Short: I was briefed on Blair's secret war pact
18.06.2003 [11:30]

Senior figures in the intelligence community and across Whitehall 
briefed the former international development secretary Clare Short 
that Tony Blair had made a secret agreement last summer with George 
Bush to invade Iraq in February or March, she claimed yesterday.  

In damning evidence to the foreign affairs select committee, Ms Short 
refused to identify the three figures, but she cited their authority for 
making her claim that Mr Blair had actively deceived the cabinet and the 
country in persuading them of the need to go to war.  

Ms Short told the first day of the committee's inquiry into the events 
leading up to the Iraq conflict that Mr Blair had "used a series of 
half-truths, exaggerations, reassurances that were not the case to get 
us into conflict by the spring".  

She claimed Mr Blair told President Bush that "we will be with you" 
without laying down conditions to temper US ambitions.  

She also claimed that the intelligence and diplomatic community had 
privately opposed the war. This is the first time she has alleged that 
intelligence figures had serious doubts about the need for early military 
action.  

Justifying her charge of deception, she said: "Three extremely senior 
people in the Whitehall system said to me very clearly and specifically 
that the target date was mid-February."  

She went on: "I believe that the prime minister must have concluded 
that it was honourable and desirable to back the US in going for military 
action in Iraq and therefore it was honourable for him to persuade us 
through various ruses and ways to get us there - so for him I think it was 
an honourable deception."  

No 10 last night denied Ms Short's charge and said Mr Blair had worked 
as hard as possible to secure support for a second UN resolution that 
might have persuaded Saddam Hussein to cooperate.  

In the same evidence session Mr Cook exonerated Mr Blair of the 
charge of deliberately misleading the country, but asserted that 
intelligence material was chosen selectively to fit a predetermined 
policy.  

He said his own personal briefing by the Secret Intelligence Service 
(MI6) confirmed him in his belief that Iraq did not have weaponised 
chemicals, let alone weapons capable of being fired within 45 minutes, 
a claim made in the main intelligence document published last 
September.  

"I think it would be fair to say there was a selection of evidence to 
support a conclusion," he said. "I fear we got into a position in which 
the intelligence was not being used to inform and shape policy, but to 
shape policy that was already settled."  

He asserted that No 10 had "a burning fixation" with weapons of mass 
destruction that led Mr Blair to reject Mr Cook's view that the policy 
of containment was working.  

Both former cabinet ministers confirmed a previous Guardian story that 
cabinet ministers had been given private intelligence briefings by SIS, 
but insisted the briefings did not indicate that the world had to act 
immediately to stem an imminent Iraqi threat. At best, Ms Short said, 
Iraq had scientists working to try to develop biological and chemical 
weapons, but it was wrong to suggest that meant there were "weaponised" 
materials.  

Ms Short also claimed there was a shocking collapse in proper 
government procedure, with a small unelected entourage in Downing 
Street making the decisions without minutes, proper options papers or 
any written material. She said the cabinet was never shown military 
options papers.  

She also gave the impression that the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, 
was a cypher who "went along" with the decisions, while the real 
decision-making was "sucked out" of the Foreign Office.  

The vehemence of the attack by the two ex-cabinet ministers and their 
damning analysis of the intelligence failure over Iraq raises fresh 
questions for Mr Straw when he gives evidence before the committee 
next week.  

He will defend the use of intelligence material in both public and 
private evidence sessions. The prime minister has declined to speak 
to the foreign affairs committee, but will co-operate with the private 
inquiry by the intelligence and security committee.  

He is determined to disprove the claim that the September document 
was manipulated by No 10 to exaggerate the case for war.  

The former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has withdrawn his earlier 
offer to give evidence to the foreign affairs committee, arguing the 
misuse of intelligence is a matter for the British government and  
parliament. 

                            -==-

Source: Iraqwar Ru .... 
http://www2.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=9240&lang=en


Cheers, Steve..

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