No 10 blocks envoy's book on Iraq

[Briar]

Apparently they are going to prevent us reading this, rather than try to argue black is white (as they are with the London bombings and their connection with Iraq) once it gets published:



No 10 blocks envoy's book on Iraq

Martin Bright and Peter Beaumont

A controversial fly-on-the wall account of the Iraq war by one of Britain's most senior former diplomats has been blocked by Downing Street and the Foreign Office.

Publication of The Costs of War by Sir Jeremy Greenstock, UK ambassador to the UN during the build-up to the 2003 war and the Prime Minister's special envoy to Iraq in its aftermath, has been halted. In an extract seen by The Observer, Greenstock describes the American decision to go to war as 'politically illegitimate' and says that UN negotiations 'never rose over the level of awkward diversion for the US administration'. Although he admits that 'honourable decisions' were made to remove the threat of Saddam, the opportunities of the post-conflict period were 'dissipated in poor policy analysis and narrow-minded execution'.

Regarded as a career diplomat of impeccable integrity, during his time in post-invasion Iraq, Greenstock became disillusioned with the Coalition Provisional Authority, led by Paul Bremer. Their relationship had deteriorated by the time Greenstock returned to Britain.

The decision to block the book until Greenstock removes substantial passages will be interpreted as an attempt by ministers to avoid further embarrassing disclosures over the conduct of the war and its aftermath from a highly credible source...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1530311,00.html

[madeline_con]

1. Blatant CYA censorship!

Greenstock needs to get his manuscript out of Britain and have it published.

[forintegrity]

2. I definitely want to read THIS version

where can I get a copy?

CENSORSHIP!!! and COVERUP!!! So much for freedom of speech!

Greenstock needs to NOT change a word AND find another publisher!

[Guy_Montag]

3. This is fair enough,

standard practice to censor something like this.

I would love to read it though - hope he gets it to Australia or NZ.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

4. No.10's attempts to block the book will sell an extra 50,000 copies

:)

[D-Notice]

5. Maybe it's a publicity stunt!

Anything to make more money...

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

6. That's two in as many days!

The diary they don't want you to read: Cabinet Secretary bans spin-doctor's memoirs

Britain's most senior civil servant has banned publication of a diary written by one of Tony Blair's former spin-doctors, in a move that could land the Government in a serious row about freedom of expression. It is the first known example of the Civil Service code being used to ban publication outright.

Lance Price, a former deputy to the Prime Minister's press secretary, Alastair Campbell, has been told that it is "completely unacceptable" that he should publish a daily diary he kept during his Downing Street years. The ban is surprising because the author adamantly denies that his diary contains anything intended to damage Tony Blair or the Government. One scholar who has read the manuscript described it as "affectionate".

The ban is thought to be the first of its kind since the furore that surrounded the publication of diaries by the Labour cabinet minister Richard Crossman in the 1960s. There is no suggestion that the book breaches the Official Secrets Act, but it is deemed to run foul of the management code for civil servants. Although a political adviser, Mr Price was on the Civil Service payroll from 1998 to 2000, part of the period covered by his diary.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article299675.ece