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J -A ~ ~ 2

BC on edge' ~
of defeat
iri Iraq
dossier row
By Tom Batdwm, tact the source agam and ask
-David Charter snpplementaryquesponssn .ce
and ban Cob .. . the oagmal report on Mav :9, I I
but has been unsuccessfuPbe-
TPE BBC was unsparing for cause o. the naN"e of Ws
dcfea' bast night m it battle postbon
u,th Dov.nmg Street as i be- It emerged! that Mr Gilhgan
cameaPparent that a reportby bid net take a pen and note-
MPs will dear Alastair Carap- book to his meehng wth the
be :l of 'se~mg up' the mtelh- sourue and apprently wmte
gence dassier on nod up lbus notes of tne meeting on
Corporabon execvbves n Palm Nut This has noon
have acrtnm+eaged to He been handed to the BBC,
I aneathat "headsmayroll"af- which says that it is s.hf,,.
'or sudtaverd~ctf-omtheFr- the notes are contemp-
eign Affairs Conumittee and o,aneous
that they will have to oroad- Pubhdy, the BBC is still
1: a correchon over the most standmg by Mr Gilhgan's re-
contenbous
m, Oargelevelled at port, with ececubres maestv :g
Downing Street that someofwhatwasallegeo
This was a report by the de- has been shown to be [rue
fenoe pendent Andrew This indudedmformabonthat
Gilhgan"To' that Downing Street the 45-mamt=- daun was mc-

fo-ceotaemtelhgu,cesenrces
to_ mdnde '_tmrebable°-mfoi-
to deploy weaoons of muss de-
BBC on brink ®f
sertedmmtheclassier atalate
stage and thin it came from a
smgle mtelhgence sauroa
IastmghttheBBCalsolugh-

struenon tmtbm 45 mmutes
Mr GJhgans Vosthon u up-
,,dl threat not
least because
outer
of an and, he
"mtefortheMail an 5uridayal-
legmg trial Mr Campbell had
personally ordered that the
daim be ms^_rted
The arhcre, for which the
coroarahoo accepts'vmarmus
I abdry" is nnderstood to
have dismayed Rrzhard Sam,
brook, the BBC's Head of
News He has hanned Mr Gdb-
gan f"om hr.-bier freelance ay-
tort, toid promised to tighten
niles on his Joameksts wnbng
for nev,spapecs
In a further srgn that the
BBC s begmmng to dim,
down me mrpombon began
an mtemal maturv into its hr -
dhng of the storv and whether
the Government had sufficient
opomtumty to respano before
the report was broadast
`Ar Gilhgans mfomtahon
e from a smg .e source
wdhm me mtelhgeace rnmma-
nm, said to be =edible lignite.
but not a name mYantly recog-
orvable svec to 7eople :amihar
with me sub)eQ The mfprm-
ants idenmty has smc<-been
dudosed to Mr Sambrook
a and his poubon is know, m
Kin, in?farsh, the editor of the
Tons y pmg :amme, and in
Greg Dyke, the BBC DveCOr-
GeneraL
The BBC hrs biEd to cao-
bghted what it said were dts-
aepannes between the raw m-
telugence, uarn,ng hat Iraq a
9NIVID aoule be "deLaeren to
mots" within 45 mwutes,and I
the dossier's deampbon 0'
sort weapons being 'it,-
,loved- within such a period,
The BBC beheves that Nir
Gdugans soutce ts credtb.e
but accepts that the descip-
bon af Mr Campbeil's mvol,r
ment m "sevng up" the dossi-
er may I:are been a "genertc"
term for political pressure on
the mtaBrgeace They
,met aat that the ongmxu To-
'e-ic-
dm, prog.amme report did mat
mention MrCempba", becaue
editors feared the reference
was "ambiguous"
If the BBC, nee were to
cumole because of bb . 6dlr
getis it paper..
aboon,In.-it
eoWd have'or serious
sequ^.nces for Iban' than for
other "no, staff, one exeou-
bve sa.d vesterday However, I
he adden' :f we are
eqmvoally, to have proved,
got Nns
on
wrong then people v .]I have
to go, up to and possibly M<-
ludmg ILChard Sambmo¢. Bu;
we are a long way from thaC
A-theugt the We repaC to
he pubbsned on Monday wal
Continued on page 2, col 3
Campbell plant . page 13
Philip Howard, page 22
Letters, page 23
dossier defeat
Continued ftom page I
effeabvely rlear hf" Campbell,
its mndasnins will be birthh
fied by sa7mg that they were
reached onlv on the basis on
toe mformahon a .vlaole
The coamnttee will rabl,
the Govemments retusal in al-
low MPs to cross-eramme
Junta Scarl_^S, the marrman of
the Jom' Intelugence Commit-
tee, and union, scathmg crth-
osms afa Febnary bnehng pa-
pe ; - the so-calisl "dodgy
aossrer"-whim mcluded of .-
parsed maternal from a st-
deot theins The BBC is eepect-
ed to sense on this as ev,dence
the Government mishandled
mtelbgence ma"eval and in
some ceses used unrebable in-
formation to sustam it case
oa Iraq s Vr'MD threat
- Nr Dyke is said to beLe :e
that Mr Campbell has been
"Stchmg' to mundk '-he BBC
after being ar,i-ecl It, its
reports from Baghdad and to,
prommence it gave to the La-
bour revolt against war This
has been a long bme m ma-
mg Steam has neen bw :d .ng
for some tore," an maide, said
M: Dyke a former Lzbou--do-
nor and has been determined
to Prove his indeperideor,
However, Mr Campbell s
undetstoad to have Mr Dyke
m nis sights behevrng tha- the
BBC should not be allowed to
make Mr Gilhgan a whippmg
boy far decrsootus made by the
coroorahon s senior huerarcny
Mimsters are especial to
use Monday's report as in
opportum,y m attadc the "cul-
ture of cytncism" umuh they
say penades poIdhcaIJOUmaI-
am at the BBC
Tbere were signs not night
that the BBC was ready to
change the line of attack, with
news bulletins, concertrabng
a Commans row, over to ;
ododgy dossier" The Tens
took the same .. . ...ob ad
Michael Auction, the Shadow
Fure~gn Secre"ary, pravorzed
fury bv telling MPs yestertlay
tie' Mr Blatr had "duped"Par-
bament over tte Feba.ary dos-
sier "Far from being an mtelh-
gence servse or even a Joint
lntelhgence Committee pro-
ductmn, its autha¢ were the
ubiqurtous Alestan Campbell
and his small band of a .o-
lytes," he said
David Blunkett protested
that the mmarks were 'scurn :-
ous unsi.bstanhated and dis-
graceful"