Posted on 08/19/2003 7:42:27 AM PDT by Pikamax
Campbell survives Hutton grilling
· Intelligence chief in 'full charge' of dossier · Dossier 'needed killer paragraph' · Fear Gilligan would 'damage' government
Julia Day, Ciar Byrne, Matthew Tempest and Chris Tryhorn Tuesday August 19, 2003
Alastair Campbell today told the Hutton inquiry that the controversial dossier claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes was already in the intelligence document when it first came to him. Downing Street's director of communications also claimed that Sir John Scarlett, the chairman of the joint intelligence committee (JIC), was put in "full charge" of writing the September dossier on Iraq's weapons programme.
In the first detailed account of his involvement with the intelligence documents the government used to justify going to war against Iraq, Mr Campbell said he did not know where the 45-minute claim had come from and had made no attempt to find out.
"I knew it had come from the JIC [the joint intelligence committee] but I wasn't aware either of the raw information it was based on, or the sourcing," he told the inquiry.
Mr Campbell is one of the central witnesses in the inquiry, which was ordered following the apparent suicide of David Kelly, the government weapons inspector who was revealed as the source of a BBC Radio 4 story that the government had transformed the intelligence dossier to make it "sexier" to the public.
Mr Campbell today denied that the dossier was sexed up by anyone in the Downing Street communications department.
He said: "The agreement was that John Scarlett would be in full charge of the writing of the dossier and that we at No 10 would give him whatever support he asked for."
"John Scarlett felt he had to have ownership of the dossier," he said. "I emphasised that the credibility of this document depended fundamentally on it being the work of the JIC."
Mr Campbell also said that he had told Sir John that the language in the dossier should not be too colourful, insisting "the drier the better".
Full story here: Campbell: I did not add 45-min claim
Campbell on the defensive
But Mr Campbell was put on the defensive when it was revealed that intelligence chiefs told him that the claim that Saddam "might" be able to deploy WMD in 45 minutes could not be "improved". He insisted that he had not requested that the JIC do so, and had only made the suggestion to its chairman, Sir John Scarlett.
The inquiry heard that the claim of Iraq's alleged 45 minute WMD capability had been weakened from "could" on September 10 to "may be able to" on September 16.
Mr Scarlett later wrote to Mr Campbell saying: "We cannot improve on 'might' on page 16." Mr Campbell denied having requested an "improvement".
Mr Campbell was also embarrassed when an email from Daniel Pruce, a press officer based in Downing Street, was read out saying that the dossier should "personalise" the Iraqi leader as a "bad man".
Mr Campbell insisted that he did not "recall responding to that memo", and that Mr Pruce was "a good press officer but [was] making contributions above his pay grade".
He also said that such comments were "office chatter" and based on earlier drafts of the dossier.
Full story here: Campbell on the defensive
Campbell denies briefing 45-minute claim
Mr Campbell also denied briefing journalists about the intelligence contained in the September dossier, particular the 45-minute claim.
"There was not a particular briefing operation to draw attention to one part," he told the inquiry. "My recollection at the time was that there were two or three newspapers who had as a story 45 minutes. So I do not accept it was something that we were pushing particularly hard."
Mr Campbell had been challenged by James Dingemans QC about his involvement with the press after the inquiry was shown an email from the prime minister's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, asking him to predict what the London Evening Standard headline would be on the day the dossier was published.
But Mr Campbell said he didn't reply to the email and he could not recall whether he had discussed it with Mr Powell.
"There's an entry in my diary where I record a conversation with either the foreign secretary or John Williams where we agreed that we had actually let the dossier and the prime minister's words in parliament speak for themselves," he added.
Full story here: Campbell denies briefing press on 45-minute claim
Gilligan "damage" fears
Questioned about Andrew Gilligan's BBC report claiming that he had "sexed up" the WMD dossier, Mr Campbell said that he was concerned that it had the potential to do "real damage" to the British government.
Mr Campbell, who was in Kuwait at the time of the report, said he was told about Gilligan's report by Tom Kelly, one of the prime minister's two official spokesmen.
"When I was told of the allegation, I was told by Tom Kelly, who was standing next to me at the time taking a phone call from our office in London, and he told me what the report had said.
"Given my close involvement in the production of the dossier, I knew the allegations were false and therefore I was able to tell Tom, who instructed the press office to put out a denial and make sure John Scarlett was happy with the wording of the denial."
Mr Campbell said his anxieties about the Today programme report grew through the day.
"The reason why I got more concerned as the day wore on was because [it was] shortly after the prime minister spoke to troops while we were in Basra and it was clear to me that the travelling press party were frankly more interested in this BBC story than they were in what the prime minister was saying to British troops in Iraq.
"I got more concerned because it became clear that it had the potential to do real damage to the prime minister and the government.
"So we issued a series of denials culminating in an on the record denial from the prime minister himself," said Mr Campbell.
Mr Dingemans asked Mr Campbell whether he was aware that some officials within the intelligence services were not happy at the time, "that there was some dissatisfaction" among the services.
Mr Campbell replied: "I don't know that. I have no independent knowledge of that at all. There may well be people within the intelligence services that talk to journalists and my experience is that they are very knowledgeable and discreet.
"But this was a specific set of allegations about the conduct of the prime minister and the government."
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