Whitehall played the game according to Blair's pipe. As if that is any surprise, but it's good to see the evidence.
The Independent has the story - and it's now clear: Blair spun the UK into war.
(Secret Whitehall e-mails) disclose that the intelligence services were sceptical over the "iffy drafting" of government claims that Saddam Hussein could mount a missile strike on his neighbours within 45 minutes of ordering an attack.
Officials privately mocked assertions that the Iraqi president was covertly trying to develop a nuclear capability and wisecracked that perhaps he had recruited "Dr Frankenstein" to his supposed crack team of nuclear scientists.
I have long found the manner in which Blair forced his nation to the decision to go to war highly suspect. There's a reason why one of his cabinet members resigned when the final decision was made.
Not that long ago, Jack Straw enforced that the documents underlying the decision would remain under seal, in spite of a bicameral call for their release. But there are leaks:
Remember the 45-minute claim? That Saddam could attack neighboring countries (read Israel, Saudi Arabia, and UK forces in the Mediterranean) within 45 minutes?
The 45-minute claim – presented to MPs in a notorious dossier on 24 September 2002, six months before military action began – was central to the Blair government's justification for war.
But a memo sent 13 days earlier by Desmond Bowen, head of the Cabinet Office defence secretariat, to John Scarlett, who was head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, suggested he had grave reservations over the threat. His comments were copied to Mr Blair's press secretary Alastair Campbell and to his chief-of-staff Jonathan Powell.
Mr Bowen wrote: "The question we have to have in the back of our mind is: 'Why now?' I think we have moved away from promoting the ideas that we are in imminent danger of attack and ... intend to act in pre-emptive self-defence."
He argued instead that the Government should stress Saddam's disregard for international law and his continuing drive to obtain weapons of mass destruction.
The Blair government knew they were basing the foundation for attacking Iraq on a number of discredited items of false intelligence, as these three e-mails show:
11 September 2002 Desmond Bowen: "The question we have to have in the back of our mind is: 'Why now?' I think we have moved away from promoting the ideas that we are in imminent danger of attack and intend to act in pre-emptive self-defence... In looking at the WMD sections, you will clearly want to be as firm and authoritative as you can be. You will clearly need to judge the extent to which you need to hedge your judgements with, for example, 'it is almost certain' and similar caveats."
11 September 2002 Mark Sedwill: "I would expand the history of weapons inspections. It is an interesting story and would give the media a better feel for the difficulties they faced and the persistence of the Iraqi obstruction... We need a very simple table somewhere... This should be brief enough to get on to the Sky wall – ie no more than five bullets."
16 September 2002 Unnamed official (thought to be intelligence agent): "I note that the paper suggests that Saddam's biotech efforts have gone much further than we ever feared. Page 4 Bullet 4: '[Iraq] has assembled specialists to work on its nuclear programme' – Dr Frankenstein I presume? Sorry. It's getting late... We have suggested moderating the same language in much the same way on drafts from the dim and distant past without success. Feel free to try again!... Lots of 'ranges' close together – iffy drafting."
For a run-down on how this was used by Blair to force his Attorney General to create a rationale for a pre-emptive strike, have a look at this diary of mine from 2005, which outlines serious issues concerning the legality of the Iraq war, raised by the UK commander in charge of the attack. That diary also contains a link to my diary of Attorney General Goldsmith's tortured rationale for the attack - if the now released e-mails are proven correct, then Blair lied to Goldsmith, in order to get him to change his initial demand for another UN resolution.
http://www.dailykos.com/...