Across the Pond, War Is Still Sell

The former chief investigator of Britain's Intelligence and Security Committee said that "intelligence has been used as a 'PR tool' since Tony Blair came to power." During 1998's Operation Desert Fox in Iraq, "I was under pressure and my analysts were under pressure," said John Morrison. "It got to the point that individual analysts were being rung up by the press office and being asked to say 'this is great, isn't it?'" During 1999's Kosovo bombing, Morrison set up his own press office to have greater control, but "we were under constant pressure to field talking heads ... [and] to have themes for individual days."