Clive Ponting

Telling the truth about the Falklands War.

A British writer and academic, Ponting is the author of a number of revisionist books on British and world history. Formerly a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, he achieved notoriety in July 1984, when he sent two documents to Labour MP, Tam Dalyell, about the sinking of an Argentine naval warship General Belgrano, a key incident in the Falklands War of 1982. The documents revealed that the General Belgrano had been sighted a day earlier than officially reported, and was steaming away from the Royal Navy taskforce, and was outside the exclusion zone, when the cruiser was attacked and sunk. Ponting admitted revealing the information and was charged with a criminal offence under Section 2 of the 1911 Official Secrets Act. Although Ponting fully expected to be imprisoned – and had brought his toothbrush and shaving kit along to the court on February 11, 1985 – he was acquitted by the jury.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Ponting
• Clive Ponting, The Right to Know: The Inside Story of the Belgrano Affair