Straw admits 45-minutes claim wrong

Published on Wednesday 13 October 2004 01:11

THE government finally admitted last night that its controversial claim Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes was wrong.

It was withdrawn in a formal statement that laid waste to Tony Blair’s assertion to MPs the Iraqi dictator had a WMD programme "up and running".

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, delivered the admission in the Commons and disclosed that a further line of intelligence reporting on Iraqi production of biological agents before the war had also now been withdrawn by MI6 chief John Scarlett.

In an attempt to limit the damage, the Foreign Office yesterday released papers showing that Hans Blix, the former United Nations chief weapons inspector, had believed the government’s controversial Iraq weapons dossier actually understated the case against Saddam.

According to the notes, Dr Blix said that the dossier even risked understating Iraq’s ability to produce weapons of mass destruction - particularly the lethal anthrax virus.

Since the war, Dr Blix has strongly criticised the case made for war by Britain and the United States, which was based on Saddam’s supposed possession of illegal WMD.

Mr Straw’s statement yesterday means that the Secret Intelligence Service has now had to withdraw three of its main pre-war lines of intelligence reporting on Iraq’s weapons because they turned out to be wrong.

In his report on the Iraq intelligence published last July, the former cabinet secretary, Lord Butler of Brockwell disclosed that MI6 had already withdrawn the intelligence from one of its main sources in the country as it was now considered unreliable.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said Mr Straw’s admission had further undermined the government’s case for taking Britain to war.

He said: "The building blocks of the government’s case for military action are crumbling before our eyes. The withdrawal of the 45 minute claim drives a horse and cart through government credibility."

Mr Straw however insisted that "even with hindsight", Britain and the United States had been right to take military action.