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2 February 2004
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Hutton Report Slams BBC, Blair's Government Walks
Sometimes things really are black and white. The Hutton Report came out last Wednesday exonerating Prime Minister Blair and his government from the charge that they "sexed up" the intelligence dossier on Iraq in an effort to get Parliament's backing for war. The Report slammed the BBC for the way it reported the allegation, and it has already cost BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies and Director-General Greg Dyke their jobs. The real shake-up, though, should be over at MI6.
The death of UK scientist, Dr. David Kelly, who was named as the BBC source for much of the mess, was a sad portion of this episode, and the damage to the BBC's reputation is also unfortunate. However, as in America with David Kay's statements to the media the week before, the Hutton Report last week stated pretty clearly that the politicians at the top were given bad intelligence on which they based the decision to go to war. And this is the difficult part.
It would actually have been better for Britain if Mr. Blair had been the warmongering liar his most vociferous detractors claimed he was. He could easily have been removed at the next general election. Much the same is true of Mr. Bush in Washington. Liars can be ousted far more easily than entire bureaucracies changed. Yet that is what is needed now.
How is it that the British intelligence services, and their American counterparts, were so howlingly wrong? Is it the people, or the structure, or the methods? If Saddam's scientists lied to him, and the west believed the lies as well, what other approach could have been taken? The questions are endless. The answers are few, and currently, invisible.
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