Butler acts to prevent PM 'spinning' his report (UK)

[floda]

Lord Butler is to head off any attempt by Tony Blair to "spin" the conclusions of his report on the handling of intelligence before the Iraq war by speaking live before the Prime Minister makes his statement to the House of Commons.

In an attempt to stop Downing Street quoting selectively from the document, Lord Butler of Brockwell plans to seize the initiative by publishing his conclusions before Mr Blair has a chance to comment publicly.

Downing Street is bracing itself for some criticism of way the Government handled the intelligence, but it does not believe the conclusions will be devastating. A No 10 source said the Butler report, to be published on Wednesday, would generate "choppy waters" but nothing more.

"Obviously there are going to be some criticisms that we will have to address," the source said. "The mood is not the same as it was pre-Hutton."

more...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=540136

[Placebo]

1. BLAIR is goin' DOWN!!!

The british people aren't stupid. I hope he gets voted out of office in massive record numbers, the terrorist traitor.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. If only that were true

but all too often we are stupid. Hell, we kept the Tories in power for 18 years.

There are 2 by-elections for MPs on the day following the publication of the report, so he might get embarrassed by the results in those. But they don't call him 'Teflon Tony' for nothing. It's going to take something major to get rid of him at the next general election.

[cal04]

3. Q&A: The Butler intelligence inquiry

The 66-year-old career civil servant has served five prime ministers: Heath, Wilson, Thatcher, Major and Blair.

Why was the inquiry set up?

The Foreign Secretary Jack Straw set up the inquiry on 4 February 2004 following widespread public concern about the reliability of pre-war intelligence which claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons have been found.

The inquiry members are: Lord Butler; Sir John Chilcot, a former civil servant in Northern Ireland; Labour MP Ann Taylor; Conservative MP Michael Mates; and Field Marshal Lord Inge, formerly Chief of the Defence Staff.

The committee met in private but had access to witnesses and documents.

Lord Butler himself has been criticised. Why?

His critics say that as a former top civil servant he is too close to government and will not rock the boat. They point to his too ready acceptance in 1994 of former Tory MP Jonathan Aitken's word about his dealings with a Saudi businessman. In fact Mr Aitken had lied and was later sent to prison for perjury.

His supporters say that his knowledge of government will help him make accurate assessments.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3878025.stm

[Gyre]

4. That's the way to do it

Praise the lord there's somebody out there who's willing to hang it out there to protect "the people" from dissembling politicians. Too bad he isn't American; we ain't got shit in the system.

The only American pols who come to mind as intelligent and hardworking in their representation and protection of the Constitution are Byrd, Waxman, Levin, Pelosi. I'm sure I've left some notables out but the point is we theorectically have a better system than Britain yet we dems have no representatives that could or would make that kind of in-your-face move. After all, it might be career-limiting!

I suggest all of you throw your elected representatives out on their asses, regardless of their party affiliation, in the next and subsequent elections, unless they've truly distinguished themselves in this current fight to preserve democracy and the Constitution. We should be doing much better than we are.

Gyre

[saracat]

5. OOOO! I thought this

was going to be a case of "the butler did it!" Tee! Hee! Hee!