WMDs in 45 minutes claim 'was asking for trouble', admits Blair's security chief

WMDs in 45 minutes claim 'was asking for trouble', admits Blair's security chief

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rity-chief.html

By Tim Shipman
Last updated at 12:29 AM on 21st January 2010

Tony Blair's intelligence chief told the Iraq Inquiry that if the public had been allowed to see all the intelligence on which Britain went to war, they would have said: 'Is that it?'

In a damning assessment of the way the evidence was spun into a case for war, former Cabinet Office Intelligence and Security Co-ordinator Sir David Omand denounced Mr Blair's Downing Street dossier as a 'big mistake'.

He said the claim that Iraq could fire weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes was 'asking for trouble'.

Sir David said spin doctor Alastair Campbell was not supposed to write the document and advised that a similar exercise should never be attempted again.

He said No10 officials compiling the dossier were 'pleading' with the intelligence agencies 'for anything more they can put in the dossier' and added: 'That's why people fell on the 45 minutes. That was something the secret service would allow to be used.

One can see with hindsight that adding a bit of local colour like that is asking for trouble.

'If the totality of the intelligence base had been revealed, I think the answer would have been, "Is that it?" '

Sir David said there had been a 'natural queasiness' in the intelligence community about the decision to produce the dossier.

And he admitted that the biggest problem was Mr Blair's foreword, which drew attention to the 45-minute claim.

He said the foreword was circulated to the spies 'fairly late in the day' and added: 'I didn't pay much attention to this bit of it, which was a mistake.

'I totally failed to spot the potential problem that would arise.'

Sir David gave evidence after Gordon Brown revealed he has written to the inquiry into the Iraq war to say that he is 'happy' to give evidence at any time.

The Prime Minister, who has come under mounting pressure to be quizzed by the panel before the General Election, said he had written to its chairman Sir John Chilcot.

Mr Brown said he had made the offer, in which Downing Street later confirmed was a new letter, and said he would take direction from Sir John about when to appear.

Demands have grown for the Premier to give evidence before an election, expected in May, after he was accused of starving the armed forces of vital funds for years.

Former defence secretary Geoff Hoon told the inquiry yesterday that he had experienced 'areas of difficulty' when asking the then Chancellor for more money.

And last week spin doctor Alistair Campbell made clear that Mr Brown was part of the 'inner circle' of ministers and advisers consulted in private by Tony Blair on Iraq.