Hutton Inquiry: BBC To Get Trashed?

[Agathon]

Anyway, Bodds.. I found one of your videos on Amazon.

[Standup]

Still won though didn't he.

Only with the aid of the Scottish MPs though. West Lothian thread anyone ?

[Solly]

Only with the aid of the Scottish MPs though.

British MPs.

[lightblue]

Hmm, I would've thought you'd be first to complain about the Scots having the deciding votes on a bill which will only affect England and Wales...

On Hutton, there was a letter in todays Independent that caught my eye. It said (paraphrased as i haven't got my paper around):

If you accept the Hutton report, you have to accept that we are not led by manipulative liar but rather by a credulous fool.

I don't know what's worse...

[Solly]

An incredulous fool for trusting his intelligence services?

That must make every single prime minister and American president incredulous fools then.

It's amazing how the Blair-bashers still can't apologise for the lies they have been spreading about him.

[lightblue]

A credulous fool for trusting a single source enough to go to war. There was no true weight of evidence if you look deep enough.

If Bush and Blair had just said that they wanted to get rid of Saddam for being an oppressive tyrant there wouldn't have been half as much trouble as claiming that he formed clear and immediate danger to British and American interests and lives.

I still don't want Blair to go necessarily, but heads should roll in the intelligence services both here and the US (where it seem Tenet is about to be sacrificed).

[Tripledoc]

Whitewash.

Hutto was appointed by Blairs old friend Lord falconer.

Give me another.

[Tripledoc]

Originally posted by Sikander


Well in those days they came to stay and executed thousands who might get in their way. It deserved the name conquest more.

Now they wipe out the population beforehand by using food sanctions, uranium depleted ammunition, bombing water cleansing facilities and so on. Then they move in and install a friendly man (Chalabi I spit on you), which they can control and who will privatize the whole enterprize.

Naturally this is much more cost effective than in days of yore. Low overhead costs and so forth.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Tripledoc
Whitewash.

Hutto was appointed by Blairs old friend Lord falconer.

Give me another.

OK. How does that amount to a whitewash? I'm asking that in complete confidence that you aren't going to be able to back it up.

[chequita guevara]

I think the whitewash part consists in them ignoring the testimony about the government changing aspects of the report (as shown in the transcripts) to make Iraq look like an iminent danger, rather than a potential one.

[CerberusIV]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I think the whitewash part consists in them ignoring the testimony about the government changing aspects of the report (as shown in the transcripts) to make Iraq look like an iminent danger, rather than a potential one.

You have to look into the detail of the report. Hutton does go into the process by which the report was changed. He concludes that No 10 asked for changes in presentation but that they did not insist on anything the intelligence people were not willing to accept. It is a fine point and probably the bit that is being criticised for the government getting the benefit of the doubt but on a strict interpretation, which is what Hutton took, the Government and the Downing Street press office did not do what they were accused of. They did ask for it to be presented in a favourable light. They did not insert or change material directly.

The BBC did clearly not properly check whether Gilligan had the material to back up his initial claims. No doubt about a management failure. If they had just asked a few hard questions they might well not have been subject to criticism, indeed if they had reached the conclusion Hutton did regarding the reliability and interpretation of Gilligan's material they could have avoided a row with the Government rather than leaping to defend Gilligan's broadcast and the whole situation would have been different.

[Solly]

It's funny..I've never really known "whitewash" to be that extensively used as a word - it has no connotations for me except when a football team hammers another one...

[Standup]

George Galloway i thought summed it up quite well...we're either led by knaves or incompetent fools.

[Odin]

The BBC needs to get some balls and tell the government to f*ck off. I don't want the BBC turning into a propaganda service for the British government. It is one of the few news services I can trust.

GO BBC!!!

[Standup]

The BBC needs to get some balls and tell the government to f*ck off

Trouble is they tried that and lost. Also with Charter renewal coming up its difficult. Go for broke and tell the government where to go and risk being broken up or toe the line for a while to safeguard your future ?