Iraq inquiry: Foreign Office official argued against publishing Tony Blair's WMD dossier

[sabra]

Source: UK telegraph

A former Foreign Office official has told the Iraq inquiry how he warned against the publication by Tony Blair's government of the controversial dossier on Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction.

John Williams, who was director of communications at the Foreign Office at the time of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, said he had ''argued strongly'' against publication with then prime minister's communications chief, Alastair Campbell.

In a written statement to Sir John Chilcot's Iraq Inquiry, released today, Mr Williams said he thought he had won the argument, only for Mr Blair to announce in September 2002 that the government was going ahead with the dossier.

''The burden of my argument was not about the quality of specific intelligence, which I never dreamed of judging, but my strong sense that we should not take on ourselves the burden of proof, when all the UN resolutions put the burden on Saddam Hussein to show he had destroyed his weapons,'' he said.

''We couldn't prove it if the inspectors couldn't.''

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/8269174/Iraq-inquiry-Foreign-Office-official-argued-against-publishing-Tony-Blairs-WMD-dossier.html

[Enthusiast]

1. That was a time in history

when the zeal for war caused us to leave reason behind. There are many such examples but none so ridiculous as leading up to the Iraq War. A spoiled brat of a president wanted to be a war president. And the Iraqis threatened his daddy. What a historical embarrassment.

[yellowcanine]

2. This is the one the British press dubbed "The Dodgy Dossier"

Gotta love the Brits.

[JDPriestly]

3. Problem is that Bush invaded very shortly after the UN inspectors

reported back that they had been given access pretty much everywhere and had only found things that Saddam agreed to destroy -- as close to a clean bill of health as could have been given considering there is always a small possibility that something was there and not found -- a very small possibility.

Read the April 2004 edition of Vanity Fair. There is a long but excellent article on the days before the invasion. The article discusses the interactions at the UN, and the real story is fascinating.