Blair told Saddam had no chemical weapons 10 days before invasion
The Iraq inquiry has heard other Middle Eastern countries were more threatening about their weapons of mass destruction
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Wednesday, 25, Nov 2009 04:51
By Doireann Ronayne and Alex Stevenson
Tony Blair received intelligence that Iraq's chemical and biological weapons had been dismantled just days before the invasion of Iraq, it has been revealed.
Giving evidence to the Iraq inquiry, Sir William Ehrman, director general of defence and intelligence in the Foreign Office from 2002 to 2004, said: "On March 10th we got a report saying that the chemical weapons might have remained disassembled and that Saddam hadn't yet ordered their re-assembly and he might lack warheads capable of effective dispersal of agents."
Ten days later the invasion of Iraq began.
Meanwhile, the inquiry heard that evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq was "pretty sparse".
Tim Dowse, head of counter-proliferation at the Foreign Office from 2001 to 2003, told Sir John Chilcot's committee he agreed that a "particular mindset" about Iraq had been adopted and that more care could have been taken with the intelligence received.
But he pressed that while most WMD were built for defence, Saddam's intention "with his history of aggression" was clearly offensive.
Sir William emphasised that other Middle Eastern countries posed a greater threat than Iraq.
"In 2001 Libya and Iran were ahead of Iraq in terms of being more threatening about WMD," he said.
Sir William confirmed that contact between Iraq and al-Qaida existed but said Saddam was not "in any way responsible" for the September 11th 2001 terror attacks against New York.
The Iraqi dictator's government supported Palestinian terrorist groups and the MEK terror group directed against Iran, however.
Mr Dowse said Saddam Hussein's government had contacts with al-Qaida but Iraq and the terrorist organisation were not "natural allies".
He also argued the infamous 45-minute deployment claim for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction "didn't seem out of line".
It had taken on an "iconic status" because of media reports, Mr Dowse argued.
Committee member Lawrence Freedman concluded the 45-minute claim had got "lost in translation" because the public understood it referred to nuclear weapons, not chemical battlefield weapons.
On the French proposal for a different type of inspection, Mr Dowse said that this would have been a "hiatus" and had little confidence it would have produced a different outcome.
"The liar was telling the truth," Sir John concluded on the actual findings of weapons in Iraq.
Ballistic missiles – that have a range well beyond 150km – were found, while chemical munitions were also discovered in small numbers in the south of Iraq. The chemical weapons appeared to be left over from the 1991 Gulf war, however.
"What we had was a 20,000 piece jigsaw, of which 15,000 pieces had been hidden," Mr Dowse said.
He was concerned that ministers should not declare success too rapidly on the discovery of weapons. Sir Roderic Lyne questioned whether the prime minister's statement in September 2004 that the Iraq Survey Group "had already found massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories" corresponded to that advice.
Mr Dowse replied that he had not advised Mr Blair, before Sir William defended the response of the UK government.
"We removed the long-term threat to Iraq by the action that was taken. We disrupted but did not remove the Al Quaeda threat in Afghanistan and we removed the treat to Iran through diplomatic action and an agreement to suspend enrichment activities," he said.
The chair concluded by observing the lack of WMDs found in Iraq was a "rather embarrassing outcome” for the government.
Tomorrow Sir Christopher Mayer – UK ambassador to Washington in 2003 - will speak at the inquiry on US foreign policy priorities and US decision-making.