Straw admits Iraqi arms dossier a source of ‘embarrassment’

BRITAIN’S Foreign Secretary Jack Straw put Tony Blair’s communications chief Alastair Campbell on the spot yesterday as he said the Iraqi arms dossier prepared by Downing Street caused “embarrassment” to the Government.

Mr Straw, giving evidence to a foreign affairs select committee inquiry into the government’s handling of intelligence on Saddam Hussein’s arsenal, said the way the February 2003 document had been published was “complete Horlicks”.

No minister, including himself, had seen the document apart from Mr Blair, he said. Mr Straw apologised to the Californian student whose PhD thesis, containing 12-year-old material, was plagiarised by a team working for Mr Campbell.