Just as you thought; Bush or Blair, Sharon, Berlusconi or Dutch PM Balkenende: the warcriminals walk among us...time to take'm to Court...

by Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent

Monday March 21, 2005 - The Guardian - UK

The BBC last night gave another sign that it is determined to maintain its editorial independence by screening a Panorama programme strongly critical of Tony Blair's manipulation of thin intelligence, on the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

In the programme, Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6, was reported as having told Mr Blair that Washington had fixed policy on a war against Iraq and was going to fit the intelligence around that policy.

Despite the humiliation of losing its director general, Greg Dyke, over its allegations concerning David Kelly, the government arms control officer, the film contained powerful condemnation of the government.

It included interviews with former officials who had al ready broken in public with the government's Iraq strategy. It also quoted extensively from leaked documents first revealed by the Daily Telegraph.

In the most startling revelation, the programme claimed that at a meeting on July 23 2002, Sir Richard said a war was inevitable, adding that the facts and the intelligence were being fixed round the policy set out by George Bush's administration.

The claim was based on several reliable sources, Panorama said.

It claimed that Sir Richard briefed Mr Blair that the quality of intelligence sourcing for some claims made in the run-up to the publication of the intelligence dossier was developmental, adding: "The source remains unproven."

Nevertheless, Mr Blair told MPs two weeks later: "The intelligence picture they paint is one accumulated over the past four years. It is extensive, detailed and authoritative."

The programme also claimed that British intelligence was unable to convince neutral members of the UN security council, such as Mexico, of the dangers of Iraq's stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

The programme quoted Adolfo Zinser, former Mexican ambassador to the UN, referring to a meeting with MI6. Mr Zinser said: "I asked them: 'Do you have full proof of the existence of these weapons at any one of these particular sites that you are referring to?

The MI6 officers told me: "No."

Mr Zinser added: "It was very clear they didn't have proof, they had circumstantial evidence of a funny behaviour, of a suspicious behaviour. But I knew that ... because that was what we were getting from the [UN] inspectors."

The programme also interviewed Sir Stephen Wall, Mr Blair's former European adviser, who said of the legal case for war: "We stretched the legal argument to breaking point, and the fact that we do not have authority does set a dangerous precedent."

Sir Stephen also alleged that No 10 wilfully misrepresented remarks by the French president, Jacques Chirac, on the eve of war to suggest that France would never support a second UN resolution necessary to go to war.

[end item - Guardian - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7y8cb ]

Blair knew beforehand that US "fixed" case for Iraq war - Google 'BBC + Bush' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/4nzyp

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The Dutch author this far has worked abroad 4 decades for international media as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism ! At present 'Persona non Grata' in Holland :-)

He who travels far will often see things

Far removed from what he believed was the Truth.

When he talks about it in the fields at home,

He is often accused of lying,

For the obdurate people will not believe

Inexperience, I believe,

Will give little credence to my song.

'Journey to the East' - Hermann Hesse

'The war in Iraq is illegal' says United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

A 55' seconds 'sound bite' concerning the US-Israeli 'Dogs of War' 'bringing democracy' everywhere. Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5u98v

Former PM 'Wim Kok' and other Dutch Govt's Warcriminals in Court - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/662pp

Sued: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Over U.S. Torture Policies - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/3tgo3

It can and must be done!

Help the troops come home! Url.: http://www.bringemhome.org - We need them badly to fight our so called 'governments' - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

HR

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