Knightley and Iraq.(Letters)

SIR: Certainly in my article (July-August 2003) I take Phillip Knightley "as an authority for the allegation that the Pentagon murdered journalists in the recent Gulf War", as Hal Colebatch states (Letters, September 2003). But only after I'd cited facts, such as:

* The Spanish Defence Minister's statement that the Palestine Hotel had been designated a military objective two days before the US attack, and if so, no one had warned the journalists.

* That no fire came from the direction of the Palestine Hotel.

* An air strike on the hotel was ordered, and only called off when the US commander was told by an embedded reporter that the building was full of journalists.

None of this was mentioned by Mr Colebatch; instead he embarked on a diatribe against Phillip Knightley's Australia: Biography of a Nation. Yes, I was a principal researcher for this book and agree with many of its conclusions, and Phillip Knightley is a valued friend and colleague, who is more than capable of refuting Mr Colebatch's litany of misrepresentations and abuse for himself. Still, in a long letter Colebatch fails to even mention Knightley's article in the British Journalism Review quoted in my article. Here there is further evidence ...