Herzog+

If you are wondering on what basis Lord Hutton absolved Tony Blair and Alasdair Campbell of Andrew Gilligan’s charge that they had “sexed-up” the WMD intelligence dossier, the answer is the same old story: Hutton misrepresented the charge that Gilligan had made, found the defendants innocent of that charge, found Gilligan guilty of make a false charge, and ignored the charge Gilligan actually had made! And a fair reading of the evidence presented in Hutton’s report and of Hutton’s conclusions shows that the charge Gilligan actually made was correct. Here is conclusion 8, paragraph 228, chapter 6 of the Hutton Report: “The term "sexed-up" is a slang expression, the meaning of which lacks clarity in the context of the discussion of the dossier. It is capable of two different meanings. It could mean that the dossier was embellished with items of intelligence known or believed to be false or unreliable to make the case against Saddam Hussein stronger, or it could mean th...