POLITICS: The Hutton Report AKA The Grand BBC Hatchet Job

Well well well, it seems that Tony "Teflon" Blair has bounced back again from a scandal, but did we really expect anything else from the wolf in sheeps clothing himself? He dodged a no-confidence vote situation by bribing and extorting his MP's into voting for tuition fee's just last night and scraped past with only a 5 vote majority, that may sound like a healthy margin but it takes a whole new meaning when you think that his own party has a 161 member majority in the house of commons.

And then today came the hutton report, a 761 page directory of the events leading up to the death of Dr David Kelly. How convenient that it was leaked to the Sun last night when it was so pro-government and anti-bbc, and thats all the report was, just one long anti-bbc hatchet job scripted by a law lord detached from reality.


THE POINTS

ON DR KELLY'S DEATH:

Dr Kelly took his own life and no third party was involved
No-one involved could have contemplated that Dr Kelly would take his own life as a result of the pressures he felt
Dr Kelly was not an easy man to help or to whom to give advice
Can not be certain of factors that drove Dr Kelly to suicide
Dr Kelly probably killed himself because of extreme loss of self-esteem and would have seen himself as being publicly disgraced
Dr Kelly would have felt his job was at risk and that his life's work could be undermined

ON ANDREW GILLIGAN'S REPORT

Andrew Gilligan's report that Downing Street "probably knew" the 45-minute claim in its Iraq dossier was wrong was a grave allegation and attacked the integrity of the government and the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC)
The 45-minute claim in the Iraq dossier was based on a report received by the intelligence services that they believed to be reliable
Whether or not that source was subsequently shown to be unreliable, the central allegation made by Andrew Gilligan in his BBC report was unfounded
The allegation that the reason the claim was not in the original draft of the dossier was because it was only from one source and the intelligence service did not believe it to be true, was also unfounded
It is not possible to reach a definite conclusion as to what Dr Kelly said to Mr Gilligan
Satisfied Dr Kelly did not say to Mr Gilligan that the government knew the 45-minute claim was wrong or that intelligence agencies did not believe it was necessarily true

ON THE BBC

Editorial system at BBC was defective in allowing Mr Gilligan's report to go to air without editors seeing a script
BBC management failed to make an examination of Mr Gilligan's notes of the interview with Dr Kelly
There was a defect in the BBC's management system relating to the way complaints were investigated
BBC governors failed to investigate Mr Gilligan's actions properly
ON THE PREPARATION OF THE DOSSIER

The Prime Minister's desire to have as compelling a dossier as possible may have subconsciously influenced the JIC to make the language of the dossier stronger than they would otherwise have done
The JIC and its chairman, John Scarlett, were concerned to ensure that the contents of the dossier were consistent with the intelligence available to the JIC
The dossier could be said to be "sexed up" if this term is taken to mean it was drafted to make the case against Saddam as strong as intelligence permitted
But in the context of Mr Gilligan's report, "sexed up" would be understood to mean the dossier was embellished with items of intelligence known or believed to be false or unreliable. This allegation is unfounded
ON THE NAMING OF DR KELLY

There was no underhand government strategy to name Dr Kelly
It was necessary to have Dr Kelly before the foreign affairs committee
If details that a civil servant had come forward to volunteer he had met Mr Gilligan had been withheld, the government would have been accused of a cover-up
The Government's belief that Dr Kelly's name was bound to come out was well founded
MoD did take some steps to help Dr Kelly once his name was made public
The MoD was at fault in the way it dealt with Dr Kelly once his name was made public
MoD failed to tell Dr Kelly his name would be made public
Dr Kelly's exposure to press interest was only one of the issues putting him under stress
OTHER ISSUES

The publishing of leaked extracts of the report in the Sun newspaper was deplorable

Investigative and legal action is being considered over the leak

Final submissions to the inquiry from parties involved are being made public.

Statements and retorts have been fielded by The Kelly estates lawyer, Teflon Tony, The leader of the opposition Michael Howard, Director-General of the BBC Mr Greg Dyke and many others.

The resounding question that echoes through the BBC fortress in white city is undoubtedly...

Why did Hutton unquestionably side with the Government on every point.

[Edited on 28-1-2004 by Nerdling]

[Edited on 30-1-2004 by Nerdling]

A disgusting Whitewash !!

It makes me feel ashamed to be an Englishman.

I actually feel phisically sick.

British democracy is dead.Our leaders are no longer accountable.

A very sad day.

Haha. Not only are the politicians unaccountable they're blaming the media. We're nearing the absolute low points that governments can reach.

That they leaked it to The Sun owned by Murdoch who wishes to trash the BBC because of their charter and they are rivals to Sky is disturbing.

I worry for the Independent Press.

The latest from the BBC:

"Vindicated Blair demands apology"
"Tony Blair has called on those who accused him of lying about Iraq's weapons to withdraw their allegations in the wake of Lord Hutton's report."
Link:
news.bbc.co.uk...


Excerpt:

"Mr Blair said the "real lie" was the claim he had misled the country by falsifying intelligence on weapons of mass destruction or lied to MPs.

Despite the claims being "completely untrue" the BBC had never "clearly and visibly withdrawn this allegation".

"I simply ask... now withdraw it fully, openly and clearly," he said.

The prime minister said the accusations levelled at him by BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan were extremely serious."


Interesting side article to this:

"BBC chairman 'considering his position'"
Link:
media.guardian.co.uk...

Excerpt:

"BBC chairman Gavyn Davies is said to be considering his position after Lord Hutton criticised the BBC in his long awaited report into the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

The corporation has flatly denied rumours sweeping Westminster that he has resigned, but one senior insider said the mood at the BBC was "very grim"."


Heads rolled?

"BBC chairman quits over Hutton"
Link:
news.bbc.co.uk...


And an interesting read from a 'blog' on this:
dailyablution.blogs.com...



regards
seekerof

Demanding an apology admist some horrible noise coming from the floor.

But I couldn't tell if it was boo's or cheers. Silly Brits.

Originally posted by RANT
Demanding an apology admist some horrible noise coming from the floor.

But I couldn't tell if it was boo's or cheers. Silly Brits.

Boo's AND cheers.

I guess you missed the speaker saying "If you do not cease i will suspend the house, prime minister please SIT DOWN."

So much for the 'liberal' press. It never existed.

Tell the truth and you get sacked.

It must be nice to be above the law.

Even in America, I just read a story that described the murder of David Kelly as 'sloppy work' by an intel official.

Iinteresting darkwraith, got a link?


regards
seekerof

Remember Hutton made a mess of the first Bloody Sunday Inquiry.The follow up by Scott has cost the tax payer about �120 million and it's not over it's projected to cost about �150 million.

If Blair thinks that it's all over he is very much mistaken.

This report is so bias towards the Government and against the BBC and fails to address so much evidence produced at the inquiry that it is actually an embarrassment.

Yes the big story is the BBC criticisms but on the lips of every journalist is the word "whitewash".

I don't think that most people really understand what this report actually means to the press freedoms they accept without even thinking about.All journalists will be worried about these findings.

The independence of the BBC has probably been terminally undermined.

No one should be pleased by this except for Murdoch.

Expect more resignations and not just those directly criticised.There is bound to be a great deal of anger in the BBC.

A BBC strike ?

Not likely but not out of the question.The BBC may never be the same again and the spector of the Charter renewal looms large.

They may feel that the charter guarenteeing their independence is bound to be revoked and their is little to lose.

I think the big battle is about to take place and I believe most people will back the BBC over Blair any day of the week.

A BBC strike would only make things worse.

They CAN'T scrap the BBC, we all grew up watching "auntie", not one person outside of the government would stand by that bull#. Even if they changed the charter i could see the BBC finally swinging its fist, Blair isn't pushing too hard as the army that is BBC News could easily knock him out on his ass if they ever felt threatened for a second. He'd be taking on something we unconditionally love in the UK, no chance.

The BBC was treated so badly that even the people on SkyNews were defending them, this is an attack on broadcast journalism, not just the beeb.

why is everybody so sure the BBC was right and Blair was wrong?

The BBC admitted they'd mistakes at the end of the inquiry and apologised to the Kelly family and the Government.

So we know the BBC were wrong in some respects.

The unanswered question is why it is that the report does not criticise the Goverment despite strong evidence that they to were in the wrong.

We know that Blair denied any involvement in the leaking of Kelly's name yet chaired a meeting which decided to do just that.

We know the Sept Dossier was changed in a way that made the case for war.

We know that several people inside the Intelligence community complained about the bias in the dossier.

We know all this and more yet no mention?

The BBC were willing to take the criticism on the chin.The Government were not and serious questions are left unanswered.

What mistakes did the BBC make other than to point out that the governments dossier for war was at best a total crock of #.

We have not only been lied to by the gov. but we continue to be lied to by such nonsense as this so called "Hutton Report".

Today was a sad day for the UK. If not the world.

welcome to the club mateys! its only gonna get worse from here.