The War on Truth

The book investigates the circumstances that led to the war in Iraq, the war itself and its aftermath.[1] It focusses on disinformation from the British government and questions the existence of democracy in the UK.[1]

The Chapter: How the Lies were Told focusses on Operation Rockingham, which is described as a government effort to cherry pick data that would support the government's villainous characterization of Saddam Hussein, his ownership of weapons of mass destruction, and the justification for the war.[2] The book reports that United Nations staff in Iraq constantly fed information to Operation Rockingham.[2] The operation ignored vast quantities of data about the weaknesses of Iraqi troops, Iraqi compliance with international rules, and instead only presented information that justified the British government's pro-war stance.[2] The cherry-picking approach was described to have been undertaken at the direction of the British government and led to the production of the infamous "Dodgy Dossier".[2] Mackay credits Michael Meacher for his critique of Operation Rockingham[2] and documents how the events damaged the reputation of Tony Blair.[3]

The book also documents how the British government manipulated the press by planting poorly-substantiated stories in overseas newspapers, then encouraging UK press to report on the foreign reporting.[2]

The book describes how Republican American efforts to push for the war made a military intervention a foregone conclusion.[4]

Neil Mackay was supported by Scott Ritter in the production of the book.[2]

The book drew substantive praise from Ken Coates in his book Surging for Oil.[2] Coats calls the book "splendid" several times and celebrates that Mackay has combined his years of reporting into a "highly lethal single volume".[2]

• David Kelly (weapons expert)