Lord Butler says weapons evidence 'very thin'

INTELLIGENCE indicating Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was "very thin," the author of a critical report on the government’s case for war in Iraq said yesterday.

In his first public comments since publishing the results of his inquiry in July, Lord Butler said the weakness of a government dossier on the threat posed by Iraq had "come home to roost" as no such weapons had been found.

Lord Butler told the House of Lords that he and his inquiry team had not doubted that Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, had acted in "good faith in concluding that Saddam Hussein had concealed stocks of chemical and biological weapons." He pointed out that most other countries and Hans Blix, the former chief UN weapons inspector had shared that view.

But, repeating criticism leveled in his report, Lord Butler said the government’s September 2002 dossier "did not make clear that the intelligence underlying those conclusions was very thin."

"How grave a fault that was in the context of the lead up to the war is a matter on which people will and should reach their own conclusions," Lord Butler added."But we regard it as a serious weakness, a weakness which subsequently came home to roost as the conclusion about deployable stocks of chemical and biological weapons have turned out to be wrong."

Lord Butler’s inquiry concluded in July that British intelligence on Iraqi WMD was flawed, but said the government had not deliberately deceived anyone as it built a case for toppling Saddam.

It said the dossier prepared by Mr Blair’s government on the Iraqi threat pushed the government case to the limits of available intelligence and left out vital caveats.

The report found that Britain relied on just five main informers of varying reliability in Saddam’s Iraq; few agents had detailed knowledge of weapons programs; and the Secret Intelligence Service’s ability to scrutinise information had suffered from budget cuts.