The statement amounted to the transmission of a lethal order.
What this statement amounted to, according to Nesson, was "a threat".
He said that the autumn statement amounted to an "emergency budget" because it was so extensive.
He was right, of course, but these days that statement amounts to little more than a backhanded compliment.
But other government sources said the increase in the fees to which the FCO referred in its statement amounted to a bribe.
To Romney, though, the statement amounted to apologising for America and its values, and he sought to pin the blame on the entire Obama administration.
Updated at 1.36pm GMT 1.25pm GMT Andy Burnham Photograph: /BBC Parliament Responding for Labour, Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, says Lamb's statement amounts to a "humiliating U-turn".
The statement, amounting to Ribot's "law" of regression (or progressive destruction) of memory, enjoyed a considerable vogue and is not without contemporary influence.
Yet his statement, amounting to an admission that the United States may have committed war crimes, opens the door to an unpredictable train of legal and political consequences.
It estimates that the support package put together by George Osborne and announced in last year's autumn statement amounts to extra funding of £3.3bn a year by 2020.
