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British Intelligence Questioned on Saddam's Weapons
Aired June 17, 2003 - 13:07 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: On Capitol Hill, hearings are expected to start this week into pre-war intelligence that suggested Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In London, two former aides to British Prime Minister Tony Blair testified today the British government skewed intelligence to justify going to war.
Jim Boulden has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The House of Commons wants to know if Prime Minister Tony Blair misled it when he made a number of statements about Iraq's weapons program. The question before one parliamentary committee is whether the government exaggerated intelligence claims in late 2002 and early 2003 in order to justify war.
First up Tuesday, two ministers who quit the government over the war.
ROBIN COOK, BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY MEMBER: I fear the fundamental problem is that instead of using intelligence as evidence in which to base a conclusion about policy, we used intelligence as the basis in which you can justify a policy on which we'd already settled. I think it would probably be fair to say that there was a selection of evidence to support the conclusion, rather than a conclusion that arose from a full consideration of the evidence.
BOULDEN: In other words, Mr. Blair cherry-picked selective bytes of intelligence to justify conflict, says Cook.
His former cabinet colleague, Clare Short, went further and said that Tony Blair and President George W. Bush had decided last year to go to war.
CLARE SHORT, BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY MEMBER: I think it's a series of half-truths, exaggerations, reassurances, that weren't the case to get us to enter conflict by the spring. And I think that commitment had been made by the previous summer.
BOULDEN: Clare Short used the term "honorable deception" to describe how she thinks the prime minister misused intelligence material by stressing that Saddam could use of weapons of mass destruction at a moment's notice.
(on camera): Short said the prime minister truly believed in the removal of Saddam Hussein, and in the process there was an exaggeration about the weapons. For his part, the prime minister says there has been no deception. But he will leave it to the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, to defend the government's position when he appears before the committee in a few weeks' time.
Jim Boulden, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 June 17, 2003 - 13:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: On Capitol Hill, hearings are expected to start this week into pre-war intelligence that suggested Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In London, two former aides to British Prime Minister Tony Blair testified today the British government skewed intelligence to justify going to war.
Jim Boulden has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The House of Commons wants to know if Prime Minister Tony Blair misled it when he made a number of statements about Iraq's weapons program. The question before one parliamentary committee is whether the government exaggerated intelligence claims in late 2002 and early 2003 in order to justify war.
First up Tuesday, two ministers who quit the government over the war.
ROBIN COOK, BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY MEMBER: I fear the fundamental problem is that instead of using intelligence as evidence in which to base a conclusion about policy, we used intelligence as the basis in which you can justify a policy on which we'd already settled. I think it would probably be fair to say that there was a selection of evidence to support the conclusion, rather than a conclusion that arose from a full consideration of the evidence.
BOULDEN: In other words, Mr. Blair cherry-picked selective bytes of intelligence to justify conflict, says Cook.
His former cabinet colleague, Clare Short, went further and said that Tony Blair and President George W. Bush had decided last year to go to war.
CLARE SHORT, BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY MEMBER: I think it's a series of half-truths, exaggerations, reassurances, that weren't the case to get us to enter conflict by the spring. And I think that commitment had been made by the previous summer.
BOULDEN: Clare Short used the term "honorable deception" to describe how she thinks the prime minister misused intelligence material by stressing that Saddam could use of weapons of mass destruction at a moment's notice.
(on camera): Short said the prime minister truly believed in the removal of Saddam Hussein, and in the process there was an exaggeration about the weapons. For his part, the prime minister says there has been no deception. But he will leave it to the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, to defend the government's position when he appears before the committee in a few weeks' time.
Jim Boulden, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
