Not content with yesterday's triumph, yet another exchange on the Today programme this morning (0715) gave vent once again to the programme's obsession with denying reality even when it is wearing full chemical protection. This gem was a discussion between John Humphrys and Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress and a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. Chalabi, whose organisation has just lost US funding, has fallen foul of some members of the Bush administration because of claims that he provided duff intelligence before the war, while others think he has been the object of a witch-hunt. Now read on:

'Humphrys: Do you still have any real influence over the Americans? We are told it was partly because of information you provided that has since been discredited [my italics] that the war was waged in the first place...You told them about weapons of mass destruction and all the rest of it, none of which have materialised...You were wrong about the weapons of mass destruction, weren't you?

'Chalabi: No, I was not.

'Humphrys (interrupting): Where are they, then?

'Chalabi: One of them appeared two days ago in a terrorist act in Iraq.

'Humphrys (interrupting): Hardly a weapon, a rusty old shell, hardly a weapon of mass destruction.

'Chalabi: A weapon of mass destruction is defined as a chemical weapon, and a chemical shell. This one apeared and people said that there were none of these, but they exist, they appear...

'Humphrys (interrupting): 12 years old! Twelve years old!

'Chalabi: Well it's still a weapon of mass destruction.'

Someone should present poor Mr Chalabi with the collected works of Lewis Carroll. From that Mr Chalabi will learn that, to the BBC, a weapon of mass destruction means precisely what it wants it to mean, neither more nor less.

Posted by melanie at May 19, 2004