Blair under fire on Iraq claims

[emad]

BBC News

Tony Blair has said he apologises for mistakes in pre-war intelligence about Iraq's weapons but has angrily rebutted claims he misrepresented it.

In the Commons, Conservative leader Michael Howard repeatedly urged Mr Blair to say sorry for misrepresenting the intelligence to the public.

And Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy accused him of waging an illegal war.

Mr Blair accused the Tories of "playing politics" and said the Lib Dems would have left Saddam Hussein in power.
More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3738542.stm

[emad]

1. The 45-minute claim was false - The Independent

After two years, one war and at least 16,000 deaths, the Government finally admits it
By Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent
13 October 2004


Tony Blair's claim that Iraq was within 45 minutes of launching weapons of mass destruction ­ a central plank of his case for war ­ fell apart yesterday as the Foreign Secretary formally withdrew the infamous claim and revealed MI6 had abandoned its source for the bogus intelligence.

In a humiliating climbdown, Jack Straw told MPs in a special Commons statement that MI6 has severed ties with the sources for both the 45-minute claim and intelligence that Saddam Hussein had produced a biological weapons agent in 2000.

The decision to lay to rest the most notorious intelligence claim in the case for war increased pressure from Labour and opposition MPs for the Prime Minister to make a full personal apology for the decision to invade Iraq "on a false premise".

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said: "The withdrawal of the 45-minute claim drives a horse and cart through government credibility."

More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=571592

[emad]

2. How a sensational claim exploded in the face of the Government

The Independent
By Anne Penketh Diplomatic Editor
13 October 2004


The most astonishing thing about the 45-minute claim is that before it was withdrawn yesterday by the Government for being wrong, it had caused one death, at least one inquiry and the decapitation of the BBC.

The Government set out to prove in its September 2002 dossier that the weapons of mass destruction held by Saddam Hussein posed a risk to the British people, and to use that argument as a justification for war. So the dossier warned that extended-range Iraqi Scud missiles were capable of reaching "Cyprus, eastern Turkey, Tehran and Israel".

Add to the mix, the affirmation in the dossier's foreword by Tony Blair that Saddam's military planning "allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them" and the headlines in the tabloids wereguaranteed. On the day of the report's publication, 24 September 2002, the Evening Standard headline screamed: "45 minutes from attack".

Other newspapers and commentators picked up on the claim that Saddam's weapons could reach British military bases in Cyprus, as well as the alarming affirmation that Iraq had attempted to procure "significant quantities" of uranium from an African country. But otherwise, as the Butler report on the intelligence that led to the war points out, "when first published, it was regarded as cautious, and even dull".

More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=571584

[Briar]

3. The intelligence wasn't wrong

his distortion of it was. No matter how often he asserts that he didn't misrepresent what he read, he can't change the facts.

The tragedy is that the UK constitution gives us no means of calling him to book for his lies. With a docile and loyal parliamentary majority, and without an effective parliamentary opposition, a dishonest charlatan like Blair can hang on to office for as long as he likes (and no, the electorate won't dump him - they don't want Howard).

[D-Notice]

5. Best hope:

We vote tactically for the Lib Dems & end up with a coalition

[leftchick]

4. OMG! Check this out!!.....

<After a review of intelligence, the spy agency MI6 had ruled the source of the claim, an Iraqi military officer in western Iraq, was unreliable. MI6 had been directed to the source by the Iraqi National Accord, an opposition group linked with Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.>

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-10-13-blair-war_x.htm

I heard on BBC america that it was Allawi HIMSELF that was the source of the 45 minute claim!!! This is OUTRAGEOUS!!!

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. BBC in the UK said Allawi was the intermediary

since he was living in the UK, there's no way he could have claimed to know the '45 minutes' himself. He would have to say it came from someone in the Iraqi government or military.

[emad]

7. "An Iraqi military officer in western Iraq": could it be:

"Comical Ali"??????????????

[sweetheart]

8. Less than forthcoming, or brazen liar

Frankly, i'd have more trust in blair if he came clean and told us
he lied. To be so deluded by mistakes, is to deny responsibility
and it really sickens me that he is in charge, but not responsible.

He is responsible for the whole executive. That he's dumped
responsibility on other parties like the BBC and such.... is really
shameful. Bliar has done everything to subert trust in government,
and i find it ultimately cynical of that liar, and howard the liar,
to come out pretending that it is not they themselves responsible
for public distrust of LIARS and government bliars.