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THE HERALD MAGAZINE ARTICLES

THE HERALD MAGAZINE - THE DEVILS DOUBLE
I love coincidences, and so I owe this story to my father Teddy O'Neill, now retired to Ireland along with my mother, who called me one day to tell me a man called Latif Yahia, who'd been the official 'souble' for Saddam Hussein;s bloodthirsty son Uday, was living nearby. Within two days, I had checked everything out, made contact with Latif, and was on my way to interview him. As I sat in his living room, and his extraordinary story spilled out, we watched the final preperations being made for Saddam's execution. The insider information he gave me on the Saddam regime was unbelievible. You couldn't make this up....
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE - Lord Advocate
Elish Angolini, is now Scotland's senior legal official - the Lord Advocate. I got the chance to interview her exclusively earlier this summer and examine the dynamic new changes she has brought to the country's controversial rape laws. She is a bright and determined woman who reminded me of another bright and determined woman - Hillary Clinton.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE - Lord Jeffrey Archer
I'd met author and politician (and now former inmate) Lord Jeffrey Archer ten years ago. A decade on he'd mellowed quite a bit but was still the same bombastic and entertaining bugger he was the first time. Like many who've met Archer in his stunning 14th floor penthouse overlooking thr Thames and the Houses of Parliament, I'd be a total liar if I didn't say a part of me thought he was utterly engaging and charming, from first to last. But then again, I'd also be a liar if I didn't say I sensed a core of steel that he hides well, and which I wouldn't cross too quickly.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE - Gary McKinnon
Gary McKinnon is due to be extradited to the USA any month now. Prison almost certainly beckons for a good few years because he hacked into most of the Pentagon's military computers a few years ago. I can imagine he looked like a threat from the other side of Atlantic but he was quite the reverse when we chatted on a hot late summer's day in a London pub. He came across as a paranoid, self-confessed UFO-junkie who admitted he spent too much time chasing secrets on the web whilst smoking dope and drinking lager.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE - Samantha Roberts
Meeting Samantha Roberts, widow of the first British soldier killed in controversial circumstances in Iraq, was a sobering and harrowing experience. She herself was a beautiful, elegant and formidable woman - but what she'd experienced was an appalling, out-of-control nightmare. She bravely led me through her memories and images over a long interview - a journey I won't be able to forget soon.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE - Angela Cannings
Meeting Angela and Terry Cannings was a rattling encounter. Imagine being wrongly jailed for murdering your own children? Imagine being labelled a child-killer inside prion? Imagine being locked up alongside some of the UK's most notorious murderers? Then imagine being exonerated but dumped back into a life - and family - you hardly know. That's what happened to Angela Cannings. I hope she and Terry manage to rebuild their lives - this is my article about meeting a brave woman who was the victim of one of the UK's most atrocious miscarriages of justice cases.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE - ROBERT KENNEDY Jnr
Bobby Kennedy Jr is an extraordinary environmental campaigner from New York State in the USA. His dad was the Attorney General and his uncle was President John F. Kennedy. I flew to a freezing Sweden where he was appearing with the GANT clothing company who were supporting his charity in return for his public image being used in their clothing catalogues and stores. He gave me an exclusive interview and impressively argued about the need to care for the planet. Let's just say the charasmatic Kennedy is no fan of George W. Bush.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE - JOSH WAITZKINS
If you ever saw the cult movie about a chess prodigy 'Search for Bobby Fischer' then you understand why I wanted to know what happened to the child genius featured in it. This article allowed me to speak to him and learn about his abilities, as well as examine them alongside the troubled life of the former world champion, Bobby Fischer, whose name featured in the film's title.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE - HEPATITIS C
This article investigates how thousands of innocent Scots haemophilliacs and people who received blood transfusions in the 1980s now suffer from Hepatitis C. It was the first article to reveal how tens of thousands of previously unknown victims of the latter - blood transfusions - are dying. They were given infected blood bought from US prisoners and members of the armed foces in the 1980s. They're not being contacted by doctors, the government or anyone else. Worse still, this article explained how - in cases like the one featured here - the main Hep C carriers are unwittingly passing on the disease to partners + children and sometimes killing them too. Appallingly, despite the Lord Advocate, Scotland's chief legal officer, ordering Hep C deaths to be investigated, I discovered that not one single case had been examined since the law was brought into practice in 1998.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE - STUART GAIR
Gair was arrested and iimprisoned in Scotland over 15 years ago for a murder he's always claimed he didn't commit. Despite all the prosecution witnesses telling me they'd lied in the original case after police initmidation, he remains convicted of this crime and is still in jail. I recently re-interviewed him when he was still out on license. This is his sad story. The original article I did in 1999 is available in the Esquire magazine archive. Compare his demeanour and circumstances and arrive at your own conclusions. Download

THE HERALD MAGAZINE: MAX CLIFFORD
On the flip of a coin I decided to accept an offer to go and interview the infamous London-based 'publicist' Max Clifford. It was a revealing afternoon on a hot late summer's day.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: THE STRADIVARIUS VIOLIN
I normally tackle slightly edgier topics for in-depth pieces, than multi-million dollar violins. But, when I accidentally stumbled across the beginnings of this story, I had to follow it up. It's a haunting tale to say the least... Thanks to genius violnist Joshua Bell for his time here... and to Sean Bishop, a London-based string-instrument expert and seller, for his patience and insight.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: JOE DISTLER
I first visited Pamplona in 1997 when writing Matadors - frankly, I thought everyone was nuts. But the bug got to me. One reason was meeting a remarkable and charasmatic man from New York called Joe Distler, who first ran with the bulls in 1967, the year I was born. In 2003 I was commissioned to write - reportage style - about the great Distler.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: CRAIG MURRAY
This man was the former British ambassador to a country which had formerly been part of the Soviet Union . He left his job after repeatedly blowing the whistle on human rights abuses he witnessed which he reckoned were being allowed to continue by the West because of its current so-called ‘War on Terror'. A complicated man and a complex, worrying story.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: CALVI
Via an exclusive interview with his son, this piece examines the story of the Vatican Banker, Roberto Calvi, who was found dead hanging under a bridge in London in 1982. Four people are currently being charged with his murder in Rome . A chilling story from beginning to end.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: DEEPCUT
Four young British soldiers have died at the same military barracks in England . Officially we're meant to believe it was suicide. But then I spoke to the only ballistics expert to have examined the evidence: his verdict? Murder.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: NICK LEESON
Leeson was the man who broke the world's oldest merchant bank in the 1990s. He lost hundreds of millions of dollars on dodgy deals – then fled. He ended up in jail and being played by Ewan McGregor in a movie. Now he's in Ireland and starting a whole new life. He's likeable and, interesting…
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: REG KEYES
Reg Keye's army-serving son died in an ambush in Iraq two years ago and this father's anger at the controversial reasons for the British army being in Iraq , led him to stand in the last British General Election against Tony Blair. He was a dignified, articulate and terribly wounded man. This is his story.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: RYAN MATTHEWS
I investigated the US ' death penalty in this article through the story of Ryan Matthews, a young black man who almost went to the gas chamber. If human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith hadn't stepped into the picture, this young man would be dead by now. As Stafford Smith said: ‘Capital punishment? Yeah, those without the capital get the punishment…'
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: PAUL WATKINS
Based in the USA , Paul Watkins is paradoxically one of the UK 's most brilliant young authors. Yet he's also, for his own reasons, very elusive and often pulls vanishing acts like you wouldn't believe. But I persuaded him to let me take him back to his old school, Eton College . We'd a great day and, I think, I got to know him better than most. Then the bugger vanished… again.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: GUANTANAMO BAY
A UK man named Jamal Al Harith was mistakenly held in Guantanamo Bay for 2 years. His crime was that he was a Muslim in the wrong place, at the wrong time. He had no trial, no lawyer, nothing. This piece explains what it's like to meet someone who's been through that terrible ordeal.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: CHRISTOPHER REEVE
In August 2003 Chris Reeve, the actor who played Superman, agreed to let me come to his home in New York, to spend part of the day with him. Apart from being one of the most humbling experiences in my life, it also forced me to learn why stem-cell research is such a controversial and important issue. Like everyone else, I was shocked and saddened when he passed away in October 2004.
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THE HERALD MAGAZINE: DU PLANTIER MURDER
French film-maker and socialite Sophie Toscan Du Plantier was murdered in Ireland near Crhistmas-time in 1996. I have investigated her murder on three different assignments and always managed to unearth new facts and interview new sources. This case remains unsolved. It's a startling and oddly spooky tale.
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