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CNN Live At Daybreak
Blair Blameless?: Hutton Report Out Today
Aired January 28, 2004 - 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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: It is a moment many Britons have been waiting for, and it's a critical time for Prime Minister Tony Blair. A report into the suicide of his weapons adviser David Kelly will be presented to Parliament this morning.
CNN European political editor Robin Oakley joins us live from the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Robin, what are we expecting out of this report today?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, good morning, Carol.
And we've got some indications of what the report will say, although it won't officially come out for more than a couple of hours yet.
The Sun newspaper here in London is claiming to have had leaked to it extracts from the report. Now, the Sun, of course, has tended to favor Tony Blair's case for the war against Iraq. But what The Sun says in its report is that Lord Hutton has found that Tony Blair and his government and his defense minister, Jeff Hoon, were not guilty of either dishonorable or underhand contact --- conduct in the way in which they released Dr. David Kelly's name into the public domain, when he became the centerpiece of their battle with the BBC over the alleged sexing up of the dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons program.
Also, Lord Hutton's inquiry, according to The Sun, says that it was not wrong for the joint intelligence community, which compiled that - joint intelligence committee which compiled the dossier - to have accepted advice from the government about the wording used in that dossier. That effectively would clear Tony Blair and his government of the charge that it had corrupted intelligence in order to make the case for war against Saddam Hussein. And that's the kind of news that Tony Blair will be wanting to hear after a Parliamentary vote last night which seriously weakened his authority, seeing his government majority dip from 161 to only 5 - Carol.
LIN: Robin, there's some other implications, some fallout from this report potentially for the BBC.
OAKLEY: Well, indeed. We'll have to wait and see what criticisms there are of the BBC. But this case depend entirely on the battle between the BBC, which first laid these allegations that the government had sexed up the dossier by claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which he could release at 45 minute's notice. The BBC and its reporter, Andrew Gilligan, originally said the government inserted that claim in the dossier against the wishes of the intelligence community and knowing it to be wrong.
So we'll have to wait and see. If Lord Hutton is clearing Tony Blair of dishonorable conduct, then perhaps he will reflect some criticisms on the BBC. Yet we will have to wait a couple of hours to know that for sure. But it looks as though Tony Blair is going to be in the clear and still prime minister at the end of this week - Carol.
LIN: Robin Oakley, thank you very much for the preview there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 28, 2004 - 05:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: It is a moment many Britons have been waiting for, and it's a critical time for Prime Minister Tony Blair. A report into the suicide of his weapons adviser David Kelly will be presented to Parliament this morning.
CNN European political editor Robin Oakley joins us live from the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Robin, what are we expecting out of this report today?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, good morning, Carol.
And we've got some indications of what the report will say, although it won't officially come out for more than a couple of hours yet.
The Sun newspaper here in London is claiming to have had leaked to it extracts from the report. Now, the Sun, of course, has tended to favor Tony Blair's case for the war against Iraq. But what The Sun says in its report is that Lord Hutton has found that Tony Blair and his government and his defense minister, Jeff Hoon, were not guilty of either dishonorable or underhand contact --- conduct in the way in which they released Dr. David Kelly's name into the public domain, when he became the centerpiece of their battle with the BBC over the alleged sexing up of the dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons program.
Also, Lord Hutton's inquiry, according to The Sun, says that it was not wrong for the joint intelligence community, which compiled that - joint intelligence committee which compiled the dossier - to have accepted advice from the government about the wording used in that dossier. That effectively would clear Tony Blair and his government of the charge that it had corrupted intelligence in order to make the case for war against Saddam Hussein. And that's the kind of news that Tony Blair will be wanting to hear after a Parliamentary vote last night which seriously weakened his authority, seeing his government majority dip from 161 to only 5 - Carol.
LIN: Robin, there's some other implications, some fallout from this report potentially for the BBC.
OAKLEY: Well, indeed. We'll have to wait and see what criticisms there are of the BBC. But this case depend entirely on the battle between the BBC, which first laid these allegations that the government had sexed up the dossier by claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which he could release at 45 minute's notice. The BBC and its reporter, Andrew Gilligan, originally said the government inserted that claim in the dossier against the wishes of the intelligence community and knowing it to be wrong.
So we'll have to wait and see. If Lord Hutton is clearing Tony Blair of dishonorable conduct, then perhaps he will reflect some criticisms on the BBC. Yet we will have to wait a couple of hours to know that for sure. But it looks as though Tony Blair is going to be in the clear and still prime minister at the end of this week - Carol.
LIN: Robin Oakley, thank you very much for the preview there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
