Leader: Blair Must Account for Weapons Intelligence Failure

Summary

---

THE Hutton Report has exonerated the government of trying to mislead the British public by falsely claiming Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that could be deployed within 45 minutes. Fair enough. Alastair Campbell certainly took pains to ensure the infamous September 2002 dossier, which made these claims, was as dramatic as possible about Iraq's offensive capability, but it is accepted that he and the government genuinely believed Saddam had WMD.

Attention has naturally focused on the dramatic events at the BBC with the resignations of the chairman, director general and, last night, reporter Andrew Gilligan. But as this immediate storm abates,

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Leader: Blair Must Account for Weapons Intelligence Failure

a truth will dawn, as it has been dawning in America this week: there were no Iraqi WMD. Even Mr Campbell must realise you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. The government may not have lied to us over WMD, but it c...

See the full content of this document

---