MPs reignite Iraq dossier battle with BBC (Parisan attack)

[Nambe]

The Scottish Herald

--- Mr Gilligan, BBC Radio 4's defence correspondent, was hauled before the powerful House of Commons foreign affairs committee for a second time yesterday after MPs doubted his original evidence. ---

After a two-hour hearing, Donald Anderson, committee chairman, described Mr Gilligan's evidence as "wholly unsatisfactory". He said: "It was an unsatisfactory session with an unsatisfactory witness. Mr Gilligan clearly changed his mind in the course of the evidence, in particular in relation to serious allegations concerning Mr Campbell, the head of communications at No 10, and any responsibility of Mr Campbell for the insertion of the 45-minute claim in the dossier of September of last year. ---

Mr Gilligan said in a statement: "I have not changed my story. I told the committee several times over that I stand by my reporting of every one of the source's allegations. This was a planned ambush by a hanging jury, with only one opposition member present for the relevant section of the meeting.

"Donald Anderson has deliberately misinterpreted my evidence, and I have asked for the transcript to be published to make this clear. Labour members of the committee were determined to find fault with my story, but did not do so."

The BBC said: "The committee launched a series of personal attacks on Mr Gilligan in an atmosphere which was largely hostile ... Mr Gilligan defended his journalism with vigour, pointing out among other things that many of his source's allegations have now been corroborated by other evidence. We deeply resent the way the committee was used to attack Mr Gilligan's integrity."

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[Barrett808]

1. Getting really ugly

It just gets heavier and heavier.