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| Britain |
| Origin of 45-min claim revealed |
| 2003-08-26 |
| EFL The origin of the disputed 45-minute claim on Iraqi weapons came from a secret intelligence report dated August 30, the Hutton inquiry heard today. The claim that Iraq could deploy "chemical and biological munitions" within 45 minutes was made in a classified email issued by a member of the joint intelligence committee (JIC) - but with both sender and recipient blacked out for security reasons. Standard procedure to black those out, if the judge in charge has a clearance, he can see them in private to verify. It was distributed to Downing Street and Whitehall staff six days later on September 5 as new drafts of the September 24 dossier were being prepared. The email stated that "forward deployed storage sites of chemical and biological munitions could be with military units and ready for firing within 45 minutes". Sounds on a par with NATO response time, back in the day when we still fielded chemical weapons. That revelation, presented on day nine of the inquiry by Sir John Scarlett, the chairman of the JIC, appears to blow out of the water the original suggestion by BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan that the claim was made up. Gilligan, by the way, has been removed from his reporting job by the BBC. The Skipper could not be reached for comment. Mr Scarlett also denied that it was inserted at the behest of Number 10. Asked if he had sensed any "attitude of pressure" to include specific information in his drafting of the September dossier, Mr Scarlett replied: "That is not a fair analysis." Mr Scarlett also denied that there had been any worries from more junior intelligence officers over the contents of the dossier or No 10’s role in helping with the "presentational side" of it. Mr Scarlett said: "No worries of any kind were expressed to me at any stage about the propriety of this arrangement." He also took issue with the description of the 45-minute intelligence assessment coming from "a single source". Although admitting it came solely from a "senior Iraqi official", Mr Scarlett called this a "misunderstanding of the assessment process", because the information was cross-checked and put in context with other assessments. |
| Posted by:Steve |