NEWS: New blow to Blair over Iraq
Spain knew no imminent threat from Iraqi's WMD
By SIMON WALTERS and JASON LEWIS in London
07jul03
theadvertiser.news.com.au
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair's claim that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction will be found eventually was dealt a massive blow last night after it was revealed that the Foreign Office no longer believes they exist.
Senior Government sources have told The Mail On Sunday that the Foreign Office has given up hope of finding chemical and biological weapons in Iraq.
The source said: "We live in hope but we just can't find them. Most people at the Foreign Office don't think we ever will. The Prime Minister still thinks they will be found – perhaps he has more information."
The disclosure is a major embarrassment to Mr Blair on the eve of tomorrow's publication of a Commons report into the row over whether the Government lied in the run-up to the war with Iraq.
The MPs are expected to condemn Downing Street over the so-called dodgy dossier released in February which turned out to be based on 10-year-old research copied from the Internet.
But Labour and Tory MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee are split over the BBCs claim that Mr Blair's communications director Alastair Campbell forced the intelligence services to sex-up an earlier dossier published last year. Mr Blair used the claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction as his main justification for invading Iraq. Two months after the conflict ended, not a single one has been found.
Downing Street insists that it is only a matter of time before they are discovered, claiming that Saddam must have hidden them.
Government sources have also said that Downing Street's all-out attack on the BBC over the sexed-up dossier is linked to the growing realisation that weapons of mass destruction may never be found.
The source said: "If, as many fear, no such weapons are found, then in six months or so, there is going to be a big row. If we are going to persuade the public that we honestly believed that WMDs existed, we need to do so now."
Another official said: "If the Government lets the BBC get away with saying that we faked the evidence, then when the day of reckoning comes, we will not have the remotest chance of persuading the public that we acted in good faith. However, if we win this dispute, we can hold up our hands and say, Sorry folks, there aren't any WMDs, we got it wrong but we weren't lying."
One Minister said: "We did not exaggerate the claims about WMDs. We were told that the Iraqis had them and might use them, and we believed that. But the more time that goes by, the more it would seem that there aren't any. We have told the truth throughout."
Britain's main European ally in the war against Iraq told its troops there was no imminent threat from biological and chemical weapons when it dispatched them to the battle zone.
Written orders issued to Spanish troops contradicted the British claim that Saddam could launch a weapons strike against them within 45 minutes.
Around 500 Spanish support troops were sent to Iraq. A 50-page manual reassured them about the dangers from nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. It contains six pages about snake bites and spiders and just two paragraphs on weapons of mass destruction. |
