Sunday, October 30, 2005
Bush may bite Blair yet
Meanwhile over the Pond the US administration lurches into a deeper crisis over its peculiar relationship with ‘Iraq and the truth’… and this has some implications for the home life of our own dear Westminster Government.
As commentator Frank Reich said in the NY Times:
Blair depends on the maintenance of this alternative reality for his own credibility. The investigation in the USA into the events leading up to the war will continue probably for another year or so. UK-based spin and whatever else New Labour come up with is unlikely to hide the awkward questions that will raise for Britains' own actions.
One example. A central figure in the dance of untruths is the NY Times journalist Judith Miller, a prominent cheerleader for interventionist war before the event, and implicated in teh leaking of classiied information in the so-called Plame affair. Turns out that she had some kind of advanced security clearance implying more than journalistic entanglement with her ‘security sources’. Judith Miller was one of Dr David Kelly’s US contacts and apparent confidants, and one of Kelly’s last e-mails before his death was to Miller – the one hinting about ‘dark forces’ being involved in his troubles. More on the background to Kelly and his activities may yet emerge over the coming year and this is unlikely to be constructive news for Blair.
I trust we LibDems can ensure that this is taken up in mainstream political debates and not left to the distortions of the whooping fringes of Respect and all that.
As commentator Frank Reich said in the NY Times:
It won't be easy to get honest answers because this administration, like
Nixon's, practices obsessive secrecy even as it erects an alternative reality
built on spin and outright lies.
Blair depends on the maintenance of this alternative reality for his own credibility. The investigation in the USA into the events leading up to the war will continue probably for another year or so. UK-based spin and whatever else New Labour come up with is unlikely to hide the awkward questions that will raise for Britains' own actions.
One example. A central figure in the dance of untruths is the NY Times journalist Judith Miller, a prominent cheerleader for interventionist war before the event, and implicated in teh leaking of classiied information in the so-called Plame affair. Turns out that she had some kind of advanced security clearance implying more than journalistic entanglement with her ‘security sources’. Judith Miller was one of Dr David Kelly’s US contacts and apparent confidants, and one of Kelly’s last e-mails before his death was to Miller – the one hinting about ‘dark forces’ being involved in his troubles. More on the background to Kelly and his activities may yet emerge over the coming year and this is unlikely to be constructive news for Blair.
I trust we LibDems can ensure that this is taken up in mainstream political debates and not left to the distortions of the whooping fringes of Respect and all that.
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