So who here believes that the Hot Military Stud really did entertain Tony Blair? And if he did, what did they talk about - where, when and with who?
This would be very interesting if true: at the time, there was considerable coordination between Blair and Bush's spin doctors. From November, 2001 on this was organised by the Coalition Information Centre, an outfit set up by Blair's legendary press secretary Alistair Campbell. Campbell later resigned during the Hutton inquiry, but is now back on the Labour campaign team.
In August, 2002, an organisation called the White House Iraq Group was created, chaired either by Rove or Rice and including NSC staff and various spin doctors (Karen Hughes, Andrew Card, Lewis Libby et al). Very soon afterwards, a matching organisation called the Iraq Communications Group appeared in Whitehall.
This was chaired by Alistair Campbell and became the drafting team of the now-infamous "dodgy dossier". We know that Campbell and No. 10 chief of staff Jonathan Powell put pressure on the Joint Intelligence Committee to strengthen the dossier's wording, and that changes were made. It is less well known that the US National Intelligence Estimate of the same time, prepared by the WHIG, was sent back to the drafters by Condoleeza Rice because it was not "strong" enough. The (weak and flawed) report by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee stated that the independence of Campbell's CIC had been a contributing factor to the Hutton scandal.
There's more at my blog, The Yorkshire Ranter. If anyone has any details on Gannon/Guckert's claim to know Blair, I'm desperate for them.
Note: date corrected