Dossier row a smokescreen, says Short

THE continuing row between Downing Street and the BBC over intelligence on Iraq is a “smokescreen” covering up the real reasons for going to war, former Cabinet minister Clare Short said yesterday.

The death of Dr David Kelly, the confirmed prime source for reports that a dossier on intelligence in Iraq was “sexed up”, was a tragedy, she said. But she insisted that the assault on the BBC was a “complete distraction” from the bigger picture.

Dr Kelly, a weapons expert at the Ministry of Defence, killed himself three days after telling MPs he did not believe he was the main source for the claim that the dossier was “sexed up”.