Toujours les sympathiques “special relationships”, cette fois éclairées par Woodward

Les journaux britanniques se sont attachés à d’éventuelles nouvelles sur les special relationships, dans le dernier livre de Bob Woodward, State of Denial. Ils en ont trouvé. Comme d’habitude, elles sèmeront la consternation ou bien nous fourniront l’occasion d’une belle et franche rigolade.

Sarah Baxter notamment, du Times (du Sunday Times), s’est livrée à l’exercice. Cela donne ceci :

«Tony Blair was angered by America’s refusal to share intelligence on Iraq with Britain, according to a revealing new book by Bob Woodward, the veteran journalist who exposed the Watergate scandal.

»The prime minister protested to President George W Bush about the way intelligence was routinely marked NOFORN (no foreigners), denying access to the US’s closest ally.

»In State of Denial, published tomorrow, Woodward reveals that raw intelligence gathered by British operatives in Iraq and fused with the Americans’ own data was stored on the classified Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET).

»“The British couldn’t see it, let alone get a copy, because it was marked NOFORN,” Woodward writes.

»British pilots flying American warplanes such as F-117 Nighthawks and F-15E Strike Eagles were even denied access to classified pilot manuals for the same reason.

»“At times it went beyond absurd,” Woodward notes.

»After complaints from Blair, Bush promised to lift the NOFORN restrictions, but the Pentagon simply began creating a new, separate SIPRNET to cut out the British, Woodward claims.

»Bush confided in Blair about his frustration with the course of the Iraq war, telling him that the Americans were doing “such a lousy job of communications” that he was tempted to just “give this thing to the UK”.

»During the first Iraqi elections in January 2005, Blair stepped in to help the country’s then leader, Iyad Allawi, when Bush refused to allow the US embassy or the CIA to “pick winners”.»

A noter, ce qui est une chose également instructive, que le président US n’est, dans diverses occasions, pas mieux servi que les Britanniques. La bête bureaucratique et américaniste est évidemment superbe et indomptable.

Mis en ligne le 1er octobre 2006 à 13H37