...About the Hutton Inquiry, BBC, and Blair Government.
On the merits of this matter, the BBC is simply wrong and the Blair government right. And the Beeb's cover-up, of course, made matters far worse...End of story. End of the BBC? Not likely, but we can always hope. Along with the National Health Service, it's the institution most responsible at this point for holding Britain back from its true potential.
Now this is simply wrong. And when I say wrong, what I mean is not right. In the sense of not being an accurate representation of the actual events that have been transpiring in our small corner of the space-time continuum. That sort of wrong. The esteemed Mr Sullivan, who is more entertaining now that he's grown a spine again with respect to the Bush Administration (though he is still a lousy stylist), quotes a New York Times piece alleging no evidence had been found that 'intelligence chiefs' objected to the material in the 45 Minutes Dossier. This is misleading. There is a great deal of evidence that 'senior intelligence analysts' did, in fact, object, and did feel the information was questionable, and did think that spin doctors were manipulating intelligence. Check the Telegraph.
Downing Street faced explosive allegations yesterday that it interfered with the use of intelligence in its September dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction when senior intelligence analysts described to the Hutton Inquiry how their objections had been ignored.
Now, admittedly this story post-dates Sullivan's bit, but it's hardly a surprise. It dovetails quite neatly with evidence heard by the Hutton Inquiry way, way, way back on 11 August, which you can also read about in a 12 August story in the Telegraph.
Two intelligence officials formally complained about the wording of the dossier on Iraqi chemical and biological weapons that formed the Government's case for war, the inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly heard yesterday.
The Telegraph, I am sure we can all agree, is hardly a hotbed of left-wing Bolshevik subversion. I can't imagine how Sullivan overlooked this...
The Government spun the case against Iraq. Gilligan spun his Today story. However, almost everything the Government reported about Iraq has proven to be false. While Gilligan may have fudged the details, his thrust has proven accurate. Therein lies the difference.
And why this crusade against the BBC? It is a noble bulwark standing between news and the uttermost forces of nether darkness, as led by people like Rupert 'the Master' Murdoch and Conrad 'Arsebucket' Black. And it gave the world The League of Gentlemen.
Andrew Sullivan just has no taste at all.
UPDATE: After the Prime Minister, Alastair Campbell, and John Scarlett all insisted 'ownership' of the dossier lay with the Joint Intelligence Committee, the Hutton Inquiry today received this piece of evidence, a record of a meeting attended by John Scarlett and Downing Street spokesman Tom Kelly, among others, which some might interpret as conflicting somewhat with their testimony.
Ownership of the dossier
- Ownership lay with No 10.
Well, then.
That irredeemably left-wing Bolshy anti-monarchist Guardian has a piece on this, pointing out that even if these minutes don't actually somehow or other mean 'ownership' when they say 'ownership', it's still a bit rummy that Scarlett never mentioned this, even in passing, in his testimony, no? I couldn't find anything on this on the Telegraph site.
By the way, is it just me, or are the BBC and Guardian sites much, much, much superior in basically every respect to other UK news outlets'?
BBC News Online is yet another Very Good Thing brought to you by dear old Auntie Beeb. Anyone who thinks it ought to be shut down should be publicly depantsed and laughed at cruelly.
Posted by aloysius at September 04, 2003 12:09 PM | TrackBack |