International   

Iraqi weapons dossier was flawed, says U.K.

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON JUNE 8. After weeks of heated denials, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair's office has admitted that a dossier it put out on Saddam Hussein's arms capability in February to justify an attack on Iraq was flawed and did not meet the "required standards of accuracy''.

Mr. Blair's chief of communications, Alastair Campbell, has also assured heads of Britain's intelligence agencies that in future far greater care would be taken in dealing with anything that might "impact on their reputation or their work''. This follows accusations from the intelligence community that the Government manipulated reports from MI5 and MI6 to bolster its case against Mr. Hussein regime, thus undermining their credibility .

Mr. Campbell, who virtually runs the Prime Minister's Office, was accused of putting pressure on intelligence officials to "sex-up'' their reports, and the February dossier — derisively dubbed the "dodgy dossier'' — was put together by a special unit that worked under his direct supervision. There was a furore when it emerged that parts of the dossier were lifted from an old Ph.D. thesis raising doubts about the Government's claims over the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

On Sunday, Mr. Campbell was quoted as saying that those who prepared the dossier had been told that "they had not met the required standards of accuracy''. He was also reported to have spoken personally and written to the intelligence chiefs regretting what had happened and assuring greater care in future.

The move, far from dampening the row, fuelled calls for an independent judicial inquiry into the government's handling of intelligence reports. "We don't need a private apology from Alastair Campbell.

What we need is a full independent inquiry into the way in which Downing Street has presented intelligence reports on Iraq over the past few months,'' a Tory spokesman said amid more allegations of how intelligence services were subjected to "unusual demands'' to hype the danger from the Mr. Hussein regime.

Meanwhile, Mr. Blair and the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, are among the high-profile government figures to be summoned before Parliament's cross-party foreign affairs committee which is inquiring into allegations of abuse of intelligence.

Mr. Blair is also expected to depose before the Intelligence and Security Committee which is to launch a separate investigation.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Militant outfits launch joint attack
• Musharraf to remain as Army chief
• Iraqi weapons dossier was flawed, says U.K.
• U.N. experts inspect Iraqi nuclear site
• Suu Kyi: U.N. mission hangs in balance
• Robots to probe for life on Mars
• SARS subsides in China, Hong Kong
• Congo town remains tense
• Russia sends cargo ship to ISS
• Pakistan is poppy-free: U.N.
• Resolution on making Hindi official language of U.N.
• Coup attempt in Mauritania
• Militants, a defence line for Pak.: Salahuddin
• Pak. court sets free film actress

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu