Gavin, 31 January 04
45 weeks since the invasion of Iraq, and there are still no signs of the WMD that can reach London in 45 minutes. Tony Blair is looking ever more isolated in the belief that they ever existed – even George Bush has started expressing doubts.
Of course Mr Blair feels vindicated by the report prepared by Lord Hutton who he appointed to look into the death of weapons inspector David Kelly. Dr Kelly was found dead after he provided information to two BBC journalists about disquiet in the intelligence services regarding the 45 minutes claim highlighted in the UK government dossier of September 2002. The crux of the argument focused on whether the government knew the 45 minute claim to be incorrect. The fact is that they knew this part of the dossier was from a single source and knew it was referring to battlefield weapons – not missiles capable of offensive strikes on neighbouring states – let alone London, this part of the dossier was emphasised in the Prime Ministers introduction and spun to the media to sound like an imminent threat to Europe and the world.
Yet Lord Hutton found that Alistair Campbell did not know he was doing this and that the influence in adding this misinformation and spin was ‘subconsciously’ conveyed to the intelligence services. Never mind the lies in Alistair Campbell’s evidence to to a parliamentary committee. Never mind the fact the name of Dr Kelly was confirmed to the press in a strategy that ministers agreed. Never mind that the governments later dossier claiming to be an intelligence report was plagarised from a decade old assessment in a students article copy and pasted from the internet by Campbells team (was all this subconscious too?).
Lord Hutton has found that the only wrongdoing was by the BBC who had overstated the story in one early morning report by suggesting that the government knew what it was doing.
