Blair: There was no deception

2004-10-13 14:51

London - Prime Minister Tony Blair denied on Wednesday that he misrepresented intelligence about Iraqi weapons before the war, rejecting growing demands in parliament that he apologise.

"I cannot bring myself to say that I misrepresented the evidence, since I do not accept that I did," Blair said in the House of Commons.

Opposition Conservative Party leader Michael Howard said Blair "did not accurately report the intelligence he received to the country. Will he say sorry for that?"

Blair said he had previously accepted responsibility and apologised for "any information given in good faith that has subsequently turned out to be wrong."

No deception

"What I do not in any way accept is that there was any deception of anyone," Blair said during his weekly half-hour question session in the Commons.

"I will not apologise for removing Saddam Hussein. I will not apologise for the conflict. I believe it was right then, is right now, is essential for the wider security of that region and the world," he said.

Attacking Howard, Blair said he wished the opposition leader "would stop playing politics with this issue, which is precisely what he is doing."

"Remember that he and his party actually supported the war for precisely the same reasons that we did. And it would be more helpful if he would back our troops out in Iraq rather than do what he is doing now," the prime minister said.

Blair has already expressed regret that British intelligence pointing to stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in Iraq was wrong. But political opponents, who insist Blair's use of intelligence was misleading, continue to demand a fuller apology.

Blair's principal reason for joining the United States-led offensive was his belief that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. The government highlighted the danger in a September 2002 dossier as it tried to persuade a sceptical public of the need for war.

Four inquiries have cleared Blair's government of deliberately misleading the public about the Iraqi threat, but that has failed to satisfy his political opponents.

No stockpiles of weapons Calls for an apology intensified after the US Iraq Survey Group concluded last week that Saddam had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

Blair was further embarrassed on Tuesday when his government acknowledged that spy masters had now formally withdrawn a claim that Saddam could launch chemical and biological weapons on 45 minutes' notice.

The claim had featured prominently in the government's dossier.

After a review of intelligence, the spy agency MI6 had ruled the source of the claim, an Iraqi military officer in western Iraq, was unreliable.

MI6 had been directed to the source by the Iraqi National Accord, an opposition group linked with Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

- AP