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There is a very important article by Andy Worthington over at Liberal Conspiracy about an announcement by Baroness Scotland of an investigation into activities at Guantanamo:

Thursday’s extraordinary announcement that the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, has been asked by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to investigate possible “criminal wrongdoing” by MI5 and the CIA in the case of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is the latest, and perhaps most significant example of the use of torture coming back to haunt the torturers.

Mr. Mohamed’s lawyers have spent over three years attempting to secure information proving that their client, seized in Pakistan in April 2002, was rendered by the CIA to 18 months of torture in Morocco, and was then transferred to a CIA prison in Afghanistan, before arriving in Guantánamo in September 2004.

A must read.

First things first.

There are “lack of internet” problems at Wardman Towers.

That necessitates a trip to the local “pub with Wireless Net Access” for a late afternoon nurdle, but means that there have been no posts today.

My apologies.

It would happen on the day that I have a new story about the updated Wikio poltical blog rankings (*), and am doing the Britblog Roundup.

(*) Liberal Conspiracy is up to 3, Labour Home comprehensively overtaken by Lib Dem Voice, Nick Robinson drops out of top 20 (just), Wardman Wire up to 14.

Tags: liberal conspiracy, nick robinson

Yesterday I asked:

Reader question of the evening:

Why was “Twat-o-Thon” the top search term for sending people to Liberal Conspiracy in June?

And I hinted that the reason was not to do with Liberal Conspiracy itself. This article supplies the answer.

Here’s some food for thought first. The top search words on the same basis for some of the politics blogs on Wikio that I can test. I can only look at individual blogs that have their own second level domain, since that is the granularity of the compete.com figures.

Reader question of the evening.

Why was “Twat-o-Thon” the top search term for sending people to Liberal Conspiracy in June?

At least, that is, according to the compete.com metrics site.

Suggestions in the comments below, please.

Make them reasonably polite or censorship will be exercised.

I’ll post the answer at the end of the evening.

Clue: it tells you more about search engines than it does about Liberal Conspiracy.

Liberal Conspiracy and Comment is Free organised a “do” last night under the heading “Blog Nation“. The reactions I have seen have prompted some thoughts on blogs as campaign tools, and how bloggers may work together - or not.

The aim of the evening was threefold:

“To discuss issues relating to political blogging on the left, learn about online activism already taking place, socialise and meet others you’ve been reading on the web. It is about bringing together the liberal-left blogging community.”

I’m interested in how these coalitions can be built dynamically around each issue or campaign as we develop a view and a consensus, and the impact of a caucus on campaigns that require a broader base.