September 23, 2003
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Intelligence Test
At left:
Reuters
Offers
IQ Test
Today’s British Intelligence Award
goes to Reuters news agency:
Key Phrase Was Dropped
from UK Iraq Dossier
Tue September 23, 2003 12:33 PM ET
By Katherine Baldwin and Janet McBride
LONDON (Reuters) – The British intelligence chief responsible for a pre-war dossier on Iraq’s weapons dropped a key sentence from it days before publication after prompting from Downing Street, an inquiry heard Tuesday.
He did it at the suggestion of Jonathan Powell, chief of staff to Prime Minister Tony Blair, the inquiry heard.
The offending sentence stated that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was prepared to use chemical and biological weapons “if he believes his regime is under threat.”
Powell argued that phrase suggested Iraq was only a threat if attacked.
The revelation that Powell ordered the sentence to be omitted raises fresh doubts over the intervention of Blair’s office in the compilation of the September dossier.
Today’s British Stupidity Award goes,
of course, to Jonathan Powell.
Comments (1)
What is scary to me is the fact that Jonathan Powell and Colin Powell both edited out some key sentences in respective speeches.
“I still believe there is no such thing as coincidences and the roots of a tree travel deep.”