Tony Blair 'was told of Syrian WMDs' says former intelligence chief

Source: Guardian

A former senior intelligence official has accused Tony Blair of attempting to "rewrite history" over what he really knew about President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons capability.

Last week Blair launched a passionate defence of his decision to invade Iraq, during which he claimed that the west did not know Assad was manufacturing chemical weapons until the regime began using them in 2012.

However, John Morrison, former head of the defence intelligence staff and the deputy chief of defence intelligence between 1994 and 1999, says in a letter to the Observer that, for more than a decade before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Blair must have been aware that Syria had a chemical attack capability because intelligence officials had told him so.

Morrison, also an ex-member of the joint intelligence committee (JIC), added that Syria's chemical stockpile was a recurring theme in reports by the JIC, which advises the prime minister and the cabinet of security matters. "The issue was not whether he [Assad] had them but when and how he might use them," he writes.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/21/tony-blair-syria-wmd-iraq-john-morrison