Blair's office "substantially" altered Iraq dossier, British probe hears

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030818/wl_mideast_afp/britain_iraq_inquiry&cid=1514&ncid=1480

LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office authorized a "substantial rewrite" of the government's controversial dossier on Iraq, an inquiry into the apparent suicide of weapons expert David Kelly heard.

Kelly's death is the subject of a parliamentary inquiry, amid allegations -- reportedly based on the weapons scientist's evidence -- that the Blair administration exaggerated the case for war on Iraq.

An email from Blair's director of communications Alastair Campbell to chief-of-staff Jonathan Powell, dated September 5, disclosed that the dossier was being substantially rewritten ahead of its publication on September 24.

Campbell, 46, is the man accused by BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan of personally beefing up Downing Street's controversial dossier on Iraq, aimed at justifying the case for military action ahead of the March war.

more

[Benhurst]

1. It's time for the little git to go

and take his gang of thugs with him.

[Kellanved]

9. Please don't call them that

I can't neither understand Blair nor his advisors and I despise his warmongering, but he is still one of the liberal European leaders (unlike Chirac).

Always remember: he and his staff go along with the probe, answer questions etc. , This might lead to the truth.

The alternative would be far worse - I wouldn't like to see a Tory Gouvernment.

[LivingInTheBubble]

16. Liberal?

He doesnt seem particularly liberal so far!

I would rather dump him and give a real labour person a go at PM.

I'll be voting liberal democrats. I've had enough of this poodle.

[kimchi]

2. If you wait long enough, the truth comes out.

Too bad most people refuse to hear it.

[yellowcanine]

3. Campbell has som "splainen" to do

Seems that Alistair Campbell - and maybe Tony Blair - has some "splainin" to do. So just how is it that the BBC got the story wrong?

[Rose Siding]

4. I wish I had the transcripts

of Campbell's testimony before that board of inquiry a few weeks ago, before Kelly died.

The whole parts of what I saw (c-span) screamed "no substantial changes"- That was the whole tone of everything he said.

[T_i_B]

15. Campbell is in the Hutton dock today.

Methinks that sparks will fly. It will not be a pretty sight whichever way you look at it.

[yellowcanine]

5. Tony may be toast

Who has their finger on what is going on in Britain? Seems to me that if Labour thinks that Tony is going to drag the party to defeat at the hands of the Tories they will dump him. Can the Labour backbenchers trigger a no-confidence vote in Parliment?

[legin]

6. We may Know what needs doing but do they ?

My local MP is a junior cabinet minister, and he is a war mongering little prick. In the run up to the attack on Iraq, he and his fellow local MP's decided to write a weekly column in the weekly local paper saying what a wonderful idea attacking Iraq is. This pissed off a few people including some senior local labour party people.

Very recently this MP came up for reselection to represent my area. Ordinarily he would be an automatic selection but this year the local party made he fight for reselection. The logical thing to do was dump the guy, but naturally he sailed through the reselection process.

He is a bit more humble, probably because a lady I know told him what she thinks of him, but he is still my local MP and he will probably get back to his usual self fairly quickly i.e. to quote "an arrogant arsehole".

[tameszu]

7. No, they wouldn't do that

"Can the Labour backbenchers trigger a no-confidence vote in Parliment?"

And I'm not sure if we'd want it--remember Thatcher.

There's no way the Labour backbench would support a no-confidence motion in Parliament over Iraq. Remember that Iain Duncan Smith and most of the Tories supported the war as well--they're conservatives after all. Their main foreign policy difference is that they like the rest of Europe much less than most of the Labourites.

If the backbenchers wanted to get rid of Blair, they'd do it in caucus, like the Tories did with Thatcher. My guess is that Blair will try to run enough damage control so that he can leave willingly and gracefully by handing off the government through a normal leadership election--I don't think he was planning to seek a 3rd term anyway; he supposedly had a deal with the Chancellor--Gordon Brown that he'd only serve 2 terms.

[samsingh]

8. smoking gun

that's a bigger smoking gun than they had for Iraq and WMD

[jos]

10. Sure looks and smells like one

Where's the media?

[0007]

11. "Substantially" altered Iraq dossier?"

Then we can say Colin Powell is a consequential figure in trying to flim flam the U.N. and the American folks.

What's good for Blair is good for junior and his crew of thugs that hang out with the Carlyle boys.

`Come on, turn the dogs loose on these shit eating turds.

[hedgetrimmer]

12. Inquiry reveals Campbell ordered dossier rewrite (another article)

link: http://www.news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=909672003

~SNIP~

GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN


ALASTAIR Campbell authorised a "substantial rewrite" of the government’s dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) after a discussion with Tony Blair, according to a damning e-mail produced in evidence yesterday at the Hutton inquiry.

The order to rewrite the dossier was given on 5 September 2002, five days before the claim that Iraq could launch WMD at 45 minutes’ notice was inserted into the document.

But even after the rewrite, there were still concerns within No 10 that it failed to make a strong enough case for war. Jonathan Powell, Mr Blair’s chief of staff, warned "the document does nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent threat from Saddam".

In another damaging day for the government, there were fresh insights yesterday into how far Downing Street was prepared to go to rubbish claims in a BBC report that it had "sexed-up" the dossier to strengthen the case for war.

~MORE~

[sandnsea]

13. Wow, this is kind of... BIG

"The e-mail read: "Re dossier, substantial rewrite with JS and Julian M in charge, which JS will take to US next Friday, and be in shape Monday thereafter. Structure as per TB’s discussion. Agreement that there has to be real intelligence material in their presentation."

The 45-minute claim was added to the dossier on or around 10 September, but on 17 September Mr Powell was still unconvinced by the strength of the dossier.

He sent an e-mail to Mr Scarlett in which he admitted: "The document does nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent threat from Saddam... We will need to make it clear in launching the document that we do not claim that we have evidence that he is an imminent threat."

However, when the document finally appeared, the 45-minute claim had been inserted into the foreword, suggesting Iraq did pose an imminent threat."

If this isn't a smoking gun there's no such thing as smoke!

And America is at the beach!!!

[dudeness]

14. whilst entertaining

this inquiry will do little to sweep in the broom of democracy in the UK..I can only see one answer bring back Baroness Thatcher ..at least she was to the left of this mob..

[AP]

17. Bring back Thatcher.

That's brilliant. Yes, what Britain needs now is a real fascist who will do anything to help the fascist counterparts in America.

[dudeness]

18. sad as that sounds

and as sad a reflection on "new Labour" as it portrays..blair and his cronies have managed to outdo Thatcher in forging relationships with repressive regimes..to name a few..saudi arabia..indonesia ..turkey and russia..the british role in helping shape world order according to US power..essentially imperialism ..should not be underestimated under blair...yes thatcher was an evil fascist but at least she didnt pretend to anything else..

[oasis]

19. Ah-nold, Kobe,W.V. sniper, Laci Peterson will dominate the media

while this slips past the radar.