Press inquiries into the
Carlisle, Pa.: In your research, did you or any reporter you know come across War College or other military-academic research that indicated that Saddam Hussein likely no longer had weapons of mass destruction and that a foreign invasion of a country such as Iraq with a strong anti-American sentiment would be a costly venture? It seems the military academicians and intelligence reports had the facts right, but this information never filtered upwards to the White House or, if it did, it was ignored, nor did the press ever consider any of it useful except for perhaps a one day news spin and then was quickly forgotten.
Michael Smith: I think it is clear from the documents themselves that the whole venture was widely viewed as being highly dubious with no certainty of what would come out of it. The administration ensured that it only got the answers it wanted. But they either ignored the advice they were getting on the likely cost or managed to filter it out with this highly pressurized regime of come up with the right answers, or we will be on your back to do so all the time. That is what resulted in the National Intelligence Estimated of October 2002 which was designed by George Tenet to get a questioning Congress off the President's back. Everyone has heard about the British "dodgy" dossiers but the actual intelligence analysis, the so-called JIC report, on which the main dossier was based spoke mostly of weapons programmes, i.e. production of the agent that would be put into weapons, rather than actual stockpiled weapons .The closest it came to saying there were actually any weapons was to say there "may be" 1.5 tons of VX gas, a conclusion that went back to the conclusions of the UNSCOM weapons inspectors in 1998. The CIA's October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on the other hand, said there were probably up to 500 tons of chemical weapons in Iraq. That gives you a feel of the kind of distortion that was going on. But as for the idea that he had very active programmes going on, well everyone, including the French and the Russians, thought that. There was a kind of group think that no-one was challenging. Long answer but I hope it's helpful.
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Washington, D.C.: To what do you attribute the seeming lack of interest by the American public and main stream media, at least initially, in the revelations contained in the Downing Street Memo?
Michael Smith: Firstly, I think the leaks were regarded as politically motivated. Secondly there was a feeling of well we said that way back when. Then of course as the pressure mounted from the outside, there was a defensive attitude. "We have said this before, if you the reader didn't listen well what can we do", seemed to be the attitude. I don't know if you have this expression over there, but we say someone "wants to have their cake and eat it". That's what that response reeks of. Either it was politically motivated and therefore not true or it was published before by the U.S. newspapers and was true, it can't be both can it?
The attitude they have taken is just flat wrong, to borrow an expression from the White House spokesman on the Downing St Memo.
It is one thing for the New York Times or The Washington Post to say that we were being told that the intelligence was being fixed by sources inside the CIA or Pentagon or the NSC and quite another to have documentary confirmation in the form of the minutes of a key meeting with the Prime Minister's office. Think of it this way, all the key players were there. This was the equivalent of an NSC meeting, with the President, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, George Tenet, and Tommy Franks all there. They say the evidence against Saddam Hussein is thin, the Brits think regime change is illegal under international law so we are going to have to go to the U.N. to get an ultimatum, not as a way of averting war but as an excuse to make the war legal, and oh by the way we aren't preparing for what happens after and no-one has the faintest idea what Iraq will be like after a war. Not reportable, are you kidding me?
One point I would make though, everyone keeps saying it is continually making waves over here. We at the Sunday Times are not going to let it go but no-one else is interested in the U.K. press. The Washington Post came to it late but look at everything it is doing now. Ignore today's silly editorial article. The Post is now working away at this and I know they are planning to try to do more on it. Sadly there is no sign of the New York Times changing its sniffy we told you this already view!
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Manassas, Va.: Thank you. I'm not in for a head-hunting expedition no matter who the target. But I am in for revealing some concrete evidence to what has seemed obvious to most rational people for the last few years.. we (most of us) were duped into thinking there was some kind of legitimate reason to "blow thing up" in another country... thank you for starting the snowball that will hopefully PROVE that this is in fact false. Do you feel this is grounds for us to do so, i.e., to impeach our current President (granted this may not be your area of expertise)?
Michael Smith: I personally believe there are grounds for it but not yet, not in the memos we've seen. It needs U.S. reporters to get to work to take the documents and their implications forward. If the Brits said that there weren't enough preparations in place for what comes after, what was the reaction back in Washington. Who was it who overruled the arguments coming out of London. Whether or not we are into headhunting that person has a lot to answer for as the nightly television pictures coming out of Iraq are showing. We in the mainstream media are at a crossroads now. The Internet has opened up a large number of challenges to us. We can allow the web news sites to sideline us or we can impose our largely better honed skills and show that we are the best at what we do. U.S. journalists are world-renowned for their skills and attention to accuracy but you can be inaccurate just as much by ignoring something as you can by writing it up and getting it wrong.
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Pasadena, Calif.: Bush used every fictional pretext he could find to justify invading Iraq. Why hasn't the press explored his real agenda for starting an unprovoked war?
Michael Smith: The press had explored that but since 9/11 there has been pressure on the U.S. media to hold off a bit. That was understandable at first, 9/11 was a massive shock to the system and as close to a national emergency as you can get. Then with the war, there is a natural tendency to get behind our boys. That is absolutely right in my view and anyone who looks at my reporting at the time will see it is the way I reported it. The media on both sides of the Atlantic did question bad decisions but not aggressively enough. There is an understandable fear of being seen as not backing the boys in the frontline. You can do both frankly. You can back the boys who are doing what the politicians order them to do while at the same time questioning the politicians' orders. The soldiers cant challenge orders, only rarely at elections and polls can the public challenge the politicians. It is part of the media's role to make that challenge. It has been done but at times far too timidly.
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Fairfax, Va.: Do you expect we will see more leaks which further corroborate the assertion that Bush lied to justify the neoconservatives' aggressive stance against Iraq? Also, what are your thoughts on the semantics argument of the Iraq war supporters (i.e., in the U.K., "fixed around" doesn't mean what you think it means...)?
Michael Smith: There are number of people asking about fixed and its meaning. This is a real joke. I do not know anyone in the UK who took it to mean anything other than fixed as in fixed a race, fixed an election, fixed the intelligence. If you fix something, you make it the way you want it. The intelligence was fixed and as for the reports that said this was one British official. Pleeeaaassee! This was the head of MI6. How much authority do you want the man to have? He has just been to Washington, he has just talked to George Tenet. He said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. That translates in clearer terms as the intelligence was being cooked to match what the administration wanted it to say to justify invading Iraq. Fixed means the same here as it does there. More leaks? I do hope so and the more Blair and Bush lie to try to get themselves off the hook the more likely it is that we will get more leaks.
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Edinburgh, U.K.: What do you think of the argument reported in Howard Kurtz's article that Sir Richard Dearlove may have came to his conclusion by reading the newspapers?
Michael Smith: This is the head of British intelligence, a man who has just had conversations with America's most senior intelligence and national security figures. He is reporting back at the highest level, to what is effectively a war cabinet and as I know to my own cost has no great regard for newspapers. He has made his own judgment, no-one better qualified to tell that meeting what was happening. No shadow of a doubt.
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Louisville, Ky.: Your tone is very damning and you are obviously actively trying to do what you can to reveal the dubious justifications for this war and the total lack of postwar planning.
If you were an American reporter, Fox News and the conservative radio movement would dismiss you out of hand as a partisan, axe-to-grind liberal, and we might never have read your disclosures. Do you feel fortunate to report for the Sunday Times?
Michael Smith: I do. But look I am not some mealy-mouthed left-wing apologist. I vote Conservative in elections for parliament and Liberal-Democrat (the term Liberal does not have the same connotations over here) in the local elections. I actually backed the idea of the war. I have just finished a book on an American military unit which is very admiring of that unit. I cant go into details as it is not published until March.
I am just a reporter doing my job. I am not partisan, other than in arguing the case for the importance of the leaks. The information in the documents is damning enough. I don't believe that Republicans want US soldiers to die for no good cause in an insurgency that could have been avoided anymore than Democrats do. This isn't about politics. It's about common sense and honesty. Like many non-Americans around the world I was brought up to believe that they were articles of faith for the American people. The level of interest in the memos shows that that wasn't wrong but a lot of non-Americans look at some of the things that have been done recently, like the way in which the war was justified and Guantanamo and wonder how that same America could do those things.
As I say, that's not being anti-American. I think no more of the Blair government in that regard. It has definitely been just as bad.
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Charlottesville, Va.: Do you think there's a way to remove the partisan tone that usually accompanies the discussion of this memo? I'd like to see it discussed in real Congressional hearings and have it become a major topic. However, every mention I've seen has come with comments about impeachment, or BUSH LIED! which doesn't help and gets it easily dismissed as partisan whining.
Michael Smith: You're right. That's the way forward. Only then will it be taken seriously and get the attention across the political divide it deserves. These things always take time. Congress has to take a more considered view and that is only right. But we are getting there. I have no doubt that the lack of preparation will be discussed in Congress. That's when the heat will really be turned on the administration.
Click here for a full transcript of the Washington Post Online Chat with Michael Smith.
Related Links:
"Ministers Were Told of Need for Gulf War 'Excuse'," ( Sunday Times of
"Blair Hit By New Leak of Secret War Plan," ( Sunday Times of
"The Downing Street Memo," ( Sunday Times of
