Correspondents say Det Botha's evidence on Wednesday appeared first to boost the prosecution's case and then offer the defence a hope of winning the argument.
Bernard Jenkin, chair of the public administration select committee, offered the same defence of the foreign secretary's "free thinking" as "a useful counterpoint to the more delphic approach of the prime minister".
But Hendy has always offered the stout defence that he could have made a shed load more money working in the private sector, where he was highly successful before joining TfL in 2001.
Mr Clarke was offered the posts of defence secretary and environment secretary, but in a controlled display of independence rejected them, saying he would return to the backbenches.
President Samper's announcement of a grand human-rights campaign days before General Bedoya's dismissal might suggest so, and that was the explanation offered by the defence minister immediately afterwards.
However, Doerries said the statement did not offer the required defence of the judiciary, at what she described as a "dangerous" moment.
Each offers the same defence, claiming that they are trying to boost the economy as Spain's property bubble bursts, global markets get nervous and unemployment jumps.
When asked about it in press conference – "I don't mean to be sarcastic or pointed", offered the questioner in advance defence – he responded with simple, chilling menace: "What Deuce and I talk about is nobody else's business".
Colonel E Casey Wardynski, America's Army's project director, offers this defence of the fledgling military-entertainment complex: "Young people need to know the army is engaged around the world to defeat terrorist forces bent on the destruction of America and our freedoms".
