounds.

-------------------------

Darwin Award #11

Near Abayach in Diyala Province a US combat patrol en route to Forward Operating Base Warhorse spotted a suspicious vehicle sitting lower than normal near a checkpoint. The patrol searched the vehicle discovering 540 Million Dinars (about $500K), two AK47s with full magazines, documents and three identification cards that did not match the two occupants of the vehicle. The personnel were detained and taken to Forward Operating Base Gabe for questioning. Both individuals and the confiscated items were later turned over to the Iraqi Police.

--------------------------

Darwin Award #10

Baghdad: A US Task Force reported the driver of a black Hyundai Galloper turbo wagon jumped out of his vehicle and ran away. The Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army searched the vehicle and found it was a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED). Inside the vehicle were 19 x 122mm rounds, 3 x 105mm artillery rounds, 2 x detonators, a plunger switch and push button, 4 x 100 Lb. bags of TNT, 2 x aircraft bombs (OFAB 100 Kg. bomb and a US Mark-82 500lb guided bomb). Apparently the individual hit a pothole with the overloaded VBIED and broke the axle under the weight of the munitions.

------------------------

Darwin Award #9

In Baghdad Zone 26 three insurgents were setting up a mortar position. Two of the insurgents were firing the mortar (a bare tube with no legs or base plate). One insurgent was holding the tube while the second loaded the mortar round. Well, it exploded taking two of them out at the knees. It seems the mortar rounds and the tube were hidden and transported inside the engine compartment of the car, resulting in a hot mortar round cooking off in a hot mortar tube. The third insurgent ran to a neighboring house to get help placing his two brothers remains in the car in order to escape before coalition forces arrived. The Iraqi resident at the house brought his brothers to the scene and proceeded to beat the third uninjured insurgent severely. The Iraqi Army arrived on scene to provide additional security. A US unit arrived and detained the one living insurgent and proceeded to tactically question him. He admitted that he had Madhi Militia associations or contacts and that insurgents use the Baghdad aerostat as an aiming point for mortar fires (in this case, the aerostat could not be seen from the firing point).

-----------------------------------------------

Darwin Award #8

A Federal Protection Service Agent reported that he heard an explosion outside his house. He went to investigate and found the body parts of an insurgent extremist outside his front gate. The extremist had an AK-47, explosives and a bicycle in his possession. His IED employment skills were apparently lacking. As he tried to emplace the IED in front of the FPS officer's house, well let's just say it didn't go as planned. The local police chief reported that the extremist was from a nearby village and notorious drunkard, working as a blacksmith in a welding shop in Muqdadiyah.

---------------------------------

Darwin Award #7

The Iraqi Army reported an IED explosion on MSR TAMPA that killed two Iraqis in an automobile. The Iraqi Police and explosive ordnance personnel investigated and determined the two were emplacing an IED consisting of a 155 round, based on their blood found on the outside of the car.

---------------------------

Darwin Award #6

Counterfeiters detained at a FOB with $360,000: 3 x Iraqis came to a forward operating base inquiring about detainees they claimed were their brothers. The detainees inquired about were injured the night before after attacking coalition forces in Bayji, and were then arrested at the Bayji hospital. Civil affairs soldiers told the 3 x Iraqis at the gate to come back on a specified date. The 3 x Iraqis came back on the agreed date and were detained as part of a counterfeiting ring funding activities in Fallujah. After detaining the 3 x men, the US Task Force searched their car and found $360,000 USD.

------------------------------

Darwin Award #5

A US Task Force in conjunction with Iraqi Army forces conducted a cordon and search against two unit high level targets. During the search, they detained 4 x individuals, and seized 4 x AKs, an SKS sniper rifle, a .22 rifle, 16 x magazines, 1000+ x rounds of ammunition, insurgent propaganda, and most significantly, a half disassembled mortar round. During the operation, the mother of one of the targets described how he died recently when his car blew up with him in it. The victim was a suspected IED maker.


----------------------------------

Darwin Award #4

A US Task Force reported they heard 2 x explosions, a minute later observing 3 x explosions next to a transportation convoy. After nearby IED detonations and receiving small arms fire a dispatched patrol observed the IED was command detonated, and looked to be daisy chained. There was a spool of wire left on the ground. They followed it out to the field and it led to an insurgent in a truck. The local was detained and a swipe test turned out positive for 3 x kinds of explosives.

---------------------------------------

Darwin Award #3

An insurgent was riding his bike with an IED on it when it detonated blowing him and the bike up near Riyadh, causing no damage or injuries to coalition forces. The intended target was a nearby oil pipeline. Wonder if he was wearing a helmet?

--------------------------------------
Darwin Award #2

A suicide bomber approached an Iraqi Army guard and began to make threats, telling him that he was wearing a suicide vest. The Iraqi soldier shot the individual, killing him and wounding his accomplice in the vehicle. While inspecting the vehicle they found 5 x 155mm artillery rounds. The wounded individual was taken to the hospital under guard.

-------------------------------
Darwin Award #1

A homemade multiple rocket launcher launch in Baghdad resulted in the detonation of the nine tube launcher and 17 rockets after the launch arm collapsed and subsequently fired a rocket into the vehicle destroying it and killing two insurgents inside.

#posted by Toby @ 1:43 PM

Saturday, September 09, 2006
Meeting Bill Clinton



Just returned from Little Rock, Arkansas, where I met Bill Clinton - first piece on this to be published in tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph. Picture by Stephen Voss, who worked with me on the story www.stephenvoss.com.

#posted by Toby @ 1:00 AM

Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Gerry Adams and Hamas

Irish republicans should not underestimate the damage Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president and reputed IRA Army Council member, has done to their cause in the United States by going ahead with his "peace mission" to the occupied Palestinian territories. News of the visit was a Sunday Telegraph exclusive at the weekend (full article, as written, below). Somewhat surprisingly, the Israelis allowed him into the country. Perhaps they judged that there would be no damage because his contribution to the debate on the Middle East would be nothing more than the vapid musings and disingenuous comparisons between Northern Ireland and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that he has indeed trotted out.

I have it on very good authority that Mitchell Reiss, the Bush administration's special envoy to Northern Ireland, is spitting blood that Mr Adams is talking to Hamas. Reiss, like his predecessor Richard Haass, another moderate Republican, happens to be Jewish. He lobbied Irish-American supporters of Sinn Fein on Capitol Hill in advance in a vain effort to get the Sinn Fein leader to re-think. Those supporters are, almost to a man, staunch backers of Israel. Clearly embarrassed, their silence on the issue has been deafening.

In 2001, Mr Adams went to talk to Fidel Castro in Cuba. Two years earlier, IRA members were caught helping train Farc narco-terrorists in Colombia. Asked today what he would say to Hamas, Mr Adams offered: "The advice I would give (to Hamas) is the same to all the factions: stop all conflict, talk, respect each other's mandates and try to move forward. Whatever the difficulties of any solution there is a way to sort it out." Before we all hold hands and start singing kumbaya along with Mr Adams, perhaps we should remember that the IRA's links to Palestinian and other extremist groups in the Middle East are deep and long-standing. This is why insurgents in Iraq now kill British soldiers with infra-red activated bombs that are very similar to devices first used against British soldiers and the RUC in Northern Ireland in the early 1990s. The technology was used by Hezbollah and then honed in Iran, which backs and assists Shia insurgent groups in southern Iraq.

Hamas, despite its electoral victory in January, still supports suicide bombings against civilians in Israel and is viewed in Washington as an opponent in the war on terror. The European Union also classifies it as a terrorist organisation, though it seems this may change if Hamas forms a Palestinian unity government with Fatah. Even leaving aside the issue of the morality of publicly meeting Hamas (thereby helping legitmise its actions), by going out of his way to associate with America's enemies Mr Adams displays that his primary interest is in playing at being an international statesman and showboating for domestic electoral gain. Rolling up his sleeves to deal with the policing issue or helping reinstate the assembly in Northern Ireland is a much lower priority - as is cultivating the US government or showing sensitivity to the congressional figures (Republicans and Democrats) who have supported him through thick and thin.


The Sunday Telegraph 3 September 2006

US anger as Adams presses ahead with visit to Palestinian terror group

By Toby Harnden in Washington

GERRY ADAMS, the Sinn Fein president, is planning to travel to the occupied Palestinian territories to hold talks with Hamas this week despite a furious protest from the United States, which is determined to isolate the terrorist group.

The visit is a major political risk for Mr Adams because many of his Irish-American allies on Capitol Hill are also staunch backers of Israel. Congressmen Peter King of New York and Chris Smith of New Jersey, normally vocal in their support, both declined to discuss the issue with The Sunday Telegraph.

But the trip could give Sinn Fein an electoral boost in the Irish Republic, where pro-Palestinian sentiment runs high. Mr Adams is likely to argue that he is promoting peace and to capitalise on the European Union's announcement on Friday that Hamas could become a "credible partner" in negotiations.

A US diplomat confirmed the meeting with Hamas had been arranged although a State Department spokesman would not make official comment.

Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist, has carried out a campaign of suicide bombing against the Jewish state and continues to hold Cpl Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, captive after kidnapping him in June. It is listed as a terrorist group by the EU and US.

Mr Adams intends to fly to Tel Aviv today(Mon) on his Irish passport and to enter Israel as a tourist. He has requested audiences with President Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat's moderate successor as Palestinian president, and Ismail Haniya, a Hamas leader who was elected Palestinian prime minister in January.

Western diplomats said that Mitchell Reiss, President George W. Bush's Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, had told Mr Adams that the Bush administration strongly disapproved of the Hamas meeting and made it "crystal clear" it would set back Sinn Fein's attempts to resume raising funds in the US.

Sinn Fein has been effectively banned from fundraising in America since last year following the involvement of IRA members in the murder of Robert McCartney in a Belfast bar and the pounds26.5 million Northern Bank robbery.

Since then, the party's leaders have been issued only tourist visas to the US and denied work visas. They have lobbied, with British government support, for this sanction to be lifted. Western diplomats said their case for fundraising had been "deeply damaged" by the overture to Hamas.

It was unclear last night whether Mr Adams would be allowed into Gaza, where Hamas has its headquarters, or the West Bank. Access to the occupied Palestinian territories is tightly controlled by Israeli forces. Israeli officials would not even guarantee that Mr Adams would be allowed through Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.

Israel refuses to hold talks with any politicians who meet Hamas. "Our position regarding contact with Hamas is clear," said an Israeli official. "We cannot see how any good can come of this visit."

In March, Mr Adams was detained at a New York airport and questioned after his name appeared on a terrorist watch list. There have been longstanding connections between the IRA and extremist Palestinian groups.

MI5 believes that Mr Adams remains a member of the IRA's ruling Army Council. Western and Israeli intelligence officials assess that the IRA and Hezbollah have swapped bomb technology, most notably over the development of passive infra-red to trigger bombs, a technique now used by Iranian-backed insurgents in Iraq.

Mr Reiss was said by one US-based source close to Northern Ireland negotiations to be "livid" about the Hamas visit. "The American view is that Adams is a hypocrite for refusing to move on the policing issue in Northern Ireland or to rejoin the assembly there while at the same time trying to pose as a peacemaker with terrorists from Hamas," said the source

Hamas is currently negotiating with the Fatah party, which recognises Israel, to form a unity government in the Palestinian territories. Some British officials have expressed hopes that Hamas could embrace the political process in the same way Sinn Fein did in the 1990s.

American officials have become increasingly frustrated with the Irish republican movement after the IRA engaged in training Farc narco-terrorists in Colombia seven years ago and Mr Adams visited Cuba to meet Fidel Castro in 2001.

Sinn Fein's opposition to American planes refueling at Shannon airport en route to Iraq further alienated the Bush administration. In March, Mr Adams publicly criticised Mr Reiss. "I don't have high regards for Mitchell Reiss's input into this process," he said. "If it is he who is advising the president, it's very very bad advice."

Mr Adams's decision to meet Hamas will leave relations between Sinn Fein and the White House at their lowest ebb since President Bill Clinton ignored British protests to grant the Sinn Fein president his first US visa in 1994.

Friday, July 28, 2006
A translation device for woofs? It's barking...

#posted by Toby @ 2:46 PM

Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Washington Post on Alan Senitt

Here is the Washington Post's piece in today's edition on Alan's memorial service. There is a slight discrepancy (er... 60 versus 150) between their reporter's attendance estimate and mine. Getting the numbers at gatherings is always a very inexact science in journalism. It is possible I over-estimated a touch but there were definitely more than a hundred people there

Below the memorial service piece is a disturbing one also from the Washington Post about what the police knew about the alleged killers before the morning Alan was murdered. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that there were real opportunities to take these people off the streets of Washington but red tape and bureaucratic inertia led to them remaining free to commit further crimes.

Mourners Recall British Activist: Aspiring Politician's Life Described as 'Unbelievably Full'

By Allan Lengel, Washington Post Staff Writer

Alan Senitt, the young British activist slain in Georgetown last week, was remembered last night as a selfless, funny man, a booster of Israel who championed battles against anti-Semitism and spoke freely of his lofty political aspirations in Britain -- namely, to be prime minister.

"He was in politics not for self-promotion or vanity but because he genuinely wanted to help people," said Toby Harnden, Washington bureau chief of the Sunday Telegraph of London, who befriended Senitt at a 2003 conference in Israel.

"He was one of the most positive people I ever met," Harnden said. "He believed everything was possible, and he made things possible."

Senitt, 27, was escorting a female friend home along an elegant, tree-lined street early July 9 when the couple were confronted by three robbers. At least one was armed with a gun, and one had a knife; the third, police say, was a 15-year-old boy.

As one man tried to sexually assault the woman, the other slit Senitt's throat, police said. The suspects fled with the woman's purse and later withdrew money with her bank card, police said. They were arrested hours later.

Last night, more than 60 people gathered at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in the District's Chinatown area to pay tribute to Senitt, who had moved to the United States to study political fundraising and to volunteer for the potential presidential campaign of former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner (D).

Before a quiet crowd, about a half-dozen speakers stepped up to the podium. Former Virginia lieutenant governor Donald S. Beyer Jr., who is raising money for Warner, called Senitt charming, funny, bright and handsome.

"Alan, we hardly knew you, but we will miss you greatly for a long time," Beyer said.
Susan Shankman, a rabbi, said Senitt would have found the latest developments in the Middle East interesting but would have wanted people to carry on his message of world peace.

His Jewish activism was central to his life, friends said. To that end, Dan Sacker, a Londoner who is studying in Washington, read a 2002 speech by Senitt delivered at Trafalgar Square in London at an Israel solidarity rally.

"I stand before you today at a time when Jewish students on campuses across the country are being subjected to the most virulent and most disgusting anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism that our community has witnessed in over 25 years," Senitt had said. In that speech, he went on to talk about the need for Jews to stand up for their rights and the rights of others as well.

"Jewish students have stood up not only on behalf of themselves but on behalf of black students, Asian students, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim students to tell the racists, the bigots and the extremists that we will not sit back and watch any group or any individual be attacked, harassed or intimidated simply because of who they are or what they believe in," Senitt had said.

Harnden seemed to sum up the feelings of many speakers when he said of Senitt: "He had a short life but an unbelievably full one."

Police Had Suspects' Address Before Slashing
Victim of Earlier Georgetown Robbery Said Credit Card Purchases Sent to SE Location

By Allison Klein and Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writers, Tuesday, July 18, 2006; B01

Detectives investigating a series of robberies in Georgetown had the address of two of the suspects now connected to the slaying of Alan Senitt three weeks before he was attacked.

The information came from a 24-year-old Georgetown woman who was held up June 11 -- three blocks from the place where Senitt later would be slain. She said she provided the address on Robinson Place SE after learning that her credit card was used to make a purchase that was shipped there.

"I thought when I gave them the address, it would be a grand slam and they would get the guys," the woman said in an interview. But it was not until July 9 that police apprehended anyone at the address the woman had provided.

By then, they were pursuing a homicide investigation. Hours after Senitt's throat was slashed, detectives found two men inside the apartment on the dead-end street, one wearing bloody clothing. Authorities charged the men with murder and are investigating whether they were responsible for earlier holdups. No charges have been filed in the earlier cases.

The Georgetown woman, who is not being identified by The Washington Post because she is a witness in her robbery case, provided new details that shed light on the activities of police in the weeks before Senitt was slain.

Senitt, 27, a British citizen, was caught by surprise at 2 a.m. July 9 as he walked a friend home in the 3100 block of Q Street NW. Police said one of the robbers attempted to sexually assault Senitt's friend.

Police officials said last week that Senitt's attackers were suspects in at least two other recent holdups. The Georgetown woman said she is a victim from one of the earlier cases: She was attacked about 2 a.m. June 11 near 27th and P streets NW by three men who put a gun in her face, grabbed her purse and demanded her cellphone. She was not injured.

About a week after she was robbed, the Georgetown woman said, she got a letter from her credit card company notifying her that her card was used to order an item being shipped to the 2700 block of Robinson Place SE.

The item was ordered from a company that sells male-enhancement products. The woman said she alerted the police, figuring the information would lead to the robbers.

Police responded by telling her they could not get an arrest warrant without first doing surveillance at the apartment building and then conducting a lineup to determine whether she could identify suspects. She said she was sure she could identify her attackers and was waiting for a call from the police.

Instead, she said, on July 9 she saw the faces of the men who robbed her flash across a television screen because they had been arrested in Senitt's slaying.

In addition to the address she provided, police also had surveillance video of the suspects from a camera at a gas station, where the suspects apparently used a credit card taken in another robbery, the Georgetown woman said.

The men -- Christopher Piper, 25, and Jeffrey Rice, 22 -- resided at the Robinson Place address, police said. They are jailed without bond on felony murder charges. A 15-year-old who allegedly joined in the attack also is charged with murder, as is a woman accused of driving a getaway car, Olivia Miles, 26.

The day after Senitt's killing, police called the Georgetown woman and confirmed what she already knew: that the men were suspected in her case, too, she said.

The investigator in charge of the case and his supervisors declined to comment yesterday, saying they did not want to jeopardize an ongoing investigation. The Georgetown woman said that she thought the investigator she was dealing with did an excellent job but that he seemed frustrated by the process.

Police officials said last week that a grand jury had been convened in the earlier Georgetown robberies. Chief Charles H. Ramsey also said that police did not have the identities of specific suspects before Senitt's slaying. Police had gone to the Robinson Place apartment building before Senitt was killed, Ramsey said, but did not find the men.

The failure to quickly make arrests in the earlier Georgetown robberies has parallels to events surrounding another homicide case. Police now believe that the suspects accused in the killing of retired New York Times journalist David E. Rosenbaum on Jan. 6 had robbed a man beforehand. The victim in that attack, a retired police officer, said police did not do enough follow-up after his robbery in November.

In the case of the Georgetown woman's robbery, the U.S. attorney's office became involved in the investigation June 15, four days after her mugging, said spokesman Channing Phillips.
With the number of robberies surging, police have been coming to prosecutors earlier in investigations, particularly in cases in which credit cards or cellphones have been stolen, Phillips said.

Cellphones and credit cards can provide promising leads for detectives, but privately some prosecutors say detectives have not always been aggressive about developing those leads when the trail is hot.

When lineups are conducted, they can take days, sometimes weeks, to set up if the target of the investigation is not under arrest. In such cases, the target must be subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury, which orders the person to appear in a lineup.

The police work on the Senitt case also is drawing criticism of another sort from the union representing the department's officers. A document obtained by The Post shows that officers from each of the department's seven districts were called to respond to Georgetown the night of the slaying to set up a 20-block perimeter in hopes of catching the suspects.

That is highly unusual and rarely, if ever, happens when homicides occur in other, less affluent districts, said Officer Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the D.C. police labor committee for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1.

#posted by Toby @ 5:11 AM

Sunday, July 16, 2006
Murder in Georgetown

One of the occupational hazards of Sunday newspaper journalism is that you can work all week on a story and then another British paper runs something on the same subject on a Saturday, which leads to all your finely-honed work to be unceremoniously spiked. It doesn't happen too often but it happened to me this weekend when The Times ran a piece by Tom Baldwin on crime in Washington on Saturday. So, the only place my piece below is being published is on this blog.

I walked along Q Street today to see where my friend Alan Senitt was so horribly murdered. The sandstone where his blood had been washed off was still wet. I said a silent prayer. There will be a memorial service for Alan and the 6th and I synagogue in Washington at 7.30pm tomorrow (Monday). The response of Alan's closest friends and family to his death has been truly humbling. They have organised a wonderful celebration of his life through messages, photos and reminiscences posted on www.alansenitt.com.

There is still palpable shock in Georgetown over what happened and many questions that remain to be answered. Unfortunately - though perhaps not surprisingly given this is DC - it seems that race and politics are playing a big role in the response to the recent upsurge in crime across the city. There are some interesting comments on all this from by Carol Joynt, owner of Nathan's Restaurant on M Street http://www.nathanslunch.com/, who is quoted in my piece.


By TOBY HARNDEN
in Washington

THE HORRIFIC killing of a young Briton and a wave of attacks on tourists has prompted Washington DC's police chief to declare a "crime emergency" amid fears that the city could once again become America's murder capital.

Alan Senitt, 27, an aspiring politician who had arrived in the US three weeks earlier to work for a Democratic presidential candidate, had his throat cut during a mugging and attempted rape of his friend in the heart of historic Georgetown, Washington's most exclusive neighbourhood.

His murder, allegedly by a black gang, has led to racial tensions, always simmering just below the surface in a 60 per cent black city where wealthy whites overwhelmingly predominate in Georgetown and its environs, boiling over.

Insp Andy Solberg, the Georgetown police commander, who is white, was reassigned to other duties when he told 400 people gathered for an emergency community: "They were black. This is not a racial thing to say that black people are unusual in Georgetown. This is a fact of life."

Some black residents of Washington, however, have complained that the emergency was only called because a white man was murdered.

"That police officer was very unfair to blame this on black people," said Gloria Gaskins, 52, whose son Joseph Allen, 32, was the victim of an unsolved murder two years ago. "If my son had been Caucasian they would have really stepped up their efforts.

"It would have been all over the television and stuff. That's not to diminish what happened to this British man but the police need to look after all the DC people and not just one area where the people have money and are real influential."

Since the murder, the atmosphere has more closely resembled that of Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, a biting satire about race and greed in New York, than Elliott Roosevelt's sedate Murder in Georgetown, in which a banker is found dead in his home with his mistress's earring beside the body.

Four blacks, one a boy of 15 and another a woman, were arrested within hours of Mr Senitt's murder and allegedly confessed to the crime, which took place at 2.15am on Sunday as he walked a female American friend home following a trip to the cinema.

Hours after Mr Ramsey declared the "crime emergency" on Wednesday two groups of tourists were held up on the National Mall, close to the Smithsonian museums and the US Capitol. Georgetown, home to the city's political and social elites, is also a major draw for visitors.

Dan Sacker, 24, a British student who had been to see The Devil Wears Prada with Mr Senitt and his friend just before the fatal attack, said it was the crime's location as well as its brutality that had shocked Washington. "This is like Mayfair. These things don't happen in Georgetown."

Some Georgetown residents were outraged to learn that detectives already had evidence linking the accused killers, one of whom was out on parole after serving 15 years for armed robbery, to other violent crimes in Washington. The gang should already have been in custody, they argued.

There was further dismay at the reassignment of Insp Solberg by Charles Ramsey, Washington's police chief, who is black. "Chief Ramsey is obviously more interested in knee-jerk obeisance to those who play the race card at every opportunity that he is in actually fighting crime," wrote Margaret Tomlinson, who lives close to the murder scene, in a letter to the Washington Post.

Mr Senitt was the 11th of 14 murder victims in Washington so far this month, a particularly violent spell for the city. All the others were black. There have been 96 murders in Washington so far this year, only two more than at the same stage in 2005.

But Chief Ramsey said there had been a marked increase in armed muggings. "Now we're starting to see a trend where more and more people are being arrested in neighbourhoods they do not live in," he said.

The current murder rate is still a far cry from those during the crack cocaine wars that peaked in 1991 when 482 were killed. Mr Senitt's killing was the highest-profile crime in Georgetown since 1997, when three workers were shot dead execution-style in the Starbucks opposite what is known as the "social Safeway" on Wisconsin Avenue.

Georgetowners had tried to insulate themselves from the previous violence by blocking plans for a metro station there. "But the bad people don't take the subway, they use wheels," said Carol Joynt, owner of Nathan's Bar in Georgetown.

"We've been hearing for a while that crime from the other part of town had started coming over here and their modus operandi was having a car and a driver and two people on the street."

Georgetown community groups have sent out emails recommending residents take steps such as leaving porch lights on at night, cutting back shrubbery, walking in groups and volunteering as citizen "block captains" to coordinate anti-crime efforts.

Ed Solomon, an elected neighbourhood commissioner in Georgetown, said there were proposals for a text message crime alert system to be introduced." Police could send out a message and description of suspects that could be out to everybody in the community within 20 seconds.

"At the moment there's sadness and anger and outrage here and people are feeling vulnerable." There are concerns that businesses could be hit by a decline in tourism.

The one thing that seems to unite Washingtonians on either side of the racial divide is the worry that the authorities are not tackling the problem. "I don't like what's happening in the city," said Mrs Gaskins, who was out shopping in Georgetown.

Mrs Joynt said Insp Solberg had fallen victim to political correctness. "You are not allowed to talk about race in Washington DC. It is just taboo. Ramsey overreacted but that's the way the game is played in this city."

#posted by Toby @ 9:33 PM

Monday, July 10, 2006

Alan Senitt

It was with utter disbelief this morning that I saw on the front page of the Washington Post that my friend Alan Senitt had been horrifically murdered in Georgetown.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/09/AR2006070900215.html

I first met Alan at the Herzilya Conference in Tel Aviv in 2003 and we kept in regular touch afterwards. When we had lunch in Knightsbridge late last year he was full of enthusiasm about his campaign as a Labour candidate for a council seat in north London (he subsequently lost but this did not dissuade him from a political career - instead, he viewed it as a vital process of cutting his teeth). In January, he happened to be in Jerusalem with his then boss Lord Greville Janner when I was sent to cover the political crisis after Ariel Sharon slipped into a coma. Alan took part in meetings with the main players in Israeli politics such as Ehud Olmert and Shimon Peres - as well as senior Palestinian figures like Jibril Rajoub - and was in his element theorising about all the possibilities for the new Kadima party and how this would impact the chances of movement towards a political settlement. The insights he was able to pass on from these private meetings, discreetly and without breaking confidences, were invaluable to my writing at the time.

So I was delighted to receive an email from Alan last month telling me that he would be in Washington to work for Mark Warner, former Virginia governor and Democratic aspirant for the White House in 2008 www.forwardtogetherpac.com ("you know where he's headed!" Alan wrote) and suggesting we grab a beer. With his acute judgement and political nose, I know he would have been able to give me the inside track on the Warner campaign as well as being great company. He was the sort of political junkie that Washington is made for.

Alan had an infectious enthusiasm for everything life could offer. Although he was a committed Zionist and Jewish activist he truly wanted and worked for a peace in the Middle East that could provide justice and security for all. He could not wait to get stuck into the latest phase of his political education in Washington. There is no doubt that he would have gone very far in public life. I cannot believe he is gone.

He was killed in a truly senseless way in a beautiful part of Georgetown about a block from where I was married in March - the most shocking crime in this leafy, well-to-do corner of America's capital for many years. It was a cruel and unbearably sad end for such a talented, engaging and genuinely good young man. My heart goes out to his family and many friends.

Friday, May 26, 2006
White House press conference

Am enjoying a few brief, though somewhat anonymous, moments of fame after managing to squeeze in a question at last night's White House joint press conference held by George W. Bush and Tony Blair. It got pretty frank responses from both leaders, which afterwards led the news everywhere: http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2006/05/post_22.html.

The only person to identify me by name so far (I was a mere "British reporter" on CNN and MSNBC and in today's Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501316.html) is my friend "scooper and digger" (ABC's The Note http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=2003338) Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times, whose blog link is above.

Lynn called to ask me why I was the only reporter there not wearing a jacket (or "coat", in US parlance), which had me offering my own mea culpa about being a scruffy Brit forgetting the dress code for those East room occasions. In my defence, however, I was wearing a tie.

#posted by Toby @ 7:20 PM

Friday, May 05, 2006
Make Mugabe History

This week marks World Press Freedom Day. There are some pretty startling statistics. In 2005, Julian Simmonds and I were among 788 journalists arrested around the world; 125 were in jail as of December and 58 were killed in the course of their work. For more details go to www.worldpressfreedomday.org. Read some horrifying case studies, register a protest to some of the countries concerned and remember people like Akbar Ganji (Iran), Hector Maseda Gutierrez (Cuba) and U Win Tin (Burma) in your prayers.

#posted by Toby @ 4:21 PM

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Wedding day

I love this story and the accompanying picture from today's Daily Telegraph. It just goes to show that no matter what the circumstances, for a bride her wedding day is the happiest day of her life and at the moment she enters the church she feels like the most beautiful woman in the world.

Defiant bride's machinegun wedding

By Richard Alleyne

The bride wore ivory, the groom was in grey and the police had body armour and machineguns.

When Brian Elliott and his new wife Andrea Martino emerged from their parish church wedding, the gathering of friends and relatives was swollen by a 20-strong police firearms unit hiding in bushes and trees and behind gravestones.

The show of force had been mobilised after the bride's father expressed reluctance at giving away his youngest daughter. So reluctant, it was claimed, that he had allegedly threatened to kill her and blow up the wedding car if the service went ahead.

According to the bride and her mother, Antonio Martino, 42, had strongly objected to his 17-year-old daughter getting married because she had only just met her fiancé and her father considered her too young to settle down.

Mr Martino admits being against the union, but denies making any threats.

The police were not taking any chances and, when Mr Martino, a grocery assistant at Asda, could not be contacted before the ceremony at St John's Church, in Moordown, Bournemouth, they sent a crack team of officers with automatic guns to make sure it went off without incident.

While the happy couple completed their nuptials, police scoured the area to make sure it was safe. Then as the newly-weds emerged, the police fanned out to protect them and clear their way to the wedding car - before providing a five-car escort to the reception two miles away.

One well-wisher said: "The wedding party arrived on time with a load of police cars. Two officers with guns guarded the door and others were scattered around the graveyard. Two or three police cars drove around the surrounding roads.

"Everyone thought it was a celebrity wedding until we realised there was something more sinister going on."
Yesterday Mr Elliott, 20, and his bride, who met last year in a launderette, said they had been determined to go through with the wedding.

The new Mrs Elliott said: "The police tried to get us to call off the wedding. Their presence certainly made the day more memorable. It was a real shotgun wedding."

Her mother claimed that they had received a number of threats in the days leading up to the wedding. She said: "We felt very threatened and phoned the police."

Mr Martino, who was arrested three hours after the wedding, denied that he had ever threatened to kill his daughter. "I didn't go to the wedding and I didn't even know about it until the police came around last night and I was arrested.

"Me and my daughter have a bit of a fiery relationship and, as much as I love her, I have had to push her away because she doesn't show me any respect.

"I have got no idea when these allegations about the wedding were meant to have been made but I didn't make any threats like that."

A Dorset Police spokesman said: "We couldn't be sure how serious the threats were. In the end the wedding passed off peacefully and without incident."

He added that a 42-year-old man from Bournemouth was arrested on suspicion of making threats to kill.

Monday, January 16, 2006
Sniper hit rate

Not that kind of hit rate.

According to Marcus Warren, my friend and former Daily Telegraph colleague, my sniper story of Jan 1st has received 52,095 hits so far this year, making it the eighth most read Telegraph story of 2006 (OK, I realise we're barely two weeks into it). Today, it was re-published in the Washington Times while my bomb disposal story of a few weeks back, also from Ramadi, was re-published in "The Week", a summary of the best of the British press. Can't wait until I start getting a share of some of these syndication fees...

#posted by Toby @ 7:39 PM

Thursday, January 12, 2006
Oh, what a week...

#posted by Toby @ 3:36 PM

Sunday, January 01, 2006
US Army sniper's 1,250-metre shot in Iraq

(Story published Jan 1st, 2006.
Graphic by Sunday Telegraph using Julian Simmonds photographs. Other photographs by Toby Harnden)

Sniper shot that took out an insurgent killer from three quarters of a mile

By Toby Harnden in Ramadi

Gazing through the telescopic sight of his M24 rifle, Staff Sgt Jim Gilliland, leader of Shadow sniper team, fixed his eye on the Iraqi insurgent who had just killed an American soldier.

His quarry stood nonchalantly in the fourth-floor bay window of a hospital in battle-torn Ramadi, still clasping a long-barrelled Kalashnikov. Instinctively allowing for wind speed and bullet drop, Shadow's commander aimed 12 feet high.

A single shot hit the Iraqi in the chest and killed him instantly. It had been fired from a range of 1,250 metres, well beyond the capacity of the powerful Leupold sight, accurate to 1,000 metres.

"I believe it is the longest confirmed kill in Iraq with a 7.62mm rifle," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, 28, who hunted squirrels in Double Springs, Alabama from the age of five before progressing to deer - and then people.

"He was visible only from the waist up. It was a one in a million shot. I could probably shoot a whole box of ammunition and never hit him again."

Later that day, Staff Sgt Gilliland found out that the dead soldier was Staff Sgt Jason Benford, 30, a good friend.

The insurgent was one of between 55 and 65 he estimates that he has shot dead in less than five months, putting him within striking distance of sniper legends such as Carlos Hathcock, who recorded 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam. One of his men, Specialist Aaron Arnold, 22, of Medway, Ohio, has chalked up a similar tally.

"It was elating, but only afterwards," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, recalling the September 27 shot. "At the time, there was no high-fiving. You've got troops under fire, taking casualties and you're not thinking about anything other than finding a target and putting it down. Every shot is for the betterment of our cause."

All told, the 10-strong Shadow sniper team, attached to Task Force 2/69, has killed just under 200 in the same period and emerged as the US Army's secret weapon in Ramadi against the threat of the hidden Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or roadside bomb - the insurgency's deadliest tactic.

Above the spot from which Staff Sgt Gilliland took his record shot, in a room at the top of a bombed-out observation post which is code-named Hotel and known jokingly to soldiers as the Ramadi Inn, are daubed "Kill Them All" and "Kill Like you Mean it".

On another wall are scrawled the words of Senator John McCain: "America is great not because of what she has done for herself but because of what she has done for others."

The juxtaposition of macho slogans and noble political rhetoric encapsulates the dirty, dangerous and often callous job the sniper has to carry out as an integral part of a campaign ultimately being waged to help the Iraqi people.

With masterful understatement, Lt Col Robert Roggeman, the Task Force 2/69 commander, conceded: "The romantic in me is disappointed with the reception we've received in Ramadi," a town of 400,000 on the banks of the Euphrates where graffiti boasts, with more than a degree of accuracy: "This is the graveyard of the Americans".

"We're the outsiders, the infidels," he said. "Every time somebody goes out that main gate he might not come back. It's still a running gun battle."

Highly effective though they are, he worries about the burden his snipers have to bear. "It's a very God-like role. They have the power of life and death that, if not held in check, can run out of control. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

"Every shot has to be measured against the Rules of Engagement [ROE], positive identification and proportionality."

Staff Sgt Gilliland explains that his Shadow team operates at the "borderlines" of the ROE, making snap judgements about whether a figure in the crosshairs is an insurgent or not.

"Hunters give their animals respect," he said, spitting out a mouthful of chewing tobacco. "If you have no respect for what you do you're not going to be very good or you're going to make a mistake. We try to give the benefit of the doubt.

"You've got to live with it. It's on your conscience. It's something you've got to carry away with you. And if you shoot somebody just walking down the street, then that's probably going to haunt you."

Although killing with a single shot carries an enormous cachet within the sniper world, their most successful engagements have involved the shooting a up to 10 members of a single IED team.

"The one-shot-one-kill thing is one of beauty but killing all the bad dudes is even more attractive," said Staff Sgt Gilliland, whose motto is "Move fast, shoot straight and leave the rest to the counsellors in 10 years" and signs off his e-mails with "silent souls make.308 holes".

Whether Shadow team's work will ultimately make a difference in Iraq is open to question. No matter how many insurgents they shoot, there seems no shortage of recruits to plant bombs.

Col John Gronski, the overall United States commander in Ramadi, said there could not be a military solution. "You could spend years putting snipers out and killing IED emplacers and at the political level it would make no difference."

As they prepare to leave Iraq, however, Staff Sgt Gilliland and his men hope that they have bought a little more time for the country's politicians to fix peace and stability in their sights.

Saturday, December 31, 2005
Foreign editing farewell to 2005

Am seeing out 2005 editing the foreign pages of The Sunday Telegraph. I have always done my best to avoid working on news desks but I have found the experience surprisingly rewarding. Having raged, as a reporter in the field, at my impotence in terms of controlling what appears under my byline, it is useful to see things from the other side. The sense of control, of taking decisions about which stories to run, where to send reporters and shaping how the pages look definitely has its plus side.

It also provides a useful perspective on my reputation for complaining and being difficult with news desks. When you are juggling a dozen stories, processing copy and having to satisfy an editor, a night editor and any number of other executives putting their oar in, the last thing you want is a reporter giving you grief about something that has been rephrased or a slight cut to their copy. It is certainly annoying when people who file 1700 words when they have been asked for 800, omit basic facts or cannot write coherent English.

On the other hand, I hope I will never be dismissive of anyone for caring about what is printed or who strives to get things right. It's all about striking a balance but give me an awkward reporter who has a streak of impatience and perfectionism over a journeyman hack any day. A lot can be achieved simply by sending edited copy back to a reporter and checking they are happy with it - something that is pretty rare for news pieces in British papers.

The job of those on the desk is to soak up the silly stuff in the office and make things easier for the journalists out in difficult and dangerous places - not vice versa. Transmitting the woes of the production process ("We have just gone down to four pages, there's a huge ad on page 24 and my tube journey was delayed again. Don't you understand how many problems I have?") to reporters is one of the most demoralising things a desk can do apart from wrecking your copy.

I'm pretty pleased with our four foreign pages this week. The main story is a lovely piece from Philip Sherwell about cowboys in Wyoming and their feelings about the new film Brokeback Mountain. I had a choice to keep Phil in Washington grubbing around for a line on the Supreme Court nominee or send him out West to have some fun. The result, I reckon, goes to show that confidence in a good reporter is almost invariably rewarded - and usually there's no need to micromanage. Phil headed to Sheridan, went to the bar on which Annie Proulx based her original short story and filed a great article that sailed into the paper with minimal editing. And Adam Nadel (of New Orleans pit bull fame) took a sublime picture (above, of the Mint Bar in Sheridan) to go with it. Made my job this week easy by providing a great read for the opening, colour page.

We're also running a good story from Massoud Ansari about radical clerics from madrassas in Pakistan defying orders to expel foreign students and two nice off-beat pieces about manners lessons in Shanghai and Ethiopia's version of Pop Idol. And my colleague Colin Freeman and I took the opportunity to get two of our own stories from Iraq into the paper; I guess that's the ultimate journalistic control trip - writing and editing your own story and then approving the pictures, subbing and headline on the proof. Got overruled on which main picture to use with the Brokeback story but I suppose you can't win them all.

Happy 2006.

#posted by Toby @ 12:53 PM

Saturday, December 10, 2005
Sea monster's nose

My dog Finn hasn't yet learnt how to behave the British way on tubes and trains. Instead of minding his own business and avoiding eye contact, he fixes his gaze on each new person who enters the carriage (he figures, I suppose, they have got on especially to see him) and tries to make friends.

Almost invariably, he succeeds. This morning at Putney station, a student was very taken with his "expressive" nose and took a photograph of it. She said she was doing a project that involved making a sea monster and his nose would be perfect. For the purposes of comparison, here's his nose alongside mine and President George W.Bush's.

.#posted by Toby @ 10:00 AM



Token women

Why is it that it is considered acceptable to be obsessed with what categories people fall into rather than their talents? To me, it is pure prejudice. I'm with Jemima Lewis on this one:

Today's Independent, page 23 (profile of Theresa Villiers MP)
Given the male-dominated composition of Cameron's inner circle, her new appointment as shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury is a shrewd one; she is talented, industrious, and, most importantly, a woman.

Today's Independent, page 41 (Jemima Lewis column)
I was chatting to an opposition minister at a party when he suddenly clasped my hands in delight. "You must become a Tory MP!" he cried, with the urgency of Archimedes springing from his bath. "You're just the kind of person we need! You're young! You're a libertarian! YOU'RE A WOMAN!" Flattering though it was to be asked to serve my country as a token female, I declined the offer.

#posted by Toby @ 9:50 AM

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Screwing up your evening
My United Airlines plane from Heathrow to Washington Dulles was about 90 minutes late because of an engine problem before take-off. When we landed, the senior crew member apologised over the tannoy "for the delay to this flight, which will have screwed up your evening".

For me, that frankness was preferable to the usual lame, insincere, "we are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused". Others might not have appreciated the language. Best of all, I suppose, would be a bunch of air miles or some cash off a future flight on a scale depending on how long the delay was. But I don't suppose that will happen.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Hostage videos

#posted by Toby @ 6:53 PM

Monday, November 28, 2005

Back from Iraq

Back in London after an eventful, productive 10 days in Iraq. Left the Al-Hamra Hotel with Julian Simmonds (my Zimbabwe cellmate) at about 11pm on Thurs Nov 17th to go to the Green Zone for our US military flight to Ramadi. The Georgian soldiers on the gate at Checkpoint Three - who did not speak English or Arabic and appeared very scared - would not let us in. Despite our pleas and those of the US Army press officers they would not relent. We very nearly returned to the Hamra but in the end the US troops arranged for us to get in through another checkpoint - far from ideal as it was well past curfew time (a hero in this was our driver Haki who stayed until he knew we were safely inside). Some time after 8am, the Hamra was attacked by suicide bombers and Building Two, in which we had been staying, was very badly damaged. The three Western journalists there (Kim Sengupta, Liz Sly and Jason Howe - all Brits) all had miraculous escapes as windows blew in, ceilings fell down and furniture turned to firewood. Who knows what would have happened had I been in bed in Room 404, which I had just vacated, but the lives of anyone in any of those Building Two rooms during that bombing were in grave danger. Here's a fine piece by Liz, of the Chicago Tribune, on what happened: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/chi-0511210217nov21,0,568026.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

Got shot at in Ramadi while out with a US Marines explosives ordnance disposal (EOD) team - a few minutes earlier I'd got back into the Cougar vehicle because the road seemed exposed, the vibes weren't good and basically I wasn't gaining much journalistically by being outside. Sometimes, thankfully, there's a sixth sense that kicks in and you do the safe thing. When the shots rang out, landing at the feet of the two marines outside, they jumped back in head first and landed at my boots (see Sunday Telegraph piece for full account of being out with EOD team).

Getting out of Ramadi was pretty hairy and involved. First we had to take a convoy from Camp Corregidor to Camp Taqqadum (TQ). The journey was about 25 miles but it took more than an hour of stop start. We were in the lead Humvee and the convoy commander (Sgt "Woody" Wood) proudly told us that they had been hit by 56 IEDs in 300 odd convoys. I just put my hands around my private parts and went to sleep, figuring I would wake up when something bad happened or when we got there. We got there and were turned away from a Sea Knight (USMC version of the Chinook) on the tarmac because of lack of space and had to stay in a transit tent overnight. Then on Friday we managed to get on a Black Hawk that was accompanying the Governor of Michigan to Baghdad. Once at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) we had to cadge a lift from a Texan contractor who drove us round to the commercial side of the airport (an hour's round trip) - we didn't even know his name and he had no reason to help us but it was one of those random acts of kindness that are so appreciated. At the right terminal we managed to get through customs despite lots of questioning by grim-faced men with heavy moustaches and leather jackets (wonder what they did under Saddam?), nearly fell at the last hurdle of immigration (no exit visas and not enough cash to offer a meaningful bribe) but Royal Jordanian had held the flight on the runway for us, thereby saving us a night sleeping in the terminal or venturing back into Baghdad centre, where there are now no safe hotel rooms available for journalists. After all that, the Four Seasons in Amman felt pretty good even if I did have to stay up into the early hours to write my article. Should have two or three more pieces out of Iraq, including one on the insurgency in Ramadi and one on the US Army snipers there who registering some pretty high numbers of "kills".