What Do the Brits Mean by "Fixed"?

Old CIA hand Ray McGovern reports:

Michael Smith, the Sunday Times reporter who broke the story [of the Downing Street memos] thinks he knows what "fixed" means. On June 16, he told the Washington Post:

"There are a number of people asking about 'fixed' and its meaning. This is a real joke. I do not know anyone in the UK who took it to mean anything other than fixed, as in fixed a race, fixed an election, fixed the intelligence. If you fix something, you make it the way you want it. The intelligence was fixed...the head of MI-6 has just been to Washington. He has just talked with George Tenet. He said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. That translates in clearer terms as the intelligence was being cooked to match what the administration wanted it to say to justify invading Iraq."

I contacted a number of British friends who are close observers of the political scene, to get their opinion. Here is one recent email reply:

"Nobody that I have come across here in London interprets the term 'fixed' in this context as other than cooked/manipulated/selected. Fixed refers to trickery—as in 'the fix is in.'...

As in what Cheney et al. did with intelligence on Iraq. Which is why it was so important for Karl Rove's White House to discredit Joseph Wilson's NYT editorial in which he asked if the administration had taken us to war "under false pretenses." Which is why Karl Rove is in so much trouble. (Apologies to those bored by the repitition; we feel your pain.)

Oh, and isn't it, you know, kind of odd that the gov't isn't investigating who forged those Niger documents? Yes, outing a CIA agent who apparently was under cover but maybe not under a really thick blanket (pick your metaphor) is important and all, but isn't finding out who committed the (likely) more serious crime of defrauding the US Government, the American people, Congress and the rest of the world a priority? We trust our leaders. We're sure they'll investigate the matter just as soon as Pat Roberts finishes investigating how the administration used the intelligence it got from the CIA. Fourth Estate? Hello?