Deputies report on claims Britain exaggerated Iraq intelligence

LONDON (AFP) Jul 07, 2003
A British parliamentary committee was due to give its verdict Monday on whether the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair exaggerated the case for invading Iraq, amid an escalating war of words between Downing Street and the BBC over the issue.

The public broadcaster has accused Blair's office of embellishing the threat posed to Britain by Iraq in an intelligence dossier published in September, drawing a furious response from the prime minister.

Downing Street has been particularly incensed by the claim that Blair's director of communications insisted on including a passage in the dossier which said Saddam Hussein could deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes, despite the reservations of Britain's intelligence services.

After two weeks of hearings, the House of Commons foreign affairs committee is expected to largely exonerate Blair and his close aide and media adviser Alastair Campbell of any wrongdoing in embellishing the September dossier.

This would leave the BBC in an awkward position, after its board of governors Sunday said they were standing by its report, and demanded Campbell retract an allegation of BBC bias in its reporting of the Iraq war.

In response, Downing Street repeated its claim that the broadcaster was guilty of branding Blair a liar, adding it was "saddened that the BBC continues to defend the indefensible".

BBC chairman Gavyn Davies responded by insisting that the corporation had never accused Blair of lying or of misleading parliament.

Davies said: "The BBC did not have an agenda in its war coverage, nor does it now have any agenda which questions the integrity of the prime minister."

The row began at the end of May when, as Blair was visiting British troops in Iraq, BBC radio quoted an unidentified intelligence source as saying a September dossier on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction was flawed.

In particular, the source alleged that the 50-page dossier's claim that Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons in just 45 minutes was inserted by Downing Street over the reservations of intelligence chiefs.

The report sparked a furious row with the government, prompting an official inquiry into the intelligence presented by Downing Street as a justification for joining the US-led campaign against the regime of Saddam Hussein.

WAR.WIRE