It was good to see that the Guardian picked up on the Where is Raed?phenomenon. However hard journalists try to get the latest and greatest story on the front line, you will never beat a log/diary of someone who is actually there, in a modern day Anne Frank sort of way. Of course, verifying the reliability and authenticity of these diaries is impossible and generally the authors don’t have much journalistic experience. This rough and ready approach to writing definitely makes opens up a different viewpoint on the affair.

Had a very interesting weekend, the weather was great and Sunday afternoon was spent supping beer at a very nice pub on the banks of the Kennet & Avon canal near to my house. A few hours later ended up heading to London for a night out – Pyromanics in Soho for those who have the urge for a mad drum’n’bass night on a Sunday evening – with Shabba/Skibba and Brockie (clang clang) – was quite heavy.

This unexpecting clubbing session lead to us stumbling across Whitehall/Downing Street at around 1am. We initially sat down infront of the gates, but after a few minutes were told that we were obstructing a public highway…. Not wanting to get arrested we crossed over and sat in the allocated “protesting area”. We were the only people there, 3 lone voices shouting against the war. Was quite surreal – apologies to anyone who was unfortunate to recieve some random chanting on their voicemails the next morning.
Think we made our point and probably gave the police something to laugh about for 15 minutes.

Proceeding along to Parliament Square, the place was awash with banners and people sleeping out until the end of the conflict. Quite a few interesting people to discuss the pros and cons of the conflict with. The quietness of Sunday night in London occasionally broken with the chiming of Big Ben was very eerie.

We should be thankful that we have this opportunity to be able to protest without any repercussions I suppose. They appear unable to do that in the “land of the free” – America. As Michael Moore found out at the Oscars. Several other actors and leading voices have discovered this too.

Finally, the only thing French about French’s mustard is the name… someone is obviously losing a lot of sales… Fools.

[Some Photos :
Outside Downing St. | Ashamed 2 Be British | Sleeping Protests ]

I think there would be some uproar in the UK if car companies started producing adverts like this… The worst thing about the affair is that general motors was primarily responsible for the destruction of mass transit systems in 100s of US cities in the early part of the 20th Century – primarily to sell more cars…. Even if our public transport has a slighty dodgy reputation, it’s not as bad as this…

A few miles from the bridge to the south lie the ruins of the ancient city of Ur, founded 8,000 years ago, the birth place of Abraham and a flourishing metropolis at a time when the inhabitants of north-west Europe were still walking round in animal skins.

Sgt Sprague, from White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia, passed it on his way north, but he never knew it was there.

“I’ve been all the way through this desert from Basra to here and I ain’t seen one shopping mall or fast food restaurant,” he said. “These people got nothing. Even in a little town like ours of twenty five hundred people you got a McDonald’s at one end and a Hardee’s at the other.”

Extract from the Guardian

I’m in no way trivialising the war – but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Americans would do something like this

Is the Baghdad Blogger for real? Well I suppose you can’t believe anything, even weblogs. I’ve read so much recently about how the CIA have infiltrated most forms of communication during these conflicts, so why not create a fake blog? Not quite sure why? It’s quite anti-Saddam.

It’s hard to believe if anything is real or fake so you will have to read Raeds blog and if he is real, hope he is safe and well…