UK Parliament Clears Govt of Misleading on Iraq
Reuters
Monday, July 7, 2003; 5:34 AM
By Katherine Baldwin
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his government did not mislead parliament or doctor evidence to justify the war on Iraq, a parliamentary committee concluded Monday.
The Foreign Affairs Committee, which has been probing charges officials exaggerated intelligence on Iraq's weapons to strengthen the case for war, cleared Blair, a top aide and ministers of the allegations, made on the BBC.
But the committee did slap the government's wrists for giving undue prominence to questionable intelligence in a September dossier on Iraq's weapons and for plagiarizing a student thesis for a second dossier published in February.
The report -- which was rejected by the committee's minority opposition members -- marks the latest chapter in a bitter dispute between the government and the country's public broadcaster over Iraq's weapons.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, citing an anonymous intelligence source, has accused a senior Blair aide of "sexing up" a dossier on Iraq's weapons.
The BBC's source said Alastair Campbell, Blair's communications head, inserted a claim into the dossier that Iraq's weapons could be deployed within just 45 minutes.
The weapons row, exacerbated by the failure to unearth Iraq's deadly armament, has damaged Blair's credibility and dented his popularity.
With the committee's report, the government is expected to step up its attack on the BBC, which stands by its account.
"We conclude that Alastair Campbell did not play any role in the inclusion of the 45 minutes claim in the September dossier," the committee report said. "We conclude that ministers did not mislead parliament."
But the committee criticized the government for the February dossier that lifted parts of a student thesis.
Lawmakers also said the 45-minute claim "did not warrant the prominence given to it" in the September report.
Blair himself will appear before a separate parliamentary committee on Tuesday when he is expected to be grilled about the Iraq dossiers. |
