Reply #50: Iraq: British Government admits to 'Operation Mass Appeal'

[Octafish]

Wow! Thanks for the heads-up, JohnyCanuck. Meacher paints a most interesting portrait of a poodle and his mistress.

Iraq: British Government admits to 'Operation Mass Appeal'

Kelly's role with 'Rockingham' makes front page news

28 December 2003

Below is a highly significant report run on the front page of today's Sunday Times, London. It has the potential to precipitate a full public inquiry in the UK into the Iraq affair and the role of the British government and its intelligence services.

The report coincides with interesting remarks inadvertently made by the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, that suggest that the British Prime Minister has been making exaggerated claims in relation to post war intelligence on WMD programmes in Iraq ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3351915.stm ).

The core focus of the article in the Sunday Times is 'Operation Mass Appeal'. This is claimed by Scott Ritter, a former US intelligence officer and senior UN weapons inspector in Iraq, to have been a British propaganda exercise run by MI6 for placing disinformation about Iraq into the world's press. Ritter is able to name names and claims his own involvement in the exercise prior to his resignation as a weapons inspector in 1998.

The Sunday Times' pursuit of Ritter's claims appears to have resulted in what is known as a 'limited hangout' by the British government - a partial admission in order to try and avoid indictment in relation to a greater accusation. The Sunday Times reports that the British government has now admitted that MI6 did indeed organise 'Operation Mass Appeal' but claims that it was only feeding accurate stories to the press. The admission appears to have been forced because Ritter has names.

The Sunday Times account arrives just before the publication of Lord Hutton's report following his inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of British weapons scientist Dr David Kelly.

The paper states that "Kelly, himself a former United Nations weapons inspector and colleague of Ritter, might also have been used by MI6 to pass information to the media. 'Kelly was a known and government-approved conduit with the media,' said Ritter. Hutton’s report is expected to deliver a verdict next month on whether intelligence was misused in order to promote the case for going to war. Hutton heard evidence that Kelly was authorised by the Foreign Office to speak to journalists on Iraq. Kelly was in close touch with the 'Rockingham cell', a group of weapons experts that received MI6 intelligence... The use of MI6 as a 'back channel' for promoting the government’s policies on Iraq was never discovered during the Hutton inquiry and is likely to cause considerable disquiet among MPs.".

CONTINUED...

http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATmassappealadmission.htm

May the murderers who killed Dr. Kelly face Justice in this world. We'd find they work for the international elite who make money off of war and gain power from death.