Hoon: We let public think 45 minutes related to WMD

[T_i_B]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=446148

Geoff Hoon admitted yesterday he knew the "45-minute" claim at the heart of the Government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction related only to battlefield arms and not strategic missiles.

But he denied the Government's dossier was misleading and insisted the Ministry of Defence was under no obligation to correct reports suggesting Saddam may have had strategic chemical or biological weapons, despite banner headlines about Iraqi missiles and bombs.

The misapprehension was allowed to persist from last September, when the dossier was published, until the end of last month when John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, gave evidence to the Hutton inquiry.

But, Mr Caldecott asked: "Are you aware that on 25 September a number of newspapers had banner headlines suggesting that this related to strategic missiles or bombs? Why was no corrective statement published in relation to these reports?" "I do not know," Mr Hoon replied. He said he did not think a correction had been considered. Mr Caldecott said: "But Mr Hoon, you must have been horrified that the dossier had been misrepresented in this way. It was a complete distortion of what it actually was intended to convey, was it not?" The Defence Secretary said: "I was not horrified, I realise journalists write things that are more dramatic than the information on which it is based."

[rjbcar27]

1. Hoon's toast.

It's getting fun over here now. I actually thought Blair came out of yesterdays evidence from Hoon and Campbell pretty well, but then got totally fucked by John Pilgers documentary on ITV.

[PennyLane]

2. Keep Us Posted!

It seems you are getting real news while we get the "fairy tale"
variety!

[AndyTiedye]

3. Will Labor Be Able to Dump Blair and Stay in Power?

Or does Bush* hit the trifecta *again*!?

1. Blackmail Blair into supporting Iraq war.
2. Make Blair take the heat for him when the lies are exposed.
3. Tories return to power in the UK for another generation.

Yuck!

[dudeness]

4. gday andy..

i would hope the party will jettison blair before too much damage is done..despite his claims to the contary, blair has served his corporate masters well in invading iraq..his rewards await him outside the political sphere.

[T_i_B]

6. I agree

And it is funny how Campbells diaries flatly contradicted so much of what Hoon had to say. He should just cut his losses and resign now.

So should Blair too really, unless he wants a few more Brent East style maulings.

[0007]

5. Now WMD are reduced to battlefield arms?

The government in the UK is about as fucked up as the government here.

Lie after lie after lie.

[The Magistrate]

8. And To Top It Off, Sir

They do not seem even to have had the battlefield arms deployed and serviceable.

[T_i_B]

7. Passive Deceit and the Death of David Kelly

Great DU article on the subject! :-)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/03/09/24_death.html

Dr. David Kelly, the British weapons inspector who took his life earlier this summer, would likely be alive today if the the best and brightest of British intelligence had not engaged in "passive deceit." If they had not allowed a misinterpretation to lodge in the brains of the media and public, Kelly would not have made the allegations that started the unfortunate chain of events culminating in his death.

Deceit can be active or passive. An example of active deceit is to claim that you "know" that Iraq continued to produce chemical and biological weapons from 1999 to 2002 when you merely suspect such was the case. The September 24, 2002 dossier "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction" gave the false impression that a mere "judgment" - based on limited, unconfirmed intelligence - was an established fact. The misleading formulation was presented both in the main text, prepared by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) under the supervision of JIC chairman John Scarlett, and in the Prime Minister's Foreword, penned by Alastair Campbell and reviewed and approved by Tony Blair.

Passive deceit occurs when you're in position to correct a misperception but you fail to act. Perhaps you prefer to allow the misperception to lodge in the brains of citizens as fact, because it serves your political interests. An example of passive deceit is the non-response of two intelligence chiefs, Scarlett and MI6's Sir Richard Dearlove, after much of the British public and media assumed from their reading of the dossier that Iraq could launch a WMD attack on Britain's overseas interests (if not on Britain itself) within 45 minutes of an order to do so.

In fact, Iraq could not. The spy bosses knew it could not, yet neither man appeared to make any effort to correct the misimpression or urge anyone in the Blair administration to do so.

[Mari333]

9. Its lovely to watch the shite hit the fan in the UK

Now, if we could only see it happen here in the US....

[grasswire]

10. Is there ANY PLACE...

...on the Internet where the Pilger video is available?

God, I hope so.

[SaintLouisBlues]

11. Let the public think?

A lie is a lie is a lie, you pricks.

[T_i_B]

12. Oh what a tangled web Blair weaves

when first he pratices to decive.