Sunday, March 20, 2005

The Fix Was In

Sunday Times - Britain (03.20.05):
"The head of MI6 told Tony Blair that the case for war against Iraq was being 'fixed' by the Americans to suit the policy, according to a BBC documentary that will reignite its battle with the government. Sir Richard Dearlove, head of MI6, briefed Blair and a select group of ministers on America’s determination to press ahead with the war nine months before hostilities began. After attending a briefing in Washington, he told the meeting that war was 'inevitable'. Dearlove said 'the facts and intelligence' were being 'fixed round the policy' by George W Bush’s administration." MI6 chief told PM: Americans ‘fixed’ case for war
According to the Times, the BBC's documentary "reveals that Britain and America were anxious to present a united front on Iraq despite a paucity of new data on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD)." There also is a "leaked memo sent by Peter Ricketts, political director of the Foreign Office, to Jack Straw, foreign secretary, in March 2002", which says "'There is more work to ensure that the figures are accurate and consistent with the US. But even the best survey of Iraq’s WMD programmes will not show much advance in recent years.'" On September 24, 2002, Mr. Blair told Parliament : "'The intelligence picture (MI6 paints) is one accumulated over the past four years. It is extensive, detailed and authoritative.'" Well, not exactly. It was sparse, sketchy and dubious, and Mr. Blair was lying through his teeth. In the documentary, Robin Cook, "the former foreign secretary who resigned as leader of the Commons over Iraq", is quoted as saying that "'(w)hat was propelling the prime minister was a determination that he would be the closest ally to George Bush and they would prove to the United States administration that Britain was their closest ally. His problem is that George Bush’s motivation was regime change. It was not disarmament. Tony Blair knew perfectly well what he was doing.'"

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