'Fight Smart' Update -
28 December 2003
Don't Take the
Bait - Fight Smart
ANIMATED 911 SUMMARY - CLICK HERE
Who is the enemy?
Iraq: British Government admits to 'Operation
Mass Appeal'
Kelly's role with 'Rockingham' makes front page news
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATmassappealadmission.htm
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.".
Remarkably Kelly's involvement with the 'Rockingham cell' was in fact first discovered by nlpwessex, not the Hutton Inquiry or the press. Information on this was contained in Dr Kelly's evidence given in secret to the Intelligence and Security Committee the day before his presumed suicide.
Ironically a copy of Dr Kelly's evidence to the committee was later released to the Hutton Inquiry when it then unexpectedly came into the public domain. However, no attention was given to the potential significance of Dr Kelly's reference to 'Rockingham' which arises on page 31 of the 32 page transcript of his questioning by the committee (http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/isc/isc_1_0003to0035.pdf ).
Nlpwessex provided a full account of its discovery in its 'Fight Smart' bulletin published on-line in October, including its relevance to 'Operation Rockingham' a British intelligence 'cherry picking' exercise also previously alleged by Scott Ritter (http://www.sundayherald.com/34461).
The 'Fight Smart' special report was entitled "Iraqgate 2003 - Dr Kelly and 'Operation Rockingham'" (www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATiraqgate2003intro.htm ).
These developments were subsequently drawn to the attention of British parliamentarians and a press conference was organised in the House of Commons for 21 November. It was at that press conference that Ritter himself briefed British journalists on 'Operation Rockingham', but also for the first time spoke about 'Operation Mass Appeal'.
Ritter was supported at the press conference by Ray McGovern, a former senior analyst at the CIA who had been responsible for preparing the US President’s daily intelligence brief and chairing the National Intelligence Estimates during the Reagan administration.
That day media coverage of Ritter's 'Rockingham' and 'Mass Appeal' claims was provided by the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1089931,00.html), the Scotsman (http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2205340), and the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3227506.stm ).
However, the story did not make the headlines it should have, particularly because of news of bomb attacks on British interests in Turkey during President Bush's state visit to Britain with which the press conference had coincided.
Nonetheless Scott Ritter has persisted with his allegations in relation to 'Rockingham' and 'Mass Appeal', now going one stage further by starting to name names.
During the press conference of 21 November Ritter called for a full inquiry at which he is willing to testify under oath about 'Rockingham' and 'Mass Appeal'. He has called for relevant MI6 officers to be subpoenaed.
NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@btinternet.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex
"Not only does
this confirm the existence of Rockingham, it confirms that Dr Kelly was interacting with
it. It also confirms that the information passed to Dr Kelly from this 'cell' may have
been selective. Dr Kelly stated that he only got the intelligence that the principal
officer at Rockingham 'thinks is of relevance'..... the reference to Rockingham does not
elicit any specific reaction from the committee. Nobody asks 'Can you tell us a bit more
about Rockingham?'. The chairman simply follows Dr Kelly's comments on his involvement
with Rockingham and MI6 with 'Fine, are there any more questions?'..."
Iraqgate 2003
'Fight Smart', Special Report - Click Here For Full Text
Sunday Times, London, 28 December 2003
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-944831,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,2-523-944831,00.html
Revealed: how MI6 sold the Iraq war
Nicholas Rufford
THE Secret Intelligence Service has run an operation to gain public support for sanctions
and the use of military force in Iraq. The government yesterday confirmed that MI6 had
organised Operation Mass Appeal, a campaign to plant stories in the media about Saddam
Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
The revelation will create embarrassing questions for Tony Blair in the run-up to the
publication of the report by Lord Hutton into the circumstances surrounding the death of
Dr David Kelly, the government weapons expert.
A senior official admitted that MI6 had been at the heart of a campaign launched in the
late 1990s to spread information about Saddam’s development of nerve agents and other
weapons, but denied that it had planted misinformation. “There were things about
Saddam’s regime and his weapons that the public needed to know,” said the
official.
The admission followed claims by Scott Ritter, who led 14 inspection missions in Iraq, that MI6 had recruited him in 1997 to help with the propaganda effort. He described meetings where the senior officer and at least two other MI6 staff had discussed ways to manipulate intelligence material.
“The aim was to convince the public that Iraq was a far greater threat than it actually was,” Ritter said last week.
He said there was evidence that MI6 continued to use similar propaganda tactics up to the invasion of Iraq earlier this year. “Stories ran in the media about secret underground facilities in Iraq and ongoing programmes (to produce weapons of mass destruction),” said Ritter. “They were sourced to western intelligence and all of them were garbage.”
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.
Blair justified his backing for sanctions and for the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that intelligence reports showed Saddam was working to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. 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.
A key figure in Operation Mass Appeal was Sir Derek Plumbly, then director of the Middle East department at the Foreign Office and now Britain’s ambassador to Egypt. Plumbly worked closely with MI6 to help to promote Britain’s Middle East policy.
The campaign was judged to be having a successful effect on public opinion. MI6 passed on intelligence that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction and rebuilding its arsenal.
Poland, India and South Africa were initially chosen as targets for the campaign because they were non-aligned UN countries not supporting the British and US position on sanctions. At the time, in 1997, Poland was also a member of the UN security council.
Ritter was a willing accomplice to the alleged propaganda effort when first approached by MI6’s station chief in New York. He obtained approval to co-operate from Richard Butler, then executive chairman of the UN Special Commission on Iraq Disarmament.
Ritter met MI6 to discuss Operation Mass Appeal at a lunch in London in June 1998 at which two men and a woman from MI6 were present. The Sunday Times is prevented by the Official Secrets Act from publishing their names.
Ritter had previously met the MI6 officer at Vauxhall Cross, the service’s London headquarters. He asked Ritter for information on Iraq that could be planted in newspapers in India, Poland and South Africa from where it would “feed back” to Britain and America.
Ritter opposed the Iraq war but this is the first time that he has named members of British intelligence as being involved in a propaganda campaign. He said he had decided to “name names” because he was frustrated at “an official cover-up” and the “misuse of intelligence”.
“What MI6 was determined to do by the selective use of intelligence was to give the impression that Saddam still had WMDs or was making them and thereby legitimise sanctions and military action against Iraq,” he said.
Recent reports suggest America has all but abandoned hopes of finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group, has resigned earlier than expected, frustrated that his resources have been diverted to tracking down insurgents.
"David Kelly,
giving evidence to the prime minister's intelligence and security committee in closed
session on July 16 - the day before his suicide - made a comment the significance of which
has so far been missed. He said: 'Within the defence intelligence services I liaise with
the Rockingham cell.' Unfortunately nobody on the committee followed up this lead, which
is a pity because the Rockingham reference may turn out to be very important indeed. What
is the role of the Rockingham cell?.... It is not only the massaging of
intelligence that seems to have gone on, but also the suppression of the most reliable
assessment of the facts. David Kelly, we now know, had been advising privately prior to
the war about the likelihood of Iraqi WMD. He told the foreign affairs select committee:
'I have no idea whether there were weapons or not at that time [of the September 2002
dossier]'. And to the intelligence and security committee the next day he added: 'The 30%
probability is what I have been saying all the way through ... I said that to many people
... it was a statement I would have probably made for the last six months.' Yet this view
from the leading expert within government never saw the light of day. Why not? If the
tabloid headlines the day after the September dossier was published had read: 'Blair says
only 30% chance Iraq has WMDs' rather than 'Brits 45 mins from doom' (the Sun), would the
Commons vote still have backed the war? Rarely can the selective use of information have
had such drastic consequences. If there is one conclusion which must flow from the Hutton
revelations, it must surely be the demand for a full-scale independent inquiry into the
operation of the intelligence services around the top of their command and their interface
with the political system."
Michael Meacher - 'The Very Secret Service'
Guardian, 21
November 2003
Iraqgate 2003 - Dr Kelly and 'Operation
Rockingham' - 19 Oct 2003
A Vision For Transforming America - 24 March 2003
This Is Our Prime Minister - 23 Feb 2003
What Is Happening To Britain
And America? - 9 Feb 2003
The 911 Omar Sheikh Files - 2 Jan
2003
'October Surprise 2002' - Life After The US Constitutional Coup - 31 Oct 2002
What Did Britain Know About 911? - 28 Aug 2002
Why Did Bush Not Act On Sept 11? - 9 May 2002
World Peace Offered From Hiroshima - 22 April 2002
Did Sept 11 victims die for Enron? - 8 March 2002
CIA provided funds to financiers of Sept 11 bomber - 18
Nov 2001
NATURAL
LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@btinternet.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex