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Blair Arrives at Royal Court of Justice to Testify About Role in Kelly Death

Aired August 28, 2003 - 05:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the idea that prewar intelligence may been embellished or even trumped up is as much a controversy in Britain as it is here in the United States. The issue is at the heart of an inquiry into the apparent suicide of a weapons expert and today Prime Minister Tony Blair appears before that inquiry.
CNN's Robin Oakley joins us live from London -- Tony Blair just walked in, didn't he?

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, Tony Blair arrived behind me here at the royal courts of justice literally just five minutes ago. Plenty of noisy protesters out here to see him arrive. But such is the political drama of this occasion, only the second time we've seen a British prime minister before a public inquiry, that members of the public were camping out overnight to get one of the few seats in the court reserved for the public. About 70 of them camping out overnight.

Now, Tony Blair is going to face some very tough questioning about his potential role in the death of weapons scientist Dr. David Kelly in the sense of was it him in Ten Downing Street who made the crucial decision that Dr. Kelly should be publicly named, that he should be thrust before a Commons investigative committee, putting him under a strain that it seemed he couldn't live with.

And because this inquiry has also widened out into really an investigation of the government's whole case for war against Iraq and the dossier it produced on Saddam Hussein's weapons program last September, he'll be questioned about that, too.

Mr. Blair will be asked, for example, why, when Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff, said that Saddam Hussein didn't represent a threat, let alone an imminent threat, a week later Mr. Blair was saying in the forward to that dossier that Saddam Hussein was a serious and current threat.

Those are the kind of questions he's going to be facing at this inquiry against a background of tumbling opinion polls and two thirds of the British public saying that they think Tony Blair did embellish that dossier against Saddam Hussein -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Robin Oakley reporting live from London this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Role in Kelly Death>


Aired August 28, 2003 - 05:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the idea that prewar intelligence may been embellished or even trumped up is as much a controversy in Britain as it is here in the United States. The issue is at the heart of an inquiry into the apparent suicide of a weapons expert and today Prime Minister Tony Blair appears before that inquiry.
CNN's Robin Oakley joins us live from London -- Tony Blair just walked in, didn't he?

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, Tony Blair arrived behind me here at the royal courts of justice literally just five minutes ago. Plenty of noisy protesters out here to see him arrive. But such is the political drama of this occasion, only the second time we've seen a British prime minister before a public inquiry, that members of the public were camping out overnight to get one of the few seats in the court reserved for the public. About 70 of them camping out overnight.

Now, Tony Blair is going to face some very tough questioning about his potential role in the death of weapons scientist Dr. David Kelly in the sense of was it him in Ten Downing Street who made the crucial decision that Dr. Kelly should be publicly named, that he should be thrust before a Commons investigative committee, putting him under a strain that it seemed he couldn't live with.

And because this inquiry has also widened out into really an investigation of the government's whole case for war against Iraq and the dossier it produced on Saddam Hussein's weapons program last September, he'll be questioned about that, too.

Mr. Blair will be asked, for example, why, when Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff, said that Saddam Hussein didn't represent a threat, let alone an imminent threat, a week later Mr. Blair was saying in the forward to that dossier that Saddam Hussein was a serious and current threat.

Those are the kind of questions he's going to be facing at this inquiry against a background of tumbling opinion polls and two thirds of the British public saying that they think Tony Blair did embellish that dossier against Saddam Hussein -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Robin Oakley reporting live from London this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Role in Kelly Death>