John Prescott doubted Iraq nuclear weapons intelligence
Quote:
Lord Prescott had doubts about intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the inquiry into the war heard today.
The former deputy prime minister dismissed some of the British spy agencies' information about the threat posed by Iraq as "tittle tattle".
He told the Iraq Inquiry he had the feeling intelligence about Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was "not very substantial".
Lord Prescott said conclusions in reports on Iraq prepared by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) went beyond the evidence available.
He noted that the 2004 Butler Inquiry found the recommendations made to Ministers on the basis of pre-war intelligence about Iraq were "frankly wrong".
Lord Prescott also said he felt "nervous" about the notorious claim published in the Government's September 2002 dossier that Saddam could launch WMD within 45 minutes.
Referring to the JIC reports on Iraq, he told the inquiry: "When I kept reading them, I kept thinking to myself, 'Is this intelligence?'
"It's basically what you have heard somewhere and what somebody else has told somebody. Presumably that's how intelligence is brought about.
"So I got the feeling it wasn't very substantial, but it clearly was robust.
"As we knew more and more whether there was evidence of Iraq involved in weapons of mass destruction, the conclusions were a little ahead, I think, of what the evidence we had. Perhaps that's the way it is.
"So I'm curious to have then read the evidence provided, I think in 2004, by JIC to look at the recommendations they made to us were frankly wrong and built too much on a little information.
"I think that was made by a number of the witnesses to you.
"That was my impression at the time but, you know, I just thought 'well this is the intelligence document, this is what you have. It seems robust but not enough to justify to that.
"Certainly what they do in intelligence is a bit of tittle tattle here and a bit more information there."
He added: "To be fair to the intelligence agency, when they said in our report, which led in fact to the information produced in the document, that there might be something happening in 45 minutes - they have got this ability, they have got these missiles.
"We do need to accept that's the judgment and there must be something in it.
"I didn't totally dismiss it, I didn't have any evidence to feel that they were wrong, but I just felt a little bit nervous about conclusions on Iraq's force that seemed to be limited intelligence."
Lord Prescott dismissed evidence to the inquiry by former MI5 director general Baroness Manningham-Buller who said she had made clear before the war that there was no terrorist threat from Iraq.
"She was on the JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) committee that produced the document that was used by the Prime Minister to say 'This is a threat'," he said.
He acknowledged that after the invasion in 2003 she had warned of the increased danger of a terrorist attack, but suggested she was simply trying to obtain additional funding for MI5.
"She was always on about the threat of terrorism. Along with it came 'Please give me more money'," he said.
Lord Prescott said he had a "unique position" in the Government, meeting Tony Blair privately two or three times a week, when they discussed developments on Iraq.
He said on one occasion Mr Blair had invited him to take part in one of his video conferences with US president George Bush.
"He did say to me 'Don't be worried about his language' I don't think he meant the swearing but the style and aggression that would be involved. I must say listening to it I now know what he means," he said.
He acknowledged he was part of Mr Blair's so-called "sofa government" style, when many of the key decisions were taken at informal meetings with key ministers and advisers.
Asked by Sir Roderic Lyne: "Were you on the sofa in the first half of 2002?" Lord Prescott replied: "I was on the sofa all the time."
However he said Mr Blair never told him if he had privately given a commitment to Mr Bush in 2002 that Britain would join the US if it went to war in Iraq.
"I don't know, I have to say honestly," he said. "He never did tell me if he had come to any agreement."
Lord Prescott said he believed it had been wrong for the Government to blame French president Jacques Chirac for the breakdown of negotiations in the United Nations Security Council in 2003.
"I think the poor old French got blamed for a lot of it. You can make a judgment by what Chirac meant by his comments," he said.
"The French easily come to mind in the Brits' mind when we want to blame people. There is a lot of history for that."
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...e-2039449.html
Interesting, the Deputy Prime minister had doubts about it :o
