Dianavan applauds McGrath providing a link to the story and I agree with her. With a link it is always easier to see the spin posters here give to a story.

Teribus for instance writes disparagingly about the Guardian as a source for the initial version of the story when in fact the link shows that AP was the source.

McGrath for instance writes 'they break open the jail, and release 150 prisoners' where AP reported about one lone voice telling them that about 150 had 'fled' in the course of the action. 'Fled', 'freed' who cares about such details when a good story waits to be told.

Akenaton's spin: McGrath's version of events was widely reported in all the "quality" papers . No, it wasn't. McGrath's version you did praise so much was his own idiosyncratic version published in no quality paper.

Just BTW, of course for decades until quite recently, foreign soldiers in Germany (both sides of the wall) were not to be arrested by German police and not to be tried by German courts. This is quite normal for forces of occupation and even not unheard of for (officially) nonoccupying forces. No Russian (soldier in uniform or secret service without) in the countries behind the Iron curtain could be arrested by the local authorities.

Wolfgang