Operation Mass Appeal was an operation alleged to have been set up by the British Secret Intelligence Service ( SIS, aka MI6) in the runup to the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. In December, 2003, former UN arms inspector

Scott Ritter William Scott Ritter Jr. (born July 15, 1961) is an American author and pundit and a former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer and United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector. He served as a junior military analyst d ...

said it was a campaign aimed at planting disinformation in the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

about

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

's alleged

weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...

. A "senior British official" admitted to the London Sunday Times in late December, 2003, that the SIS had been at the heart of an unnamed campaign launched in the late 1990s to spread information about Saddam's development of nerve agents and other weapons, but denied that it had planted misinformation. "There were things about Saddam's regime and his weapons that the public needed to know", said the official. Ritter claimed that the SIS operation secretly incorporated the United Nations Special Commission investigation into Iraq's alleged stockpiles of

Weapons of Mass Destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...

(WMD) into what he described as its propaganda efforts by recruiting him, a UN weapons inspector and former MI6 collaborator, to provide copies of UN documents and reports on their findings to MI6. In his book, ''Iraq Confidential'' (2005), Ritter described what he said was an MI6-run

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and M ...

effort, known as Operation Mass Appeal.MI6 ran 'dubious' Iraq campaign
BBC, 21 November 2003 According to Ritter: "Mass Appeal served as a focal point for passing MI6 intelligence on Iraq to the media, both in the UK and around the world. The goal was to help shape public opinion about Iraq and the threat posed by WMD." He said MI6 propaganda specialists claimed they could spread the misinformation through "editors and writers who work with us from time to time". Ritter, in an interview with

Amy Goodman Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupation ...

of the US news website

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

, described how he, as an arms inspector for the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction—and

UNSCOM United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was an inspection regime created by the United Nations to ensure Iraq's compliance with policies concerning Iraqi production and use of weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War. Between 1991 and 19 ...

itself—became deeply involved in MI6's "Operation Mass Appeal":

References

External links

Revealed: how MI6 sold the Iraq war (The Sunday Times, 28 December 2003)Iraq confidential by Scott Ritter, Seymour M Hersh
{{Disinformation Causes and prelude of the Iraq War Iraq–United Kingdom relations Mass media in the United Kingdom Military operations of the Iraq War in 2003 Propaganda in the United Kingdom United Kingdom intelligence operations Disinformation operations