[A-List] UK state: Iraq crisis

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Campbell left out to dry, claim Tories
Straw admits 'dodgy dossier' embarrassed the government, writes MICHAEL
SETTLE
The Herald, 25 June 2003

JACK Straw put Alastair Campbell on the spot yesterday when he admitted the
government's presentation of the "dodgy dossier" on Saddam Hussein's weapons
of mass destruction was "complete Horlicks". The foreign secretary, giving
evidence to a foreign affairs select committee inquiry, said the Iraqi arms
dossier prepared by Downing Street caused embarrassment to the government.

Last night, the Conservative opposition claimed Mr Straw's condemnation had
"left Alastair Campbell out to dry," ahead of Tony Blair's press chief
giving evidence to the Commons committee this afternoon.

Michael Ancram, the shadow foreign secretary, said: "If the government's
credibility is to be established, it is vital Alastair Campbell answers the
relevant questions openly and completely and does not seek to hide the truth
in a miasma of clever words."

During two hours of evidence to the committee, a contrite foreign secretary
apologised to Ibrahim al Marashi, the Californian student who wrote the
internet report on which the contentious part of the dossier was based.

It was pointed out Mr al Marashi still had relatives in Iraq and the
presentation of his report - not just plagiarised but "sexed up" too - could
have put their lives at risk.

Mr Straw told MPs: "He is owed an apology. I am very happy now to give him
an apology on behalf of the government."

The foreign secretary sought to play down the significance of the reference
to a 45-minute missile launch-time contained in the first WMD report,
published in September. He noted: "It was part of the case, but to suggest
that it was the burden of the case was nonsense."

Mr Straw also denied there was an impression given by the government that an
attack by Saddam had been "imminent or immediate". He pointed out the
government had referred to "a current and serious threat", which, he
stressed, was "very different".

He made clear the contents of the first report had been "checked and
double-checked" by senior officials and was not signed off until John
Scarlett, the chairman of Whitehall's joint intelligence committee, was
satisfied with it.

Later, Mr Straw clearly sought to distance himself from the dossier,
published in February just a month before hostilities began. "Mr Campbell
commissioned it," he observed. "It was authorised by the prime minister." No
minister, including himself, had seen the document apart from Mr Blair, he
explained.

The foreign secretary said the report was intended more as "a briefing paper
for the press" and blamed the demands of a 24-hour media on "all sorts of
background papers being produced at any one time" which were not necessarily
cleared with officials or ministers.

Admitting the dossier had been "an embarrassment," Mr Straw said the mistake
was that it was not subjected to proper procedure. "It was complete Horlicks
in the way it was produced," he declared, but argued it was "a series of
innocent errors, not venal at all".

Asked whether he wished it had never been published, the secretary of state
admitted: "Yes, given what happened."

Sir Michael Jay, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, explained
the dossier was commissioned by the Communications and Information Centre
(CIC), a cross-government team reporting to Mr Campbell.

However, Mr Straw confusingly remarked they were "not involved in the
production of the document". He said the Foreign Office was trying to
establish why changes were made to Mr al Marashi's basic text to "sex up"
the dossier; for example, how "opposition groups" was changed to "terrorist
groups".

During one humorous aside, the foreign secretary had difficulty speaking
because of the fizzy mineral water he was sipping. "I don't know what's in
this carbonated stuff," mused the foreign secretary, to which John Maples, a
Conservative committee member, quipped: "A truth drug."