Dubious evidence

[Chris Burford]

On Newsnight, discussing the Blair interview, Menzies Campbell, the foreign affairs spokesperson of the Liberal Democrats, the only major party in the UK opposed to the Iraq war, set the standard firmly as "proof beyond reasonable doubt", and that all diplomatic and other alternatives should have been exhausted before a decision to go to war.

Shortly afterwards  Newsnight reported the story that large chunks (10 of 19 pages?) of the UK's apparently authoritative intelligence report on Saddam Hussein, published just before, and praised in Powell's speech, were old and plagiarised.

Connectivity poor at this moment, so I am taking the liberty in the circumstances of quoting from Mark Jones's A list where more detail and the URL link is published.

http://www.channel4.com/news/home/z/stories/20030206/dossier.html

The original author of crucial parts is shown by typographical errors to be Ibrahim al-Marashi, a postgraduate student from Monterey in California.

In several places Downing Street edits the originals to make more sinister reading. Number 10 says the Mukhabarat - the main intelligence agency - is "spying on foreign embassies in Iraq". The original reads: "monitoring foreign embassies in Iraq." And the provocative role of "supporting terrorist organisations in hostile regimes" has a weaker, political context in the original: "aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes."

Chris Burford

London