In the 2001 leadership contest, Norman Tebbit described Duncan Smith as "a remarkably normal family man with children" – a perfectly innocent statement of fact, Tebbit insisted.
A week later, Messrs Hague and Lilley claimed to be mystified by how this innocent statement of what should have been obvious had been seized on as if it were some betrayal of the Thatcherite cause.
Earning a place in history, his interpreter also turned "I left the United States this morning" into "I left the United States, never to return"; according to Time magazine, even the innocent statement that Carter was happy to be in Poland became the claim that "he was happy to grasp at Poland's private parts".
Admissions, confessions, even seemingly innocent, isolated statements -- statements that defendants think make them appear innocent -- are no less (and maybe even more than) DNA evidence, a prosecutor's most potent weapon in a criminal case; as evidence of guilt goes, they are the Holy Grail.
"I am totally innocent," the statement said.
JoAnne Kennedy, the chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy, said that other instances of innocent sabotage involve statements like "they train pit bulls and have five grandchildren that they like to take care of".
"Coalition forces regret the loss of any innocent life," the statement said.
"Those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets, and endangering the lives of innocent children," the statement said.
"The suspects resisted arrest and soon thereafter a gunfight broke out, injuring dozens of suspected militants, policemen and innocent bystanders," the statement said, adding that the Interior Ministry will investigate the episode.
"MINUSMA is outraged at the cowardice of attackers who also targeted innocent civilians," the statement read.
