I mentioned yesterday a lecture by Andrew Gilligan. But, since that posting, I've had time to listen to the Q&A session that followed it, in which he was less than complimentary about his former Sunday Telegraph colleague, Con Coughlin.
He spoke about the relationship between journalists and the intelligence services and began by urging the audience to read a New Statesman article by The Observer correspondent David Rose. (It is, by the way, an excellent piece). Gilligan explained how shadowy spokespeople for MI5 and MI6 brief selected journalists and that what they say has to be taken on trust because it cannot be checked with another source. "A number of journalists," he said, "are rather uncritical recipients of what can only be described as intelligence services spin."
As an example he named Coughlin, citing "the belly dancers of death", a story published in July 2001, which suggested that Saddam Hussein's intelligence chiefs were using the dancers to report on and eliminate Iraqi opposition abroad. It even claimed that the women were undergoing a 45-day intensive training course focusing on poisoning and organising car accidents.
According to Gilligan, this "complete load of old drivel was swallowed wholesale by the Sunday Telegraph." It was published under another staff member's byline, though I can't tell you who it was because the paper has since taken it down from the website, as you can see here.
Gilligan assured the audience that it came from Coughlin, and went on to mention another example of a Coughlin story - involving Gadaffi's son - which led to a court action. This, said Gilligan, was also "completely wrong" and planted by MI6.
Will Coughlin take this lying down, I wonder?
