There are two basic techniques to hide a "needle" that occur to me:
- Pretend there is no needle.
- Heap enormous quantities of "hay" under, over and around the needle so that the chances of finding it are negligibly small
Option 1. wasn't available to Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair and Charlie Falconer. The disappearance and death of David Kelly was too publicly visible.
Option 2. was the Hutton Inquiry. Detail was heaped upon detail in oral testimony. Inconsistency upon inconsistency. Document was piled upon document.
In real time, the press release processors of Fleet Street and the broadcast media didn't have a hope of identifying the gaps in the evidence.
The volume of information was overwhelming. And remains almost overwhelming even with much more time to process it than journalists had during the Hutton Inquiry.
Heaping copious quantities of "hay" on the "needle" almost succeeded as a cover-up strategy.
To continue the metaphor, governments often hide the truth in lies (a hangout) or as Nixon refined the technique (a modified limited hangout). This involves putting parts of the truth out but concealing their importance (placing the needle into a piece of straw)
ReplyDeleteWhen Dr Hunt and DC Coe both gave their interviews to the Mail in 2010 it was not coincidence nor a lapse in discretion, neither was the publishing of post mortem and toxicology reports. Facts relating to the truth were revealed but with the intention of masking the bigger truth.
If Coe and Hunt had told the whole truth 7 years previously there wouldn’t be the situation now where the government, police and justice system have no public confidence. Letting bits of the truth out in a stage managed farce only draws attention to the depths of corruption that our civil servants have sunk.