Clint - "fellow traveller" = those of a like mind. My useage of the description is not linked to anything in history.

GUEST 14 Jun 04 - 04:57 AM

Obviously you didn't read the findings of the Hutton Inquiry into the Death of David Kelly - or the findings of the House of Commons select committee. Both of which came to the conclusion that no political pressure was brought to bear on those tasked with the interpretation and evaluation of the intelligence information available at the time.

GUEST 14 Jun 04 - 05:46 AM

"The whole point about intelligence is that you don't just believe everything that you come across."

Very true - neither do you discount anything you come across without compelling reason.

"You have to consider the source and weigh up the veracity. Make up all sorts of scenarios and there will probably be some intelligence to back it up - doesnt make it true..."

Basic failure in understanding here. Intelligence information from as many sources as possible is subject to evaluation. Sources are weighted in terms of past performance, reliability and verification through comparison to other sources. While many scenarios are considered, only two are ever presented, best case and worst case. It is then a political decision on which is taken onboard in order to formulate the policy of the Government of the day.

"The problem comes when you have governments asking for a report to support their case for war. In that case the people making the report will be under some considerable pressure (not all of it subtle) to select intelligence that supports the case and downplay that which undermines it."

In the case of the recent invasion of Iraq that did not happen - lots would like to think it did - but that was not the findings of two inquiries, and I dare say that will be the findings of the third as well.