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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nikole Wollerstein who wrote (102441)	6/23/2003 8:48:48 AM
From: Rascal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

What I believe matters not. The truth matters. Truth will out..... Here is point-by-point coverage of ex-cabinet ministers Robin Cook and Clare Short's evidence to the Commons foreign affairs select committee about the Iraq war. Ms Short began her evidence at 1111 BST, with committee chairman Donald Anderson noting her "trenchant criticism" of Tony Blair's "deception". The former cabinet minister accused Mr Blair of a "series of half truths, exaggerations, reassurances that weren't the case" in the run-up to war. The deception was because Mr Blair had struck a deal with US President George Bush last summer to go to war in Spring 2003, said Ms Short. Ms Short said three "extremely senior figures" in Whitehall had told her that Mr Blair had agreed to go to war in mid-February, something later extended to mid-March. The ex-minister said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had told her it was absolutely clear the majority of the Security Council thought the UN weapons inspectors should be given more time. Ms Short said she was willing from the start to use military force as a last resort to back up the UN's authority, but in the end such action was pre-determined. Tony Blair had told President Bush "We will be with you" without laying down the conditions to temper American ambitions, suggested Ms Short. She urged the MPs to press to see the raw intelligence material about Iraq, saying the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime meant security sources were no longer at risk. The prime minister allowed Ms Short to have special briefings from the security services "because he was trying to keep me inside the tent", said the Birmingham MP. The defence and overseas sub-committee of the cabinet never met to discuss Iraq, said Ms Short. Saddam Hussein had scientists working to try to develop biological and chemical weapons, but it was wrong to suggest that meant there was "weaponised" materials, said Ms Short. All three dossiers about Saddam Hussein's regime were "pretty shoddy pieces of work", argued Ms Short. Ms Short said she was "seen as pretty awkward" throughout because she kept raising concerns on Iraq in cabinet, but she could not "fire on all fronts". The former cabinet minister said she had been "shocked" by the way decisions which meant people lost their lives had been made. The claim that Iraq could launch some weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of an order had never featured in the intelligence briefings she had received, said Ms Short. Key decisions on Iraq were made by the prime minister and his unelected entourage in Downing Street, with the foreign secretary going along with those decisions, argued Ms Short. The government's "dodgy dossier", based partly on a student thesis taken from the internet, was "shameful", with even the student concerned complaining his work had been distorted. UN weapons inspectors were getting "a lot of success", including destroying 64 ballistic missiles, before the process was truncated, said Ms Short. Ms Short presumed Mr Blair saw the devices he had used to get the UK to back America against Iraq as "honourable deception". It was "incredibly" serious to believe that Tony Blair had misled Parliament but she had now reached that "sad conclusion", said Ms Short. The way decisions were made about Iraq led to some of the "chaos" seen in Iraq after the war, argued the former minister. Containment of Iraq was not working because of the suffering inflicted on the people of Iraq, said Ms Short. Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay suggested Ms Short had confused agreement between Mr Blair and Mr Bush on the deadline for Iraq's cooperation with a timetable being set for war. "Very large" numbers of recruits to the al-Qaeda terrorist network had come out of the way the coalition went to war, suggested Ms Short. Ms Short said she had not talked to intelligence figures about whether they had concerns about how their material was made public in the government's dossiers. The attorney-general's legal advice about the limits of the occupying powers in Iraq were "brushed aside" in the time between the end of the war and the latest UN resolution. Ms Short completed her evidence at 1127 BST, with the committee also finishing its morning of hearings. Full story news.bbc.co.uk