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The Sam Adams Associates
Corner-Brightener Candlestick
Awarded to Frank Grevil
Know all ye by these presents that FRANK GREVIL is hereby awarded The Corner-Brightener Candlestick, presented by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.
Heeding the dictates of conscience and true patriotism, Danish Army Maj. Frank Grevil put his career and his very liberty at risk for democracy. He did this by exposing the deceptive nature of the intelligence conjured up in an attempt to "justify" Denmark's role in the attack on Iraq in March 2003.
Maj. Grevil and other intelligence analysts had warned the Danish government that there was very little evidence that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction." Despite this, on the day before the invasion of Iraq, Denmark's Prime Minister told Parliament: "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. This is not something we just believe. We know."
Grevil believes it to be extremely destructive of democracy when national leaders deceive the citizens' representatives, whether in Parliament or Congress, into voting for what the Nuremberg Tribunal called the "supreme international crime"—a war of aggression. He thought it essential that Danish citizens learn that their political leaders had not told the truth. And so he gave to the press documents that exposed this, fully aware that, in doing so, he ran the risk of going to prison.
Like previous SAAII annual award winner, Katharine Gun of British intelligence, the documents that Frank Grevil released shone a laser beam of light through a thick cloud of deception. Grevil set a courageous example for those intelligence analysts of the "Coalition of the Willing" who have first-hand knowledge of how intelligence was corrupted to "justify" war, but who have not yet been able to find their voice.
Presented this 26th day of January 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark by admirers of the example set by our former colleague, Sam Adams.
A shorter version of this article appeared on Consortiumnews.com.
