Don't always trust what they tell you in the war on terror

publisher: Independent (London) www.independent.co.uk

By: Raymond Whitaker and James Palmer

Posted: 2002-03-31

Downing Street said al-Qa'ida was using chemical weapons: it was wrong. The Pentagon said Saddam Hussein was to blame for the anthrax attacks on the US: it was wrong. Raymond Whitaker and James Palmer unravel the West's war of lies and propaganda

Truth is already a casualty in the war against terror, but as the campaign against Iraq hots up, distinguishing facts from propaganda may become even harder.

According to a flurry of reports on both sides of the Atlantic, Tony Blair and George Bush will be drawing up a dossier of evidence on Iraqi efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction when the two get together on the President's Texan ranch next weekend. But the attempt to build a case against Saddam Hussein went seriously wrong a week ago.

Downing Street claimed that American troops had found a biological warfare laboratory in Afghanistan, and that Baghdad was supplying al-Qa'ida with weapons of mass destruction, only for the Pentagon and British military sources to rubbish both suggestions. The Prime Minister's spokesman, Alastair Campbell, is said to be working closely with the White House on information policy, but there was little sign of co-ordination here.

As the following case studies show, however, the Pentagon has also been responsible for stories appearing in the media which have later been retracted, disputed or disproved.

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