The Hot Button Questions:- Money, Banks, & the Economy Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : The Hot Button Questions:- Money, Banks, & the Economy

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: maceng2 who wrote (406)	8/28/2003 6:08:55 PM
From: maceng2	of 1417

Blair stakes his future on Iraq inquiry outcome By Bob Sherwood and Cathy Newman Published: August 28 2003 21:20 \| Last Updated: August 28 2003 21:20 news.ft.com Tony Blair staked his premiership on the outcome of the Hutton inquiry on Thursday when he insisted that he took "full responsibility" for key decisions leading to the unmasking of David Kelly, the weapons scientist at the centre of a storm over the government’s case for war in Iraq. In an assured courtroom appearance, the prime minister admitted masterminding the announcement that a Ministry of Defence official - later revealed to be Mr Kelly - had come forward as the source for allegations that the government had exaggerated its case in the run-up to war. As he became only the second serving prime minister to give evidence in public to a judicial inquiry, Mr Blair asserted he would have resigned if the allegations levelled by the BBC had been accurate. The Kelly Affair For more news and analysis on the political crisis surrounding the death of David Kelly click here He said: "This was an allegation that we had behaved in a way that were it true...it would have merited my resignation." By implication, he left Lord Hutton in no doubt of the potential repercussions should the inquiry back the BBC over the government. The prime minister's admissions contrasted with the repeated denials of responsibility uttered by Geoff Hoon, his defence secretary, in the witness box the previous day. Mr Blair said: "I take full responsibility for the decisions. I stand by them. I believe they were the right decisions." His evidence left no doubt that the prime minister and his most senior aides were intensely involved in the decisions over how to handle Mr Kelly after he emerged as the source of BBC claims that the government beefed up its controversial dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to war. Mr Blair explained that the government had pursued its battle with the BBC so doggedly because the trust in his administration was at stake. "This was an attack that went not just to the heart of the office of the prime minister but also the way our intelligence services operated. It went, in a sense, to the credibility, I felt, of the country." Yet even if Mr Blair has done enough to convince Lord Hutton that he played both the dossier and the handling of the weapons expert "by the book", opinion polls show the scale of the task still facing him to persuade the rest of the country. More questions over the pressure the government may have exerted over MPs investigating its use of intelligence were revealed yesterday when the inquiry saw an e-mail from Tony Blair's official spokesman setting out reasons why Mr Kelly should be called before MPs. Mr Blair defended the so-called naming strategy, saying he knew the government could not sit on the information that a potential source had come forward because it was crucial to two parliamentary inquiries. Nor could it refuse to name Mr Kelly to journalists for fear that other people could come under suspicion. Yet he could not explain why his official spokesman had given extra hints about Mr Kelly's identity in a briefing to journalists. Just how closely involved the prime minister was in the affair became evident when he revealed he had told Gavyn Davies, BBC chairman, that a potential source had come forward the day before the MoD made its statement.

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next