Anger as Britain admits it was wrong to blame Iran for deaths in Iraq

Anger as Britain admits it was wrong to blame Iran for deaths in Iraq
By Kim Sengupta, Ben Russell and Terri Judd
Published: 05 January 2006


Britain has dropped the charge of Iranian involvement after senior officials had repeatedly accused the Tehran regime of supplying sophisticated explosive devices to insurgents. Government officials now acknowledge that there is no evidence, or even reliable intelligence, connecting the Iranian government to the infra-red triggered bombs which have killed 10 British soldiers in the past eight months.

The apparent U-turn last night prompted the mother of a young soldier killed in Iraq to accuse the Government of making political capital out of her son's death. Pte Phillip Hewett, 21, died alongside 2nd Lt Richard Shearer and Pte Leon Spicer when their patrol was hit by an improvised explosive device at al-Amarah, north of Basra, last July.

Pte Hewett's mother, Sue Smith, 44, said: "They don't like Iran and they are using this for sympathy towards their attitudes, claiming that they were involved in the murder of our sons. I had the impression from the moment they made that statement that it was purely bully-boy tactics against Iran. It makes me really angry. They should be dealing with the people who killed our sons and not using it as a weapon. The way I look at it, it was just an excuse for another invasion. They have a foothold in the Middle East and they want to go further."

Michael Moore, the defence spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: "Clumsy diplomacy can only make the situation in Iraq worse that it already is. There should be an early statement on Iran's involvement in the insurgency so that Parliament can assess what the real situation is and how the Government is responding to it."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article336567.ece

...to fly in today's political witchhunt climate. I'm sure Crusader Bunnypants is on the phone to Blair as I type to plug this dike.

Remember, never admit you lied. Just lie bigger.

Perhaps people do not like wearing a bullseye because their "boss" is too chicken to stand up to Bush..