Pilger hits back at "fake sheikh" report

A report in today's News Of The World claims that John Pilger, the writer and campaigner well known for his strong views against the war in Iraq and previous conflicts, was duped by the so called "fake sheikh" into admitting that he secretly supported Tony Blair. The writer is pictured in the newspaper sipping champagne and smoking a cigar at London's Savoy Hotel with the reporter who posed as a member of the Saudi government. Pilger is quoted as saying "Personally I think the interventionist policy in the Balkans, Sierra Leone and Iraq has been absolutely right, but there's a hell of a lot of intellectually lazy and self-righteous people out there who would actually prefer the terrorists to win. Hey, anti-Americanism and hatred of Bush and Blair sells books!" He allegedly added: "Actually some of those neocons are quite nice." Pilger this afternoon described the allegations as "outrageous lies by imperialist crooks."