Blair Is Cleared of Exaggerating Iraq Threat

[ozymandius]

LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair's government did not deliberately ``sex up'' a dossier on Iraqi weapons by including a disputed claim about chemical and biological weapons, a parliamentary committee reported Thursday.

But the Intelligence and Security Committee criticized the government's presentation of the claim that Iraq was prepared to launch chemical and biological weapons on 45 minutes' notice.

The committee, drawn from both houses of Parliament, also was critical of Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon and said his ministry had been ``unhelpful and potentially misleading'' by initially failing to disclose that some of its staff expressed concerns about the dossier.

``We are disturbed that after the first evidence session (before the committee), which did not cover all the concerns released by the intelligence staff, the defense secretary decided against giving instructions for a letter to be written to us outlining the concerns,'' the report said.

story

[Chico Man]

1. Peace is war...

If that is not sexing up, I don't know what is.

BS

[screembloodymurder]

2. Sounds like the groundwork for a pardon

Blair resigns w/ immunity for war crimes.

[T_i_B]

3. Whitewash

Which is what youi would expect from a comitte that is stuffed full of Blair lackeys and lickspittles.

Mind you, even then they still manage to land (buf)Hoon in the shit.

The only way Blair will stop people crowing about his lies on Iraq is to resign. It's for your own good, and the good of your party that you go ASAP Tony.

[saigon68]

11. stuffed full of Blair lackeys and lickspittles.

I call them Lap Dogs same thing.

When your Master strokes your head--- you lick the back of his hand.

[monobrau]

4. Not by the people

Bring on the next election. We'll see if he's "clear".

[mkregel]

6. Wait...cant pariament give him a vote of "no confidence"

and he would be sent out on his ass immidiately?

[T_i_B]

9. But they won't

As Blair's party has a landslide majority and the vast majority of those are Blairite brownosing sycophants who, if Blair were to personally shit on their heads claim it was diamonds.

[grytpype]

5. This is a whitewash. Just wait for the Hutton inquiry report.

[leftchick]

7. Wow, is this the same report that yahoo has?

talk about a totally different take on the situation, here is their headline..."Critical Report Lands Blair in New Iraq Trouble"

here is the link...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030911/wl_nm/iraq_britain_dc&cid=574&ncid=1480

[MaineDem]

8. My thought exactly

I was about to post almost the same question.

I'm confused.

[Dr Fate]

10. Our current congress refuses to investigate Bush...

...that does not mean he has not done anything wrong...

Off the hook does not mean that a wrong never happened...

[Briar]

12. 2+2 = 3

This isn't even borne out by the report itself. Read its opaque paragraphs and you will find they say the 45 minutes claim shouldn't have been included, that the context was stripped away from claims so that they sounded more alarming than they were, that clauses indicating that Saddam did not have nukes (the only real WMD anyway) were removed. In their rush to exonerate Blair and Campbell and blame Gilligan they ignore their own evidence!

Among other interesting revelations - Kelly told them he may have used the term "sexed up" and British intelligence (living up to its name as it does not in the dossier itself) warned Blair that an Iraqi war would increase not decrease the risk of terrorism.

For a good analysis of what was really going on, and the politicisation of the upper ranks of the intelligence community, you might like to read this informed and important article:

"There is a dark cabal around Blair

If post-Hutton wounds are to heal, then John Scarlett must go"

Richard Norton-Taylor
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1039694,00.html

[Code_Name_D]

13. NPR reported on this.

They spun the report even further, completly clearing Blare and other government offichals of "sexing up" the doseare. This coming from a news agency that hasn't reported about the investigations at all. Sudenly, he is cleared of wrong doing?

[Nottingham]

14. Unbelievable England is not Free! Its under a dictatorship!

:bounce:

[TryingToWarnYou]

15. I'm literally stunned....

How can they say that there was no deception when there were claims made that have been shown to be false?

They managed to find the ways to exaggerate the claims..it's too bad that they did not manage to find a way to clearly explain the "context" of the 45 minute claim. Of course, had they done this, it would have not had the same impact as it did. They know goddamn well that they used emotive and suggestive words and terms to make the threat seem more than it was. That is, in fact, dishonest.

All in all though, this is really just the government saying that the government didn't lie. :eyes:

[The Stranger]

16. I knew this would happen.

They huff and they puff, but they just can't seem to blow the house down.