Blair partially off the hook

2004-01-28 15:44

London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair, facing what was termed his most difficult 48 hours in office, found himself partially off the hook a second time on Wednesday when a judicial inquiry ruled he had not deliberately exaggerated intelligence to justify war on Iraq.

But he was "directly involved" in talks which led to the leaking of the name of David Kelly, the weapons expert at the centre of claims that Downing Street "sexed up" intelligence prior to the Iraq war, judge Lord Brian Hutton, who chaired the inquiry into Kelly's subesequent suicide, said.

Blair had told reporters soon after Kelly's suicide that he did not authorise the public naming of the weapons expert as the source of the BBC radio report alleging that the government had embellished its intelligence dossier on Iraq.

The report, coming after Tuesday night's narrow victory in the House of Commons vote over tuition fees, which the government won by a mere five votes, dealt Blair another blow to his once-indisputable authority and his popularity is on the wane after six years at the helm.

And as the staunchest international supporter of US President George W Bush's tough line against Saddam Hussein, which led to Britain sending 45 000 British personnel to join the invasion of Iraq, Blair still faces an uphill struggle to convince public opinion at home that war was necessary and that he is the man to lead his Labour party to re-election in the first half of 2005.

Blair will take, though, heart from Hutton's dismissal as "unfounded" BBC claims the intelligence was embellished as he has always denied charges that the justification for war was exaggerated, admitting to the inquiry that had it been so it "would have merited my resignation".

- AFP