Free Republic

The Foreign Office mounted a fightback yesterday against allegations that Jack Straw and Colin Powell had expressed serious doubts about whether Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction before the start of the Iraq war. As Tony Blair faced allegations from a former Cabinet colleague that he had "duped" the British people over Saddam Hussein's weapons capabilities, the Foreign Office issued a detailed rebuttal of allegations, made in the Guardian newspaper, that were seized on by news media around the world. The paper said Mr Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and Mr Powell, his United States counterpart, had privately expressed serious doubts...

Greg Dyke, former director general of the BBC, has claimed that the British Government "tried to kill" Andrew Gilligan. Reporter Gilligan broke the story that British intelligence had "sexed up" a dossier on Iraq that sought to justify Britain's support for US-led invasion of the country. "The Government tried to kill him," claimed Dyke about Gilligan, who was forced out of his job at the BBC in January in the wake of the Hutton report that inquired into the death of scientist David Kelly. Kelly was the main source for Gilligan. Dyke was speaking at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature...

BBC chief resigns over Iraq weapons adviser report ( ) LONDON, Jan 29, 2004 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- British Broadcasting Corp. chief Greg Dyke resigned Thursday, the second top BBC official to step down after a judicial inquiry harshly criticized the broadcaster's journalistic standards. On Wednesday, senior judge Lord Hutton criticized the 81-year-old network for an "unfounded" report it broadcast last year accusing the government of "sexing up" a prewar dossier about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction with information it knew was wrong. Gavyn Davies, the chairman of the BBC's board of governors, resigned Wednesday - the first time...

BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan has resigned in the wake of the criticism directed at him in the Hutton report. Mr Gilligan conceded some of his story was wrong, and apologised for it. He said his departure was at his own initiative, but described the BBC collectively as the victim of a "grave injustice". Earlier departing BBC director general Greg Dyke said he was shocked by the findings of the Hutton Inquiry and did not accept all of the report. He said Lord Hutton had "given the benefit of doubt to every government witness and not to any at the...

BBC on the back foot(Filed: 18/09/2003)From a journalistic point of view, it is difficult not to pity the BBC news managers. They are caught in an editorial nightmare. Having backed their correspondent Andrew Gilligan at the highest level, they now find his credibility and theirs unravelling in the full gaze of a public inquiry. Yesterday, Gilligan was seen to retreat on some of the most fundamental points of his contentious story. He was bound to accept a series of criticisms from Jonathan Sumption QC, acting for the Government, of the wording of his reports, his procedures in keeping notes and...

Gilligan apologises for errors but MoD man is defiantBy Sandra Laville and Neil Tweedie (Filed: 18/09/2003) Andrew Gilligan, the BBC reporter, admitted a series of errors yesterday in his report claiming that the Government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.   Andrew Gilligan leaves home for the Hutton Inquiry yesterday Under cross-examination by three QCs at the Hutton Inquiry, Gilligan apologised for his e-mail to members of the Commons foreign affairs committee, which was seen by some as an attempt to influence MPs in his favour. "I was quite wrong to send it . . ....

Gilligan admits dossier row errors BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan has admitted making mistakes in live broadcasts reporting claims the government had "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Mr Gilligan stood by the story he based on a conversation with government weapons expert Dr David Kelly. But under tough cross-examination at the Hutton inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, Mr Gilligan said he had made "slips of the tongue" in unscripted broadcasts. He was followed into the witness box by BBC director of news Richard Sambrook, who said there were errors in the BBC's strongly-worded response to the...

September 1, 2003 Dispute Over Arms Dossier Wounds the BBCBy WARREN HOGE ONDON, Aug. 31 — The BBC, the world's largest and best known public service broadcaster, sends out millions of words daily, but its long-nurtured reputation for accuracy, fairness and objectivity is being challenged for just 20 of them. On May 29, the defense correspondent of its morning radio news show, Andrew Gilligan, said that the government had inserted into its dossier of intelligence on Iraqi arms the claim that Saddam Hussein had biological and chemical weapons that were deployable within 45 minutes. ReutersGavyn Davies, the BBC chairman, has...

Blair: truth in claims would have led to his resignation A newspaper column in which Andrew Gilligan named Alastair Campbell as the man his source believed was responsible for the transformation of the Iraq dossier sent the government into "a complete and full storm", Tony Blair has told the Hutton inquiry into the death of David Kelly. The prime minister said the article, published in the Mail on Sunday after Gilligan's controversial Today programme report, "added booster rockets" to the claims already made by the BBC defence correspondent because it specifically named Mr Campbell. Linking the Downing Street communications chief...

<p>CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- The heat being generated over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction has moved to Australia with a former senior intelligence officer accusing Canberra of exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime.</p> <p>Speaking to an inquiry called by the Australian Senate, Andrew Wilkie said Friday information in intelligence reports had been distorted by the prime minister's office and "sexed up" to suit the government's political agenda.</p>

<p>Government weapons scientist David Kelly feared he might "end up dead in the woods" if a U.S.-led coalition attacked Iraq, a colleague testified Thursday at a judicial inquiry into his suicide.</p> <p>Kelly, identified as the source of a British Broadcasting Corp. report that questioned the integrity of the government's case for war, was found dead July 18 at the edge of a clump of woods near his rural home.</p>

BBC reporters reveal Kelly's unease at No. 10 spinBy FT StaffPublished: August 13 2003 12:44 | Last Updated: August 13 2003 14:40 Two BBC reporters have told the judicial inquiry into the death of David Kelly of the unease expressed by the weapons scientist over the level of  Downing Street "spin" involved in compiling a dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destructionA taped telephone conversation submitted as evidence by Susan Watts, science editor of the BBC programme Newsnight , appears to implicate No. 10's press office in "sexing up" the government's case for war.Gavin Hewitt, a special correspondent for the BBC Ten O'Clock News, also said...

Gilligan damned by evidence of colleaguesBy Bob Sherwood, Legal CorrespondentPublished: August 12 2003 20:55 | Last Updated: August 12 2003 20:55 Andrew Gilligan has long been under no illusion that he has critics. But when he appeared before Lord Hutton on Tuesday could not have expected to be damned, not by a practitioner of the Downing Street black arts, but by his BBC colleagues.Initially the journalist appeared to be surviving the scrutiny. He mounted a calm defence of his reporting on the second day of the judicial inquiry into why David Kelly, the weapons expert, apparently committed suicide after being...

BBC reporter refused to name Kelly (Filed: 13/08/2003) A BBC journalist has told the inquiry into David Kelly's death how she was pressurised by her managers to name the weapons expert as the source of her reports on No 10's Iraq dossier. Susan Watts: evidence Susan Watts, the science editor of BBC2's Newsnight, said that her bosses had wanted her to back up a report by Andrew Gilligan on Radio 4's Today programme that Downing Street had "sexed up" the dossier. But Miss Watts - who ran two stories on Newsnight based on conversations with Dr Kelly - said she...

<p>With the New York Times and the British Broadcasting Corp. both in the soup, something big must be going on in journalism.</p> <p>Let me give you one view of what that is, based on watching my craft evolve over 30 years as a senior editor. I think we're coming to the end of the era of "objectivity" that has dominated journalism over this time. We need to define a new ethic that lends legitimacy to opinion, honestly disclosed and disciplined by some sense of propriety.</p>

BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan had a second conversation with David Kelly after their initial May 22 meeting to confirm the quotes he could use, the inquiry into the circumstances of the microbiologist's death will be told. The BBC's evidence to Lord Hutton's investigation will reveal Gilligan went back to Dr Kelly to check which parts of their initial conversation to use before broadcasting his May 29 report on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Gilligan is said to have made contemporaneous notes about his May 22 meeting with Dr Kelly in a central London hotel on an electronic device, which has...

LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) - British police revealed on Saturday that a scientist at the center of a row over the government's justification for war in Iraq had died of a slit wrist, leaving little doubt he had taken his own life. A haggard Prime Minister Tony Blair urged the media on a visit to Tokyo to "set aside the speculation and the claims and the counter-claims" over the death of Dr David Kelly, a Defense Ministry weapons expert. Kelly was named as a possible "mole" for a news story saying aides to Blair -- who has staked his career on his...

Last Updated: Thursday, 17 July, 2003, 20:43 GMT 21:43 UK Journalist accused over dossier story BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan has been accused of changing his story when giving evidence to MPs over his report that No 10 "sexed up" an Iraqi weapons dossier. The BBC stands by Gilligan's reporting of his source The Radio 4 Today programme defence correspondent appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee in private to again discuss his allegations against Downing Street press chief Alastair Campbell. Committee chairman Donald Anderson said: "Mr Gilligan clearly changed his mind in the course of the evidence, in particular in relation...

The man, according to BBC Journalist Andrew Gilligan, to have told him that some parts of the so-called 'dodgy dossier' has gone missing, according to Sky News.