Sarah Palin's media empire
For now, Palin takes an obvious delight in tweaking the very media establishment that is fueling her fameRead Article

Gianfranco Fini: The best leader the Italian left never had The former fascist's long march to the centre could keep the party of Silvio Berlusconi in power long after the PM goes Peter Popham - Letter from Rome
Sunday, 5 April 2009   The most dangerous politician in Italy is a tall, bony, bespectacled chain-smoker with a cellphone, whose ringtone is the noise of an Italian police siren. In a country full of jovial charmers, Gianfranco Fini makes no effort to ingratiate himself: it is simpler, and more effective, to intimidate. If Benito Mussolini were able to make his feelings known from beyond the grave, one senses he would be well pleased with the man who is his political heir. But Mr Fini, who is arguably the second most powerful person in Italy after his chief, Silvio Berlusconi, is not dangerous through being a fascist. Although he was until last month the leader of the party that bore the legacy of Mussolini, it is doubtful whether the "F" word was ever a useful stick to beat him with. Certainly in the past 15 years, since Berlusconi stunned the Italian political world by bringing Mr Fini's far-right party in from the cold and putting senior members of it in his first government, Mr Fini has accomplished the sort of revolution on the right that in Britain it took the combined efforts of John Smith, Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair to accomplish for the Labour Party. In the process he has established himself as Mr Berlusconi's heir-apparent, his indispensable colleague, and one of the very few senior politicians with the guts to tell "il cavaliere" on a regular basis that he has lost the plot. So that is one reason, looked at from the perspective of the left, why Mr Fini is a danger: because, aged 57, he promises continuity in government to the Italian right long beyond the date when Mr Berlusconi, 72, will be tucked up in bed. The other reason is more profound: on his long march from the political wilderness to the sunny grassland of the centre, he has reinvented himself as a conviction liberal: the champion of women and immigrants, the enemy of autocracy, and in particular the persistent and fearless critic of the Catholic Church and its constant meddling in Italian politics. Mr Fini has loped into the centre-left's garden and stolen their clothes. The inaugural convention last month in Rome of Silvio Berlusconi's new political party, "Il Popolo della libertà" ("The People of Freedom"), was classic Berlusconi: it opened with Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", followed by a 90-minute speech from the boss, and closed with the party's unofficial anthem, entitled "Menomale che Silvio c'è", which roughly translates as "Thank heavens we've got Silvio." Like the gatherings of his deceased party Forza Italia, it was another slick celebration of the Berlusconi personality cult. But Mr Berlusconi's clownishness inoculates him against that sort of criticism: it's hard to think of anybody so willing…

 Labour painsBarack Obama will never satisfy his union backers. Nor should he try Read Article

   The lessons of Iraq   Telegraph View:

Comments 10 | Comment on this article  It has been more than six years since George W Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" sign prematurely implied an end to America's entanglement in Iraq. Today, US forces are finally taking their most significant step yet towards withdrawal, moving their forces to bases away from population centres. The troops will still be patrolling, but will from now on become a steeply diminishing part of the daily lives of ordinary Iraqis.As one foreign invader moves out, so Iraq welcomes the next. Foreign oil companies are already discussing the development of the country's vast natural wealth. The subsequent spoils will have to be divided between Iraq's forever-feuding groups, Shia, Sunni and Kurd; and that serves as a reminder that while the country may be a better place than it was under Saddam Hussein, many of its problems have barely been tackled. It is not even clear that the fragile Iraqi security forces can protect their people. The Americans have issues of their own to confront. After the initial success of Operation Iraqi Freedom, they made some serious mistakes in this venture. In particular, there were few plans made for the post-invasion administration of the nation, while the disbanding of the Iraqi armed forces created a legion of fighters willing to enmesh the coalition in a protracted, and devastating, campaign. The resulting loss of US prestige saw belligerents from Iran to North Korea first taunt, and then test the resolve, of what remains the world's most powerful nation.The worry now is what happens when a chastened America is forced into decisive and far-reaching action again. Barack Obama knows that he could easily have to replace rhetoric with deeds, in particular in the Middle East. Has America learned enough from its mistakes? We can only hope so.      

  Former Top CIA Spy on How US Intelligence Became Big Business Intelligence veteran Robert Grenier worked covertly in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. He recently offered a rare glimpse into the world of radically privatized intelligence, Blackwater and the CIA assassination program. Read Article