MPs rule on Iraq dossiers
The Foreign Affairs Select Committee today published its report into the compilation of the two dossiers presented to Parliament and the public in the run up to the war in Iraq.
Reporting of the influences on the dossiers has caused a public dispute between the BBC and the Government, and has raised questions about the possibility that government ministers ‘sexed up’ the case for war, and by implication misled Parliament.
On this issue the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has called for the BBC to apologise for the report in May that Alastair Campbell inserted the claim that Saddam Hussein could launch an attack in 45 minutes. The BBC’s deputy director of current affairs, Mark Damazer immediately told BBC Radio Five Live that there would be no apology.
Donald Anderson, chairman of the committee, spoke this morning on behalf of the ten members of the committee to outline some of the findings, and to acknowledge the constraints of the committee.
He commented on the lack of access to certain witnesses, and intelligence information that might have had a bearing on the findings, and he also suggested that having only four weeks for the inquiry was a further constraint.
Mr Anderson made clear that the committee has found that ministers did not deliberately mislead Parliament, and stated that there was unanimous agreement that the ‘jury is still out’ on the accuracy of the intelligence information, which is likely only to be concluded one way or another as a result of findings in Iraq.
The committee has also exonerated Alastair Campbell of accusations that he added the claim that Saddam Hussein was capable of an attack within 45 minutes, though the BBC continues to dispute this decision.
However, it appears to have allowed two specific criticisms of the Government to stand. One of these is that the committee had serious concerns about the claim in the first dossier that Iraq was involved in obtaining uranium from Iraq.
There was also concern raised about the second dossier, which the Government initially claimed was largely based on intelligence information, but which had a great deal of information apparently taken from an academic thesis.
Jack Straw focused on the findings about Alastair Campbell, and argued that while the Government intends no attack on the BBC’s independence or its coverage of the Iraq war, he claimed that the broadcaster had launched a ‘fundamental attack on the integrity of the Prime Minister’ and demanded an apology.
Left wing Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay, who is a member of the select committee, claimed that rather than reaching a resolution on the ruling should open the way to further questions.
He also spoke about the concern that Alastair Campbell had been such an important part in intelligence meetings, and argued that although the committee had not found deliberate attempts to mislead, this role should be reconsidered.
Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary, Menzies Campbell has backed the view that the report raises more questions that it answers. He has commented that the committee has not been able to assess whether the intelligence behind the dossiers was accurate.
Though calls for an investigation like this are likely to continue, it may remove pressure from ministers, as it appears the focus may turn to intelligence service failures and mistakes, rather than those of politicians.
Speaking this morning following the publication of the committee, the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted that the evidence of Iraqi involvement in the development of weapons of mass destruction was “overwhelming”.
And he restated his call for the BBC to apologise over its reporting of the 45 minute claim.
The Government had already apologised over the provenance of the second ‘dodgy dossier’, published in February, Mr Straw told reporters.
And he called on the BBC to do likewise in respect of the allegation that the Downing Street communications team – led by Alastair Campbell – had insisted on the insertion of the 45 minute claim into the September dossier.
“What we want the BBC to do is themselves to apologise”, he said, insisting that the organisation had made “the most serious allegations against the Government”.
However, Richard Sambrook, director of news at the BBC, appeared to kick talk of an apology into the long grass.
Speaking on BBC News 24 today, Mr Sambrook said that the BBC would only have retracted its story if the committee had found unanimously against the claim.
“The committee is deeply divided down the middle”, he claimed. “The key paragraphs relating to Alastair Campbell’s role were only passed on the casting vote of the Labour chairman – not even all the Labour members of the committee supported it”.
Mr Sambrook added: “A number of them have said that they haven’t had access to documentation or to the individuals that would allow them to reach a unanimous and conclusive verdict on this”.
The Conservatives have repeated their calls for an independent inquiry into the use of intelligence material in the run-up to the Iraq conflict.
‘The inability of the Committee to resolve the whole issue underlines once again the need for an independent judicial inquiry to get to the truth’, Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram said.
