Original "dodgy dossier" to be published
Thursday, 24 Jan 2008 09:48
Foreign Office ordered to release draft of WMD dossier
The government was last night ordered to publish an early draft of its controversial dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The Informational Tribunal said the Foreign Office must publish a draft of the dossier written by John Williams, a former journalist and head of the Foreign Office's news department.
It rejected claims by the Foreign Office that publication was not in the public interest, ruling the Williams draft "might be capable of adding to the public's understanding of the issues in question".
It is believed Mr Williams drew up a 32-page draft dossier weeks before the final version was published in September 2002, officially the work of the intelligence services.
In his foreword to the final dossier Tony Blair made the infamous "45 minute" claim, prompting claims by the BBC that the dossier had been "sexed up".
Dr David Kelly, a Whitehall WMD expert, went on to kill himself after being outed as the source for this story.
The subsequent Hutton inquiry ruled the government did not "sex-up" the dossier.
In its ruling the Informational Tribunal noted it had been privy to information not available to the Hutton inquiry.
It stated: "We do not accept that we should, in effect, treat the Hutton Report as the final word on the subject.
"Information has been placed before us, which was not before Lord Hutton, which may lead to questions as to whether the Williams' draft in fact played a greater part in influencing the drafting of the dossier than has previously been supposed. We make no comment on whether it did so in fact."
It has been suggested Mr Williams' draft could contain the notorious and erroneous claim Saddam could deploy WMD within 45 minutes. Mr Williams has always denied this allegation.
Yesterday's ruling was sparked by a Freedom of Information request by researcher and campaigner Chris Ames, originally blocked by the Foreign Office.
The information commissioner Richard Thomas ruled the draft should be made public in May and the tribunal has now upheld that decision, despite continued opposition by the government.