David Rose
David Rose is a British investigative journalist, formerly of the Observer, presently a contributing editor to Vanity Fair.In the leadup to the Iraq war, he was responsible for several credulous reports echoing neoconservative claims about Iraq's alleged WMDs and links to Al Qaeda. His main source was the Iraqi National Congress.[1]. He has since admitted that he was 'bamboozled' by the INC,[2] and also coauthored one highly critical investigation of the events leading up to war.[3]
Beyond Iraq, Rose has a reputation for critical investigative work. He has written about British intelligence services' use of clandestine 'deniable briefings' to plant disinformation in the press. (Though he has admitted that he was himself a recipient of such leaks in the past, and that he did not end his relationship with the agencies until they did.)[4] In April 2008, he wrote a damning report about US-backed attempts to engineer a coup against the elected Hamas government in Gaza.[5] He has also authored a critical investigation about MI5's collusion in the torture of former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed while in Moroccan custory after being 'rendered' by the CIA.[6]
From 9-11 to Iraq
In the immediate aftermath of 9-11, Rose wrote many articles echoing the claims of neoconservative think-tanker Laurie Mylroie. In December he published a story in Vanity Fair alleging that Iraq was involved in the September 11 attacks. His sole source was an INC defector. On the same night he appeared on CNN and NBC to repeat his allegations. He told NBC’s Chris Matthews that 9/11 was ‘a joint operation’ between Iraq and Al Qaeda. He also alleged that Iraq was training ‘a super elite special forces offensive commando’ unit of terrorists to target the United States. In the months leading up to the war Rose would produce three more reports, each progressively more fantastic, about Iraq's alleged WMDs and its links to Al Qaeda.[7]. Rose also wrote or coauthored five articles for the Observer claiming that there were 'direct Iraqi links' with the 9/11 hijackers; that 'Iraqi training, intelligence and logistics were hidden behind an Islamist facade'; that Iraq 'ran a terrorist camp for foreign Islamists, where it taught them how to hijack planes with boxcutters'; and that the anthrax attacks in the United States in October 2001 had 'an ultimate Iraqi origin'.[8] He also wrote a glowing review of Mylroie's book in which she elaborates on Iraq's alleged links to terrorism.[9]
Resources
- George Monbiot, 'Our lies led us into war', The Guardian, 20 July 2004
References
- ↑ Bill Moyers, 'Buying the War', PBS, 25 April 2007
- ↑ David Rose, Iraqi defectors tricked us with WMD lies, but we must not be fooled again, The Observer, 30 May 2004
- ↑ Bryan Burrough, Evgenia Peretz, David Rose, and David Wise, ‘The Path to War: The Rush to Invade Iraq — The Ultimate Inside Account’, Vanity Fair, May 2004
- ↑ David Rose, ‘Spies and their Lies’, New Statesman, 27 September 2007
- ↑ David Rose, The Gaza Bombshell, Vanity Fair, April 2008
- ↑ David Rose, How MI5 colluded in my torture: Binyam Mohamed claims British agents fed Moroccan torturers their questions, Mail on Sunday, 8 March 2009
- ↑ David Rose, ‘Inside Saddam's Terror Regime’, Vanity Fair, February, 2002; ‘Iraq's Arsenal of Terror’, Vanity Fair, May 2002; ‘An Inconvenient Iraq’, Vanity Fair, January 2003; ‘Baghdad's Cruel Princes’, Vanity Fair, May 2003
- ↑ David Rose and Ed Vulliamy, Iraq 'behind US anthrax outbreaks', The Observer, 14 October 2001; David Rose, 'The Iraqi connection', The Observer, 11 November 2001; David Rose, 'The case for tough action against Iraq', The Observer, 2 December 2001; David Rose, 'A blind spot called Iraq’, The Observer, 13 January 2002; David Rose, 'Spain links suspect in 9/11 plot to Baghdad', The Observer, 16 March 2003
- ↑ David Rose, 'A blind spot called Iraq’, The Observer, 13 January 2002
