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Downing Street Memos Misinterpreted, Blair Says
British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday yesterday denied that Washington had decisively decided to invade Iraq months after Sept. 11, rejecting claims that the Downing Street memos indicate such a decision (see GSN, June 20). “People say the decision was already taken. The decision was not already taken,” Blair told the Associated Press. “What happened for me after Sept. 11 is that the balance of risk changed,” he said. That change made it necessary to “draw a line in the sand here, and the country to do it with was Iraq because they were in breach of U.N. resolutions going back over many years,” said Blair. “I took the view that if these people ever got hold of nuclear, chemical or biological capability, they would probably use it.” He added that he was “a bit astonished” at the high level of U.S. media attention to the documents, which include minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting between Blair and high-level British officials. Richard Dearlove, British intelligence chief at the time, said the Bush administration believed then that the invasion of Iraq was inevitable, AP reported. Such discussions are expected in the face of a possible war, Blair said. “The trouble with having a political discussion on the basis of things that are leaked is that they are always taken right out of context. Everything else is omitted from the discussion and you end up focusing on a specific document,” he said. “It would be absolutely weird if, when the Iraq issue was on the agenda, you were not constantly raising issues, trying to work them out, get them in the right place” (Dodds/Perry, Associated Press/Seattle Times, June 30).
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