:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 10.06.2003 ::

:: RE Tony ::

From The New York Times:
Blair Doubted Iraq Had Arms, Ex-Aide Says
By WARREN HOGE

LONDON — Prime Minister Tony Blair conceded privately that Iraq did not have quickly deployable weapons of mass destruction as the British government was claiming as justification for war, says Robin Cook, a former foreign secretary.

Mr. Cook, who quit his post as leader of the House of Commons in March because of Britain's decision to join in the American-led war in Iraq, says Mr. Blair also made it clear to him in a conversation two weeks before combat began that he did not believe Saddam Hussein's weapons posed a "real and present danger" to Britain.

Mr. Cook's account was made public in extracts published in The Sunday Times of London from "Point of Departure," a book based on his diary entries from the period.

An intelligence dossier published in September 2002 argued that Iraq had unconventional weapons that could be used within 45 minutes of an order being given. Mr. Cook said that he had no reason to doubt that Mr. Blair believed the claim at the time it was made but that in their conversation on March 5, Mr. Blair told him the weapons were only battlefield munitions and could not be assembled by Mr. Hussein for quick use because of "all the effort he has put into concealment."

Mr. Cook wrote, "If No. 10 accepted that Saddam had no real W.M.D. which he could credibly use against city targets and if they themselves believed that he could not reassemble his chemical weapons in a credible time scale for use on the battlefield, just how much of a threat did they really think Saddam represented?"

posted by me

:: 9:33:00 AM [+] ::
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