The September 2002 document former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush relied upon to frighten the begeesus out of the publics in both America and the U.K. about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction was "wrong", according to it's principle creator. The Independent (U.K.) reports,
'Dodgy dossier' was 'wrong', its author says
By Ian Griggs and Brian Brady - Sunday, 17 February 2008
The government official who wrote the first draft of the "dodgy dossier" that helped propel Britain into war in Iraq today admits, "We were wrong."Of course, the admission, damning as it is, carefully avoids contradicting the findings of the Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr. David Kelly. Some may recall the events of late spring and early summer 2003 following a BBC report on May 29 of that year alleging that, "Intelligence sources were unhappy about the prominence given to the claim that Iraq could launch biological or chemical weapons in 45 minutes," and charging the Blair government with "sexing up" British intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. Leaks behind these reports were traced to Dr. Kelly, who evidently took his own life on July 17, 2003.
John Williams, a former Foreign Office aide, said last night that publication of his document would expose how members of Tony Blair's team were locked in a mindset that made military action inevitable.
On Wednesday, ministers will hit a deadline for publishing the 2002 document, after years of resistance.
The Williams draft was written in September 2002, only days after Mr Blair, then Prime Minister, announced that the Government would publish a dossier of intelligence showing that Saddam Hussein threatened the world with his weapons.
On September 28, 2002, President Bush in his radio address to the nation swung some heavy weights in the direction of Congress, including inflammatory false statements, in order to gain authority to wage war, which Congress did in fact give:
President Bush (Sep. 28, 2002): The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons, is rebuilding the facilities to make more and, according to the British government, could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order is given. The regime has long-standing and continuing ties to terrorist groups, and there are al Qaeda terrorists inside Iraq. This regime is seeking a nuclear bomb, and with fissile material could build one within a year.In early 2004, the Hutton Inquiry concluded,
The 45 minutes claim was based on a report which was received by the SIS from a source which that Service regarded as reliable. Therefore, whether or not at some time in the future the report on which the 45 minutes claim was based is shown to be unreliable, the allegation reported by Mr Gilligan on 29 May 2003 that the Government probably knew that the 45 minutes claim was wrong before the Government decided to put it in the dossier was an allegation which was unfounded.Will additional evidence contradicting Hutton become available following Williams's admission? Williams's draft version of the dossier was not available to Hutton at the time of the inquiry. But, "The Government has yet to decide whether to publish the draft dossier, in line with an information tribunal judgment last month," according to The Independent story.
Of course we have known the dodgy dossier was false since Alan Simpson, MP, Chair of Labour Against the War and Dr. Glen Rangwala Lecturer in politics at Cambridge University, UK published the Counter Dossier in late September 2002: "There is no case for a war on Iraq. It has not threatened to attack the US or Europe. It is not connected to al-Qa'ida. There is no evidence that it has new weapons of mass destruction, or that it possesses the means of delivering them."
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