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Memos suggest Blair's government exaggerated intelligence about Saddam's alleged WMDs
By Associated Press
06/18/05 - - LONDON (AP) Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has been sharply criticized for publishing an intelligence dossier before the Iraq war claiming that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and could deploy some within 45 minutes.
No WMD were found after the war, and the official Butler inquiry said the intelligence used was drawn in part from ``seriously flawed'' or ``unreliable'' sources. It also said the dossier, which helped Blair win the support of Parliament to join the U.S. in the conflict, had pushed the government's case to the limits of available intelligence and left out vital caveats.
Several of the eight leaked secret Downing Street documents from 2002 indicate concerns about weak intelligence and the difficulty of winning British public support for the war.
A March 8 memo from the overseas and defense secretary to the Cabinet office sketching out the options for dealing with Iraq says:
``Despite sanctions, Iraq continues to develop WMD, although our intelligence is poor. Saddam has used WMD in the past and could do so again if his regime were threatened, though there is no greater threat now than in recent years that Saddam will use WMD.''
A July 21 briefing paper given to British officials preparing for a July 23 meeting with Blair says: ``Time will be required to prepare public opinion in the UK that it is necessary to take military action against Saddam Hussein.''
It says ``an information campaign'' will be needed that gives ``full coverage to the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, including his WMD, and the legal justification for action.''
No one thought that would be easy.
A March 22 memo from Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says: ``But we are still left with a problem of bringing public opinion to accept the imminence of a threat from Iraq.''
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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