Posted on 06/29/2003 7:05:09 AM PDT by Valin
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair's office did not doctor an intelligence report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, a lawmaker involved in an official probe said Sunday.
Eric Illsley, part of a Parliamentary committee investigating the government's use of intelligence material to justify war in Iraq, said he was satisfied that Blair's communications chief, Alastair Campbell, had not tampered with the dossier.
But fellow committee member John Maples said his colleague's remarks were premature, adding the verdict may come soon. "We haven't come to any conclusions at all yet," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
In part, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee is investigating a BBC report that Blair aides redrafted a file published in September to include claims that Saddam could launch chemical and biological weapons at 45 minutes' notice.
BBC defense correspondent Andrew Gilligan said intelligence officials were unhappy with the "sexed-up" report and believed the information about the 45-minute notice came from a single, unreliable source and was incorrect.
The story prompted accusations that the government had exaggerated the scale of the Iraqi weapons threat to convince skeptical lawmakers of the necessity of war.
Government relations with the BBC have slumped to their lowest level in years, with Campbell and the corporation's director of news, Richard Sambrook, firing venomous open letters at each other.
The government is demanding an apology and neither side is backing down.
In the latest twist, Illsley, of Blair's Labor Party, told LBC radio on Sunday that he and other committee members were satisfied the dossier and the 45-minute detail were compiled by intelligence chiefs.
Countering that report, Maples told the BBC that the committee was meeting Tuesday decide its position. Blair's office declined to comment, saying it would wait for the committee's official verdict.
Either both the US and UK falsified the intell or neither one did. Now we need to decide yes or no on that issue and blind faith in Bush is obviously not a good way to make that decision.
We know that there were at least some pieces of evidence presented that were patently false and apparently were known false by the intelligence community. We do not know about all the pieces of data, BUT, since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the lack of any weapons so far is heavy evidence of falsified intell in the beginning.
This just won't go away, because if is true that there was intentional falsification of evidence to justify the war, then the war represents a major war crime with many deaths resulting. No stories of mass graves or unidentified trucks (mobile labs) will do the trick.
The finger pointing is already starting to lay the blame elsewhere. The voters will have to decide who is telling the truth.
Those of you who will follow Bush anywhere better understand this. If November 2004 comes and still no weapons, the game is over.
Now do not accuse me of being a DU guy in disguise. I am a Libertarian. I would never vote for any of the Democrats that are in the race, but I won't vote for a mass murderer either. That is why so many Libertarian candidates have announced and are already campaigning at party events. In 2004, many more people will see the poor results of "lesser of two evil" voting and come to the only party that actually reads the constitution.
Sounds like it's time for Parliament to open a big can of whoopass on the BBC (Biased Butt Commies) in general by taking away government funding for this offense and; MP Woolas to haul Gilligan before the Queen's Court for some solid justice to be administered.
It’s so sad to see a once proud and trusted intuition go to the bottom of the barrel. Oh, well that’s what they get for hiring LIBERALS.
My point here is that they better win this round if we are to preserve our free nation. Both old parties don't give a fiddler's fart for the constitution or our liberties.
Even all you died in the wool "conservatives" who will follow Bush into hell had better start thinking about the nation that your kids and grandkids will live in. You have a responsibility to stop the advance of the police state for their sake, even if you are too old to be affected.
Chapter and verse please.
Try the forged letter from Niger used to establish uranium purchase. The IAEC determined that it was a forgery in an afternoon, once they got it. The signer had quit the job 11 years before the date of the letter.
This was a "cut and paste" job. We do not know who forged the document but we know it was forged and our own intell people knew it was a forgery as the President was using it in his state of the union address.
This is not the only one, but one that I can talk about off the top of my head.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.