Blair led decision to identify weapons adviser, official tells inquiry

LONDON (AP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired the meeting where officials decided to confirm the identity of the source of a BBC report that the government had "sexed up" a dossier on Iraq's weapons, a senior civil servant said Monday.

Before that meeting on July 8, officials believed the government had nothing to gain by disclosing that weapons adviser David Kelly had told his superiors that he had met with a British Broadcasting Corp. reporter.

"The change of stance . . . was a result of the meeting chaired by the prime minister," said Sir Kevin Tebbit, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence. Tebbit, speaking at a judicial inquiry into Kelly's death, said he did not attend the meeting but that the ministry concurred with the decision.

The ministry put out a statement July 8 saying an employee had come forward, but did not identify him. Press officers at the Defence Ministry were instructed, however, to confirm that it was Kelly if any journalist correctly guessed the name.

more.....

http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/10/13/225129-ap.html

The man is a closet fascist, and should be strung up on a castle turret. As with our own "leader", he has lied to his nation, time, and time, again. And though the British press appear to be better about getting word out about his actions, and those of his own nasty neocon cabal, it still doesn't appear to me as if the public is really outraged enough to do crap about it. Why is that?

With news yesterday that the Tories are ahead in the polls now (which is not good news), PoodleBoy is killing his party, and taking England down with it. They should try to remove him now, well ahead of the elections, and try to put someone in who can save the Labour Party.

up wealth among the middle and working class.

The UK is actually doing pretty well, considering the crappiness of the US economy. Blair deserves teh credit.

By the way, does anyone remember how Labour threatened to revoke Murdoch's Sky TV license because they played stirring orchestra music over news footage of the Iraq war? That's what Labour thinks of fascists.

and as that group, along with their allies Bush and Sharon, are fascists, it's not a far stretch to think Tony wears the dress to. Sorry to pop your bubble, but Tony sold-out. He is not what he once was, if he ever was that person.

Theat he couldn't says more about the relative power of the UK and the US than anything else.

Now that the UK is involved, they've created a peaceful area in and around Basra and, I bet you, the people who will be running an Iraq independent of the US after Bush gets the boot will probably come out of Basra.

agree not to support the invasion, and spoken out publicy about Bush, and there would have been NO INVASION, and hundreds of American, and 10's of thousands of Iraqi livess would have been saved!! Tony is as responsible for the invasion as anyone. Why are you trying to excuse the part he played in it? Get real. Tony is a PNAC player, and a liar, just like his friend Junior.

He would have been marginalized like France and Germany.

America probably would have boycotted the womens world cup because the english like soccer. We'd be boycotting warm beer. Oh, wait, we do that anyway. Whisky sales would tank. Shortbread? Forget about. Burberry's would go bankrupt (we'd be burning their scarves in the streets). The economy would suffer. Murdoch would blame Labor for being bad stewards of the economy. Vote of no confidence. Tories.

And what would it all get you? US free reign in Iraq.

We had a poll here a while back. Maybe 10% of DUers thought that there wouldn't have been an invasiion if Blair backed out.

in the Europe/US dealings.

Schroder has now assumed the role of "bridge" between the US and
Europe, as it is clear since the UN General Assembly sessions.

Schroder's strong hand comes from the fact that he stood for
Europe's own geopolitical interests, independently of what the US
administration thinks. Now it's payback time and as oposed to "New Europe"
he controls the cashflow the US desperately needs.

Why should he deal with Blair when he now talks directly to the
americans?

If you are correct about your assessment of Blair's strategy, than
he has failed miserably (moreover, it was bound to fail, I had been
saying that for months).

But then I don't believe those were his intentions at all.
Blair IS a neo-con 5th columnist.

When Europe gets together to talk about Iraq, attending are Blair, Schroeder and Chirac.

Who do you think is the member of that threesome that makes those discussions remotely relevant to what is happening in Iraq.

Otherwise you would know what I'm talking about.
Blair is effectively is out of the loop now.´

Whant to know what threesome matters?
Read this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3190296.stm

I quote:
"President Vladimir Putin had agreed during a three-way telephone conversation with the French President, Jacques Chirac, and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, that there was still room for negotiation."

met to discuss where they're going with Iraq.

A vote on a resolution is important, but it's not thes same thing as working with a country with troops on the ground in Iraq (ie, UK). That's why Schroerder and Chirac are working with Blair.

... and the successive UNSC sessions...
By the way, when they met in Germany Tony Blair was pretty much
isolated and defensive in the press conference. The others reiterated their well known objections over and over.
Later Schroder went tell it to dubya's face in the very same terms.

because that decision had been taken by Bush's minders long ago.
But the truth is, he didn't try. He tried to give the exercise
some legitimacy through UN backing, but there is no evidence to
suggest that he ever tried to persuade Bush that it was a bad
idea. In fact he devoted an enormous amount of time and energy
running around Europe trying to persuade everybody else to join
in. He was as set on invasion as Bush, in the best colonial
tradition, and he lied again and again in order to drag his party
and his country into an attack on an already weakened and
defenceless people.

Sorry, but you have an idealised vision of Blair that bears no
relationship to reality. I wouldn't call him a fascist, but I
would call him a phony, a toady and a liar.

...the content of the articles listed below?

Four British soldiers are wounded by Basra bombs
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/14/wirq14.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/10/14/ixnewstop.html>

UK police chief in Iraq condemns Government
<http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_828531.html>

Crime-racked Basra calls on British troops to get tougher
<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=452374>

Rising tide of lawlessness in Basra makes life harder for British Army
<http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=1119702003>

I read them all a cut and pasted from the articles and the poster admitted that the UK was doing a better job than the US.

Blair and his gargoyles are IRA gangsters who think they can outbluff the UK electorate because the Tories are so horribly unelectable while Thatcher is still alive.

Blair's house of cards is about to come crashing down: Cherie is the Weakest Link....Goodbye!!

will he resign or be turfed in time for labour to get a new leader in time for the next election.

His new name is now Melba.

Do you think that if they say something enough times it becomes true.

Blair is losing in the polls, he is losing trust, support, and now it comes out that he was AT the meeting at which they decided to "out" Kelly. It is not if he is gone, it is only when.

Tebbit is trying to pass the buck, same as the vast majority of government witnesses at the Hutton enquiry. Do these people all have signs on their desk that read "THE BUCK STOPS.............SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!"?

On a side note, here are some sleazy allegations about said civil servant. I think he's been hanging round these politicians too long personally.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1061661,00.html

The personal role of Sir Kevin Tebbit, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, in an alleged cover-up of major fraud and corruption is exposed in letters seen by the Guardian. Sir Kevin, the MoD's top official, failed to follow up for two years allegations that the arms firm BAE Systems ran a slush fund designed to bribe Saudi officials.

The MoD delayed for the past month in releasing to the Guardian two letters from Sir Kevin disclosable under the open government access code. Sir Kevin is revealed in the correspondence to have:

· Tipped off the chairman of BAE, Sir Richard Evans, about the contents of a confidential SFO letter

· Failed to fulfil a promise to the SFO to notify them of the outcome of his "detailed investigations".

Sir Kevin prevented the MoD's fraud squad from investigating the case, and also withheld the SFO's warnings from the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon.

a "Peep" about this. Britain is all over this, and it's hurting Blair and causing chaos, because NO ONE (it seems) wan't Labour back (Maggie Thatcher/Reagan) but Bliar's New Labour Party is really hurting.

He's Bush's Twin. But the one who got the gift of Language. The Chimp is his idiot twin.

But, I don't live there....so I guess I would have to settle for Blair/Chimp.....like here.

I wouldn't call them new Democrats as the old Liberal party was the main party of victorian government and that evolved from the Whig party of the Georgian era.

That said, since there is little difference between Blair & Dimwit-Smith I'll happily settle for Kennedy & co.