(Tony Blair's Communications Chief) Alastair Campbell had Iraq dossier changed to fit US claims

[sabra]

Source: Guardian UK

'WMD in a year' allegation halved original timescale after compilers told to compare contents with Bush speech


Fresh evidence has emerged that Tony Blair's discredited Iraqi arms dossier was "sexed up" on the instructions of Alastair Campbell, his communications chief, to fit with claims from the US administration that were known to be false.

The pre-invasion dossier's worst-case estimate of how long it would take Iraq to acquire a nuclear weapon was shortened in response to a George Bush speech.

As Campbell prepares to appear before the Iraq inquiry on Tuesday, new evidence reveals the extent to which – on his instructions – those drafting the notorious dossier colluded with the US administration to make exaggerated claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

In a keynote speech to the UN on 12 September 2002, Bush claimed: "Should Iraq acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year." This contradicted the first draft of the British dossier, drawn up two days earlier, which stated that it would take "at least two years" for Iraq to get the bomb.

The Cabinet Office has disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act that those who drafted the dossier were immediately asked to compare British claims against the US president's speech. The next day the dossier's timescale was halved to claim Iraq could get the bomb in a year.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/10/alastair-campbell-iraq-dossier-inquiry

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[ixion]

2. there have been dozens of such stories

and yet still no investigation.

*sigh*

[blm]

5. This is the biggest problem for the country, and powerful Dems let it continue, as they always have

and will always do for their fascist masters, also known as the BFEE.

[zazen]

3. _In the Loop_ was supposedly based on Alastair Campbell, right?

This makes the last scene of the film even more powerful.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Yeah, he's the one character in it specifically based on a real person

in 'In the Loop', and also 'The Thick of It', the TV series (Malcolm Tucker is the only character that appears in both, I believe; 'The Thick of It' has been about general party political stuff, rather than a specific incident).

[blm]

4. Can we have the Downing Street Memos Inquiry now? Only 9 senators would join Kerry's call for

an inquiry back in 2005. Unfortunately, Obama, Biden and Clinton were not three of the senators interested. Of the three, I'd bet only Biden has changed his mind.

[swilton]

7. This is old news

That's why Campbell was forced to resign from Blair's cabinet.

[T_i_B]

11. Campbell was never a member of the cabinet

He's never even been elected to anything.

He's just a behind the scenes spin doctor who was given far, far too much power by Tony Blair.

[Prometheus Bound]

13. I was wondering where blantant liars and warmongers like that come from so I went to Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Campbell
- started his career writing for a porno magazine
- alcoholic - quit drinking
- treated for depression
- worked for the Daily Mirror
- political editor of Today, a tabloid
- became Blair spokesman


Lies, damned lies and Mr Campbell
By Daily Mail Comment
Last updated at 11:59 PM on 12th January 2010

Quite the most striking aspect of Alastair Campbell's evidence to the Iraq War inquiry is that most of it was untrue. Blatantly, breathtakingly untrue.

Take his claim that he was not making the case for war when he produced his dossier on Saddam Hussein's (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction.

Oh, yes you were, Mr Campbell. That was the whole point of the exercise.

Or take his assertion: 'I don't think we were ever saying, "look, Saddam has got these weapons and can whack them off to Cyprus in 45 minutes".'

Isn't that precisely what he was saying? Or if it wasn't, why didn't he set the record straight when the whole country 'misinterpreted' him?

Or, again, take his declaration to the inquiry: 'You seem to be wanting me to say that Tony Blair signed up to say, regardless of the facts, regardless of WMD, we are just going to get rid of the guy. It wasn't like that.'

Yes, it was. It was exactly like that - as Mr Blair himself admitted on TV last month when he said he would have thought it right to remove Saddam, even if he'd known he possessed no WMD.

Equally incredible was Mr Campbell's claim that Mr Blair still hoped to avoid war, right until the eve of the invasion in March 2003.

How does that square with the string of secret letters, disclosed by Mr Campbell yesterday, which the former prime minister wrote to George Bush in 2002, committing Britain to the conflict? Or with former Washington ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer's evidence that Blair and Bush may have 'signed in blood' an agreement on regime change in Iraq as early as April that year?

Whatever Mr Campbell was asked, his response was the same: lie, lie and lie.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1242761/Lies-damned-lies-Alastair-Campbell.html#ixzz0cSkOsEAo

[goforit]

8. And how many lives were lost in their pretend War games??? Thanks A-holes!

[FiveGoodMen]

9. I post here to wish death...

upon those who did this awful thing.

And upon those who continue to cover it up.

No sarcasm whatsoever.

[Nihil]

10. Seconded but also with a wish for peace to a martyr ...

... murdered by the combined US & UK war lust.

Dr. David Kelly RIP

[No Elephants]

12. Horrifying. Everything about this thread is horrifying, including that only a few Senators joined

Kerry in wanting to investigate the Downing Street memos.