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| Britain |
| Blair Aide Unapologetic Over Britain's Role in Prelude to Iraq War |
| 2010-01-13 |
| LONDON — A close aide to former Prime Minister Tony Blair made a defiantly unrepentant appearance on Tuesday before the panel investigating Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, saying Britain should “be really proud of the role that we played in changing Iraq from what it was to what it is now becoming.' Under five hours of questioning, the longest any witness has spent before the panel since the inquiry began in November, the aide, Alastair Campbell, former communications director for Mr. Blair, offered an unapologetic view of the war that contrasted strongly with the often tentative and regretful tone of senior officials who preceded him as witnesses. At one point, plunging into an issue that has been a touchstone for many in Britain who believe that the country was deceived by Mr. Blair over intelligence indicating that Saddam Hussein had chemical or biological weapons, Mr. Campbell said he defended “every single word' of a controversial government dossier produced by 10 Downing Street in September 2002, which cited intelligence indicating that Iraq could launch such weapons within 45 minutes. Mr. Campbell, who was closely involved in the dossier's preparation, denied he had tried to “beef up' judgments made by the principal author of the dossier, Sir John Scarlett, a top intelligence official who was later appointed by Mr. Blair to lead MI6, Britain's secret intelligence service. The 45-minute claim has often been cited by war opponents as evidence of the readiness of Mr. Blair and his officials to cite any evidence, however dubious, in support of their determination to go to war. “At no point did anybody from the prime minister down say to anybody within the intelligence services, ‘You have got to tailor it to fit this judgment or that judgment' ' Mr. Campbell said. “The whole way through, it could not have been made clearer to anybody that nothing would override the intelligence judgments and that John Scarlett was the person, if you like, who had the single pen.' Mr. Campbell's testimony set the stage for Mr. Blair's appearance before the inquiry later this month or early in February. The former prime minister has struck a similarly assertive tone, telling the BBC in an interview last month that he would “still have thought it right' to remove Saddam Hussein by force even if he had known that the Iraqi dictator had not possessed nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. He said Mr. Hussein and his government were a “threat to the region' even without unconventional weapons. The inquiry, led by Sir John Chilcot, a retired official with close career links to Britain's intelligence services, was established by Gordon Brown, Mr. Blair's successor as prime minister, who promised to establish a wide-ranging investigation of Britain's role in Iraq when he took the job in 2007. Two previous inquiries established under Mr. Blair were more narrowly focused, and reached conclusions that many war opponents felt were too sparing of Mr. Blair and other powerful officials, including Mr. Campbell, part of the inner circle that drove the decision to go to war. Mr. Campbell is a former tabloid newspaper reporter who became powerful through his close personal relationship with Mr. Blair. Already a highly contentious figure, he resigned amid the controversy that erupted in the summer of 2003 after a leading British weapons specialist, David Kelly, whom Mr. Campbell and others accused of making misleading statements to a BBC journalist about the government's statements on Iraq's weapons, was found dead with his wrist slashed on a hill near his Oxfordshire home. Mr. Campbell's testimony was filled with instances of the uncompromising approach that caused even senior cabinet ministers to treat him with care. He was unrelenting in his backing for Mr. Blair and for the approach he took to removing Mr. Hussein. “You seem to be wanting me to say that Tony Blair signed up to say, ‘Regardless of the facts, regardless of W.M.D., we are just going to get rid of the guy,' he said. “It was not like that.' The inquiry panel has heard lengthy testimony from other officials about Mr. Blair's approach in the year before the war, and whether the prime minister gave President Bush a pledge that Britain would join in an invasion of Iraq long before indicating anything of the kind to his cabinet or to the British public. Mr. Campbell offered a few glancing insights, saying Mr. Blair had written a number of private letters to President Bush in the year before the war about their effort to force Mr. Hussein to disarm, and that the “tenor' of the prime minister's message had been, “If that can't be done diplomatically and it has to be done militarily, Britain will be there.' He added, “I think that Britain, far from beating ourselves up about this, should be really proud of the role that we played in changing Iraq from what it was to what it is now becoming.' |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 "unrepentant" F--- you. What an ass. The people who need to "repent" are the ones who took blood [of Saddam's victims] for oil contracts with Saddam-- over $1b worth for Russia's LUKoil, and many many times that sum for France's TotalFinaElf, which signed a sweetheart deal in late 2002 to develop one-third of Iraq's entire known reserves. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-01-13 23:13 |
| #2 While I disagree with a lot of Mr. Blair's positions, he does seem to be one of the very few politicians with personal integrity. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-01-13 12:44 |
| #1 Blair bugs the hell out of the extreme left, because he gives left wing legitimacy to W. Bush. If they could just convince Blair to say that he was wrong, then they could go even nuttier against Bush. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-01-13 12:17 |