Hutton whitewash
Keith Parkins | 30.01.2004 14:23 | Analysis
Need a whitewash, then Lord Hutton is your man. As an added bonus you get a gravy train for lawyers, and a media circus performing outside. The only price to pay is the loss of democracy itself.
Need to look whiter than white, then Hutton's your man. If you find yourself in a hole, Hutton's your man. Maybe Saddam Hussein should give him a call.
The first half an hour was an extremely tedious, boring, wooden presentation of the chronology of the events which led up to the death of Dr David Kelly.
The nub of the matter was that the integrity of the government was being challenged. This a government led by Bliar.
Bliar came out whiter than white. He could do no wrong. Later a saintly Bliar crowed about his newly acquired sainthood to the House of Commons. Neo-Labour backbenchers queued up to lick his arse.
The MoD and Geoff Hoon, had done no wrong either. Neither for that matter Spin Ally.
This then only left the villains of the piece.
BBC was slagged off as a very bad broadcaster, a hatchet job is maybe a better description. Government and opposition, and especially the Murdoch media, are now jumping on the bandwagon for strong controls on the BBC and limits to its independence.
The government had criticized the BBC for bias in reporting the war in Iraq. In this they were correct, a strong pro-war bias. The Kelly affair was an aberration
Andrew Gilligan, the journalist who broke the story, was the worst example of the species. Yes, he is sloppy journalist, always has been, but at worst, he was guilty of slight exaggeration, but the gist of his story was correct. Compare with the outright lies that are the norm in the gutter press.
David Kelly, of whose death the inquiry was allegedly about, was clearly a bad 'un, as he had broken his Civil Service Code of Conduct by talking to a journalist. The fact that Kelly was expressing his fears that we were being taken into an illegal war based on lies, was irrelevant, as that was outside the remit of the good Law Lord. That Kelly went on to kill himself was understandable as scientists, especially government scientists, are a cranky lot, one only has to watch Hollywood movies to know that.
The conclusions drawn by Whitewash Hutton, bear no resemblance to the evidence placed before his inquiry. No just my view, even the view of establishment figures such as Lord Rees-Mogg, and former Times editor Peter Preston.
The groveling apology by the BBC, is almost as sickening as the performance of Phony Tony and his sycophants in the Commons on the day the Hutton report was officially released.
Would Blair and his ministers have resigned if the report had bore any resemblance to the facts? Will they eventually resign when no WMDs are found in Iraq?
Hutton could find no evidence that the government behaved in an underhand manner or were in any way responsible for the death of David Kelly. Presumably then, the diary entries of Spin Ally, where he was determined to fuck Kelly, fuck Gilligan, fuck the BBC, expressed his concern for the welfare of Kelly and Gilligan and his desire to heap praise on the impartiality of the BBC. And of course the No 10 press officers who tried to blacken the name of Kelly were misunderstood souls who were in actual reality singing his praises.
Spin Ally had embarked on a vicious personal vendetta against the BBC, for repeatedly exposing his trade. Gilligan was a pawn who got in the way, and Kelly was expendable.
Gilligan was only reporting what many had reported before. Intelligence services were, on both sides of the Atlantic, expressing their fears that their work was being politicized. Gilligan's reporting from the war in Iraq, would not have earnt him any favours.
We have still failed to see any evidence of WMDs in Iraq, the basis on which we went to war.
Hutton specifically ruled out inquiry into the accuracy of intelligence reports. In doing so, he cannot then draw conclusions on the veracity of Gilligan's reports.
Following the damning criticism of David Kay, former head of Iraq Survey Group, the US administration is now distancing itself from the intelligence, and openly saying the CIA got it wrong. Apart from the absence of WMDs, we had all the countries surrounding Iraq saying they saw it as no threat. If Mossad saw no threat, there was no threat.
If the intelligence reports were so wrong (ie the reports that led to war) then either the intelligence input was wrong, or politicians massaged the reports. It has to be one or the other, though it could be both.
There has to now be a full and detailed inquiry into both the case for war, the intelligence failures (however caused) and into the failings of Hutton.
Already the government are using Hutton as a reason for no inquiry, claiming the matter has now been thoroughly investigated, even though Hutton himself specifically excluded these areas. See for example statement to the House of Lords by Foreign officer minister Lady Simmons on Wednesday - I see no reason for a further inquiry, there has already been three inquiries, one of which was Hutton.
The lies and spin continue.
The day after Hutton reported his whitewash, politicians of integrity like Peter Mandelson and Spin Ally did the rounds of the studios slagging off the BBC, Leader of the Commons, Peter Hain (a man who has turned his coat so many times no one knows what he stands for, other than himself), charged the media with making all politicians out to be liars. Neo-Labour backbenchers took their cue, one went so far as to accuse the BBC of being a threat to democracy by causing the public to have little respect for politicians and no interest in politics! Now could this not just be because most politicians are a bunch of shits, of which the forenamed are but prize examples?
The day of the Hutton report was the day truth got buried.
The resignations at the top of the BBC (the chairman and director general should not have resigned) in response to Hutton, was a dark day for democracy.
If Phony Tony thought he has won, then it is a hollow victory. The majority of the British people think Hutton was a whitewash. Post-Hutton, more people think Blair a liar than before.
As in the US, we are seeing the rise of Fascism.
Keith Parkins
Homepage:
http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/
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