*Ø* Blogmanac | Ten U-turns on the road to "peace"
"Part one: The appointment of an interim Prime Minister who used to work for the CIA is one of a series of disastrous policy changes by the US.
By Justin Huggler and Rupert Cornwell
The Prime Minister
"The appointment of Iyad Allawi as Iraq's interim Prime Minister this weekend was being seen as an American-backed coup which wrong-footed Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy supposed to be putting together the interim government which will wield 'sovereignty' after 30 June.
"The more that is learnt, however, about the sudden emergence of Mr Allawi, a man close to the CIA and MI6, the more it appears the appointment of the new government has been hijacked by the ambitious politicians of the Iraqi Governing Council - the very body it was meant to replace. The only question is whom the IGC was conspiring with as its members picked jobs for themselves.
"But whatever the answer, the appointment of Mr Allawi is the culmination of a series of spectacular U-turns that has given President George Bush and his administration the appearance of lurching in a panic from one flawed policy on Iraq to the next. Since last November every decision seems to have been taken with an eye to one political event alone: Mr Bush's bid for re-election this November."
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"Part one: The appointment of an interim Prime Minister who used to work for the CIA is one of a series of disastrous policy changes by the US.
By Justin Huggler and Rupert Cornwell
The Prime Minister
"The appointment of Iyad Allawi as Iraq's interim Prime Minister this weekend was being seen as an American-backed coup which wrong-footed Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy supposed to be putting together the interim government which will wield 'sovereignty' after 30 June.
"The more that is learnt, however, about the sudden emergence of Mr Allawi, a man close to the CIA and MI6, the more it appears the appointment of the new government has been hijacked by the ambitious politicians of the Iraqi Governing Council - the very body it was meant to replace. The only question is whom the IGC was conspiring with as its members picked jobs for themselves.
"But whatever the answer, the appointment of Mr Allawi is the culmination of a series of spectacular U-turns that has given President George Bush and his administration the appearance of lurching in a panic from one flawed policy on Iraq to the next. Since last November every decision seems to have been taken with an eye to one political event alone: Mr Bush's bid for re-election this November."
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1921 More than 300 were killed in a race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA – the most devastating race riot in US history in terms of lives lost. 
Pictured: Happier times: Mamdouh Habib and family
542 CE According to tradition, King Arthur of England died. 
Things are starting to buzz at 
May 28, 1961 
"Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Two rehearsals for his prime-time speech were not enough to keep George Bush from mangling the name of the prison outside Baghdad that has brought shame to the US mission in Iraq.
1870 Captain Thunderbolt (Frederick Ward), the notorious Australian bushranger, was allegedly shot dead by Constable AB Walker. 
"London (Reuters) - Homer's ancient Greek poem 'The Iliad,' the basis for Hollywood blockbuster 'Troy,' has been compressed for a new generation too lazy to see the film let alone read the 24-book epic that runs to over 15,000 lines. 
Someone else reprimands: "I have an assignment for you LEARN HOW TO FACT CHECK, CORRECTALY."
1498 Girolamo Savonarola (September 21, 1452), Italian religious fanatic, was burnt at the stake for heresy. He was hanged and cooked, in the same place and in the same manner in which he had had others, pagan and Christian, executed for their 'heresies'.
Those people who believe in such things, rather than being a wimpy fence sitter such as I, will be interested in the fact that the infamous Abu Ghraib photos were mostly taken on November 8, 2003, the day of the "
This was before 9-11 when I could pull out statistics, such as that 70 per cent of American journalists identified as 'liberal', which acted as a counterbalance to the capital interests of their employers. 
1898 Armand Hammer (d. December 10, 1990), American physician, entrepreneur, oil magnate, art collector (seen here with Brezhnev). 
Salam Pax, whose blog from Baghdad called 
Interesting that he's 
Ascension is the end of the Easter season, when almanackists can take things a bit easier for a while. 
"Specialist Sabrina Harman was pictured with the body of an Iraqi, who other soldiers have told investigators died during interrogation at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
"Dozens of videotapes of American guards allegedly engaged in brutal attacks on Guantanamo Bay detainees have been stored and catalogued at the camp, an investigation by The Observer has revealed.
Feast day of St Brendan the Elder (aka, the Navigator, or Voyager)
Odd. At least 150,000 Israelis 
A friend of mine just told me that in a small country town not far from here, at the Star Hotel, there is a guy who can claim the name of 'piss artist extraordinaire'.
1927 The ill-fated German luxury passenger steamer, Cap Arcona, was launched at the Blohm & Voss shipyard, in Hamburg. Less than 20 years later, many thousands of innocent prisoners aboard her were to become victims of an Allied bombing that seems to have fallen through the cracks of history.
We recently celebrated our first year online, and the prestigious 
Kitten-torturing soldiers should be sacked: RSPCA
CBS to air US soldier’s video diary of abuse
"The official US lawyer for Australian prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has raised concerns about their treatment and says the Howard government is not asking the right questions. 
On 
Have you seen 
I'm sitting at Esmeralda the Computer in my small flat, surrounded by piles of boxes, strategically placed so as to enable some kind of human locomotion. Somewhere behind me, hidden by these piles, is a bed which, once I throw piles of clothes and books off it, I will soon collapse into. Tomorrow, some more cleaning at the old place, then unpack here. I just wanted to drop in and say hi.
Posted by Luke Francl, 
"The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officially confirmed that it had warned not just the US troops in charge of Abu Ghraib Prison, but the British contingent in Basra too about prisoner abuse.
The ancient celebration of Flora Day (or Furry Day) with its Furry Dance is held today at Helston, Cornwall for its patron saint, the Archangel St Michael, but St George is equally important in the festivities. 
"Dublin (Reuters) -- A new stamp issued by Ireland, current president of the European Union, appears to confuse new EU-member Cyprus with the Greek holiday island of Crete, it is reported May 6, 2004. The stamp shows a map of the enlarged EU with the old member states colored blue and the new states in yellow. The Irish Post Office insisted there had been no mistake but conceded the designers had to move Cyprus from its position in the eastern Mediterranean to fit it on the stamp."
"The [new] pictures obtained by the [Washington] Post are part of a collection of around 1,000 digital photographs which also feature a soldier standing over a corpse and giving the 'thumbs up' sign, soldiers simulating sexually explicit acts and images of a cat's severed head.
"Abuse, Donald Rumsfeld insisted yesterday, is 'technically different from torture'. 
"LONDON (Reuters) - A woman with an apparently insatiable sweet tooth stunned staff at a British shop when she bought more than 10,000 chocolate bars and had them loaded into her chauffeur-driven limousine.
"Oscar-winning film-maker Michael Moore's latest documentary may be in cold storage following a reported row between its distributor, Miramax, and parent company Disney.
1865 Nellie Bly (d. January 27, 1922), pseudonym of Elizabeth Jane Cochran/Cochrane, a pioneering female investigative journalist. 
1886 The Haymarket Square Bombing. A bomb killed seven Chicago, Illinois, USA, police officers as they attacked demonstrators at a labor rally protesting police brutality the previous day at McCormick Reaper Works. 
"BAGHDAD, May 2 - Day and night lost meaning shortly after Muwafaq Sami Abbas, a lawyer by training, arrived at Baghdad International Airport for an unexpected stay. In March, he was seized from his bed by U.S. troops in the middle of the night, he said, along with the rest of the men in his house, and taken to a prison on the airport grounds.
aka The Invention (Discovery) of the Holy Cross
Greetings all,
1626 New World: 'Pagan Pilgrim' Thomas Morton (1590? - 1646), royalist rake, a trader and lawyer, raised the Maypole with Amerindian allies. 
It's the merrie, merrie month, as the English have long called the beautiful month of May.
"The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation into allegations that British soldiers have been pictured torturing an Iraqi prisoner. 
