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- www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/05/iraq-venezuela-iiss-dossier Iraq "dodgy dossier" authors strike again Posted by Francisco Dominguez - 12 May 2011 17:08 Venezuela FARC files must be read with the same scepticism that WMD claims deserved. A report launched this week risks repeating the mistake of the dodgy dossier that justified war on Iraq. Launched by the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) the dossier claims it "looks in detail" at Colombian guerrilla group FARC's "relations with Venezuela and Ecuador" by assessing files allegedly found on computers seized by Colombian government from FARC in 2008. It has already received widespread coverage in the New York Times, the Times, the Guardian, FT, CNN and BBC to name a few. Although police organisation Interpol has explained that the handling of the computer data by Colombian authorities did "not conform to internationally recognised principles" and that its computer forensic examination of the files was not about verifying the "accuracy and source of the user files", this has not prevented all sorts of lurid allegations being made by IISS. If the name IISS rings alarm bells, it may be because you remember the role it played in events that led to the publication of the dodgy dossier justifying war on Iraq. Worryingly for the Continent, the same people and organisation now appear to have turned their attention onto Latin America. The report was launched against the backdrop of intensified efforts from the Republican Right to target Venezuela. The Republican's electoral victory in the US Senate and Congress elections last year placed some very right wing figures in charge of influential foreign affairs bodies. Republican Congressman Connie Mack of Florida has said that as the new Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere he will seek to get Venezuela placed on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. Fellow Republican and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen backed this agenda. Many fear the timing of this report is also to torpedo the détente underway between Venezuela and Colombia. Until recently, US military bases were being prepared in Colombia that would surround Venezuela, but this agenda is now on the backburner. The IISS report may well form part of a strategy that achieves in provoking a new round of hostilities between the nations. The IISS has such a record in playing its own part in the rush to the war in Iraq. Whilst it claims to be "independent, owing no allegiance to any governments or any political or other organisations", the IISS has ties to many neo-cons. Trustees and Council members include Robert D Blackwill, a former Deputy National Security Advisor to George W. Bush; Dr John Hillen, formerly Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs under Bush administration; Dr Eliot Cohen, Condoleezza Rice's former senior adviser on strategic issues and Dr Ariel Levite, a former Deputy National Security Advisor. From Britain it involves Sir David Manning, a Foreign Policy Adviser to Blair in the lead-up to the Iraq war, as well as Lord Powell of Bayswater, former foreign policy advisor to Thatcher. The IISS role in the creation of the dodgy dossier on Iraq is clear. In September 2002 it launched the "IISS: 'Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Net Assessment" which made spurious claims on "the threat posed by Iraq's programmes to develop nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons as well as ballistic missiles" including that "the retention of WMD capacities by Iraq is self-evidently the core objective of the regime". Ominously it warned: "Wait and the threat will grow; strike and the threat may be used. Clearly, governments have a pressing duty to develop early a strategy to deal comprehensively with this unique international problem." The Daily Mail seized upon this dossier as "the most compelling evidence yet that Iraq is... building up a lethal arsenal of weapons of mass destruction" and could be "months away" from building a nuclear bomb. Even the BBC ran the headline "UK hails new report." As Kim Sengupta explained in the Independent: The IISS dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, published on 9 September 2002, was edited by Gary Samore, formerly of the US State Department, and presented by Dr John Chipman, a former Nato fellow. It was immediately seized on by Bush and Blair administrations as providing "proof" that Saddam was just months away from launching a chemical and biological, or even a nuclear attack. Large parts of the IISS document were subsequently recycled in the now notorious Downing Street dossier, published with a foreword by the Prime Minister, the following week. Worryingly, John Chipman is now the IISS's current Director-General! One common thread between the authors of the dodgy dossier on Iraq and its Latin American counterpart is Nigel Inkster, IISS Director of Transnational Threats and Political Risk. He oversaw their 'FARC files' report but formerly Inkster was deputy director of MI6 in the lead up to war with Iraq. He was "part of the team monitoring chemical and biological weapons proliferation, including Iraqi attempts to procure such material". It was under Inkster's deputy directorship that MI6 was instrumental in creating the now infamous "dodgy dossier" on WMD to sell the Iraq war to the British public. Interestingly, Inkster worked in Latin America during the dark period of the 1970s and 80s. Stacked with former UK and US members of the intelligence services and neo-cons, the IISS certainly can't be easily regarded as independent. Given the IISS and Inkster have previously been involved in producing dangerously inaccurate dossiers the so-called "FARC Files" should be treated with a healthy dose of scepticism. Many in the media would do well to remember this and the consequences of their unquestioning coverage of the dodgy dossier on Iraq as they consider the IISS study into the "FARC Files". Instead they should encourage and celebrate the fact that Colombia and Venezuela are peacefully and constructively dealing with very complex, long-term issues. Francisco Dominguez is Head of the Centre for Brazilian and Latin American Studies at Middlesex University. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
