Blair reversed spy stuff on Iraq, says former Intelligence chief

LONDON – A former intelligence chief expressed concern yesterday about the relationship between prime minister Tony Blair’s government and its spy agencies in the build-up to the war in Iraq.

Former chief of Defense Intelligence, Sir John Walker, said information produced by the agencies normally guided government policy. But in the months leading up to the war, that principle had been reversed, he said.In the run-up to the war, Blair was adamant that Saddam Hussein possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.The September dossier was drawn up by Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) which assesses raw intelligence.Committee chairman John Scarlett signed off on the document before it was published by Blair’s government.Walker, a former deputy chairman of JIC, said he had never known the committee being used in such a way.”I have never in my experience come across the JIC being used in this way before.It was clearly way outside the normal way in which the JIC operates,” he told the BBC.Three previous inquiries have cleared the government of acting dishonestly or misusing the intelligence made available to it to bolster the case for toppling Saddam Hussein.But a parliamentary inquiry last year said intelligence assessments failed to reflect “the uncertainties and gaps in the UK’s knowledge about the Iraqi biological and chemical weapons.”In recent months Blair has retreated from his confident assertions that Iraq had stockpiles of illicit weapons.”I have to accept that we have not found them and that we may not find them,” he told a House of Commons committee last week.”We do not know what has happened to them; they could have been removed, they could have been hidden, they could have been destroyed.”- Nampa-APBut in the months leading up to the war, that principle had been reversed, he said.In the run-up to the war, Blair was adamant that Saddam Hussein possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.The September dossier was drawn up by Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) which assesses raw intelligence.Committee chairman John Scarlett signed off on the document before it was published by Blair’s government.Walker, a former deputy chairman of JIC, said he had never known the committee being used in such a way.”I have never in my experience come across the JIC being used in this way before.It was clearly way outside the normal way in which the JIC operates,” he told the BBC.Three previous inquiries have cleared the government of acting dishonestly or misusing the intelligence made available to it to bolster the case for toppling Saddam Hussein.But a parliamentary inquiry last year said intelligence assessments failed to reflect “the uncertainties and gaps in the UK’s knowledge about the Iraqi biological and chemical weapons.”In recent months Blair has retreated from his confident assertions that Iraq had stockpiles of illicit weapons.”I have to accept that we have not found them and that we may not find them,” he told a House of Commons committee last week.”We do not know what has happened to them; they could have been removed, they could have been hidden, they could have been destroyed.”- Nampa-AP