Link.

“Into the heart of the Niger Delta oil war” – Michael Peel, The Financial Times.

“A Swamp Full of Dollars by Michael Peel” – John Vidal, The Guardian.

“A Swamp Full of Dollars” – michaelpeel.co.uk

I’m currently reading Michael Peel’s book – ‘A Swamp Full of Dollars: Pipelines and Paramilitaries at Nigeria’s Oil Frontier’. Michael is the legal correspondent for the Financial Times and use to be its West Africa correspondent. I worked with him in October on an investigation into a secret Metropolitan Police picture database of protesters.

The book looks at the impact of the oil industry on Nigeria – corruption, violence, environmental disaster, chaos and big oil – from British colonialism to globalization.

What more could you want to read about over the Christmas break?

Publication: Pages 3 of The Financial Times Saturday 17 October 2009.

“Met under fire over picture database” – Michael Peel, James Boxell and Marc Vallée, The Financial Times

“Police image library raises Orwellian concerns” – Michael Peel and Marc Vallée, The Financial Times

“Focus on legality of database” – Michael Peel and Marc Vallée, The Financial Times

Over the last two weeks I have been working for The Financial Times on an investigation into a secret police database of pictures of protesters. This made the front page today of the FT. The investigation team included Michael Peel the FT Legal Correspondent, James Boxell the FT Home Affairs Correspondent and yours truly.

To read what we found out click on the links above.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 02.05.08. A civilian police photographer films and photographs working journalists outside City Hall on Friday 2 May 2008 in London, England. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.

HERAT CITY , AFGHANISTAN – Noria Barkot with her father. She was injured in the attack on Granai Village. Published here by kind permission of Guy Smallman/guysmallman.com. (c) Guy Smallman, 2009.

“The enemy has the momentum in Afghanistan” – Channel 4 News.

“The innocent are always caught up” – Channel 4 News.

“New footage of deadly Afghan bombing” – Channel 4 News.

“Villagers’ legacy of pain from US air raid” – Guy Smallman, Financial Times.

“Afghans’ legacy of pain from US air raid” – Guy Smallman, Financial Times.

My friend and colleague Guy Smallman is back from working in Afghanistan – and with a world exclusive. He visited the Afghan village of Granai in which a US air strike killed 147 civilians in May of this year, the highest number of civilian casualties since the Afghanistan conflict began. Click on the links above to read Guy’s report and view his pictures and to watch the Channel 4 News report as well – which was the lead story last night.

GRANAI, AFGHANISTAN – On May 4th 2009 Granai Village in the Bala Baluk area of Farah province was the subject of air strikes by Coalition Forces. 147 civilians were killed making the single biggest loss of life since the war began in 2001. Published here by kind permission of Guy Smallman/guysmallman.com. (c) Guy Smallman, 2009.

Below is Guy’s previous investigation from Afghanistan – which was published in the Financial Times magazine in December last year.

Publication: 6/7 December 2008, Financial Times magazine.

“The Afghan man squatting in front of us in the former Soviet cultural centre in Kabul was oblivious to our presence. In his right hand he clung to a scorched piece of tinfoil. He was about 20, and rocked slowly backwards and forwards, not registering the questions being put to him by Khalid, my interpreter. Eventually we gave up, leaving him to his heroin-induced daze amid the rubble and used syringes. Lenin looked down from a decaying mural behind him.”

“Kabul’s lost tribe” – Guy Smallman, Financial Times.

Publication: 6/7 December 2008, Financial Times magazine.

Publication: 6/7 December 2008, Financial Times magazine.