PROPAGANDA

Sunday Herald: Why don't we trust Tony?
Last week, British military and police chiefs took what they believed to be appropriate steps to prevent a terrorist strike on a civilian aircraft at Heathrow after receiving intelligence reports that one was likely. Ministers insist they were not even informed in advance that light tanks and armoured personnel carriers were being positioned around Britain's busiest airfield. But the public's first reaction was to treat the exercise as if it had been staged -- designed to create a climate of synthetic alarm. Part of an elaborate, government-inspired attempt to spin Britain into backing Tony Blair's policy on the war.