Wolves To The Slaughter... posted by Richard Seymour

Or, Geoff Hoon is a Liar

George Galloway didn't make many friends in the rightwing press when he used the above epithet to describe George W Bush and Tony Blair, although he did later take back his "insult to the noble wolf". Still, Geoff Hoon was looking decidedly canine this morning on the BBC, although perhaps more of a scraggy bitch than a skilled predator. Two things emerge from his performance, which I will shortly adumbrate:

1) Geoff Hoon is an idiot.

2) Geoff Hoon is willingly setting himself up as fall guy for the Prime Minister by offering such patently nonsensical answers.

To clarify, the Defense Secretary actually went on television, after the Prime Minister had "conceded" that he didn't know the 45-minute claim related to battlefield munitions (odd way to describe self-exculpating bluster), to tell the public that although he did know about the claim he didn't see fit to inform Blair about it, because "there wasn't a debate about it at the time", and he didn't correct any of the newspapers with their stupendeous claims about destruction in 45 minutes because "I didn't see any of the newspapers at the time, so correction didn't come into it". Moreover, actually, there wasn't that big a deal about it at the time in the press, it didn't become a big deal until the BBC inflated it out of all proportion with its silly stories. (How would he know this if he didn't see any of the papers?).

Fortunately, just to test our man's devotion to the facts, someone kindly e-mailed me a couple of telling nuggets of information. First, here is Hoon on Sky News (4th February 2004):

"I didn't see those newspapers, so the
question of a correction did not arise, as far as I was concerned."

on the BBC Today Programme, (5th February 2004) :

"The first time I saw that headline
[Sun - 45 minutes to doom] was very recently watching a Panorama programme,
flashed up the front page of the Sun on the screen and that was the very first
time I had ever seen that particular publication."

Finally, here is Hoon in conversation with His Ludship:

Hutton Enquiry, Hearing Transcripts.
Monday, 22nd September 2003

Q. Did you know that the 45 minute claim in the dossier was
taken from a JIC assessment which does not in fact
identify any particular weapon?
A. Well, I recall at the time having some discussion in the
Ministry of Defence about the kinds of weapons that
could be deployable within 45 minutes; and I think the
assumption was made that they would be, for example,
chemical shells, which were clearly capable of being
deployed, as I think Mr Scarlett has indicated to
the Inquiry, in a time even less than 45 minutes;
I think he suggested 20 minutes.
Q. So you knew, did you, that the munitions referred to
were only battlefield munitions?
A. I was certainly aware that that was one suggestion, yes.
Q. Was there any other suggestion that they were not
battlefield munitions but strategic munitions?
A. I recall asking what kind of weapons would be deployable
within 45 minutes; and the answer is the answer that
I have just given to you.
Q. Which was shells, battlefield mortars, tactical weapons
of that kind?
A. Yes.
Q. Would your Department be responsible for correcting any
false impression given by the press on an issue of this
importance?
A. I think on an issue of this importance it would not
simply have been the Ministry of Defence that was solely
responsible. There would have been an effort across
Government.
Q. Are you aware that on 25th September a number of
newspapers had banner headlines suggesting that this
related to strategic missiles or bombs?
A. I can recall, yes.

Sorry about the idiot italics, but it helps to avoid misinterpretation by the wilfully blind. Geoff Hoon is now telling the public something different to what he told the Hutton Inquiry. So, somewhere he is not telling the truth. I suspect it is the latter. He did see the headlines (oh fucking please, of course he did!) and was willing to keep schtum about their misreading of the facts because they were following the lines intended by the Prime Minister and his coterie. Additionally, what he told the Hutton Inquiry, if he has not deliberately made a fool of M'Lud, means that the whole government bears responsibility for the misrepresentation of evidence in the press, and no attempt was made to correct it.

Like I say, Hoon would have to be a certifiable moron to peddle such nonsense. He would also have to be doing it deliberately to save the Prime Minister's skin. Already on his way out, I think he intends to take a spectacular lemming dive and sacrafice his own job to preserve the unity of the Government. But, as I often find myself saying around the house, "this shit just won't wash".

Newsflash: It turns out the American government doesn't want to hand Iraq back to Iraqis after all. It seems that, Bush's re-election strategy notwithstanding, they are trying to extend their stay beyond the agreed deadline. They claim it is because they cannot fulfil Ayatollah Sistani's desire to have a democratic election by June, and so need to stay longer so they can sort it all out (because Iraqis can't do things for themselves, apparently) But perhaps it is really because the Iraqi Resistance has allegedly been distributing leaflets and pamphlets vowing to take control of cities once the US troops leave, urging the locals not to fire on the Resistance fighters and dangling the prospect of elected councils once US troops have got out of there. To be perfectly honest, the latter sounds like CIA propaganda to me, a dim re-working of the colouring-in books they distributed to white neighbourhoods alleging them to be the work of the Black Panthers. You never know with these wily fuckers.