Whitehall, White House, Whitewash!

"A GCHQ translator sacked for revealing a secret e-mail has been cleared of a charge under the Official Secrets Act.

Katharine Gun, 29, from Cheltenham, claimed the e-mail was from US spies asking British officers to tap phones of nations voting on war against Iraq."

Full story

The reasons for the prosecution dropping the charges have not been made public. Ultimately, it is the attorney general that decides whether cases involving the official secrets act are brought to trial. In this case, the defence lawyers were planning to question the legalities of the war with Iraq. As a consequence, the attorney general himself could well have been called to give evidence. Evidence likely to cause embarrassment to both the US and UK governments!

What a total sham!

I am delighted that Katharine Gun has been cleared of all charges. However, it would have been far more satisfying if the acquittal had come at the end of a full and fair hearing.

Prior to this, we've had our intelligence blatantly insulted by the Hutton inquiry into the Dr David Kelly affair. Then, as referred to in a previos post, we've seen the war crimes levelled at Saddam Hussein be carefully manipulated to avoid any political 'uncomfortableness' or international finger pointing.

It would appear that the the UK and US governments will go to any lengths to prevent the legalities of the war being aired in any public forum.

I wonder why?