Iraq Weapons Claims Criticised. A Wee Bit.

The all-​party for­eign affairs com­mitte has spoken. It appears that no-​one at all is to blame for the inclu­sion of and empha­sis on the false claim that Saddam Hussein’s weapons pro­gramme was suf­fi­ciently advanced that he could deploy chem­i­cal weapons in 45 min­utes, which became some­thing of a cor­ner­stone of gov­ern­ment pro­pa­ganda in the run up to the invasion.

Alis­tair Camp­bell, mean­while, has been cleared of ‘sexing-up’ intel­li­gence reports, albeit by a single vote. The BBC, who are being taken to task by Blair et al for sug­gest­ing same, remain unre­pen­tant. Quite right too - a jour­nal­ist cannot be blamed if their high-​level, pre­vi­ously reli­able intel­li­gence source went on to make bogus claims. On the plus side, by forc­ing the issue of an apol­ogy, the gov­ern­ment are man­ag­ing to high­light the murky goings on that sur­rounded attempts to per­suade the public to back the inva­sion of Iraq.

It’s also worth noting that the com­mit­tee plan to fur­ther inves­ti­gate on the ground in Iraq - we can doubt­less look for­ward to another non-​conclusive fudge.

Posted at 9pm on 07/07/03 by Jack Mottram to the politics category.
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