Dossier claims 'not true'

2003-06-04 14:59

London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair denied on Wednesday that Downing Street had embellished a dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction published in September last year.

"It is completely and totally untrue" that a warning in the dossier that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes was added to the dossier at the behest of Downing Street, Blair said at the House of Commons.

The dossier's claim on Iraq's weapons' capabilities was among the arguments that the United States and Britain used to justify launching a war against Saddam Hussein's regime.

Blair said the source for the 45 minutes claim was "an established and reliable source," and that its inclusion in the report had been approved by the British government's joint intelligence committee "and them alone".

"There was no attempt at any time, by any official or minister or member of Number 10 (Downing Street) staff to override the intelligence judgements of the joint intelligence committee," he said.

He added: "The truth is some people resent the fact it was right to go to conflict and we won the conflict...Iraq is now free and we should be proud of that."

Blair was fielding questions in the Commons a day after his return from a week abroad, during which he visited British troops in Iraq and attended the Group of Eight summit in Evian, France.

The controversy arose when the BBC, quoting unnamed intelligence sources, said the 45 minutes claim was based on a single source, and was inserted into the dossier by Blair's staff to beef up the case for war.

Blair rejected calls for an independent inquiry, saying a probe by the Commons' intelligence and security committee - which usually meets in private - would be made public.

"I repeat: all these allegations that have been made are completely without any substance," he said.

- AFX