J-10
07-12-2004, 12:35 PM
Blair Faces Judgment on Iraq Intelligence
Prime Minister Tony Blair Faces Another Judgment on Britain's Prewar Iraq Intelligence
The Associated Press
LONDON July 12, 2004 — Prime Minister Tony Blair, no longer confident that weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq, now faces a potentially damning report on Britain's prewar intelligence.
As it built a case for military action, Blair's government insisted Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons; could deploy them within 45 minutes; and was trying to buy uranium in Africa to develop nuclear weapons assertions that appear to have collapsed.
A scathing U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded last week that most of the CIA's claims on Saddam's alleged arsenal were overstated or unsupported. The committee chairman, noting the United States was not alone in its beliefs, called it a "global intelligence failure."
On Wednesday, retired civil service chief Lord Butler will return his verdict on the quality of British intelligence. A copy of the report goes to Blair on Tuesday.
The government hopes the report the fourth to delve into Britain's case for war will end a controversy that has eroded Blair's popularity and credibility. It is also likely to have lasting implications for how intelligence is gathered, analyzed and used by Britain.
Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Blair was adamant that Saddam had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
"I am in no doubt that the threat is serious and current, that he has made progress on WMD, and that he has to be stopped," Blair wrote in the foreword to an intelligence dossier, published by the government in September 2002.
However, a week ago, Blair said: "I have to accept that we have not found them, that we may not find them."
Three previous inquiries have cleared Blair's government of acting dishonestly or misusing the intelligence. Nevertheless, concerns of political interference linger, as do concerns about the relationship between the government and its spy agencies.
Former chief of Defense Intelligence Sir John Walker said Monday that intelligence normally guided government policy.
But ahead of the war, "it seems to me that policy was driving intelligence and that is an extremely dangerous thing to do as a nation-state," Walker told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. Walker left the Ministry of Defense in 1995, two years before Blair's Labour Party took office.
abcnews (http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040712_1291.html)
Prime Minister Tony Blair Faces Another Judgment on Britain's Prewar Iraq Intelligence
The Associated Press
LONDON July 12, 2004 — Prime Minister Tony Blair, no longer confident that weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq, now faces a potentially damning report on Britain's prewar intelligence.
As it built a case for military action, Blair's government insisted Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons; could deploy them within 45 minutes; and was trying to buy uranium in Africa to develop nuclear weapons assertions that appear to have collapsed.
A scathing U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded last week that most of the CIA's claims on Saddam's alleged arsenal were overstated or unsupported. The committee chairman, noting the United States was not alone in its beliefs, called it a "global intelligence failure."
On Wednesday, retired civil service chief Lord Butler will return his verdict on the quality of British intelligence. A copy of the report goes to Blair on Tuesday.
The government hopes the report the fourth to delve into Britain's case for war will end a controversy that has eroded Blair's popularity and credibility. It is also likely to have lasting implications for how intelligence is gathered, analyzed and used by Britain.
Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Blair was adamant that Saddam had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
"I am in no doubt that the threat is serious and current, that he has made progress on WMD, and that he has to be stopped," Blair wrote in the foreword to an intelligence dossier, published by the government in September 2002.
However, a week ago, Blair said: "I have to accept that we have not found them, that we may not find them."
Three previous inquiries have cleared Blair's government of acting dishonestly or misusing the intelligence. Nevertheless, concerns of political interference linger, as do concerns about the relationship between the government and its spy agencies.
Former chief of Defense Intelligence Sir John Walker said Monday that intelligence normally guided government policy.
But ahead of the war, "it seems to me that policy was driving intelligence and that is an extremely dangerous thing to do as a nation-state," Walker told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. Walker left the Ministry of Defense in 1995, two years before Blair's Labour Party took office.
abcnews (http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040712_1291.html)