The over-the-top partisanship of Andrew Gilligan and the excutives of the BBC has led to their resignations, now that the Hutton investigation has cleared the Blair government of manipulating intelligence data to support the decision to go to war in Iraq. And speaking of blind partisanship, one has to wonder if Teddy Kennedy has been paying attention. Here's the text of an exchange between Kennedy and U.S. WMD investigator David Kay during Kay's appearance before Congress:
Kennedy (to Kay): "Many of us feel that the evidence so far leads only to one conclusion: that what has happened was more than a failure of intelligence, it was the result of manipulation of the intelligence to justify a decision to go to war."
Kay (responding): "[You suggest] analysts were pressured to reach conclusions that would fit the political agenda of one or another administration. I deeply think that is a wrong explanation. ... I did not come across a single one that felt it had been, in the military term, 'inappropriate command influence' that led them to take that position."
When it was demonstrated that BBC reporter Gilligan had allowed his partisanship to compromise his professionalism, he resigned. While we expect no such accountability from the Senator from Massachusetts, we'd settle for the next best thing. Shut up, Teddy.
In another interesting exchange, Sen. Clinton, apparently unconvinced after 12 years that inspections weren't working to disarm Saddam, had a question for Kay:
Clinton:"I think that rightly does raise questions that we should be examining about whether or not the U.N. inspection process pursuant to 1441 might not also have worked without the loss of life that we have confronted both among our own young men and women, as well as Iraqis."Kay: "Well, Senator Clinton...we have had a number of Iraqis who have come forward and said, 'We did not tell the UN about what we were hiding, nor would we have told the UN because we would run the risk of our [losing our own lives]' -- I think we have learned things that no UN inspector would have ever learned given the terror regime of Saddam.... Iraq was in clear violation of the terms of Resolution 1441. ... Iraq was in clear and material violation of 1441. ... So there was a lot they wanted to hide because it showed what they were doing that was illegal. I hope we find even more evidence of that."