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Memos Show British Concerned That United States Abused Intelligence to Justify Iraq War
Memos show a high-ranking British official in 2002 questioned the case made by the United States for war against Iraq, the Associated Press reported Saturday (see GSN, June 17). Peter Ricketts, political director of Britain’s Foreign Office, said that the U.S. claim that a link existed between al-Qaeda and Iraq was weak. Ricketts’ thoughts were captured in one of the Downing Street memos, 2002 British documents that critics say show the Bush administration had committed to war against Iraq months before the invasion, according to the AP. “U.S. scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda is so far frankly unconvincing,” wrote Ricketts in one memo. “For Iraq, ‘regime change’ does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam.” The documents also indicate that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was concerned about Iraq’s rumored WMD capabilities and committed to allying with the United States despite concerns that a pre-emptive attack would violate international law. “The truth is that what has changed is not the pace of Saddam Hussein's WMD programs, but our tolerance of them post-11 September," Blair wrote to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in March 2002. Other memos show that U.S. President George W. Bush was aware of the difficulty Blair was having in rallying popular support for the war in the United Kingdom. “It is clear that Bush is grateful for your (Blair's) support and has registered that you are getting flak. I said that you would not budge in your support for regime change but you had to manage a press, a Parliament and a public opinion that was very different than anything in the states,” wrote Blair’s former chief foreign policy adviser David Manning following a meeting with then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. “And you would not budge either in your insistence that, if we pursued regime change, it must be very carefully done and produce the right result. Failure was not an option.” Manning added that Rice’s “enthusiasm for regime change is undimmed,” but that Rice appreciated the risks associated with a pre-emptive war. Ricketts, in a March 2002 memo to Straw, outlined a strategy on how to win popular support for the conflict. “We have to be convincing that: the threat is so serious/imminent that it is worth sending our troops to die for; it is qualitatively different from the threat posed by other proliferators who are closer to achieving nuclear capability (including Iran),” Ricketts wrote. Before the war began, Blair released a memo stating that Iraq could launch a chemical or biological attack within 45 minutes. A British expert on Iraq said the memos only confirm what post-war investigations have uncovered. “The documents show what official inquiries in Britain already have, that the case of weapons of mass destruction was based on thin intelligence and was used to inflate the evidence to the level of mendacity,” said Toby Dodge of Queen Mary College. “In going to war with Bush, Blair defended the special relationship between the two countries, like other British leaders have. But he knew he was taking a huge political risk at home. He knew the war's legality was questionable and its unpopularity was never in doubt” (Thomas Wagner, Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, June 18). Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department is trying to determine whether to free former Iraqi weapons scientists, Newsweek reported today (see GSN, March 4). Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said “appropriate leadership” in Washington is working with the Pentagon and other agencies as well as the Iraqi government on the possible release of former scientists. Officials said the Pentagon is taking the lead in making the determination, including whether to charge any of the scientists with war crimes. Former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright said he heard recent reports that Amer al-Saadi, prewar Iraq’s liaison with weapons inspectors, had been released. A U.S. official denied the report. Rumors are also circulating that bioweapons scientist Rihab Taha — also known as “Dr. Germ” — is being considered for released (Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, June 20).
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