Max Bradford National Defence Spokesperson

20 September 2001

Minister forced to release documents

There is a disturbing and remarkable similarity between the covert army campaign outlined in the Gordon letter and the Communications Trumps communications strategy which the head of the army ordered to be destroyed, National's Defence spokesperson Max Bradford said today.

Defence Minister Mark Burton agreed to table the documents which were to be destroyed in Parliament today after it had been leaked to the media. "The communications strategy was written in July 1997, three months after the Gordon letter was written. That suggests to me very clearly that the campaign of the army was connected to the work by Communications Trumps which may be the first evidence of the Gordon letter campaign being implemented.

"We know there was an A and B team in the army. Those who agreed with the then head Piers Reid, who continues to be an avid defender of Government defence policy, were promoted and those who didn't were not.

"The Minister must answer why if these documents that Major General Maurice Dodson ordered to be disposed of are so innocent, why did he want them to be destroyed?" Mr Bradford said.

Ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>