Sunday, March 20, 2005

Blair, Iraq, and WMD

I have just finished watching tonights Panorama on BBC1. The programme suggested that Mr Blair was not entirely honest about the intelligence reports with regard to Saddam's WMD. I wanted to check the facts for myself so I looked up the speach Mr Blair gave in the House of Commons on the 24th September 2002. It poses a number of questions regarding the honesty of the Prime Minister.
The full text is available online via this link to Hansard.

Mr Blair said:
" His [Saddam's] weapons of mass destruction programme is active, detailed and growing." Is Blair a liar?

Mr Blair said:
"The intelligence picture that they paint is one accumulated over the last four years. It is extensive, detailed and authoritative." Is Blair a liar?

Mr Blair said:
"It [the dossier] concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons, that Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes,". Is Blair a liar?

Mr Blair said:
"On chemical weapons, the dossier shows that Iraq continues to produce chemical agents for chemical weapons". Is Blair a liar?

Mr Blair said:
"In respect of biological weapons, again, production of biological agents has continued". Is Blair a liar?

Mr Blair said:
"We know that Saddam has been trying to buy significant quantities of uranium from Africa". Is Blair a liar?

Mr Blair said:
"No one wants military conflict. The whole purpose of putting this before the UN is to demonstrate the united determination of the international community to resolve this in the way it should have been resolved years ago: through a proper process of disarmament under the UN." Is Blair a liar?

I'm not going to answer these questions here. Instead, I'll quote the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which said that "The ISG report, published on 6 October 2004 confirmed that there were no WMD stockpiles in Iraq."

(I may have to edit this post as I would like to add a number of links. I'll need to check whether these links will be suitable before I proceed.)

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