British Spy chief defends Iraq dossier

The latest from the hutton enquiry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3132110.stm

One of Britain's top spymasters has been challenged by the BBC's barrister at the Hutton inquiry about the intelligence in the government's Iraq weapons dossier. In response to detailed questions, John Scarlett, head of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), insisted Downing Street had not interfered over the dossier's claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

Asking about the 45-minute point, the QC said he could not understand how the dossier could add a judgement which had never appeared in any previous JIC assessment. Mr Scarlett denied the wording had been changed in a way which altered the meaning of the intelligence. It was a suggested to him that the government had not known what specific munitions the 45-minute claim referred to. He argued that only a small number of newspapers had taken it to be about strategic weapons which could reach British bases in Cyprus, rather than battlefield munitions as the intelligence services believed.

Earlier on Tuesday, Number 10 spokesman Tom Kelly was asked about his briefing to journalists the day after the Ministry of Defence announced an unnamed official - now known to be the scientist - had admitted meeting BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan. Mr Kelly told the inquiry: "At no point did I try to give information or drop clues which I thought would lead to Dr Kelly's identification...

Mr Kelly also again admitted his "Walter Mitty" comment was a mistake, saying it was not part of any strategy "to demean or belittle Dr Kelly".