TV News LIES

Today, according to official sources, approximately 700 bases of every size dot the Afghan countryside, and more, like the one in Shinwar, are under construction or soon will be as part of a base-building boom that began last year.

Existing in the shadows, rarely reported on and little talked about, this base-building program is nonetheless staggering in size and scope, and heavily dependent on supplies imported from abroad, which means that it is also extraordinarily expensive.

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An Iraqi freelance photographer who worked for Reuters has been released by the U.S. military after 17 months in detention in Iraq, the news agency reported Wednesday.

The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled in December 2008 there was insufficient evidence to hold Jassam. However, the U.S. military refused to release him, saying it was not bound by the ruling because intelligence reports indicated Jassam was a security threat.

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Tony Blair was accused by the French government of “Soviet-style” black propaganda in the run-up to the Iraq war, secret memos obtained by the Iraq inquiry have found.

The Chilcot committee has obtained confidential phone records showing that then foreign secretary Jack Straw was told days before the crunch eve-of-war Commons vote not to misrepresent the French position on the need for UN approval.

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Britain's inquiry into the Iraq war will seek meetings with former members of the Bush administration after taking evidence from Tony Blair and other key British officials, the panel's chairman said Monday.

John Chilcot, head of the inquiry, confirmed that he hopes to obtain evidence from officials in the United States, but did not name specific individuals, or specify if his panel hopes to put questions to former President George W. Bush himself.

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Tens of thousands of secret documents could contradict evidence given by key members of the Blair government to the Iraq inquiry, its chairman Sir John Chilcot has suggested.

Sir John disclosed that the panel was examining far more documents than previously thought, with more "arriving every week". Their access to the papers was "unrestricted", while a "limited number" of them might be published.

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He said that Mr Straw had been incorrect to suggest, in 2002, that UN weapons inspectors were not being allowed access to certain sites.

"He did not focus at all on what I had said about the increased Iraqi co-operation," he said, explaining: "he focused upon - say - that the Iraqis are not allowing you to interview people and they are stopping you from getting to sites. That was not true," he said.