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For your attention by threehegemons 02 April 2002 00:06 UTC |
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Steven Sherman spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you should see it. ------- Note from Steven Sherman: Sounds like even Blair is no longer completely on board for an Iraq war. ------- To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk Blair steps back from Iraq fight Patrick Wintour and Richard Norton-Taylor Sunday March 31 2002 The Observer The government has indefinitely delayed publishing a dossier revealing damning evidence against Saddam Hussein, just days before Tony Blair flies out to meet President George Bush at the weekend to discuss a possible military strike on Iraq. In a sign that Britain recognises that open prosecution of a war against Iraq is politically impossible, Downing Street has deferred plans to publish the report, which purports to show how Saddam is defying the UN by building weapons of mass destruction. The dossier, trailed by the No 10 press secretary, Alastair Campbell, will now be published when "it is believed to be appropriate". Downing Street feared that publication would add to the fevered speculation of an imminent strike, as well as exacerbate dissent on the Labour backbenches. Labour MPs considered the outlines of the evidence to be unconvincing. There has also been some pressure on the intelligence agencies to declassify documents to improve the quality of the evidence. Leading members of the British clergy also yesterday warned the prime minister against a military strike and called on the US to publish its evidence. Mr Blair published a similar dossier in the run-up to the military strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of September 11 attacks. The new dossier, compiled by US and British intelligence, was designed to reveal incontrovertible evidence that the Iraqi leader was assembling weapons of mass destruction in defiance of UN security council resolutions, and would have been used to prepare European public opinion for some form of military action if Saddam continued to build up his military arsenal. A dossier on Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical warfare capabilities was drawn up earlier this month by the Cabinet Office's joint intelligence committee chaired by John Scarlett, a former MI6 officer, after intense discussions within the intelligence community about what should be published and how much speculation it should contain. In the end it was agreed that the dossier should be "factual", and not contain speculation. MI6 was also concerned that it should not contain any information that could threaten its intelligence sources, according to Whitehall officials. However, many of the new allegations about Iraq's programme for weapons of mass destruction are based on assumption and speculation. Though the dossier contains evidence about Baghdad's development of biological weapons - including anthrax and botulinum toxin - it is largely based on what was discovered by UN weapons inspectors back in 1998. Even the CIA admits that intelligence gathered after that date, when the weapons inspectors were expelled from Iraq, is far from reliable. Britain's security and intelligence agencies also dismiss US claims that Mohammed Atta, the leading hijacker in the September 11 attacks, previously met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague. Mr Blair's talks with Mr Bush in Texas at the weekend are likely to focus as much on the current explosion of violence in the Middle East as on Iraq, and the growing European demands for Israel to rethink its policy of repression. The two leaders will discuss the political, military and diplomatic consequences of military action, including the need for a specific UN resolution supporting the action. Mr Blair will press for sanctions against Iraq to be revised, and for clear demands to be imposed on Saddam's future behaviour. The leaders will also assess the scale of the continuing Taliban resistance in Afghanistan, including an offensiveby British troops. Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
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