Campbell denies ‘sexing up’ dossier
Alastair Campbell, director of communications at Downing Street, testified that he never sought to "sex up" a September 2002 dossier on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction.
Unnamed sources have told BBC radio that the 50-page document's sensational one-sentence claim that Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons in just 45 minutes was inserted under pressure from Downing Street to beef up the case for war.
Mr Campbell, 45, a former tabloid political editor known in British political circles as the "sultan of spin", said the dossier was produced and approved by the Joint Intelligence Committee, which brings together the chiefs of all British intelligence agencies.
"What is completely and totally and 100% untrue is that ... I in any way overrode that judgment, sought to exaggerate that intelligence, sought to use it in any way that the intelligence agencies weren't 100% content with," he said.
Mr Campbell said it was "totally untrue" that he pressured intelligence chiefs to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime.
He sought to differentiate the September dossier from a 19-page February briefing paper on Iraq's attempts to conceal its weapons program, saying: "The two have to be seen in isolation."
To the British Government's embarrassment, the February paper was found to contain a section lifted without credit from an article posted on the internet by a US postgraduate student, Ibrahim al-Marashi.
In the House of Commons earlier yesterday, Mr Blair who was US President George W Bush's closest ally in the run-up to the war said "there is not a single fact in it (the February paper) which is disputed".
He stood by the decision to take Britain into war in Iraq, describing it as "the right thing for this country to do".
Mr Campbell testified the February paper was prepared by a cross-government team called the Communications and Information Centre, which he oversees, but added he did not know at the time it was prepared that it poached from al-Marashi's paper. "I obviously regret the fact that a mistake was made within the drafting process," he added.
The cross-party foreign affairs committee is investigating the way that Britain decided to join the US in going to war to overthrow Saddam's regime.
A separate probe by the intelligence and security committee, a parliamentary body that oversees British intelligence agencies, has been ordered by Mr Blair. It normally meets behind closed doors, but Mr Blair has said its findings will be made public.
Mr Campbell's testimony before the committee yesterday was unprecedented and it gave elected lawmakers a rare opportunity to grill one of the prime minister's closest and most discreet associates.
Mr Campbell seized the moment to take a swipe at the state-owned BBC and journalist Andrew Gilligan, who as defence correspondent of the Today radio programme has been a thorn in the government's side.
"Something has gone very wrong with BBC journalism ... It's about time the BBC apologised to us," Mr Campbell said.
