[PEN-L:36259] Re: Rumsfeld's enemies are circling - BBC

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Further indirect evidence of the British government spinning against
Rumsfeld.: this morning the BBC correspondent in Washington built a report
around Rumsfeld's outburst against Syria and Iran, and had a clip of Bush
going off for the weekend. The commentary was that "he will hope that Mr
Rumsfeld's interventions solve problems rather than cause them."

(The spinning technique would be a briefing by Alistair Campbell's
representative in Washington, analysing the situation in an apparently
dispassionate way, drawing attention subtly to some complications within
the American position. If I am right, what was successful about this little
sound bite in shaping the news, is that it has displaced bigger UK
government anxiety about Rumsfeld allegedly into the mind of Bush. This
deflects attention away from dilemmas within the UK government, and
exacerbates dilemmas within the US administration, thereby weakening the
worst opponents of the UK and if necessary preparing the ground for it to
be Bush rather than Blair who will be the fall guy for this debacle.

I understand the front page of the (London) Times tilts heavily against
Rumsfeld. It leads on the potential risks of Rumsfeld enlarging the
belligerency to Syria and Iran. Beside this it has an item with a mocking
headline about the US running out of beans, and therefore requiring a delay
in the attack on Baghdad. I have not read the article in detail and I am
not suggesting that this is an outright sarcastic attack. But the title
suggests a tilt of disprespect towards the US military position. Such tilts
and innuendos signal shifts in the perceived wisdom of the ruling forces in
society.

Of course it is possible that Rumsfeld deliberately decided to attack Syria
for allegedly supplying night goggles to deflect attention away from the
difficulty in the US providing a steady flow of beans, but he is probably
not that clever in news manipulation. Certainly not on past performance.

Chris Burford
London