Journalist Andrew Gilligan, whose story that the British government had "sexed up" the risk from Iraqi weapons was criticized in an inquiry as unfounded, has resigned from the BBC, arguing the report was largely right.
Analysts said Gilligan's resignation might put an end to a feud between the government and the BBC, where two top figures have resigned since the inquiry led by Lord Hutton took the public broadcaster to task.
PHOTO: AFP
But some British newspapers yesterday renewed calls for a full inquiry into the intelligence Prime Minister Tony Blair's government drew on to persuade parliament and the public to follow the US to war.
Gilligan maintained in his resignation statement on Friday that his report that the government knowingly exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq to justify the war was mostly right.
"If Lord Hutton had fairly considered the evidence he heard, he would have concluded that most of my story was right. The government did sex up the dossier, transforming possibilities and probabilities into certainties, removing vital caveats," he said.
Hutton's inquiry examined the events leading up to the death of British Iraq weapons expert David Kelly who killed himself in July after being unmasked as the source of Gilligan's report.
In an editorial, the Times newspaper said yesterday there was no "credible reason" for resisting calls to hold a full inquiry into the intelligence the government published on Iraq.
"Tony Blair should realize that the longer he holds out against it, the more damage he will do to the war on terror he has bravely championed," it said.
David Kay, former head of the US hunt for Iraq's banned weapons, said last week he did not believe biological and chemical weapons stockpiles existed, and Condoleezza Rice, US President George W. Bush's national security adviser, has acknowledged there may have been flaws in the intelligence.
Bush himself said on Friday he was seeking clarity over the intelligence reports.
Blair's foes, many commentators and large parts of the public were bewildered at the wholesale bill of health Hutton handed the government compared with his censure of the BBC.
Anti-war campaigners from the Stop the War coalition were due to protest at Blair's Downing Street offices later yesterday over what they describe as Hutton's "whitewash."
Lord Hutton lambasted BBC management procedures as "defective," leading to the resignations of BBC Director General Greg Dyke on Thursday and chairman of the board of governors Gavyn Davies on Wednesday.
The BBC apologized unreservedly on Thursday and British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared an end to the feud.
Professor Stephen Barnet, of the University of Westminster, said: "It would be nice to think that with this final, third resignation that we really could draw a line under the whole thing."
The BBC's acting director general Mark Byford would not comment directly on whether there would be more BBC resignations, telling BBC television late on Friday:
"The BBC this week has faced the resignation of the chairman, the resignation of the director general, the resignation of that reporter.
"Now there is a still process going on involving others. It'll be done as speedily as possible and that's all I can say."
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS