BBC's sneak preview for DS memo

I'm afraid I missed this at the time, but back on March 20 the BBC gave an early hint at the evidence contained in what has become known as the Downing Street memo. The Guardian reported it at the time as the BBC giving "another sign that it is determined to maintain its editorial independence by screening a Panorama programme strongly critical of Tony Blair's manipulation of thin intelligence, on the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq." But it looks especially prescient now (Panorama is the BBC's flagship documentary/public affairs program, btw). The Guardian report states that the program:

included interviews with former officials who had already broken in public with the government's Iraq strategy. It also quoted extensively from leaked documents first revealed by the Daily Telegraph. In the most startling revelation, the programme claimed that at a meeting on July 23 2002, Sir Richard [Dearlove, head of MI6] said a war was inevitable, adding that the facts and the intelligence were being fixed round the policy set out by George Bush's administration. The claim was based on several reliable sources, Panorama said.

Very interesting. This is clearly the same information that emerged from the Downing Street memo, which didn't emerge until May 1. But here is strong evidence being presented of UK-US duplicity back in March, some six weeks earlier. Just thought I'd mention it.