[A-List] UK state: Iraq crisis

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

As suggested earlier, Gilligan is being set up to take the fall, thereby
getting the BBC off the hook. As Private Eye have suggested all along,
Gilligan's behaviour has not been wholly admirable, and in fact he has made
it much easier for his employer to come up with a pretext to ditch him. He
seems to have been worming his way into the Conservative Party opposition,
what with articles in The Spectator and emails to MPs including John Maples.
Meanwhile the (partial) appearance of Dearlove, and his very equivocal
evidence, bodes ill for Blair, who has created all this mess.

----

Dyke puts Gilligan in the firing line

DEBORAH SUMMERS, Political Correspondent
The Herald, September 16, 2003

GREG Dyke, director general of the BBC, admitted yesterday to the Hutton
inquiry that Andrew Gilligan's e-mails to the foreign affairs committee were
"not acceptable".

Having staunchly supported his reporter and the BBC since the row between
the corporation and the government erupted in the Iraq dossier and Dr David
Kelly affair, he also said, with the help of hindsight, that he might have
behaved differently over the whole issue.

In an unexpected move, the opening day of phase-two of the inquiry into the
death of Dr Kelly, a government weapons expert, also heard unprecedented
evidence from Sir Richard Dearlove, head of MI6. The spy chief said the
statement that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction could be
deployed in 45 minutes may have been "misinterpreted".

Although the information was based on an established and reliable source, it
related only to short-range weapons and not WMD, he said.

The face of the first MI6 chief to give evidence in any kind of public forum
was out of view as he spoke via audio link. The television screens were
blanked out with even the lawyers unable to see the man known as "C".

In his evidence to Lord Hutton's inquiry, Mr Dyke also rounded on Alastair
Campbell, saying the BBC had faced a "ferocious" attack from Tony Blair's
outgoing director of communications over Mr Gilligan's report on the Radio 4
Today programme.

"One felt that a lot of scores were being settled, particularly in terms of
the coverage of the war," he said.

However, he was more defensive on the e-mail issue. Mr Gilligan sent one to
a member of the foreign affairs committee which appeared to suggest that Dr
Kelly, who apparently committed suicide after being revealed as the source
of the Today broadcast, had also spoken to the Newsnight science editor,
Susan Watts, and his e-mail suggested a line of questioning.

"I think we have to say this is not acceptable," Mr Dyke said. "It is not an
acceptable e-mail to send to members of the committee."

The inquiry opened after 10-day break yesterday with the announcement that
17 witnesses are to be recalled, including Mr Campbell and Geoff Hoon,
defence secretary, and will undergo a second grilling.

Outwith the inquiry, Jack Straw, foreign secretary, came under pressure from
both sides of the Commons to make a statement on reports that he advised Mr
Blair against sending troops to Iraq days before the invasion began.

Michael Ancram, the Tory deputy leader, called for Mr Straw to come before
MPs to explain the "irreconcilable contradiction" in his views ahead of
military action.
The demand followed re-ports that the foreign secretary wrote a secret memo
to the prime minister, proposing that Britain would not join combat
operations but instead offer political and moral backing for the war.

Downing Street insisted Mr Straw fully backed the invasion but, with a vote
in Parliament about to take place, planning had to be made in case the
decision went against ministers.

The Iraq dossier was obviously a key factor in any decision. Mr Dyke
insisted the BBC was correct to defend Mr Gilligan's controversial Today
report, which accused the government of "sexing up" the dossier.

"It was a charge being made not by the BBC but by a source to the BBC," Mr
Dyke said.

He said he had not read a transcript of Mr Gilligan's report before Mr
Campbell's foreign affairs committee appearance because he had thought the
story "was dying away". He added: "It is a pretty serious charge but there
is a distinction between a charge made by the BBC and a charge made by a
source to the BBC. They carry a different degree of gravity."

On the bitter dispute between the government and the BBC, Mr Dyke admitted
he had some regrets. "Hindsight is a wonderful thing."

Describing a meeting with Richard Sambrook, BBC director of news, to discuss
how to reply to a letter of complaint from Mr Campbell, Mr Dyke said: "When
I look back at that day, I would like to think that if I was there today I
would have stopped and said, 'We are in danger here of trying to reply too
quickly because we are trying to reply on Alastair Campbell's timetable'.

"And I would like to think that when I look back I would have said 'Let's
stop, let's just say that we are not going to reply and let's pass it to the
programme complaints unit for a full investigation of this whole issue'."

He added: "I thought there was a significant attack going on to the BBC that
I think had been pre-planned." Asked about Mr Campbell's attack on the BBC,
Mr Dyke said: "It appeared to both Richard Sambrook and I that the purpose,
that one possible reason for the purpose of the attack, was that the foreign
affairs committee would not then look in such detail at Mr Campbell's role
in the February dossier, the dodgy dossier."

He said he was not aware of that view influencing his behaviour, but said he
did think "old scores were being settled".