- He did not say, "hello," or even his name,
just left a one-word message: "Whitewash."
-
- It came from an embattled journalist whispering from
inside the bowels of a television and radio station under siege, on a small
island off the coast of Ireland: from BBC London.
-
- And another call, from a colleague at the Guardian: "The
future of British journalism is very bleak."
-
- However, the future for fake and farcical war propaganda
is quite bright indeed. Today, Lord Hutton issued his report that followed
an inquiry revealing the Blair government's manipulation of intelligence
to claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass murder threatening immanent
attack on London.
-
- Based on the Blair government's claim, headlines pumped
the war hysteria: SADDAM COULD HAVE NUCLEAR BOMB IN YEAR, screeched the
London Times. BRITS 45 MINS FROM DOOM, shrieked the Sun newspaper.
-
- Given these facts only a sissy pacifist, a lunatic or
a Saddam fellow traveler would fail to see that Prime Minister "Winston"
Blair had no choice but to re-conquer it's former Mesopotamian colony.
-
- But these headline were, in fact, false, and deadly so.
Unlike America's press puppies, BBC reporters thought it their duty to
check out these life or death claims. Reporters Andrew Gilligan and Susan
Watts contacted a crucial source, Britain's and the United Nation's top
weapons inspector. He told reporter Watts that the Weapons of Mass Destruction
claims by Blair and our own President Bush were, "all spin."
Gilligan went further, reporting that this spin, this "sexed up"
version of intelligence, was the result of interventions by Blair's PR
henchman, Alistair Campbell.
-
- Whatever reading of the source's statements, it was clear
that intelligence experts had deep misgivings about the strength of the
evidence for war.
-
- The source? Dr. David Kelly. To save itself after the
reports by Gilligan and Watts, the government, including the Prime Minister
himself, went on an internal crusade to out the name of its own intelligence
operative so it could then discredit the news items.
-
- Publishing the name of an intelligence advisor is serious
stuff. In the USA, a special criminal prosecutor is now scouring the White
House to find the person who publicly named a CIA agent. If found, the
Bushite leaker faces jail time.
-
- Blair's government was not so crude as to give out Dr.
Kelly's name. Rather, they hit on a subterfuge of dropping clues then allowing
reporters to play '20 questions' - if Kelly's name were guessed, they'd
confirm it. Only the thickest reporters (I name none here) failed after
more than a couple tries.
-
- Dr. Kelly, who had been proposed for knighthood was named,
harangued and his career destroyed by the outing. He then took his own
life.
-
- But today is not a day of mourning at 10 Downing Street,
rather a day of self-congratulations.
-
- There were no weapons of mass destruction, no nuclear
warhead just short of completion, no "45 minutes to doom" bombs
auguring a new London blitz. The exile group which supplied this raw claim
now calls the 45 minute story, "a crock of shit."
-
- Yet Blair's minions are proclaiming their vindication.
-
- This is not just a story about what is happening "over
there" in the United Kingdom. This we must remember: David Kelly was
not only advisor to the British but to the UN and, by extension, the expert
for George W. Bush. Our commander-in-chief leaped to adopt the Boogey Man
WMD stories from the Blair government when our own CIA was reticent.
-
- So M'Lord Hutton has killed the messenger: the BBC. Should
the reporter Gilligan have used more cautious terms? Some criticism is
fair. But the extraordinary import of his and Watts' story is forgotten:
our two governments bent the information then hunted down the questioners.
-
- And now the second invasion of the Iraq war proceeds:
the conquest of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Until now, this quasi-governmental
outlet has refused to play Izvestia to any prime minister, Labour or Tory.
-
- As of today, the independence of the most independent
major network on this planet is under attack. Blair's government is "cleared"
and now arrogantly sport their kill, the head of Gavyn Davies, BBC's chief,
who resigned today.
-
- "The bleak future for British journalism" portends
darkness for journalists everywhere - the threat to the last great open
platform for hard investigative reporting. And frankly, it's a worrisome
day for me. I'm not a disinterested by-stander. My most important investigations,
all but banned from US airwaves, were developed and broadcast by BBC Newsnight,
reporter Watts' program.
-
- Will an iron curtain descend on the news? Before dawn
today, I was reading Churchill's words to the French command in the hours
before as the Panzers breached the defenses of Paris. Churchill told those
preparing to surrender, "Whatever you may do, we shall fight on forever
and ever and ever." This may yet be British journalism's Finest Hour.
-
- *****
-
- Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller,
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. His reports for BBC Newsnight and The
Guardian papers and other writings may be viewed at www.GregPalast.com.
-
- ***** Join Greg, Janeane Garafalo, Tom Tomorrow, and
others for the launching of the Greg Palast Non-Profit Investigative Foundation
and Release of his new CD from Alternative Tentacles, "Greg Palast,
Weapon of Mass Instruction - Live and Uncensored." For more details
on the party check out: http://www.gregpalast.com/store.htm
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