Sexed-Up Lies & Videotape

‘WHAT is clear about the fall-out from the farce of the Government’s Iraq dossiers is that the BBC, Government and the men in shiny suits at MI6 operate a swap shop of information.

‘Where’s the whistle?’

It’s a bit like the alleged relationship between Al Jazeera, the Arabic TV station, and the Iraqi security services, only obviously far less awful and underhand.

But even in this small world there is room for secrecy and subterfuge, and the Guardian leads today with news that the Beeb is refusing the name its whistle blower.

In any case, the Ministry of Defence says that is knows who he is. Yesterday it released a statement saying it had identified the possible source of the broadcaster’s story into ‘sexed-up’ dossiers.

We now know that this official is ‘middle-ranking’, an ‘expert on WMD’ and for all we know wears a large bristling moustache and answers to the name Saddam.

He also may or may not live in the inhospitable isolation of Niger. This country has been in the news of late, being as it is the source of Saddam’s uranium.

Or not – because the Independent says the George Bush administration is in ‘full retreat’ over the claim that the deposed Iraqi leader was trying to buy uranium from the African county.

The statement issued by the White House says that reports ‘suggest’ Iraq was looking to buy uranium in Africa, but the intelligence was ‘not detailed or specific enough for us to be certain that attempts were in fact made’.

Shame that President Bush used the claim in his State of the Union address.

Which raises the question in the mind of Michael Ancram, the shadow Foreign Secretary as to whether or not we went to war on a false premise.

With the BBC, the Government and the spooks searching for the truth, however, at least we know that we will never find out.

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Posted: 9th, July 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink