Alastair Campbell and the INC
From the transcript of Alastair Campbell’s (rather sudden – he stormed into the studio and demanded to be interviewed) appearance on Channel 4 News on June 27 2003:
Alastair Campbell: Excuse me we were talking about the weapons of mass destruction dossier.
This is the problem. The people who have been opposed to this conflict from the word go are now seeking to change the ground and to say the Prime Minister led the country into conflict on a false basis and you are deliberating conflating the issues.
Jon Snow: The issue in play here today is absolutely that this war was fought on the basis of intelligence information. That intelligence information firstly; the charge that in the first document in September there were serious errors of fact.
Alastair Campbell: Sorry the first document in September? There were serious errors of fact? And what were they Jon?
Jon Snow: The Niger allegation in which the Minister who was supposed to have signed the nuclear purchasing order had himself resigned many years before.
Alastair Campbell: You know do you Jon that that was the basis on which British intelligence put that in the dossier?
You know that, do you? Because if you think that, you are wrong. There were no errors of fact in the WMD dossier in September 2002.
Jon Snow: The Niger source has nothing to do with us?
Alastair Campbell: It was another country's intelligence, and the British intelligence put what they put in that dossier on the basis of British intelligence. Get your facts right before you make serious allegations against a government...
From the September dossier itself:
The Attack on Halabja
On Friday 17th March 1988 the village of Halabja was bombarded by Iraqi warplanes. The raid was over in minutes. Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against his own people. A Kurd described the effects of a chemical attack on another village:...
(Document reference: From "Crimes Against Humanity" Iraqi National Congress.)
Further References:
Human Rights Watch/Middle East – 'Iraq's Crime of Genocide — The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds.' (ISBN: 0-300-06427-6)
The 16 March chemical attack on Halabja...
HRW: The raids continued unabated for several hours. "It was not just one raid, so you could stop and breathe before another raid started. It was just continuous planes, coming and coming. Six planes would finish and another six would come." 27 (27. HRW/ME interview, Halabja, 17 May 1992.)
Dilip Hiro – 'The Longest War — The Iran Iraq Military Conflict.' (ISBN: 0-586-09038-X)
On 16 March the Iraqi air force attacked the town with bombs of cyanide or nerve gas, and killed at least 4000 people, mainly civilians.
The (INC supplied) date for the Halabja attack shown in the September dossier is completely wrong, despite TB and AC standing by every word of the dossier. In 1988 March 16 was a Wednesday, March 17 a Thursday, March 18 a Friday etc.
http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/06/week_4/27_campbell.html
and at:
http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/bbc/bbc_5_0132to0136.pdf
Alastair Campbell: Excuse me we were talking about the weapons of mass destruction dossier.
This is the problem. The people who have been opposed to this conflict from the word go are now seeking to change the ground and to say the Prime Minister led the country into conflict on a false basis and you are deliberating conflating the issues.
Jon Snow: The issue in play here today is absolutely that this war was fought on the basis of intelligence information. That intelligence information firstly; the charge that in the first document in September there were serious errors of fact.
Alastair Campbell: Sorry the first document in September? There were serious errors of fact? And what were they Jon?
Jon Snow: The Niger allegation in which the Minister who was supposed to have signed the nuclear purchasing order had himself resigned many years before.
Alastair Campbell: You know do you Jon that that was the basis on which British intelligence put that in the dossier?
You know that, do you? Because if you think that, you are wrong. There were no errors of fact in the WMD dossier in September 2002.
Jon Snow: The Niger source has nothing to do with us?
Alastair Campbell: It was another country's intelligence, and the British intelligence put what they put in that dossier on the basis of British intelligence. Get your facts right before you make serious allegations against a government...
From the September dossier itself:
The Attack on Halabja
On Friday 17th March 1988 the village of Halabja was bombarded by Iraqi warplanes. The raid was over in minutes. Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against his own people. A Kurd described the effects of a chemical attack on another village:...
(Document reference: From "Crimes Against Humanity" Iraqi National Congress.)
Further References:
Human Rights Watch/Middle East – 'Iraq's Crime of Genocide — The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds.' (ISBN: 0-300-06427-6)
The 16 March chemical attack on Halabja...
HRW: The raids continued unabated for several hours. "It was not just one raid, so you could stop and breathe before another raid started. It was just continuous planes, coming and coming. Six planes would finish and another six would come." 27 (27. HRW/ME interview, Halabja, 17 May 1992.)
Dilip Hiro – 'The Longest War — The Iran Iraq Military Conflict.' (ISBN: 0-586-09038-X)
On 16 March the Iraqi air force attacked the town with bombs of cyanide or nerve gas, and killed at least 4000 people, mainly civilians.
The (INC supplied) date for the Halabja attack shown in the September dossier is completely wrong, despite TB and AC standing by every word of the dossier. In 1988 March 16 was a Wednesday, March 17 a Thursday, March 18 a Friday etc.
http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/06/week_4/27_campbell.html
and at:
http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/bbc/bbc_5_0132to0136.pdf
posted by Andrew Simon at 12:58 AM
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