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To: maceng2 who wrote (519)	1/12/2004 6:13:11 PM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 1417

The Hutton Report being the other sharp pointy stick... ======================================================= ‘I will not hide away from Hutton report’ By Philip Webster, Political Editor timesonline.co.uk TONY BLAIR will speak for the Government in the Commons debate a week after the Hutton report into the death of David Kelly has been published, government sources confirmed yesterday. Mr Blair, who said in a Breakfast with Frost television interview that he had “no intention of hiding away from this,” also confirmed that he would make the Commons statement on the day of the report. He has refrained from confirming his part in the debate to avoid the Conservatives coming up with the further “process” questions about the publication of the report. He said yesterday that he was enthusiastic about being able at last to debate the issues on the basis of an objective, independent judgment by a judge rather than by speculation. He called on Michael Howard and the media to wait for the report. “Let the judge make his own judgment in his own time,” he said. “I think that is the proper way to proceed for me. I actually think it is what the Conservative Party should be doing.” Ministers will be relieved when they know the date of publication. The two most likely dates are January 22 and January 29. One minister said yesterday: “The suspense is killing us. I hope his lordship will put us out of our misery soon.” Mr Howard said yesterday that it was “very important” and in the interests of informed debate that the Opposition and journalists had “as much opportunity as possible” to consider the report before the statement to MPs. Speaking on Sky News, he said he had written to Mr Blair on the issue but had not yet received “any satisfactory reply”. Mr Howard dismissed claims he was acting as a political opportunist over the whole affair as nonsense. It had been “perfectly legitimate” for him to quiz Mr Blair at Question Time over contradictory reports on who was responsible for leaking Dr Kelly’s name. Mr Blair voiced doubts for the first time yesterday as to whether weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq. He told David Frost that he had acted on intelligence about Saddam’s weapons and programmes. When it was put to him that his belief that weapons would be found was wrong, Mr Blair said: “Well you cannot say that at this point in time . . . I don’t know is the answer.” Asked whether he thought weapons would be found, he said: “I believe that we will, but I agree there were many people who thought we were going to find this during the course of the operation. Now we’ve got to see what the survey group come up with.”