David Blair
David Blair is a Daily Telegraph correspondent who in April 2003 entered the bombed out Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, and "found" a box with incriminating documents:
- David Blair, the correspondent who found the documents in the foreign ministry in Baghdad, said during the case that he came across a letter in English from George Galloway nominating a Fawaz Zureikat as his representative in Baghdad.
- The next day, he found a letter from deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz to four cabinet ministers, supposedly circulating Mr Galloway's "work programme" for 2000.
- A little later he came to a five-page memorandum dated January 3 2000 which had Iraqi Intelligence Service in its letterhead and which related to the Mariam Campaign.
- He was "completely satisfied" that the documents were genuine. Blair said the intelligence memo said Mr Galloway had received money for the Mariam campaign in secret, it had been diverted from the oil for food campaign and that the intelligence service had some role in it. [1]
The Telegraph lost the libel suit,and the following appeal, and will have to pay £150K + court costs + Galloway's legal fees. [2] The Telegraph Executive Editor during this incident was Neil Darbyshire.
Notes
- ↑ Owen Gibson and Claire Cozens, Galloway victory 'a bad day for journalism', The Guardian, 2 December 2004.
- ↑ see the report on the BBC website
