Scarlett, author of the Iraq war dossier, is knighted

[DoYouEverWonder]

30 December 2006

John Scarlett, who took responsibility for the error-ridden dossier that justified the war in Iraq, is knighted in today's New Year's Honours list. The award will enrage peace campaigners, who have accused the veteran spymaster of saving Tony Blair's skin over the flawed case for the invasion.

The news came as a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra yesterday, the 127th to die since the invasion in 2003.

Sir John, the head of MI6, played a key role in the Hutton Inquiry hearings into the death of the weapons expert David Kelly, three years ago. He steadfastly defended the dossier, which contained the notorious claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. And he dismissed accusations he had bowed to pressure to "sex up" the document's conclusions.

As chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, he told the inquiry he had "overall charge and responsibility" for the dossier.

Sir John allowed last-minute changes that had the effect of strengthening its conclusions, leading Lord Hutton to suggest that he could have been "subconsciously influenced" by his political masters.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2112587.ece


So the guy who sexed up the dossier gets knighted and the guy who raised the question rests in his grave.

[LynnTheDem]

1. Of course he was knighted. And george has a Medal of Freedom

for him, I'm sure.

USA and UK; despised by the world.

Must be for their "freedoms".

[Mr Creosote]

2. What serendipitous timing

Scarlett knighted on the day Saddam hangs.

[ck4829]

3. Knighting has joined the Medal of Freedom in the dust bin of irrelevancy

[TexasLawyer]

4. Iwas just about to say the same thing

What a sick, tragic joke!

[MisterP]

5. hope there's no mishap with the sword

it would be ruled a suicide

[daleo]

6. I hope decent Brits call him "Sir Dodgy"

In honor of his dodgy dossier.

[tchunter]

7. unless "knighted" means on trial at the hague i'm uninterested in this

[Vidar]

8. "Benighted" would me more appropriate.

[Elidor]

9. Thus things have ever been

...and I'll spare us all the gloomy supposition that thus they will ever be.

[Nevernose]

10. Hell, Paul McCartney got one.

And while you probably won't find a bigger Beatles fan out there, the fact that Paul McCartney got a knighthood speaks volumes.