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Blair hits back on Iraqi war
20/07/2004 17:34 - (SA)
London - A defiant British Prime Minister Tony Blair hit back on Tuesday at critics of his decision to go to war in Iraq based on intelligence later condemned as flawed, insisting he had made "the right decision".
In a crucial parliamentary debate about an official inquiry last week which found that much of the pre-war intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) had turned out to be unreliable, Blair was unrepentant.
"I still think we made the right decision," he said of last year's United States-led war to remove Saddam Hussein, strongly supported by the prime minister despite heavy opposition at home.
An inquiry team led by former top civil servant Lord Robin Butler cleared Blair last Wednesday of any deliberate wrongdoing, but cast doubt on much of the information about Baghdad's illegal weapons stocks.
Continuous threat from Saddam Hussein
Blair has since come under intense pressure from opponents to explain how he interpreted this seemingly shaky intelligence as showing Baghdad posed an immediate threat to the West, his primary argument for backing the war.
However in a combative performance, Blair stuck to his guns, saying the intelligence was overwhelming at the time.
"The intelligence really left little doubt about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction," Blair told parliament.
The information "made it absolutely clear that we were entirely entitled on the basis of that to go back to the United Nations and say there was a continuous threat from Saddam Hussein," he said.
Facing a barrage of hostile questions from parliamentarians, Blair insisted Saddam's intentions had been obvious, irrespective of whether or not any actual weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) were found after the fall of Baghdad.
"It was absolutely clear he (Saddam) had every intention to carry on developing these weapons, that he was procuring materials to do so and that, for example in respect of ballistic missiles, he was going way beyond what was permitted by the United Nations," Blair said.
'Liberation for the Iraqi people'
The prime minister also vehemently defended his decision to go to war, saying Britain had entered into it "with a clear conscience and a strong heart".
"Removing Saddam was not a war crime, it was an act of liberation for the Iraqi people," he said.
However, the prime minister also announced he would make some changes to the way the government dealt with intelligence after criticisms in the Butler report.
The Joint Intelligence Committee, which co-ordinates intelligence efforts, would not be used to draw up any future documents setting out the case for a war, while all further documents would also include any caveats expressed by intelligence sources, he announced.
- AFP
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