Writing in his diary on 16 January 2002, Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s Director of Communications, expressed his deep concern over the potential political fallout from a recent statement by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld which had attracted unwelcome media attention.
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BRITISH ARMY LOOTS AND BURNS THE ETHIOPIAN CITY OF MAQDALA. [ 13 April 1868 ] Today in 1868, after slaughtering the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros’s army three days earlier, 12,000 British troops, under Lieutenant-General Robert Napier, seized the fortress city of Maqdala. GENERAL DYER ORDERS THE KILLING OF HUNDREDS OF UNARMED INDIAN PROTESTERS [ 13 April…
COLONIAL SECRETARY WARNS AGAINST ‘IMMORAL RELATIONS WITH NATIVE WOMEN’ [ 11 January 1909 ] On 11 January 1909 Lord Crewe, Secretary of State for the Colonies, issued his ‘immoral relations’ memorandum. It cautioned all members of the Colonial Service of ‘the grave injury to good administration’ and ‘the disgrace and official ruin which will certainly…
BRITAIN APPROVES THE “DILUTION TECHNIQUE” OF TORTURE IN KENYA 25 June 1957 – Kenya’s governor Evelyn Baring writes to Alan Lennox-Boyd, the British Colonial Secretary, seeking his approval for the “dilution technique” – a method of subjecting detainees to gruesome physical torture without leaving long lasting marks or causing permanent injury. Baring explained he felt…
BLAIR FRUSTRATED AT LEGAL CONCERNS OVER KILLING INNOCENT AFGHANS. [ 19 October 2001 ] On this day in 2001, during the American and British bombing of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Tony Blair became agitated over legal objections to some of the targeting on the basis that innocent civilians might be killed. Alastair Campbell, his Director…
IRAQI HOTEL RECEPTIONIST TORTURED TO DEATH BY BRITISH TROOPS IN BASRA 15 September 2003 – An Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Mousa was kicked, beaten and tortured to death by British troops in Basra. He was one in a group of ten innocent Iraqi civilians who were subjected to appalling brutality. Their agony was witnessed by…
3 July 1937 – During a speech to his constituents at Wanstead, Churchill reminded the crowd of his then well known admiration for fascism. “If I had been an Italian,” he confessed, “I should have been on Mussolini’s side fifteen years ago when he rescued his country from the horrible fate of sinking into violent…
