Green Party Chairman Attacks Hutton Report

Hugo Charlton: 'Hutton should be congratulated for the transparency of his hearing, and his ability to completely ignore most of the evidence; which he and the rest of us, heard presented to him.

Having allowed too much to be revealed during the enquiry, (except Kevin Marsh’s additional information confirming the truth of Gilligan’s report), possibly to distract from an even more sinister cover-up, I think he has felt obliged to pay something back to the Establishment, of which he is a creature. It would seem that he is spearheading an attack on the independence of the BBC. That is the only way I can explain such blatantly unfair and partial conclusions. As an example of judicial obfuscation and misdirection it is staggeringly unsubtle.

I am a barrister, and I've just come back from Winchester today, from a hearing where I am arguing that the war is illegal and that this is a good defence for several people who sabotaged the USAF bomb loading equipment at RAF Fairford. In my professional career I am used to anticipating a certain amount of judicial duplicity, but I have never seen anything quite so blatant as this PARTICULAR WHITEWASH. It really is quite extraordinary, and as everybody says, the contents of the report – (you only have to read it yourselves) , does not match up with his conclusions!

It is also irritating today, the speed and the smugness with which John Reid, and these various Government apologists, have come up saying 'Oh the BBC have got it wrong and we're absolutely right.' In fact the evidence given at the hearing justified Gilligan's story, and as far as the Green Party is concerned even the Six o'clock report was right. There must have been someone in Government who knew the 45 minute claim did not stand up. And that an uncorroborated, hearsay report of a possible delivery of a portable chemical grenade launcher , or even mortar, did not justify the “deployment of WMD in 45 minutes” claim, which then repeated again and again and again. Particularly if you look at the totality of what Gilligan said in that particular report. It is absolutely clear such a claim would not normally have been included in an intelligence report. So I think that what Gilligan said was true, even at 6 0'clock in the morning.

It is absurd that such reporting could justify such an outrageous attack on the BBC and its structures and management.

It is of course a classic judicial trick to ignore the really difficult point completely - make a false premise, and then plough forward making a whole series of totally unfounded accusations; which is exactly what Lord Hutton has done. A blatantly partial piece of Government Propaganda.

I am not surprised that he has already resigned, I am sorry to say that If you were the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland for as long as he was, having started as counsel to the Widgery enquiry, you are bound to be a creature of the security establishment.

The other thing is that he completely fails to mention the real cruelty of the what the MOD did to Dr Kelly. Which was to blackmail him into what he had said.

In the unopened letter, which was found in Dr Kelly’s brief case after his death, Hatfield had written a summary of the 4th July interview, in which it is clear that he says 'on the basis of your account, that you have not divulged any classified or otherwise privileged information…..I have concluded that it does not require a disciplinary proceedure.' The problem was, that it seems that what Dr Kelly had told was not in fact the complete truth. And one suspects that the MOD knew that. However in order to protect what was left of his career, and even more importantly in order to protect his pension, and here one suspects he was thinking about his wife, he was going to have to stick to the story he had told the MOD. And I think if he killed himself it was because of that.

Because the MOD trapped him, in order to protect his pension, trapped him into publicly dissembling. In the way that we all saw at the Foreign affairs Select Committee hearing, if you happened to watch the proceedings, into avoiding completely admitting the whole story . And that was what the MOD did to him. And there's not a word about it in there! And I think that's an absolute disgrace.

And Hutton then launches into the detailed attack on the BBC, and I do think this is the spearhead of an attack on the independence of the BBC and senior personnel, I think they want to bring it under Offcom, or possibly sell it off. The BBC no great friends of ours - the Green Party, they're sometimes an arrogant lot when dealing with us, in fact they hardly ever even given us the time of day, but they are independent. And in fact I do think that Lord Hutton is using his position and his authority to spearhead a co-ordinated attack on the independence of the BBC. This is of concern to us because it's all part of the ongoing process of manipulating the public. Elements of Government and the establishment will always try to noble the media, and we must always strive to resist it. Hutton’s conclusions are a blatant example of such manipulation, which is in itself extremely dangerous to the well-being of the country and what’s more, such a cack-handed hatchet job is a disgrace to the legal profession.