Inquiry accused Gilligan of misleading the public...

[cantwealljustgetalong]

The BBC journalist at the heart of the row over the Iraq weapons dossier was accused of "misleading" politicians and changing his evidence when he was questioned by MPs about his allegations, according to leaked documents.

Confidential transcripts of the cross-examination of Andrew Gilligan by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee are published in The Guardian today. Sir John Stanley, the former Tory defence minister, accused Mr Gilligan of "leading the public up the garden path in the most staggering way".

Mr Gilligan insisted he had not changed his story, but Sir John continued to accuse him of shifting his ground, warning: "I cannot tell you how serious it is to mislead a committee."

...

Sir John said: "Mr Gilligan, listening very carefully to what you have been saying ... I have to say that it appears to me that you have completely transformed the nature of your evidence to this committee... If what you are saying is the case, I think you have led this whole committee and the wider public, up the garden path in a most staggering way... This is very, very serious Mr Gilligan."

After further questioning, Mr Gilligan responded: "I have never said in respect of the insertion of the 45-minute claim that Mr Campbell inserted it. I simply quoted the words of my source."

Eric Illsley then said: "It is fiction pursued by the press, by the BBC, you have allowed this fiction to stand and it is complete fiction, is that not the case?" Mr Gilligan replied: "Absolutely not. It is wrong to accuse me of misleading the committee."

Mr Illsley replied: "You have misled the whole world, let alone the committee."



http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=429534

[liberalmuse]

1. The Inquisition

Are they trying for another suicide?

[bpilgrim]

2. i hope they don't put him in a 'safe' house

we all know what happens there, don't we?

peace

[paulthompson]

3. Giiiillllliiiigggaaan!!!!!!!

<The captain thwacks him with a hat>

(Sorry, I couldn't resist ;))

[AP]

4. gilligan has a very bad reputation among his colleagues

and, note, the Tories asking him questions found his inconsistencies way too obvious to ignore, even though they'd probably prefer to have Blair's reputation damaged by Gilligan.

Also, people here should probably think hard about their reaction to Gilligan's reporting.

[Capt_Nemo]

6. There you are at it again, AP

We here at DU, knew for ages that the September Dossier claims were
a heap of falsehoods. Gilligan's report was just one of the stories on that. The
Kelly tapes will show what Kelly thought about them.

In fact we now know that the 45 min claim that was made by a british
agent in Iraq was about the time that orders from the chain of command
would be implemented on the ground, and NOT about the deployement of
WMDs.

In fact we know that Blair launched a war of aggression that killed
thousands of innocent civillians whose lives were as important as
Kelly's...

Nice try to prop up Tony war criminal Blair though...

on edit: The partisanship of Labourites in the FAC was all too
open in the first report where only them signed up to the points
of the report that attempted to make a whitewash out of it.

[Spentastic]

8. Yeah.

They should just all assume that Tony Blair was completely right to invade a country in which no evidence of weapons of mass destruction have been found.

Gilligan may not be the most objective journalist ever. However he has stood by his story and his source is now unfortunately dead. Does this lend more of less credence to Gilligan's claims?

Anyhow, Gilligans story just called into question the governments conduct. The shrill dismissals and lack of any concrete evidence whatsoever leads me to believe that either

a. The government knew there were no WMD that posed an imminent threat and decided to go to war anyway.

b. The government are fools who believe anything negative they are told, even in the face of evidence presented.

[tlb]

5. Guardian reporting explicitly demonstrated a month ago

how Gilligan and the BBC had abused their position in this affair. Hostility to Blair does not excuse this sort of slanting and falsification of the news, particularly by the BBC.

The BBC's charter is up for renewal. Partasin reporting such as this will make it much more difficult for BBC defenders to resist efforts to undercut its traditional independence.

[Capt_Nemo]

7. Nothing has been demonstrated up to this point

that's why the Hutton inquiry starts today.

What is clear for all to see is that the UK gov is in breach of
international law and has become a rogue power along with their
american overlords.

[tkmorris]

9. Hello

You say it's been illustrated clearly how Gilligan and the BBC abused their position. Please forgive me, though I've been following this diligently I have yet to see that demonstrated as you claim. Link?

[Spentastic]

12. As much as it pains me

If the following is true.

"Mr Gilligan said his source alleged that Mr Campbell was responsible for transforming the dossier and it was fair to draw the inference that he had been responsible for inserting the 45-minute claim, the paper said. "

From the Guardian, then indeed Mr Gilligan is in somewhat deep water. Campbell was involved in transforming the document but he's shown (to my satisfaction and I hate the bloke) that he was not in fact responsible for the 45 mins claim.

Gilligan's going to get hung out to dry which unfortunately will distract the public from the fact that the 45 mins claims was stupid and innacurrate as were other threat assesments.

[RapidCreek]

11. What is partisan reporting?

Please do define tlb. I'd be real interested in your response. Explain in detail...try to avoid hyperbole though, as it tends to put me to sleep. Also please try not to paint Prime Minister Blair as a willing lackey of the Bush administration. I hardly think it does him the justice he so obviously is entitled to.

RC

[dudeness]

10. where is a REAL inquiry about Blairs claims??

that lead to plenty of bodies rotting in Iraq..just another fucking sick joke being played out at the expense of democracy..