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June 29, 2004
Butler
I suspect that many of us were expecting the Butler Inquiry to be just another government whitewash. I would imagine that Tony Blair was of a similar opinion. So the news today that Butler is reopening the investigation into whether Blair deliberately misled the country over the 45 minute claim must have come as a bit of a shock. Butler has written to editors of provincial newspapers as follows:One of the issues the review committee is exploring is the use of the intelligence in the dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction published on 24 September 2002. One aspect of this is any action taken by the Government to guide the media towards reporting particular aspects of the dossier.
In that context, it would be very helpful to the committee to know whether you or your reporters were briefed by representatives of the Government about the dossier in the period immediately prior to its publication and whether, post-publication, you were guided to report particular aspects, such as the statement that some chemical and biological weapons were deployable by Iraq within 45 minutes of an order to use them.
It is worth noting that it would take just one editor to confirm the allegation, and Blair would be condemned as a liar. It doesn't matter how small the paper's circulation is, if there is evidence of this guided briefing, then our Prime Minister has not only lied, but will have been proved to have been lying. And the Hutton Report will have lost what little credibility it still retains (if indeed it ever did).
The irony of the situation is that the Conservatives refused to cooperate, and the LibDems complained that the commitee's remit was too narrow. Yet it now looks like Butler is conducting a comprehensive investigation that may well inflicted further damage upon a Prime Minister who is fast become a liability. Indeed one cannot help but wonder if revelations of this kind are the reason why two forthcoming by-elections have been brought forward to the 15th July.
(link courtesy of manic)
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Posted by Clive on June 29, 2004 9:40 AM in the category Old Stuff