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Blair faces more claims
05/06/2003 08:49 - (SA)
London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair, at the centre of a row over claims he exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, faced more allegations on Thursday that his office distorted a dossier on Iraq to make the Baghdad regime appear more menacing.
Ibrahim al-Marashi, a US-based academic whose research was used without acknowledgment in a British intelligence document in February, said Blair's office "plagiarised and manipulated" academic material by inflating figures and exaggerating Iraq's weapons capability.
Writing in the right-wing Daily Telegraph, al-Marashi said Downing Street "borrowed" and significantly altered a phrase in which he said Iraqi intelligence was "aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes".
The government dossier changed the wording to "supporting terrorist groups in hostile regimes".
"By changing these few words, the February 2003 dossier attempts to convince the reader that the Iraqis had the infrastructure to support groups such as al-Qaeda," the network led by Osama bin Laden, al-Marashi said.
Blair, during a grilling from deputies in parliament Wednesday, blamed critics of his Iraq policy for sustaining a furore over the way his government made the case for going to war alongside the United States.
The prime minister insisted that his aides had in no way "sexed up" another dossier, published in September 2002, on weapons of mass destruction.
"It is completely and totally untrue" that the dossier's most startling claim - that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons in as little as 45 minutes - was shoved into the file at the behest of Downing Street aides despite the reservations of intelligence officials, Blair said.
The prime minister announced that parliament's joint intelligence and security committee - which meets behind closed doors, and whose reports are subject to censor by Downing Street - would look into the issue.
His official spokesperson later indicated that Blair would be prepared to give evidence to the committee.
The Commons' foreign relations committee, which convenes in public, has announced it too would hold hearings in June, with its findings report to be published in July.
Meanwhile, parliament on Wednesday voted to reject the establishment of a third, independent inquiry.
The Financial Times, quoting unnamed government officials, reported Thursday that the evidence of the 45-minute capability had come from a senior officer in the Iraqi military with a record for providing reliable data over years.
Blair had faced accusations that intelligence about Iraq's capability had come via the United States from an "unreliable" source, a Iraqi defector with contacts with the Iraqi opposition movement. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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