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British Intelligence Withdraws Claim That Prewar Iraq Could Have Deployed WMD Within 45 Minutes
The British foreign intelligence service MI6 has formally withdrawn its assessment that prewar Iraq could have deployed biological and chemical weapons within 45 minutes, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 28). The claim was included a September 2002 British government dossier released in an attempt to build public support for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Straw said yesterday, though, that the United Kingdom was right to join the U.S. invasion of Iraq. “I do not accept, even with hindsight, that we were wrong to act as we did in the circumstances which we faced at the time,” Straw told British lawmakers in response to a report released by the Iraq Survey Group, which has determined that prewar Iraq did not possess WMD stockpiles. “Even after reading all the evidence detailed by the ISG, it is still hard to believe that any regime could behave in so self-destructive a manner as to pretend it had forbidden weaponry when in fact it hadn’t,” Straw said (Ed Johnson, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Oct. 12). British Prime Minister Tony Blair told lawmakers today that while he was sorry for any prewar Iraq information “given in good faith that has subsequently turned out to be wrong,” he would not apologize for misrepresenting prewar Iraq intelligence “since I do not accept that I did.” “What I do not in any way accept is that there was any deception by anyone. I will not apologize for removing [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein. I will not apologize for the conflict. I believe it was right then, is right now and essential for the wider security of that region and the world,” he said (CNN.com, Oct. 13).
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