No 10 regret on war dossier

Kamal Ahmed and Gaby Hinsliff
Sunday June 8, 2003
The Observer

Downing Street is to express regret about the fundamental flaws in the second 'dodgy dossier' on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
Senior Whitehall sources told the Observer that the officials who will be called before the Intelligence and Security Committee inquiry into the weapons issue will say that the second dossier on Saddam's history of deception undermined public trust in government information.

If Blair is questioned on the issue, he will concede that mistakes were made.

Number 10 officials now admit that the second dossier, which was largely culled from a 13-year-old thesis by a Californian PhD student, is damaging the Government's case for war against Iraq.

The dossier was published last February to coincide with Blair's 'war summit' with President George Bush in Washington. A week later it was revealed to be a mish-mash of intelligence reports, student work and publicly available briefings by Jane's Intelligence Review . None of the document acknowledged the sources, leaving the impression that it was all based on fresh intelligence.

One government figure admitted that it was used to fill a 'political vacuum' ahead of Colin Powell's presentation on the weapons to the United Nations Security Council.

Officials hope that admitting errors over the second dossier will strengthen their case on the first dossier, published last September which has been the subject of allegations that it was 'sexed up' to make a stronger case for war.

Although officials will admit that there are some 'serious questions' about claims in the first dossier that Saddam was trying to procure nuclear material from Niger - the claims were based on crudely forged documents - they will say that Number 10 relied on security analysis. .....