UK: whistleblowers jailed for disclosures on war crimes in Fallujah, Iraq

From British daily The Guardian:

Pair jailed over Bush-Blair memo leak

Staff and agencies

Thursday May 10, 2007

A civil servant and an MP’s researcher were today jailed for leaking a secret memo about a meeting on Iraq between Tony Blair and George Bush.

David Keogh, 50, who worked in Whitehall’s communications centre, was jailed for six months at the Old Bailey for breaching the Official Secrets Act.

The researcher to whom he gave the memo, Leo O’Connor, was jailed for three months on a similar charge for passing the document to his employer, the anti-war Labour MP for Northampton South, Anthony Clarke. …

Mr Aikens made it clear he regarded the content as being so sensitive that the press could not report what Keogh said when he was asked in open court what preyed on his mind when he first saw the document.

Keogh was said to have described the contents as “abhorrent” and “illegal”.

According to O’Connor’s statements to police, Keogh believed the memo exposed the US president as a “madman”. …

The court heard that April 2004 was a particularly delicate period in Iraq.

It is known, and was widely reported at the time, that British officials and military commanders were already expressing concern about US tactics.

The British were concerned in particular about the US assault on Falluja, including the use of white phosphorous, which causes severe burns.

Peter Kilfoyle, the former defence minister, said yesterday: “There remain unanswered questions about the discussions [between Mr Blair and Mr Bush] about the attack on Falluja and the subsequent deaths of many hundreds of civilians.”

British military chiefs at the time were urging Mr Blair to send extra forces only on British terms, not those of the US, whose tactics they privately damned as brutal and counterproductive.

See also here.

And here.

Update: here.