Of course we already knew that. It was a very interesting interview. Wolf Blitzer even mentioned the Downing Street Memos.
Here is part of transcript and a link:
CNN transcript with Carne RossBLITZER: You're familiar with the so-called Downing Street memo that was written in July...
ROSS: Yes.
BLITZER: ... Of 2002 by Sir David Manning. He was then a foreign policy adviser to the prime minister. He's now the British ambassador here in Washington.
ROSS: Yes.
BLITZER: Among other things, that memo, which was strictly classified, but was later revealed, said this: "Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD, but the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. "The memo goes on to say: "The NSC had no patience with the U.N. route, no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath of military action."
Give us the context of this memo, because it's caused, as you well know over these years, a huge stir, especially the line that intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.
ROSS: Well, I think that confirms what I'm saying.
It's pretty clear the Bush and the Blair governments took a decision to go to war and then tried to use the weapons inspection route and the claims of Iraqi WMD as a justification after the fact when, in fact, the intelligence and the facts of WMD did not justify that course. That was not the real reason they went to war.
Carne Ross is a former British diplomat who has written a tell-all called the Independent Diplomat.
Here's more about the book and about Ross.
Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq warThe Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, "at no time did HMG assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests."
Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been "effectively contained".
He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. "I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed)," he said.
Today on CNN he mentioned that David Kelly had paid a price because he, Ross, did not speak out. To his credit he did sound like that haunted him.
Mr Ross said in late 2002 that he "discussed this at some length with David Kelly", the weapons expert who a year later committed suicide when he was named as the source of a BBC report saying Downing Street had "sexed up" the WMD claims in a dossier. The Butler inquiry cleared Mr Blair and Downing Street of "sexing up" the dossier, but the publication of the Carne Ross evidence will cast fresh doubts on its findings.
In the article one senior diplomat said:
"There was blood on the carpet over this.
I would like to add there is blood all over the carpets of both countries. Too many in very high levels here knew and did not speak out. By their silence they probably convinced many to go along because they trusted those in prominent positions.
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