Blair accepts Iraq intelligence 'flawed'

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday accepted Iraq probably did not have weapons of mass destruction.

The admission followed the release of the Butler Inquiry, which found that intelligence reports used to justify the war were "open to doubt" and "seriously flawed".

Although the inquiry concluded that Iraq had no significant stocks of chemical or biological weapons at the time of the war, Mr Blair insisted he had acted in good faith and denied the invasion had been a mistake.

However, Conservative leader Michael Howard warned that the Mr Blair's credibility had been damaged and the public would not trust him again to lead the country to war.

The inquiry, set up to investigate the use of intelligence in the run-up to the conflict, criticised ministers for failing to challenge claims by the intelligence agencies that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

It suggested that MI6, the secret intelligence service, had been forced to rely on "untried" agents in Iraq because of the intense demands from Whitehall for information reinforced the impression that the intelligence underpinning the claims was "fuller and firmer" than it actually was through his statements in the House of Commons.

However, it cleared Mr Blair and other ministers of deliberately misleading Parliament or the public over the case for war.

Instead, the brunt of the blame for the intelligence failures was laid firmly at the door of MI6 and the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) - the senior body which draws up advice for ministers.

A relieved Mr Blair told the Commons the inquiry's report showed the government had acted in good faith.

"No one lied. No one made up the intelligence," he said.

"For any mistakes made, as the report finds, in good faith I of course take full responsibility, but I cannot honestly say I believe getting rid of Saddam was a mistake at all.

"Iraq, the region, the wider world is a better and safer place without Saddam," he said.

Mr Howard, however, accused Mr Blair of turning the "qualified judgments" of the intelligence agencies into "unqualified certainties" in an effort to make the case for war.

"I hope we will not face in this country another war in the foreseeable future, but if we did and you identified the threat would the country believe you?" he demanded.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy complained that the narrow remit of the inquiry meant that it had been unable to investigate the key issue of the way in which politicians used intelligence to take the country to war.