Tom Griffin, 15 May 2008 

Dean Godson, a research director for Policy Exchange and former chief leader writer for the Daily Telegraph is one of the best-connected neoconservatives in Britain.

He has been a prominent advocate of ‘political warfare’ against Islamist movements and those who engage with them, and a persistent critic of peace processes in Ireland, the Middle East and around the world.

His involvement in the controversial report, The Hijacking of British Islam, could be considered an example of political warfare.

Covert action background

Godson's family has a long history of involvement in political warfare, or covert action as it is known in the US. His father Joseph Godson was a follower of Jay Lovestone, the ex-communist trade union leader who ran an international network for the CIA's James Angleton.¹  During his tenure as US Labour attaché in London, Godson Senior was secretly involved in an attempt to expel Aneurin Bevan from the Labour Party.²

Dean’s elder brother Roy Godson was involved in the Iran-Contra Affair³, and is the author of Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards, a primer which describes covert action as ‘influencing events in other parts of the world without revealing or acknowledging involvement’ and includes a discussion of propaganda and disinformation methods.⁴

As director of the International Labor Program at Georgetown University in Washington DC., Roy organized "educational visits" for British trade unionists to visit the U.S. during the Reagan administration "to broaden international education about Western democratic values."⁵

Godson's writings have often alluded to this background, for example through his familiarity with figures from the right-wing of the post-war labour movement like Frank Chapple⁶ and Ray Gunter⁷,  and his criticism of current US diplomats because of their incapacity for 'political warfare'.⁸

Early career

Godson attended St Paul's School and graduated from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.⁹   He served in the Reagan Administration from 1983 to 1984 as a Special Assistant to Navy Secretary John Lehman, who later became a signatory of the Project for a New American Century.

His interest in opinion management manifested itself in 1987, when he published SDI: Has America Sold Her Story to the World, the report of a study of the Strategic Defense Initiative for the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis.¹⁰

Godson called for ‘the United States and her "proxy forces" in the United Kingdom’ to address British opposition to President Reagan’s proposed missile defence programme.  He identified a number of groups which could ‘form the spearhead of an indigenous Public Diplomacy program’. These included British scientists and companies engaged in SDI research, as well as sympathetic quarters in the main political parties, notably the Labour Committee for Transatlantic Understanding, which Godson described as ‘the last remaining group of Labour Party and trade union officials organized to support NATO on security questions.’ This committee had been founded a decade earlier by his father, and received funding from the US National Endowment for Democracy and from NATO itself.¹¹

From 1987 to 1989 he was a research fellow at the Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies, another bastion of the cold war Atlanticism nurtured by his father and brother over the preceding forty years. That was followed by two years as librarian to the billionaire financier Sir James Goldsmith.

By the mid 1990s, Godson was part of a prominent group of up and coming Conservatives.  In 1995, the Guardian named him as one of the ‘21st Century Tories’ alongside figures such as Andrew Roberts, Matthew D’Ancona, Niall Ferguson and Anne Applebaum.¹²   During the 1997 election, he unsuccessfully contested the safe Labour seat of Great Grimsby East for the party.

The Telegraph Group

During this period the Telegraph Group was an important centre for Godson’s Tory clique.  He initially worked as a leader writer on the Sunday Telegraph before he was imported to the daily paper by editor Charles Moore.  The result, according to the Independent, was that the paper became “a much closer reflection of the hard-right views of the Telegraph proprietor, the Canadian media magnate Conrad Black.”¹³  Godson also wrote for the Telegraph Group’s Spectator magazine, eventually becoming an associate editor.¹⁴

The Telegraph Group has long been known for its intelligence connections. In 2001, Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson was accused of providing cover for the information operations wing of MI6 while at the Spectator.¹⁵

In 2003, The Daily Telegraph was at the centre of a controversy that some concluded was an information operation in practice. Reporter David Blair found documents in the ruins of the Iraqi Defence Ministry which, it was claimed, showed MP George Galloway had taken £375,000 from the Iraqi government.¹⁶  Galloway was later awarded £150,000 in libel damages as a result of this allegation.¹⁷

Moore left the Telegraph in 2003 to work on a biography of Margaret Thatcher. His successor Martin Newland had a more difficult relationship with Godson, who was described at the time as ‘Conrad Black’s favourite commissar’, by the Evening Standard.¹⁸

When Black lost control of the Telegraph Group’s parent company, Hollinger International, a year later, Godson’s departure followed soon afterwards.¹⁹

In his 2004 book on David Trimble, Godson expressed his thanks to Black and his fellow Hollinger International directors Barbara Amiel and Dan Colson.²⁰ The three were being sued by the company at the time over the alleged diversion of £391 million between 1997 and 2003.²¹

Later that year, Telegraph editor Martin Newland said that he "soon came to recognise we were speaking a language on geopolitical events and even domestic events that was dictated too much from across the Atlantic. It's OK to be pro-Israel, but not to be unbelievably pro-Likud Israel, it's OK to be pro-American but not look as if you're taking instructions from Washington. Dean Godson and Barbara Amiel were key departures."²²

Policy Exchange and the Newsnight receipts controversy

Godson is currently a research director specialising in terrorism and security and International issues at the conservative-leaning think-tank Policy Exchange, which is chaired by his former Telegraph editor Charles Moore.²³

In July 2006, Godson sponsored the publication of When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries by Martin Bright.²⁴  The pamphlet accused the British Government of "pursuing a policy of appeasement towards radical Islam that could have grave consequences for Britain" though the Foreign Office's Engaging with the Islamic World Group and the Government's engagement with the Muslim Council of Britain.²⁵ It included a series of documents leaked by civil servant Derek Pasquill.   Policy Exchange has claimed that this pamphlet led to a Government u-turn on relations with Muslim organisations.²⁶

In October 2007, Godson oversaw the publication of The Hijacking of British Islam: How Extremist Literature is Subverting Mosques in the UK, by Denis MacEoin.²⁷  According to this report, billed as 'the most comprehensive academic survey of such literature ever produced in this country', Policy Exchange sent four Muslim research teams to almost 100 mosques across Britain, and found radical material at 25 per cent of the institutions surveyed. The Report's recommendations included calls for the British authorities to reconsider their relationship to the Muslim Council of Britain, the Islamic Foundation and the Muslim Safety Forum.

The findings were widely covered in the British media with articles appearing in The Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and The Times among others.²⁸ The BBC had also been due to carry an exclusive report, which was cancelled at the last minute according to Newsnight editor Peter Barron.

"On the planned day of broadcast our reporter Richard Watson came to me and said he had a problem. He had put the claim and shown a receipt to one of the mosques mentioned in the report - The Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in London. They had immediately denied selling the book and said the receipt was not theirs."²⁹

On closer examination, the BBC identified particular concerns about five of the receipts in particular:

    1. In all five cases the mosques involved said the receipts did not belong to them.
    2. The expert analysis showed that all five had been printed on an inkjet printer - suggesting they were created on a PC.
    3. The analysis found "strong evidence" that two of the receipts were written by the same person.
    4. The analysis found that one of the receipts had been written out while resting on another receipt said to be from a mosque 40 miles away.³⁰

In December, Newsnight ran a report on these concerns, followed by a studio discussion, during which Godson accused Barron of disastrous editorial misjudgement" and of "appalling stewardship of Newsnight".³¹

In a statement that day, Policy Exchange said its executive would be meeting 'to discuss legal action against the BBC'.³²

In February 2008, Barron said of the controversy 'Policy Exchange promised to investigate these discrepancies, but two months later they have still not said if they believe these receipts are genuine.'³³

On British Islam

Godson's Policy Exchange reports were only part of a wider attack on British Muslim organisations, in which Godson invoked the spirit of Cold War covert operations.

During the Cold War, organisations such as the Information Research Department of the Foreign Office would assert the superiority of the West over its totalitarian rivals. And magazines such as Encounter did hand-to-hand combat with Soviet fellow travellers. For any kind of truly moderate Islam to flourish, we need first to recapture our own self-confidence. At the moment, the extremists largely have the field to themselves.³⁴

Godson's approach to fighting radical Islam has significant parallels with a US Department of Defense proposal from 2002, which called for ‘efforts to discredit and undermine the influence of mosques and religious schools that have become breeding grounds for Islamic militancy and anti-Americanism across the Middle East, Asia and Europe.’³⁵

His targets have included the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the Muslim Association of Britain, George Galloway, the Metropolitan Police, particularly its Muslim Contact Unit³⁶, the Association of Chief Police Officers, and sections of the Home Office³⁷  and the Foreign Office. He has accused Dominic Grieve and Sayeeda Warsi of being part of an ‘MCB-friendly faction’³⁸  in the Conservative Party, and Jack Straw and John Denham of being part of a similar faction in the Labour Party.³⁹

On the Middle East

Godson’s opposition to dialogue with Islamists extends to the Middle East, where he has attacked calls for talks with Hamas and Hezbollah.⁴⁰  In his writing on the region he has frequently promoted figures associated with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, such as former Israeli chief of staff Moshe Yaalon, Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, Syrian dissident Farid Ghadry and Iranian opposition figure Mohsen Sazgara.⁴¹

On Ireland

Godson’s longstanding interest in Ireland is closely connected to his hardline views on conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere.

His friend David Frum has written that for many years "Dean kept pointing out that the Israeli, Colombian, and Irish processes all shared a dangerous defect: They were attempts to make peace with terrorist adversaries who were not sincerely committed to peace."⁴²

The Irish face of Godson's Tory circle is a ginger group called the Friends of the Union.  In 1995, members of this group were involved in a high-level leak of the Anglo-Irish framework document on the future of Northern Ireland⁴³, a move which the Irish Government saw as calculated to undermine the peace process.⁴⁴

In 2004, Godson published an influential biography of former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, Himself Alone. His neoconservative connections are readily apparent from the book’s acknowledgments which include Richard Perle, David Frum, Ahmed Chalabi and Devon Cross.⁴⁵

In a 2006 Times article, Godson claimed that he had been told by Fr Denis Faul that Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness was a British agent.⁴⁶  Since the article was an obituary for Fr Faul, the conversation is presumably unverifiable. The article came shortly after a similar allegation by the former FRU agent known as Martin Ingram, based on an unpublished document, which several journalists concluded was of doubtful authenticity.⁴⁷

If these claims were to be believed, they would undermine the credibility of the Irish peace process as a model for conflict resolution.  That may be the importance of Godson’s Irish interests to the wider neoconservative project.

Affiliations
Policy Exchange - Research Director
Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies
Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Prospect Magazine - Contributing Editor

 [1] The CIA, The British Left and the Cold War: Calling The Tune? by Hugh Wilford, Frank Cass, 2003, pp176-181.
 [2] Smear: Wilson and the Secret State, by Stephen Dorril and Robin Ramsay, Fourth Estate Ltd, 1991, p14.
 [3] Walsh Contra/Iran Report Chapter 13: Private Fundraising: The Guilty Pleas of Channell and Miller , Federation of American Scientists.
[4]  Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards: US Covert Action and Counterintelligence, by Roy Godson, Transaction Books, 2001
[5]  Thomas Kenny, A Review of Himself Alone: David Trimble by Dean Godson . Harper Collins, ISBN 0-00-257098-X, Irish Democrat, 10 March 2005.
 [6]  Struggle for the soul of British Islam hots up , by Dean Godson, The Times, 15 February 2007.
[7]  Being Frank , by Dean Godson, Prospect magazine, February 2007
[8] ^ What kind of foreign policy is this? , by Dean Godson, The Times, 30 December 2005.
[9]  BBC News Online Dean Godson .
[10]  SDI: Has America Sold Her Story to the World, Report of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Panel on Public Diplomacy, by Dean Godson, Pergamon-Brassey's International Defense Publishers, 1987.
[11]  Britons get cash from US 'slush fund' / British organisations receiving money from US sources to 'promote democracy', The Guardian, 9 December 1985.
[12] The Guardian (London)February 22, 1995, CHURCHILL'S CHILDREN; Out with Major, Europe, the Welfare State and political correctness - waiting in the wings are the 21st-century Tories whose gameplan for the future has little truck with the present. Henry Porter talks to The Group, Henry Porter, SECTION: THE GUARDIAN FEATURES PAGE; Pg. T2
[13]  PAUL VALLELY 'With friends like this ...; The Daily Telegraph has turned on John Major. Paul Vallely charts his souring relationship with the Tory press barons, The Independent (London) April 19, 1996, Friday, Page 17
[14]  Lessons from Northern Ireland for the Arab-Israeli conflict , Jerusalem Viewpoints, October 2004, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
[15]  Editor ‘provided cover for spies’ . Ian Traynor and Richard Norton-Taylor, the Guardian, 26 January 2001.
[16]  Galloway denies Saddam 'fawning' , BBC News, 16 November 2004.
[17]  GEORGE GALLOWAY WINS SADDAM LIBEL CASE AGAINST THE TELEGRAPH , LegalDay, 2 December 2004
[18]  In the Air, the Evening Standard, 29 October 2003.
[19]  Crossed Lines at the Telegraph - Media Diary , The Observer, 27 June 2004.
[20]  Himself Alone: David Trimble and the Ordeal of Unionism, by Dean Godson, Harper Perennial, 2005, p.xx
[21]  Black and wife named in $1.25bn lawsuit , by Stephanie Kirchgaessner FT.com, May 10, 2004.
[22]  Newland unleashed , by Maggie Brown, The Guardian, 15 November 2004.
[23]  Expert Profile - Dean Godson, Research Director , Policy Exchange, accessed 1 March 2008
[24]  When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries , by Martin Bright, Policy Exchange, 1 July 2006.
[25]  Brave' official praised for leak , BBC News, 9 January 2008.
[26]  Terrorism and Security , Policy Exchange, accessed 6 March 2008.
[27]  The Hijacking of British Islam: How Extremist Literature is Subverting Mosques in the UK , by Denis MacEoin, Policy Exchange, 29 October 2007.
[28]  Excerpts from articles featuring Policy Exchange - October 30 2007: Daily Mail: Agenda of hate in British mosques is linked to Saudis , Policy Exchange, accessed 9 March 2008.  'Hate literature easily found at UK mosques' , by Toby Helm, Daily Telegraph, 31 October 2007. Lessons in hate found at leading mosques, by Sean O'Neill, The Times, 30 October 2007.
[29]  'Disastrous misjudgement? ', by Peter Barron, BBC News - The Editors, 13 December 2007.
[30]  Peter Barron, Op. cit.
[31]  BBC News - Talk About Newsnight - Newsnight Response to Policy Exchange Statement , 14 December 2007, accessed 9 March 2008.
[32] Policy Exchange and BBC Newsnight , Policy Exchange, 12 December 2007, accessed 9 March 2008.
[33] Receipt deceit? by Peter Barron, Private Eye No.1204, 22 February-6 March 2008, p.15
[34] The feeble helping the unspeakable , by Dean Godson, The Times, 5 April 2006
[35] Pentagon May Push Propaganda in Allied Nations , by Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 16 December 2002.
[36] Already hooked on poison , by Dean Godson, The Times, 8 February 2006.
[37] You'll never guess who's to blame for 7/7 , by Dean Godson, The Times, 13 December 2005.
[38] Struggle for the soul of British Islam hots up , by Dean Godson, The Times, 15 February 2007.
[39] Do we have to treat Muslims as Muslims? , by Dean Godson, Th e Times, 19 July 2007
[40]  Gone Native , by Dean Godson, Policy Exchange, originally published in Prospect Magazine, July 2006.
[41]  Now recriminations begin in Israel , by Dean Godson, The Times, 17 August 2006. Our white elephant in Iraq , by Dean Godson, The Times, 10 February 2005. Regime change slowly advances along the road to Damascus , by Dean Godson, The Times, 10 September 2005. Tehran ripe for a spot of mischief-making , by Dean Godson, The Times, 6 May 2005.
[42]  Irish lesson , David Frum's diary, National Review, 21 June 2004
[43]  Mail on Sunday (London)February 5, 1995, Top-level conspirator who'll never be found HOW ULSTER LEAK PLOTTERS BEAT SECURITY TO PROTECT SECRET SOURCE OF LEAK, BYLINE: Adrian Lithgow, SECTION: Pg. 6
[44]  Bruton questions motive for leak, by Alan Murdoch, The Independent, 2 February 2005.
[45]  Himself Alone, by Dean Godson, Harper Perennial, London, 2005, pxix-xxi.
[46]  Sharp lessons from a turbulent priest , The Times, June 23, 2006
[47]  Security experts discredit claim that McGuinness was M16 spy , Sunday Times, June 4, 2006. Senior SF member is 'British spy' , Sunday Tribune, May 28, 2006