Blair Aides Shaped Iraq Dossier

Blair Aides Shaped Iraq Dossier
Inquiry Into Expert's Death Reveals How Intelligence Services Were Used
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 23, 2003; Page A14


LONDON, Aug. 22 -- The public inquiry into the apparent suicide of a British weapons expert has opened a rare window on how Prime Minister Tony Blair used Britain's intelligence services to help sell the case for war in Iraq to a reluctant public.

Eight days of testimony have shown how Blair's top aides worked closely with senior intelligence officials in compiling a dossier for public distribution, pressing for changes that sharpened the language and conclusions in the document.

The judicial inquiry has heard testimony that at least two intelligence officials raised objections to this process, as did David Kelly, the weapons expert. He told a BBC reporter that the process of turning raw intelligence data into a polished document had led to distortions that made the threat posed by Iraq appear more imminent and alarming than it really was.

what was he promised?

and that's a positive, but I think it's being used over here to detract from the erroneous information bandied about by the Bush administration, which led us into full-scale, unjustified war and occupation.

If oblivious Americans would wake up, they would see the bottom line: we have two extremely powerful world leaders - of two of the most powerful nations on the planet - who have knowingly lied to and misled their people in order to invade, destroy and occupy another sovereign nation.

Of course, you have to love the advertisement at the bottom of the WP story:

Say Thanks to Tony Blair
Send a thank you message to Tony Blair for supporting the US in Iraq

:eyes:

Edited for spelling