“Britain fought a second war against the BBC”

Published time: 12 Jan, 2010 16:16 Edited time: 13 Jan, 2010 13:19

Daily Telegraph London editor Andrew Gilligan, who in 2003 reported that the British government’s dossier “sexed up” Iraq's military capabilities, gave his reaction to a recent testimony on the run-up to the Iraqi War.

The testimony belonged to former head of British government communications, Alastair Campbell.

Campbell told the inquiry that the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted to disarm Saddam Hussein via the United Nations.

He denied that the ex-US president Bush had persuaded Blair to agree with his regime change policy.

None of this was any surprise to Gilligan: “Although Campbell maintained the deny-everything-no-surrender stance at the hearing today, you could see that the enquiry members were rather skeptical, because they have read the documents”.

"But back in 2003 the British government launched a second war. While the first was against Saddam Hussein, the second was against the BBC and me, in particular, for being able to say that the dossier has been exaggerated," Gilligan recalled.