In an effort to diminish the impact of the DSM, various GOP'ers, including Condi Rice, have claimed that the word "fixed" has a different meaning in Britain than in the United States.
In an exclusive interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the June 15 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews,
Rice eagerly agreed with Matthews's suggestion that in Britain the word "fixed" really "means just put things together." [...]
On the June 10 edition of PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, National Review editor Rich Lowry claimed "it was meant in the sense that the intelligence is supporting the policy asking questions like what will a post-invasion Iraq look like and questions of that nature." [...]
Media Matters has a good article disputing this ridiculous notion.
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Instead of relying on biased
American sources for the definition of "fixed", why don't we see what the British have to say:
But British sources contradict these claims. In a British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) documentary from March, which quoted the Downing Street Memo more than a month before the Sunday Times published it, BBC reporter John Ware explained: "By 'fixed' the MI6 chief meant that the Americans were trawling for evidence to reinforce their claim that Saddam was a threat." The headline of a Sunday Times preview of the documentary -- "MI6 chief told PM: Americans 'fixed' case for war" -- also makes it clear how the British understand "fixed."
And Michael Smith, the Sunday Times reporter who broke the DSM story said it quite well:
SMITH: There are number of people asking about fixed and its meaning. This is a real joke. I do not know anyone in the UK who took it to mean anything other than fixed as in fixed a race, fixed an election, fixed the intelligence. If you fix something, you make it the way you want it. The intelligence was fixed and as for the reports that said this was one British official. Pleeeaaassee! This was the head of MI6. How much authority do you want the man to have? He has just been to Washington, he has just talked to George Tenet. He said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. That translates in clearer terms as the intelligence was being cooked to match what the administration wanted it to say to justify invading Iraq. Fixed means the same here as it does there.
For anyone to even suggest that the word "fixed" means something different in Britain is laughable. That it's become a talking point for the rightwingnuttery is par for the course.