Just watched last night's Newsnight which is still available online and well worth a look for a very combative interview between Jeremy Paxman and Dean Godson about this report:
A rightwing thinktank which claimed to have uncovered extremist literature on sale at dozens of British mosques was last night accused of basing a report on fabricated evidence.
The report by Policy Exchange alleged that books condoning violent jihad and encouraging hatred of Christians, Jews and gays were being sold in a quarter of the 100 mosques visited.
But BBC2's Newsnight said examination of receipts provided by the researchers to verify their purchases showed some had been written by the same person - even though they purported to come from different mosques. (Guardian)
It's a great piece of investigative journalism, and all the more interesting when considered in the light of Godson's background in 'political warfare', something I've written about extensively at the links below:
Spinwatch:
The Godson approach to political warfare: Part 1 - Covert Action in Britain from the Cold War to the War on Terror
The Godson approach to political warfare: Part 2 - Blocking the Back Channels from Ireland to the Middle East
The Godson Approach to Political Warfare: Part 3 - The IRD in Northern Ireland
The Green Ribbon:
PC Spooks?
Should Cold War Psyops be the Model for Britain's debate on Islam?
US Covert Action in Britain today
It is worth noting that Dean Godson's brother Roy has written about forgery in his book on US covert action and counterintelligence:
Good Research is not enough; good tradecraft is essential. Black radio broadcasts, leaflets and forgeries need to disguise their sponsor or the fact that the information they are conveying is false. In the 1980s the Soviets, neglecting their tradecraft, often made stupid mistakes in forgeries, so that the United States could easily prove to target governments that they were forgeries perpetrated by Moscow. By contrast, in Word War II the Western Allies took pains to ensure that black broadcasters had the right regional accents and that the German they used reflected the class and personality of internal leaders likely to oppose the Nazis. (Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards)
Apparently, one of the discrepancies that Newsnight found in Policy Exchange's receipts was that Islamic Centre was misspelled as 'center.' Doh!
Update: Newsnight's Peter Barron has a post on the report on the BBC's The Editors blog.
Update 2: Policy Exchange has a statement on the controversy on its website.
Update 3, 16 Dec: Newsnight reporter Richard Watson has responded to Policy Exchange's comments on the row.
