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Blair testify government sexed up dossier { August 24 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/08/24/international0226EDT0429.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/08/24/international0226EDT0429.DTL
Blair to testify about report that his government 'sexed up' Iraq arms dossier
THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, August 24, 2003
©2003 Associated Press
(08-24) 23:26 PDT LONDON (AP) --
Prime Minister Tony Blair faces questions this week about his case against Iraq, and the way his government fought back against charges that it knowingly exaggerated the threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
Blair and two other top officials will testify at a judicial inquiry that is focusing on the death of David Kelly, 59, a widely respected weapons expert who committed suicide after he was identified as a possible source of a British Broadcasting Corp. report questioning the integrity of the government's case.
The trail of circumstances leads back to a key claim that Blair's government had made in an intelligence dossier published on Sept. 24 -- that Saddam Hussein's forces could deploy some chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes.
The BBC report cited an unidentified source as saying Blair's office overruled intelligence advice when it included the claim in the dossier. Kelly denied he was the report's source, but after he died the BBC said he was.
The publication of the dossier, which was later quoted by President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell in their own indictments of Iraq, was a key moment in the build up to war.
Lord Hutton, the senior appeals judge directing the inquiry, has called Sir John Scarlett, chairman of Britain's secretive Joint Intelligence Committee, to testify on Tuesday. Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon is to testify on Wednesday, and Blair on Thursday.
The BBC's allegations -- and the high-profile inquiry into Kelly's death -- pose the worst crisis for Blair in his six years in power. The government is suffering its first sustained slump in popularity and polls indicate that a majority of people in Britain question its credibility.
The failure of the coalition to find stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in Iraq since the war ended has seemed more damaging to Blair than to Bush, who relied heavily on Blair as his top coalition partner.
Blair has denied the accuracy of the May 29 BBC report by correspondent Andrew Gilligan, which quoted a then-unidentified official as saying the government had "sexed up" the September dossier about Iraq's weapons, and had overruled the skepticism of intelligence specialists about the 45-minute claim.
Hoon in particular is likely to be questioned about steps that his ministry took to publicly identify Kelly as a possible source for the BBC report, his decision to allow the Foreign Affairs Committee to question Kelly, and Hoon's demand that the committee ask Kelly only about the BBC report, not about Iraqi weapons or the preparation of the dossier.
Blair has said he will take full responsibility if the inquiry finds his government contributed to Kelly's suicide. However, several British newspapers have predicted that Hoon is now seen as the likely fall guy, if the inquiry casts doubt on the government's behavior.
During the first eight days of the inquiry, evidence has emerged that Kelly and some members of the British intelligence community expressed concern about language being used in the dossier, and the fact that the 45-minute warning was based on a single anonymous source in Iraq.
The inquiry also saw an e-mail that Jonathan Powell, Blair's chief of staff, wrote about a late draft of the dossier, saying: "We will need to make it clear in launching the document that we do not claim that we have evidence that (Saddam) is an imminent threat."
Evidence has emerged that Kelly was rattled when he became the center of the bitter feud between the government and the BBC over Gilligan's report.
The Ministry of Defense had warned Kelly that he could face disciplinary action. Kelly also had complained about his salary and his employment status.
Over the weekend, 9,000 pages of documents from the inquiry were published on its Internet site, including private e-mails and memos from the heart of Blair's government.
They showed that Blair and his top advisers had discussed whether to identify Kelly, and worried about what would happen to him if they did. Notes from one such meeting said: "If Dr. K name becomes public will government be criticized for putting him under `wider pressure?"'
The newly released documents also included a complaint from Kelly's widow, Janice, alleging that some of Blair's advisers had privately mocked her late husband after his death in an effort to discredit him.
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On the Net: www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/
©2003 Associated Press
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