Posted on 12/29/2003 6:17:47 AM PST by JohnGalt
Blair under fire again for WMD claims
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
CLAIMS that weapons inspectors have uncovered massive evidence that Saddam Hussein had a network of clandestine laboratories have landed Tony Blair in trouble for the second time in a month after they were rubbished by the United States’ top man in Iraq.
Paul Bremer, unaware the claims had been made by the Prime Minister, said the comments sounded like a "red herring" put about to undermine the coalition by someone opposed to military action.
Once Mr Bremer realised the remarks were Mr Blair’s, he softened his criticism, but it was too late to stop the Prime Minister’s critics accusing him of hyping up the evidence to support his claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction when he opted for war.
Liam Fox, the Conservative Party co-chairman, said Mr Blair would say anything to save his own skin. "This is a huge embarrassment for a Prime Minister who is in a deep political hole. But he is unable to stop digging.
"Once again he seems to have been willing to sex up a piece of information purely to defend his own political position. His assertion that there has been ‘massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories’ has been destroyed as untrue by Mr Paul Bremer and innuendo by Hans Blix [the former chief United Nations weapons inspector ]."
Clare Short, who resigned from the Cabinet over the invasion of Iraq, renewed her calls for Mr Blair to resign.
"If you are going to start getting into deceit when you are going to war and risking human life, it has gone too far," she said. "I hope for his sake, but most particularly for the honour of the country and for renewal of the Labour government, I hope he steps down gracefully."
It is the second time this month that Mr Blair’s comments about the work of the weapons inspectors have landed him in trouble.
He first made the claim two weeks ago, in an interview to be broadcast to British troops, but Downing Street later admitted that his comments referred to a report issued by the Iraq Survey Group earlier in the year and not to new evidence.
At the time, Mr Blair was accused by Michael Ancram, the shadow foreign secretary, of misrepresenting the findings of the survey group in its interim report in October.
With the Hutton report on the death of the government weapons scientist Dr David Kelly due within the fortnight, Downing Street is desperate for good news on the hunt for weapons of mass destruction.
But instead, Mr Blair faced fresh embarrassment yesterday when his remarks were relayed to Mr Bremer in a TV interview.
Told about a claim that inspectors in Iraq had uncovered "massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories", Mr Bremer replied: "I don’t know who said that. It sounds like a bit of a red herring to me.
"It sounds like someone who doesn’t agree with the policy sets up a red herring then knocks it down.
"I don’t know where those words come from but that is not what David Kay (the head of the Iraq Survey Group) has said."
But when he learned the comments had come from the US’s staunchest ally, he tried to row back from his criticism. "There is actually a lot of evidence that had been made public," he said. He said the survey group had found "clear evidence of biological and chemical programmes, ongoing".
He added: "They show clear evidence of violation of UN Security Council resolutions relating to rockets."
Downing Street stood by Mr Blair’s claims, saying the information came straight from the group hunting for the arsenal.
Mr Bremer rejected the claim by Mr Blix that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction left to give up. "You might conclude that Dr Blix is out of touch," he said.
War was justified "historically" regardless of the issue of weapons, Mr Bremer said. "I invite anybody, British or American, who thinks it was wrong to go to war, to come and see the mass graves in Halabjah," he said. "Come there and then tell me that we were not right to liberate this country from Saddam Hussein.
"Weapons of mass destruction or no weapons of mass destruction, it’s important to step back a little bit here, to see what we have done historically.
"We, the coalition, the British and American people, have done a noble thing by relieving 25 million Iraqis of one of the most vicious tyrannies in the 20th century."
SAYS WHO?
"The Iraq Survey Group has found evidence of a massive clandestine laboratory network system. When a country with a leader like Saddam tries to hide that, what is it doing?" - Tony Blair.
"I don’t know where those words come from, but that is not what (ISG chief) David Kay has said. I have read his reports so I don’t know who said that. It sounds like a bit of a red herring to me," - Paul Bremer.
"There is actually a lot of evidence that had been made public ... clear evidence of biological and chemical programmes, ongoing," - Paul Bremer.
Paul Bremer, unaware the claims had been made by the Prime Minister, said the comments sounded like a "red herring" put about to undermine the coalition by someone opposed to military action.
I wish we could have a Conservative Party like the British do.
Funny how one's perspective shapes things, huh? Didn't sound that way to me at all.
_________________________________________________________
Blair did not lie.
What David Kay said: A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW research. ________________________________________________________
Reads right to me. Bremer isn't there to hunt down WMDs.
War was justified "historically" regardless of the issue of weapons, Mr Bremer said. "I invite anybody, British or American, who thinks it was wrong to go to war, to come and see the mass graves in Halabjah," he said. "Come there and then tell me that we were not right to liberate this country from Saddam Hussein. "Weapons of mass destruction or no weapons of mass destruction, it’s important to step back a little bit here, to see what we have done historically."We, the coalition, the British and American people, have done a noble thing by relieving 25 million Iraqis of one of the most vicious tyrannies in the 20th century."
This is priceless. Someone must not have gotten the PNAC's latest talking points over to Paul. Either that or sitting in the middle of the muck he's seeing the truth instead of neocon propaganda. I guess Mr. Bremer assumed the administration had dropped the farce of a claim on massive WMD buildup. All I know is I won't be able to sleep at night until they find those 29,984 munitions hidden in buried car garages...
Apparantly, the Administration has dropped the claim. Now it's all about liberation.
If that were the case, it would be rather foolish to continue the work of the ISG, no?
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