45-minute WMD claim 'came from an Iraqi taxi driver'

[Merryweather]

Source: The Guardian

An Iraqi taxi driver was the source of the discredited claim that Saddam Hussein could unleash weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, a Tory MP claimed today.

Adam Holloway, a defence specialist, said MI6 obtained the information indirectly from a taxi driver who had overheard two Iraqi military commanders talking about Saddam's weapons.

The 45-minute claim was a key feature of the dossier about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that was released by Tony Blair in September 2002. Blair published the information to bolster public support for war.

After the war the dossier became hugely controversial when it became clear that some of the information it contained was not true. An inquiry headed by Lord Butler into the use of intelligence in the run-up to the war revealed that MI6 had subsequently accepted that some of its Iraqi sources were unreliable, but his report did not identify who they were.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/08/45-minutes-wmd-taxi-driver

---

I'm speechless. I honestly don't know what to say, except that it is absolutely fucking unbelievable that thousands of people have died for a lie based on what a taxi driver said.

Truth will out, as they say. The sad thing is, even though Britain is way ahead of the US in actually opening an inquiry into the illegal Iraq war, fuck all will come of it. Blair, together with Bush and Cheney, will live out his days in comfort as a rich free man, instead of rotting in a jail cell where he belongs. That makes me angrier than I could ever express.

[LynnTheDem]

1. The illegal invasion of Iraq was based on totally proven at the time

to be 100% utter LIES.

That's a fact.

And a whole lot of us still have the pre-illegal-invasion posts to prove it.

The entire world knew it was all bullshit. That's why the vast majority of the world's population OPPOSED the illegal invasion of Iraq.

Even in America the majority opposed bush & bliar's illegal invasion.


FACTS.

[rurallib]

2. the whole Bush admin and now the repug party

seems to have sprung from the mind of a hollywood screen writer. It all seems like a fiction with stupidity beyond belief.
Had it been a movie, then I believe the screen writer would have had the comments of an Iraqi taxi driver used to start an illegal war.

[Poll_Blind]

3. Same here. Speechless. n/t

PB

[brentspeak]

4. Now we know why Thomas Friedman was so gung-ho on the war n/t

[IndianaGreen]

5. Now MP claims 'intelligence' on WMDs came from the back of a taxi

Source: Daily Mail (UK)

Was Iraqi cabbie the source of the dodgy dossier?

Now MP claims 'intelligence' on WMDs came from the back of a taxi

By Tim Shipman
Last updated at 2:22 AM on 08th December 2009

Gossip from an Iraqi taxi driver was a key source for Tony Blair's 'dodgy dossier'.

A report by a respected MP claims that the unlikely secret agent was one of MI6's top sources when it was building a case to justify the invasion.

He provided the information that Saddam Hussein could fire chemical weapons at British targets within 45 minutes.

The revelation comes as the death toll of British troops in Afghanistan reaches 100 this year alone following the shooting of a member of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment in a gun battle with the Taliban.

Senior intelligence officials have told the MP that the cabbie falsely claimed Saddam Hussein had acquired long-range missiles after listening to Iraqi commanders chatting in his taxi two years before the invasion.

The driver, who worked near Iraq's border with Jordan, was allegedly the 'sub-source' of a senior Iraqi military officer who told MI6 that Saddam had battlefield chemical weapons ready to deploy at 45 minutes' notice.

The revelations come in a report on the Iraq War by Tory MP Adam Holloway, due to be published by the think-tank First Defence.

Mr Holloway, a former Grenadier Guardsman, has close links to intelligence officials.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233995/Was-Iraqi-cabbie-source-dodgy-dossier-MPs-report-claims-intelligence-Saddams-WMDs-came-taxi.html#ixzz0Z44Z0EGN

[shadowknows69]

6. I didn't do it.

[struggle4progress]

9. But you can testify that the best way, to find out anything, is to ask a cabbie, right?

Guy hails a taxi at Boston's Logan airport. Gets in. Says "I'm so glad to be here. I've heard this is a great city when you want to get scrod. Where can I get scrod?" Cabbie looks at him in the mirror. Says "Mister, I've been driving for thirty years. But this is the first time I've heard that question asked in the past pluperfect."

[mbperrin]

7. Always a relief to know that billions spent on "intelligence" is used

carefully.

Wait....

[grytpype]

8. Just when I think I've heard everything....

[Arctic Dave]

10. Somebody thought "Conspiracy Theory" was a documentary.

[RealityBasedMN]

11. Unbelievable!!!

[Art_from_Ark]

12. The "intelligence" on WMDs

came from the receipts that Rumsfeld et al still kept from their days in the Reagan administration.

[Lasher]

13. Next we'll learn Nancy's astrologer was involved.

The satire writes itself.

[LeftishBrit]

14. While the Daily Hate-Mail is untrustworthy, more reliable sources are reporting the same.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/08/45-minutes-wmd-taxi-driver

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6948283.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084

It is scary what sort of evidence politicians will use when they want their own way; especially when their own way is to have a war.

[LynnTheDem]

15. Especially when their own kids aren't fighting & dying in that war.

Funny how that works.

[yellowcanine]

16. "MI6 obtained the information indirectly from a taxi driver who had overheard two Iraqi military"

Alrighty then. That is only three or four degrees of separation so what's the problem?

Iraqi commanders - taxi driver - someone else - MI6 - Tony Blair

[damntexdem]

17. Well, after all, taxi drivers are experts at claiming what will take 45 minutes.

Of course, they're not all so good at delivering on the claims. ;-)

[Solly Mack]

18. k/r