Day 14 is Blair's worst yet as focus falls on evidence - UK Independant

[MoonAndSun]

<http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=440008>


Downing Street had been hoping that while the inquiry may be critical about the treatment and naming of Dr David Kelly, on balance it would escape unscathed on the issue of the September Iraq dossier.

But yesterday two witnesses from the Defence Intelligence Staff, one of whom took the unusual step of going public, ensured that the dossier, and Tony Blair's use of it, returned to centre stage. Brian Jones, the MoD's former assistant director, intelligence, with responsibility for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, gave possibly the most significant evidence to date on the dossier.

The very title of it, Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, was for the first time called into question. Dr Jones said although the phrase applied to nuclear bombs, many biological and chemical weapons would "struggle to fit in that category". He said many biological weapons were designed to incapacitate rather than kill; they were lethal mainly in enclosed spaces, such as in the nerve gas attack on the Tokyo underground in 1995. Chemical weapons were even more difficult because they would need to be produced in large quantities to have any effect in battle, Dr Jones said.



when, oh when will the Labour Party grow the spine needed to kick Blair out of #10???

[grytpype]

1. I'm glad to see this issue has resurfaced...

... that bio and chem weapons aren't really weapons of mass destruction. Conventional explosives are much more deadly than the bio or chem weapons developed to date, that's why we still use them!

And the Idiot King couldn't even find those lesser kinds of weapons in Iraq! Much less nuclear weapons.

So much for the cakewalk vs. mushroom cloud scenerio spewed by the Bush Junta.

[hang a left]

2. I was really hoping for the focus

to move from Kelly to the issue at hand. Somebody pick out a casket.

[T_i_B]

3. MoD naming strategy ignored Kelly

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1035559,00.html

Geoff Hoon's special adviser confirmed David Kelly's name to the press despite thinking that the Ministry of Defence scientist had not been informed of the "confirmation strategy", the Hutton inquiry discovered today.

Richard Taylor affirmed Dr Kelly's name to the Financial Times on Wednesday 9 July after a morning meeting - attended by the defence secretary, his permanent private secretary and the MoD head of press - at which it was agreed that a correct guess from a journalist would be confirmed. But under cross-examination Mr Taylor admitted that no-one at that meeting discussed informing Dr Kelly of this advance on the previous day's press statement from the MoD.

In a moment of potential drama, Mr Dingemans read out in open court parts of a document that had been released from the government that very morning.

Despite nearly all of the document being redacted (blacked out), the document - shown for just a few seconds on screen in the court - appeared to be from John Scarlett, chair of the joint intelligence committee (JIC), from September last year, saying that "ownership" of the dossier belonged to No 10.If correct, this would appear to contradict the evidence of at least Mr Scarlett himself, and Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell and Mr Hoon, that the JIC had ownership.

[Spentastic]

4. ****** hell

GAME OVER

[TolstoyAndy]

5. When will they get spine?

> when, oh when will the Labour Party grow the spine
> needed to kick Blair out of #10???

Right after any Dem but Waxman stands up.