Speech The Daily Mirror London, HOW THE WAR WAS SPUN By OONAGH BLACKMAN and HARRY ARNOLD DOWNING Street spinners massaged the case for war on Iraq, weapons expert David Kelly told a journalist. David Irving comments: I WATCHED the BBC journalist Susan Watts appear on the BBCtv programme Newsnight last night, relayed to US viewers by courtesy of C-Span. What an evasive, shifting, wheedling, ducking, and dodging performance it was.
If ever a journalist had been “got at” by somebody, and warned that her future, her career, and God knows what else were on the line if she did not toe it, it was Watts. The more we delve into this sordid Iraq story on both sides of the Atlantic, the dirtier it becomes.
The politicians and neo-Cons invent all sorts of smirking excuses, but the bottom line so far is still this: they tricked the gullible and ignorant masses into supporting a war, for whatever reason, and tens of thousands of innocent human beings have died in consequence, many killed in the most hideous manner, since Bush and Blair launched their “pre-emptive” strike. Well may Bush and Blair urge their respective electorates that it is time to “move on.” We won’t.
If what they did does not fit all the definitions of a war crime, a crime against humanity, and an atrocity, then I don’t know what the Nuremberg Trials were about. Worried officials “desperate” for information to be released to back the case for a strike “seized” on the disputed claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes.
They then failed to stress in a Government-published intelligence dossier that the real threat posed by Iraq was what weapons it might have in the future – “because that takes away the case for war”. In a damning 20-minute tape that trashed Government denials of spin, the Hutton inquiry yesterday heard Dr Kelly detailing the rising tensions as No 10 sought evidence to support the case for conflict.
Referring to the 45 minute claim, he said: “They were desperate, pushing hard, for information which could be released. That was one that popped up and it was seized on. It was unfortunate that it was.” Using Dr Kelly as his source, BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan accused No 10 of “transforming” the dossier before publication. He later put spin chief Alastair Campbell in the frame for including the 45 minute claim “against the wishes” of intelligence services.
In yesterday’s tape Dr Kelly did not directly blame Campbell. But he fingered the No 10 press office as being behind the “black and white” dossier – and “Alastair Campbell is synonymous with that office”. Dr Kelly was recorded by BBC Newsnight journalist Susan Watts in a phone conversation
on May 30 – the day after Gilligan’s report emerged on Radio 4. The tape was played in full at the hushed Royal Courts of Justice in London where Lord Hutton was spending his third day probing events that led Dr Kelly, 59, to kill himself last month. Early on, Ms Watts reminds the scientist he mentioned Campbell in an earlier conversation. Dr Kelly replied: “Er, yep, yep…with you?” Ms Watts said: “Yes.” Dr Kelly then explained he had also spoken to BBC reporter Gavin Hewitt.
Ms Watts said: “He presumably decided not to name Alastair Campbell himself, but just to label this as No 10…” Sounding brisk, Dr Kelly replied: “Yep, yep.” The following exchanges then took place: How “45 minutes” was seized on DK: It was a statement made and it got out of all proportion. They were desperate for information and that was one that popped up.
It was unfortunate that it was…which is why there is the argument between the intelligence services and Cabinet Office/No 10 because things were picked up on and you can’t pull it back. Why he was “uneasy” about claim: SW: But it was against your advice that they should publish it? DK: No…I can’t say that it was against my advice. I was uneasy with it. I mean, my problem was I could give other explanations.
That it (45 minutes) was the time to erect something like a Scud missile or the time to fill a 40-barrel, multi-barrel rocket launcher. Often information comes through and people use it as they see fitOn the No 10 “wordsmiths” SW: So it wasn’t as if there were lots of people saying ‘Don’t put it in’? It’s just it was in there and was seized upon…rather than No 10 specifically going against…?
DK: People were saying ‘Well, we’re not so sure about that’ or they were happy with it being in, but not expressed the way it was. The wordsmithing is actually quite important, and the intelligence community are a pretty cautious lot on the whole. Once you get people presenting it for public consumption they use different words. I don’t think they’re being wilfully dishonest. In your heart you must realise it’s not the right thing to say…but it’s the only way you can put it over.
On how case for war was made DK: I think one of the problems with the dossier is that it was presented in a very black and white way – they have weapons or they don’t have weapons. That has been interpreted as being a vast arsenal and I’m not sure any of us ever said that. I think the real concern everyone had was not so much what they have now, but what they’d have in the future.
But that unfortunately wasn’t expressed strongly in the dossier because that takes away the case for war…to a certain extent. On bids to tone down the dossier SW: Did you write that section which refers to the 45 minutes? DK: I didn’t write that section, no. I reviewed the whole thing. In the end it was a flurry of activity and very difficult to get comments in because people at the top of the ladder didn’t want to hear some things. SW: So you expressed your unease about it? Put it that way.
DK: Er, well…yes, yep, yes. On who massaged weapons claim SW: Back momentarily on the 45 minute issue. Would it be accurate then, as you did in earlier conversation, to say that it was Alastair Campbell himself who…? DK: No, I can’t. All I can say is the No 10 press office. I’ve never met Alastair Campbell, so I can’t. But…Alastair Campbell is synonymous with that press office because he’s responsible for it.
On Campbell’s denials SW: So how do you feel now No 10 is furiously denying it and Alastair Campbell specifically saying it’s all nonsense? DK: I think people will perceive things and…they’ll see it from their standpoint and they may not even appreciate quite what they were doing. On attention over Gilligan report SW: Are you getting much flak over that? DK: Me? No, not yet anyway. I was in New York. I mean they wouldn’t think it was me…maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. I don’t know.
Dr Kelly also slammed President Bush and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for using “spin” to describe the Iraqi threat. In a talk on May 12 Ms Watts’ note records Dr Kelly saying: “Bush didn’t have an effective policy on Iraq’s exact capabilities. When Bush/Straw said they had such and such, it was spin.”