Butler Report on WMD was Watered Down to Protect Blair

[annxburns]

Hope this hasn't been posted yet. If dupe, please lock ...

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/
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Butler Report on WMD was watered down to protect Blair
By Melissa Kite and Patrick Hennessy
(Filed: 18/07/2004)

Downing Street secured vital changes to the Butler Report before its publication, watering down an explicit criticism of Tony Blair and the way he made the case for war in the House of Commons.

Lord Butler: 'not backing Blair'
The Telegraph has established that the disagreement between No 10 and Lord Butler's inquiry team centred on a passage in an original draft of the report about Mr Blair's statement to MPs in September 2002. The original passage drew a much clearer contrast than the final version of the Butler Report between the strong case for war made by Mr Blair and the weakness of the intelligence the Prime Minister received about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

The changes secured by No 10 diluted the criticism of Mr Blair and helped Downing Street to mount its main defence - that the report showed that the Prime Minister was acting in good faith.

A member of Lord Butler's team has disclosed to The Telegraph that changes were made at the behest of No 10. However, the inquiry member also revealed that on the day he published his report, Lord Butler was preparing publicly to distance himself from Mr Blair if asked at his only press conference whether the PM should resign.

[goforit]

1. Hmmmm........what will happen next?........nothing?

[Terry_M]

2. Now why would you say that?

A committee will be formed to appoint a committee to look into the matter. The purely unbiased results will be announced sometime after the next election...

[rooboy]

3. Of course, the committee will be headed by someone 'sound'... n/t

[Raster]

6. it's great to see other countries also practicing some sort of ....

... bullshit democracy.</partialsarcasm>

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Here's a direct link to the story

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/nbut18.xml

[D-Notice]

5. OK then...

Hands up if you're shocked by this?

[Redleg]

7. Watered down like the Senate report was here.

Politics is everything, truth comes second or third.