Axed intelligence expert defiant

[emad]

BBC News


'Collective raspberry' over claims

Intelligence has been used as a "PR tool" under Tony Blair's government, a former government expert has claimed.

John Morrison also said he did not regret speaking out on a BBC programme, even though it cost him his job.

He told Panorama that Tony Blair's claim Iraq posed a direct threat caused a "collective raspberry" in Whitehall.

The government says Mr Morrison has not claimed intelligence was misused but the Tories say he has shown the "dodgy way" Labour works.

More raspberry:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3960813.stm

[w4rma]

1. The BBC needs to get quotes from the Lib Dems, in addition to the Tories.

The Lib Dems are the 3rd (and hopefully soon, the 2nd) largest political party in the U.K.

[emad]

3. Why aim for 2nd?Drop the word Liberal and rebrand as total

Democrats.

Now that would be a kick in the right place for UK politics.

[JoFerret]

2. Raspberry tarts all round

- Tony - please leave and let Labour be Labour.

[emad]

4. Fresh storm on Iraq war intelligence

By Paul Waugh Deputy Political Editor, Evening Standard
28 October 2004
Tony Blair today faced fresh claims he misled the nation over Iraq when a former senior defence chief accused him of "misusing" intelligence.

John Morrison, the former Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence, said the Prime Minister's claim that Saddam represented a threat was not backed up by evidence within the Ministry of Defence.

Mr Morrison said that no threat existed "in the true meaning of the word" and that such a view was supported by intelligence reports before the war. In a scathing interview for BBC Radio 4's Today programme he also claimed that well before 2002, New Labour's love of news management led to systematic pressure on intelligence experts to make their findings fit political ends.
The former MoD chief spoke out for the first time since he was ousted from a Cabinet Office job for appearing on the BBC's Panorama programme to criticise Mr Blair earlier this year. Mr Morrison said at the time the intelligence services were stunned when Mr Blair warned of Saddam's "serious and current threat" to Britain in his foreword to the Downing Street dossier of September 2002.

"When I heard him using those words I could almost hear the collective raspberry going up around Whitehall," he said. Mr Morrison, who worked for the MoD as late as 1998, became the chief adviser to the Intelligence and Security Committee but his contract was ended early because of his remarks.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/14339452?source=Evening%20Standard