Blair raised 'false expectations' about WMD

[T_i_B]

Dr Brian Jones breaks cover again

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=489752

Tony Blair undermined the global fight against weapons proliferation by raising "false expectations" about Iraq's arsenal and by marginalising intelligence experts, Brian Jones, the key witness of the Hutton inquiry, has warned.

Dr Jones said there was a real danger that the failure to find chemical and biological weapons would lead the public to conclude that Mr Blair's justification for war was "a political sleight of hand".

He said: "There is a great danger that the whole Iraq issue is now muddying that pond. People have been told to look in that direction; 'Here is something to worry about'. Suddenly it appears that there was nothing. Personally, I don't think they will find stockpiles in Iraq and have been given a false expectation that they were there. So people will say WMD in general was never a problem because the whole thing was a political sleight of hand."

Dr Jones, who saw the intelligence assessment that included the 45-minute claim, pointed out for the first time that it merely outlined "possible scenarios" as opposed to any specific threat posed by Iraq.

[T_i_B]

1. Related link

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=489738

While Dr Jones was on holiday, Tony Blair had announced that he would publish a dossier giving unprecedented details of British intelligence on the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's supposedly deadly arsenal.

When he returned from leave, Dr Jones was already thinking about taking early retirement. But such thoughts were quickly put aside when he discovered that his staff had made repeated but unsuccessful attempts to modify sections of the dossier. As he toured his section, staff came up to him. "They said: 'We've been doing nothing much other than this dossier and there are real problems'." He looked at the claims himself and agreed.

He wrote a memo raising concerns about the dossier and mentioning two key claims: the 45-minute claim and another that Iraq was continuing to produce chemical weapons.

Acutely aware that parts of the DIS had been criticised in the Scott inquiry into arms to Iraq, he was determined to ensure that it would not suffer the same fate over the dossier. But his comments failed to influence his boss and the dossier went out. As a result, it lacked the approval of the Government's most senior expert on WMD intelligence.

[annagull]

2. I'll bet you, TIB

TIB, I bet you 5 candy bars your stinking liar goes before our stinking liar! Care for a cross-atlantic bet? Either way, we all win when they are drummed out of office. :-)

[truthspeaker]

3. Hutton's response

Lord Hutton responded by sticking his fingers in his ears and singing "la la la la la".

Isn't this the dossier that Lord Hutton said wasn't exaggerated?

[T_i_B]

4. Hutton concluded

That the matter of whether or not the dossier was sexed up or not was beyond his remit, despite having heard, from Dr Jones amongst others, numerous hours of evidence about that the construction of that dossier in his enquiry.

Hutton did not clear Blair of sexing up any dossiers, he cleared him of any wrongdoing in the outing of Kelly, and even then that judgement is widely seen as being flawed.

[ze_dscherman]

5. Yesterday's Guardian cartoon

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/martinrowson/0,7371,1144166,00.html

Love it so much, I just had to repost it.

[Avonrepus]

6. Lol i saw that yesterday

Very good, wasn't by Steve Bell though, by their other cartoonist. As for Bliar going before Bu$h, I'd say yes but only if Bush wins the next election, i doubt Bliar will be gone before November and if he survives until the next election his party will not lose although they may have their majority cut down somewhat.