Blair insists he was right to go to war against Iraq

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday defiantly declared he was right to go to war against Iraq and had not misled the public or Parliament to do so.

But he said Saddam had concealed his weapons of mass destruction and predicted only that “evidence of WMD programmes” would be found.

The Prime Minister insisted, however, that the intelligence he published last September that Saddam could deploy WMD in 45 minutes had been right at the time.

And he said the only mistake in the second “dodgy” February dossier had been not properly crediting an Internet thesis, despite being accused by the Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday of “misrepresenting” the status of the document to MPs.

He said terrorism and rogue states possessing WMD were the main security threats facing the 21st century.

Mr Blair, in shirtsleeves, faced a grilling for an hour and a quarter on Iraq as part of his evidence to the Commons Liaison Committee - made up of all select committee chairs.

He was asked about allegations that the House had been deliberately misled, and responded: “Obviously I refute that entirely.

“The fact is that we put before the House of Commons and indeed the country the case that we made.

“I should tell you right at the very outset I stand by that case totally. I’m quite sure we did the right thing in removing Saddam Hussein.”

The Prime Minister told the committee: “I’m quite sure we did the right thing because, not merely was he a threat to his region, to the wider world, but it was an appalling regime that the world is well rid of.

“I refute any suggestion that we misled either Parliament or the people totally. I think we made the right case and did the right thing.”

Quizzed by the FAC chairman, Donald Anderson, Mr Blair said the committee had cleared No 10 of “sexing up” the September intelligence dossier and claimed he had made clear to the Commons the mistake made in the second.

Meanwhile, two Middle Eastern television channels yesterday broadcast what they said were new audio tapes by ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but the material on the tapes had appeared in older recordings.

While both Al Hayat-LBC and Al-Jazeera channels said the tapes were new, they contained excerpts which were identical to a tape received by the Sydney Morning Herald in May.

The tape which the Lebanese broadcaster Al Hayat-LBC aired in its entirety proved identical to the one broadcast by the Australian newspaper three months ago.

Although also of bad quality, the tape of the Lebanese channel was more audible.