Blair To Blame?
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Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Blair To Blame?
George Galloway, the British Member of Parliament who's been accused of taking money from Saddam Hussein's regime, says British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to blame for Thursday's attacks in London, insisting Londoners have now "paid the price" for his decisions to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. Galloway says, "The loss of innocent lives ... is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years. ... We argued ... that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically ... the government ignor[ed] such warnings."
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Mayor May Be in a Tight Spot?
Although London Mayor Ken Livingstone, as we noted earlier, issued a strong condemnation of Thursday's attacks, the attacks may put him in a tight spot. Livingstone has strongly defended Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi — the so-called "Theologian of Terror," who called suicide bombings "heroic operations of martyrdom" and "divine justice," and urged Muslims to "destroy the aggressive Jews."
Last year, Livingstone invited and welcomed Al-Qaradhawi to London. And amid protests, insisted Qaradhawi was a man of "moderation and tolerance," calling his visit an "honor."
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Now Condemning the Investigation
Now that the investigation into who leaked the name of Ambassador Joe Wilson's CIA-operative wife has landed a reporter in jail, Wilson, who loudly demanded such an inquiry in the first place, is condemning the investigation.
He says it's part of a "conspiracy to cover up the web of lies" that led to the war in Iraq, and says New York Times reporter Judith Miller, jailed for refusing to testify in the probe, has become "collateral damage in the smear campaign" against him. He insists her jailing is — "the direct result of the culture of unaccountability that infects the Bush White House."
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Miller Time
Speaking of Miller, it turns out she's being held at the Alexandria, Virginia, Detention Center, a so-called "new generation jail" with a "management style and architectural design [that] ... are significantly different from the old traditional jails."
In fact, the facility's Web site says it "resembles a dormitory," though not a co-ed one, and describes one scene as such: "At one end of a large room, a handful of young men are watching television, in another area, a second group watches a different set. Several inmates are playing cards. The area is bright, sunny, and clean. [And] The furniture — sofa and chairs — is comfortable and clean. ... Despite all the activity, the room is relatively quiet."
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One of Miller's fellow inmates, by the way, is terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui.
— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report