Blunkett:· He admits he failed to question Iraq intelligence

[cal04]

· Ex-home secretary says he was clinically depressed
· He admits he failed to question Iraq intelligence
(snip)
He also discloses for the first time that he regrets the presentation of the intelligence dossier in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. A member of the war cabinet, he reveals that Britain battled with the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, and defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, not to press ahead with dismantling "the whole of the security, policing, administrative and local government system on the basis of the de-Ba'athification of Iraq.

"The issue was: 'What the hell do you do about it?' All we could do as a nation of 60 million off the coast of mainland Europe was to seek to influence the most powerful nation in the world. We did seek to influence them, but we were not in charge, so you cannot say that if only the government recognised what needed to be done, it would all have been different. The government did recognise the problem."

(snip)
Recalling his role in the war cabinet, he says: "I did two things, one that was good, and one that was not so clever. I asked rigorous questions to the point when Peter Mandelson said 'Are you onside with Tony?' and secondly I did not take enough notice because I was home secretary, and I did not argue enough about what we were doing presentationally about the dossiers. I just did not. There is no point pretending I did and I was right. I just did not."

(snip)
He insists Mr Blair stood up to the president in private. He argues: "You influence someone not by abusing them, but by persuading them. I do not think that in politics there is a betrayal in privately telling the US the truth, and being supportive as it is possible to be, given the difficulties that causes you politically at home."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/blunkett/story/0,,1889881,00.html