Guardian Unlimited I The Guardian I Spies, sources and ministers : how BBC saw trick. . .

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Spies, sources and ministers :

how BBC saw trickery in Hoon
deal
The MoD statement
Th e BBC's resp_onse
BBC chairman's letter to Geoff Hoon
Search this site
Go l Matt Wells and Patrick Wintour
Wednesday July 9, 2003
The Guardian
Guide io
Broadband
When Greg Dyke stepped up to the podium at the international
- Click here to convention centre in Birmingham at 10 15am to deliver a long-
find out more planned speech to an audience of radio industry figures
yesterday, he was not his usual ebullient self Looking tired
and distracted, he ploughed through a routine text before he
came to the section that the television cameras had come to
film

"Whatever the background of Alastau Campbell's attack on the

BBC, to crltlclse the reputation of all BBC journalists is not
acceptable and I thank him for stepping back from that
position This has now dominated the headlines for two weeks
and it is time for both sides to agree to disagree and move on,"
he told the Radio Academy's annual festival

It was a forlorn hope Barely an hour later, his director of news,

In this section Richard Sambrook, received a mysterious call It was Geoff
Hoon, the defence secretary, inviting him to a "chat" at
lunchtime At about the same time, the Ministry of Defence
African victims get new briefed national newspaper defence correspondents to expect
access to UK
an important announcement later
Kelly funeral brings calm in
the storm Mr Sambrook questioned whether he needed to attend at such
short notice "I think you'll find it's very important," Mr Hoon told
Basic esce Q4csre him
wrong. says TUC

Unsure of what to expect, Mr Sambrook duly made his way

Britain losin new Afghan
oovm war
across London to Westminster He left even more puzzled Mr
Hoon merely expressed concern about the Today programme
Most hospital doctors plan
and the need to "get back to normal business"
to leave_ early
All was to become clear at 6pm, when the MoD made its
world to warm by ac says explosive announcement The ministry faxed its statement to
thinkta>=k the office of the BBC chairman, Gavyn Davles, with a covering
note from Mr Hoon offering a deal
African victims get new_
access to UK

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Guardian Unlimited I The Guardian I Spies, sources and ministers : how BBC saw trick. . . Page 2 of 5

Kellv
funer al brings_calm m Mr Hoon would disclose the name of an MoD official who had
the storm
admitted an unauthonsed meeting with Andrew Gllligan, if Mr
Davles immediately said whether this was the BBC defence
correspondent's main source for the claim that Downing Street
"sexed up" the September dossier with the suggestion that Iraq
could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes

The BBC, furious at what it believed was an attempt to trick it

into divulging more information about the Gilligan source,
dismissed the offer Instead, Mr Dyke, Mr Sambrook, Mr
Davies and BBC media advisers hurriedly prepared a damage-
limitation statement, released just before 8pm .

According to the BBC account, the MoD official differs from

~Gilllgan's source in several important ways It says Gdllgan's
man does not work for the MoD . there have already been
reports that he is one of the 100 members of the coalition
weapons inspection team now in Iraq

The BBC pointed to another story run by Susan Watts on

BBC2's Newsnight programme on June 2, which reported
similar assertions to Gilligan's piece

Mr Sambrook knows the name of Gilligan's source, but Watts

and her editor, George Entwhistle, decline to divulge the
identity of her contact, BBC managers therefore do not know
whether they are the same person

If they and the MoD official are the same individual, the BBC
concludes that either he misled two unconnected journalists -
Gilligan and Watts have never spoken to each other- or he is
misleading the MoD If they are not the same person, then
Gilllgan's story is corroborated independently by the Newsnlght
report and the BBC Is off the hook In all scenarios, the BBC
believes it is justified in standing by its story

No 10 described the BBC position as "a non-denial denial" it

suggested the BBC was being disingenuous about its claim
that Gllllgan's source did not work at the MoD, and it might be
able to say that the person was a "consultant" at the ministry

It is understood that the MoD official came forward after a

colleague noticed him taking an unusually close interest in the
Gilligan story The colleague did not confront the official with
his concerns, but told his managers instead

MoD officials interviewed the man twice, last Friday, and again
on Monday, the day the select committee report was
published He was assured that he would not lose his job, but
was told that he would be disciplined

The employee revealed he had met Gilligan at the Charing

Cross hotel on May 22. (In a Mall on Sunday article on June 1,
setting out the background to his May 29 report on Today,
Gilligan claimed he had met his source at a central London
hotel )

MoD officials are said to have been tracking him, on suspicion

of being the mole, for some time Government sources say he
has been involved in "marginal issues" In the preparation of the
dossier, including a historical section that set out the role of
UN weapons inspectors in Iraq He is regarded as a specialist

P~ 6C) G) /SS' "rG

httn ://www.ouardian.co .uk/euardian,)nt,tic ;e/stn"v/t1 3605 994513 00 h*-! m/nR/?nnl
 Guardian Unlimited I The Guardian j Spies, sources and ministers : how BBC saw trick. . . Page 3 of 5

in arms control and weapons proliferation and is described as

"middle ranking" .

Gilligan repeatedly told the foreign affairs select committee

that he had a single source for this story, but that he had met
three other sources to discuss other aspects of Iraq and
intelligence

Government officials acknowledge that the MoD official might

have had contact with more senior officials and was reporting
second hand on the mood inside the mtelhgence community .

But they insist that he never saw any draft of the intelligence
-assessments Moreover, he could not "by any stretch of the
imagination" be described as a "senior and credible source" -
the BBC's form of words to describe its mole - on which to
base such a serious allegation that Mr Campbell or Tony Blair
had demanded the intelligence dossier be "sexed up"

This morning the Today programme editor Kevin Marsh is to

share a platform with Clare Short at the Radio Academy
festival Its title Politics, truth and radio As one delegate put it
last night "It's funny how things work out "

BBC v Downing Street : the'dodgy dossier' row

08 07 2003 MoD man admits he met Gilliga_n
08 07 2003 Dke urqes Campbell to bury hatchet
08 07 2003 Ex- Campbell aide blasts'salacious' BBC
08072003 Not guilty verdict may not preven t an eventual exit
07 07 2003 BBC hits back over Straw demand for apology
07 07 2003 Humphrvs we were rig_ht
07 07 2003 Bury the hatchet say PR chiefs
07 07 2003 MPs demand investigation of Gilhg an contacts
07 07 2003 Report~ustifies BBC says corporation
07 07 2003 Campbell cleared of doctoring Iraq dossier
07 07 2003 BBC and government in stalemat e
07 07 2003 Governors back BBC in row over Iraq dossier
07 07 2003 Rob in Cook . Blair was wrong
07 07 2003 Experts sceptical about pre-war Saddam threat
06 07 2003 Blair stakes reputation in battle with BBC
06 07 2003 MI6 chief briefed BBC over Iraq arms fears
05 07 2003 Dyke summoned to BBC crisis meeting
04 07 2003 No 10 challenaes BBC over Hoon interview
04 07 2003 Study deals a blow to claims of BBC anti-war _bias
04 07 2003 Doss ier not'sexed up' say MPs
03 07 2003 Top BBC ~ournalists lash out at Sun
03 07 2003 letter reveals Campbell's role in in telliQence
dossier
01 072003 Iraq BBC row blows up again
01 072003 BBC offers olive branch to No 10
30 06 2003 Minister unrepentant in Gilliqan row
30 06 2003 Campb e ll calls ceasefire
30 06 2003 Dossier debacle the questions left unanswered
29 06 2003 BBC set to sue minister over Irao 'lies' cla im
28 .06 2003 BBC takes dossier fight to Campbell
28 06 2003 Master of spin storms studio to become the story
28 06 2003 Sound and fury over the BBC
27 06 2003 BBC defiant over Campbell attack
27 06 2003 BBC stands firm in Iraq row
27 06 2003 Straw promises 'deasive evidence' in Iraq row
27 06 2003 BBC scorns Campbell deadline for apology
26 06 2003 No 10 steps up row with BBC
26 06 2003 BBC hits back in Irag row

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