Deception can only corrode public trust
Leader
Sunday February 9, 2003
The Observer
Persuasion has been the theme of the week. General Colin
Powell took centre-stage at the United Nations, to demonstrate
convincingly that Iraq is hardly co-operating fulsomely with Hans
Blix's UN weapons inspectors. Tony Blair's televised encounter
with Grand Inquisitor Paxman - and some even more terrifying
members of the public - was both compelling television and a
testament to the value of a robust democratic culture in holding
those in power to account.
However, if that encounter showed the Prime Minister at his
best, we have also seen his Government at its worst in the
highly damaging fiasco over Downing Street's dodgy dossier of
'intelligence' about Iraq. Blair told the House of Commons that
the document demonstrated 'a huge infrastructure of deception
and concealment' in Iraq. Powell even cited it at the UN. Yet a
dossier presented as containing prime-cuts of fresh intelligence
material turns out to be nothing of the sort - but rather an
internet cut-and-paste exercise largely lifted from a Californian
post-graduate thesis focused on evidence from the invasion of
Kuwait 13 years ago. Even worse, while typographical errors
were maintained, a sprinkling of unfounded exaggerations were
inserted to strengthen the claims made in the thesis.
The Government has grudgingly admitted a failure to
acknowledge sources - while insisting that the information
remains valid. This misses the point. Plagiarism is not the main
issue. The central issue is that of public trust. At best, this
episode demonstrates incompetence and the failure to oversee
the most important claims which the Government puts into the
public domain. At worst, a deliberate attempt to hoodwink and
mislead the public will undermine trust in anything the
Government says about the Iraqi threat at this vital time.
'We all have lessons to learn,' says Downing Street. But have
they now realised that the sort of propaganda tricks which may
have served governments well in the past are much more likely
to be rumbled today? It is not only the Government which has
access to the internet. Every claim made will be scrutinised
more closely, and by more people, than ever before. Nothing will
corrode trust more than to be caught out trying to insult the
intelligence of the British public.
Tony Blair needs to take urgent steps to ensure his Government
shares information in a more professional, open way. If he wants
to persuade Britain of the just case for military action as a last
resort, and there is a just case, his Government can hardly
afford to shoot itself in the foot again.