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How Tony Blair and other war criminals are getting the Iraq report watered down
by Matt Carr
What is Maxwellisation that lawyers for individuals criticized by the Iraq inquiry are using to get changes to its report? Matt Carr explains.
MANY YEARS ago, back in 1971, the publishing magnate Robert Maxwell was forced to resign his position on the board of directors of the Oxford-based publishing company Pergamon Press, following suggestions of malfeasance in his role during an attempted strategic takeover of the company.
A Department of Trade and Industry inquiry into the buyout of Pergamon declared Maxwell ‘unfit to hold the stewardship of a public company.’
Given the fact that we are talking about a man who subsequently went on to loot the pension funds of his company to pay off debts at the Mirror Group, hindsight might credit the DTI with some considerable prescience.
Nevertheless this was not how things seemed at the time. The litigious Maxwell took the DTI to court, and in 1971, Justice Forbes ruled that the DTI inspectors ‘had moved from an inquisitorial role to an accusatory one and virtually committed the business murder of Mr Maxwell’.
As a result Maxwell’s reputation survived the inquiry. He regained his seat on the board and went onto to engage in the sleazy financial practices that subsequently made him famous.
This obscure investigation into a scientific and medical publishing company nevertheless gave rise to a new legal process known as ‘Maxwellisation’, in which the objects of public inquiries were given advance notice of any criticisms directed against them, in order to forestall the possibility of Maxwellesque legal action, and allow named individuals to respond privately before such criticisms were made public.
Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk
Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=2546
