Blair 'Knew 45 Minute Claim was False'
16.00PM BST, 5 Oct 2003
A former Cabinet minister has claimed that Tony Blair knew that Saddam
Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction before the Iraqi war began.
According to ex-Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Mr Blair knew two weeks
before the conflict began that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass
destruction that could be used within 45 minutes.
Mr Cook, then Leader of the Commons, said that to judge from a
conversation with the PM, it was clear Mr Blair did not believe
Saddam's weapons posed a "real and present danger" to the UK.
Mr Cook, whose diaries are being serialised in a national newspaper,
said he asked whether Mr Blair was not troubled by the prospect of the
weapons being used against British troops.
According to Mr Cook, the Prime Minister said: "Yes, but all the
effort he has had to put into concealment makes it difficult for him
to assemble them quickly for use."
Mr Cook also gained the impression that Mr Blair was determined to go
to war regardless of the progress made by Hans Blix and his team of UN
weapons inspectors.
Mr Cook kept a diary during the tense period in the run-up to the
conflict.
In it, he claims that the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee
John Scarlett "assented" when he suggested that Saddam had no WMD
capable of being used over long distances to target cities.
And he says that a "large number of ministers" spoke up in Cabinet
against British involvement in the US-led military action, in the
nearest to a "mutiny" he had seen since Mr Blair took office.
Downing Street have shrugged off Mr Cook's claims, saying: "The idea
that the Prime Minister ever said that Saddam Hussein didn't have
weapons of mass destruction is absurd.
"His views have been consistent throughout, both publicly and
privately, as his Cabinet colleagues know.
"Robin Cook's views are well known and have been expressed many times
before."
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said: "If
these allegations are true they are explosive.
"We need to see the whole of the Attorney-General's opinion, and the
facts upon which it based. And we need an inquiry headed by a judge to
look into the question of whether we went to war on a flawed
prospectus, either because of inadequate intelligence or the
mishandling of intelligence once obtained."
Former Foreign Secretary Lord Hurd said it was increasingly clear that
the case presented by Mr Blair for war was wrong.
He said: "The main cause, very clearly stated, was that we and the
world were under threat from weapons of mass destruction which he
possessed and which were organised to attack us maybe in 45 minutes.
"That is turning out simply not to be true."
Anti-war campaigner and Labour MP Alice Mahon said: "I think this
vindicates those of us who have been calling for an independent
judicial inquiry into the reasons why we went to war.
"We were told by the Prime Minister very clearly that there was a
clear and present danger.
"We had a dossier that warned of weapons being able to be deployed
within 45 minutes, and I think it is very serious indeed."
http://www.itv.com/news/1267925.html
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