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Public Inquiry Panel Looking into Allegations British Government Exaggerated Iraqi Weapons Programs, Any Role In Suicide of Scientist
Aired August 28, 2003 - 11:06 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, President Bush is not the only one with an uphill climb now. In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is answering questions about his -- about allegations, rather, that his government sexed up a report of the Iraqi weapons threat. Also at issue in the inquiry today is the apparent suicide of British weapons expert David Kelly.
CNN's senior European political correspondent, Robin Oakley, joins us now from London.
He has more on all of this -- hello, Robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
Well, Tony Blair hasn't had too much trouble with this inquiry today. Answering questions, really, is part of the job description of British prime ministers. They do it at prime minister's question time in the House of Commons. They do it regularly in front of the media. And Tony Blair is a trained lawyer, in fact, in terms of his background.
But what we did see from Tony Blair today in this inquiry, which is, after all, into the circumstances surrounding the death of the weapons scientist, Dr. David Kelly, who was the confessed source of a BBC report accusing the government of distorting that dossier, was the passion that Tony Blair felt about this issue, because the BBC report had said that it was Tony Blair and his aides in Downing Street who inserted into the dossier the claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy those weapons, chemical and biological weapons, at 45 minutes notice. And the report said they did that knowing it to be wrong and against the wishes of the intelligence services.
Now, Tony Blair has said that was an attack which went to the very heart of the office of British prime minister and the way in which the intelligence services do their job. And he said if it had been true, if those reports had been true, it would have merited his resignation as prime minister.
So you can see why he's been quite so stirred up about this issue. He defended himself against accusations the government had unfairly pitched Dr. Kelly into the public domain for a grilling by an investigative committee, saying if they hadn't done that, they'd have been accused of a cover-up. And he also addressed in the questioning the subject of that dossier, the way it was produced. He said it was quite right for him and for his director of communications, Alistair Campbell, to talk to the intelligence people producing the dossier and to strengthen up the language, to make it as impressive a document as they could, just so long as those intelligence services retained control of that document and the information that was in it. And they did, said Mr. Blair, so he's got nothing to apologize for there -- Leon.
HARRIS: Boy, interesting. This is -- we're nowhere near the end of this one.
Robin Oakley, we appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
Robin Oakley reporting live from London.
It will be very interesting to see exactly who may end up paying a price on all of that in London.
Follow the Iraqi weapons inquiry on our Web site. You can also log onto cnn.com -- and .com/iraq, I should say -- for background reading on the war in Iraq. The AOL keyword for all of that, once again, is CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Government Exaggerated Iraqi Weapons Programs, Any Role In Suicide of Scientist>
Aired August 28, 2003 - 11:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, President Bush is not the only one with an uphill climb now. In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is answering questions about his -- about allegations, rather, that his government sexed up a report of the Iraqi weapons threat. Also at issue in the inquiry today is the apparent suicide of British weapons expert David Kelly.
CNN's senior European political correspondent, Robin Oakley, joins us now from London.
He has more on all of this -- hello, Robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
Well, Tony Blair hasn't had too much trouble with this inquiry today. Answering questions, really, is part of the job description of British prime ministers. They do it at prime minister's question time in the House of Commons. They do it regularly in front of the media. And Tony Blair is a trained lawyer, in fact, in terms of his background.
But what we did see from Tony Blair today in this inquiry, which is, after all, into the circumstances surrounding the death of the weapons scientist, Dr. David Kelly, who was the confessed source of a BBC report accusing the government of distorting that dossier, was the passion that Tony Blair felt about this issue, because the BBC report had said that it was Tony Blair and his aides in Downing Street who inserted into the dossier the claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy those weapons, chemical and biological weapons, at 45 minutes notice. And the report said they did that knowing it to be wrong and against the wishes of the intelligence services.
Now, Tony Blair has said that was an attack which went to the very heart of the office of British prime minister and the way in which the intelligence services do their job. And he said if it had been true, if those reports had been true, it would have merited his resignation as prime minister.
So you can see why he's been quite so stirred up about this issue. He defended himself against accusations the government had unfairly pitched Dr. Kelly into the public domain for a grilling by an investigative committee, saying if they hadn't done that, they'd have been accused of a cover-up. And he also addressed in the questioning the subject of that dossier, the way it was produced. He said it was quite right for him and for his director of communications, Alistair Campbell, to talk to the intelligence people producing the dossier and to strengthen up the language, to make it as impressive a document as they could, just so long as those intelligence services retained control of that document and the information that was in it. And they did, said Mr. Blair, so he's got nothing to apologize for there -- Leon.
HARRIS: Boy, interesting. This is -- we're nowhere near the end of this one.
Robin Oakley, we appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
Robin Oakley reporting live from London.
It will be very interesting to see exactly who may end up paying a price on all of that in London.
Follow the Iraqi weapons inquiry on our Web site. You can also log onto cnn.com -- and .com/iraq, I should say -- for background reading on the war in Iraq. The AOL keyword for all of that, once again, is CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Government Exaggerated Iraqi Weapons Programs, Any Role In Suicide of Scientist>
