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Blair says should have quit if Iraq charges true
Jordan Times
Friday-Saturday, August 29-30, 2003
LONDON (Reuters) — Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday he would have had to quit if a report had been true that his government "sexed up" intelligence to justify a war in Iraq that most Britons opposed. Speaking at an inquiry into the suicide of the scientist who was the main source for the sensational BBC report, Blair denied his government had exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq in a key intelligence dossier published last September.
But he conceded his government had been under intense pressure from a sceptical public to justify war and acknowledged he wanted the dossier to make "the best case we could have."
In a two-hour-and-20-minute appearance before a packed courtroom at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, Blair appeared confident and largely unruffled. Even critics said he gave a polished performance.
The former lawyer described the main accusation by the BBC reporter — that the government hyped the Iraqi threat — as "an absolutely fundamental charge."
"This was an allegation that we had behaved in a way which... if true would have merited my resignation," he added. He stood by the dossier, which said Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within just 45 minutes. "We described the intelligence in a way that was perfectly justified," said Blair, only the second British prime minister to be summoned before a judicial inquiry.
However, Blair, whose public trust ratings have plunged during the inquiry, acknowledged he was under intense pressure to make a strong case for disarming Iraq.
"The clamour for us to produce evidence was very strong," he said. "We had to disclose what we knew because there was an enormous clamour... it was important it (the dossier) made the best case we could have..."
His largely untroubled testimony helped push sterling up against the US dollar. "There were fears it would be more damning, and it wasn't," said Lee Ferridge, head of global currency strategy at Rabobank.
Analysts said Blair had probably ensured he would escape blame for David Kelly's suicide but believed he faced an uphill struggle to win back the trust of voters who have handed him two landslide election victories.
While no smoking gun has emerged to support the "sexed up" claim against the government, the inquiry has laid bare the workings of Blair's inner circle in unprecedented fashion.
And with no banned weapons found in Iraq, Blair's case for war and handling of its aftermath remain under intense scrutiny.
Although he insisted the contents of the dossier were the work of the intelligence services, the inquiry has shown a series of Blair aides pushed for it to be hardened up. The government has also come under fire for the way it handled weapons expert Kelly, the BBC's source.
Kelly, a soft-spoken scientist unused to the public eye, killed himself last month, just days after being publicly grilled by politicians in Westminster. Critics say he had become a political football in the row between government and the BBC. Blair said he faced a tough call over whether or not to push Kelly into the limelight. While officials were involved in the decision to out Kelly, Blair said: "I take full responsibility." BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies promised lessons would be learnt.
"All of us at the BBC are profoundly sorry about the tragic events of the last two months and will do our utmost to learn important lessons for the future," he told the inquiry. Scores of people set up camp outside court overnight to see Blair. As the premier arrived, anti-war protesters brandished placards styling him as a "most wanted" criminal and "B.Liar."
The only other serving British prime minister to appear before a judicial inquiry was Blair's Conservative predecessor John Major in 1994.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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