Both sides stretched the truth

[Gonz]

LONDON - Britain's public broadcaster has admitted a string of errors over an explosive BBC radio report about the Iraq war which led to a feud that drove weapons expert David Kelly to his death.

At the inquiry into his suicide, the BBC's reporter said one of the most damning allegations he had levelled at the government was 'a slip of the tongue' and did not accurately reflect Dr Kelly's words.

Dr Kelly slit his wrist days after being named by the Ministry of Defence as the source of the BBC report, which alleged the government had 'sexed up' evidence of Iraq's banned weapons to justify war.

The inquiry also heard on Wednesday from a Ministry of Defence official who said the ministry had thought it unnecessary to obtain Dr Kelly's consent before identifying him as the source of the report.

BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan stood by the broad thrust of his Iraq report on Wednesday - that the government had hyped intelligence to justify war.

But challenged by the government's counsel, Mr Gilligan admitted he had gone too far in one live radio broadcast. He reported that his source told him the government had made the claim that Iraq could fire chemical or biological weapons in 45 minutes despite knowing it was probably false.

'It was a kind of slip of the tongue,' Mr Gilligan said. 'I regret that on this occasion, I did not report carefully and accurately what Kelly said.'

That '45-minute' claim is at the heart of Prime Minister Tony Blair's credibility crisis after intelligence officers told the inquiry they were unhappy with how strongly the government worded the evidence available on Iraq's weapons programme, but none has said they knew it to be false.

The inquiry continues this week with heated exchanges expected in court. -- Reuters

Straits Times

another version
Australian Weekender

 

[ris]

yup, that's pretty much right.

gilligan is appearing to be a bit of a loose-cannon journo, good at what he does but guilty of embelishment. as far as this story goes he admitted using the wrong language in the first of the reports he made but corrected it to a correct form for the other 15 or so he did.

he's taken a fair chunk of flak for over egging the pudding a bit, but the government has all but admitted over-egging the wmd dossier on iraq, which in the scheme of things is going to be far more damaging.

the ministry of defense are also looking pretty ropey for appearing to release kelly's name without his knowledge, the result of which was massive media intrusion and additional pressure on the scientist.

 

[ris]

i should add that the 45min claim that the government used seems to be well known in intel circles for being dodgy. critically it came out last week that the 45min warning was for general weapons deployment by iriaqi armed forces, not specifically for wmd use which the dossier stated.