The BBC is involved in a bit of a fight with Downing street wot ever we think of the BBC
we should be backing them on this issue. I would suggest a feature on the WMD and other Iraq war lies and ask everyone to chip and collect the links to all the numer ous stories .
The Beeb has about five or six on thhe story and I'm sure there must be rakes of others

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3050080.stm

BBC defiant in Iraq dossier row

BBC governors have
defended the corporation's
news team in the row with
the government over claims
Number 10 "sexed up" a
dossier on Iraqi weapons.

They called on Downing
Street's director of
communications Alastair
Campbell to withdraw his
allegations that the BBC's reporting of the Iraq war was
biased.

And the y said the BBC had been right to broadcast a claim by
a senior intelligence source that the September intelligence
dossier had been altered at Mr Campbell's request.

But the bitter confrontation looked set to continue as
Downing Street replied by saying the BBC was "still trying to
defend the indefensible".

The BBC statement came ahead
of the foreign affairs select
committee's publication of its
findings of its investigation into
the government's presentation
of the case for war.

The committee is expected to
find no evidence that Mr Campbell exaggerated the threat
posed by Iraq in the September dossier, said BBC political
correspondent Shaun Ley.

But it may complain that the government denied it access to
either the head of the joint intelligence committee, or the
documents on which the dossier was based.

BBC chairman Gavyn Davies said the corporation had never
accused Tony Blair of lying or of trying to take Britain into war
under misleading or false pretences.

His statement was released afte r governors met senior BBC
executives to discuss the dossier row.

Impartial reporting

Earlier Tony Blair accused the BBC of attacking his integrity as
prime minister by its story claiming the September intelligence
dossier on Iraqi weapons had deliber ately exaggerated the
military threat at No 10's request.

He told the Observer: "You could not make a more serious
charge against a prime minister."

And Mr Campbell told BBC
political editor Andrew Marr:
"The prime minister does regard
this as a funda mental attack on
his integrity and that won't
change because of the
posturing of the BBC."

BBC defence correspondent
Andrew Gilligan first sparked the
row after he reported on BBC
Radio 4's Today programme
that a senior intelligence official had told hi m Downing Street
had asked that extra prominence was given to a claim Iraq
could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes.

Mr Campbell said on Sunday governors had still failed to
answer "the fundamental question" of whether this story was
"true or false".

But the governors said it had been in the public interest to
broadcast the claim, made by a "senior intelligence" source
and reflecting a "general pattern of concern" among members
of the security services at the time.

The governors conclu ded the overall coverage of the war in
Iraq had been fair and impartial.

'Exceptional circumstances'

But they accepted some of Today's coverage could have
been handled better, including giving No 10 more warning
about the story and keeping a clearer a ccount of its dealings
with the Ministry of Defence.

Mr Davies said "exceptional circumstances" allowed for stories
to be based on a single source.

He said government denials were broadcast on Today within
90 minutes of the report followed by a defenc e minister's
denials.

But the chairman said governors would re-examine rules for
BBC reporters writing for newspapers.

In a letter to BBC director of news Richard Sambrook, Mr
Campbell had referred to Mr Gilligan writing as a BBC journalist
in three p ublications.

also on the same story

Blair fury at BBC dossier story
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3048356.stmr