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UK intelligence agencies damaged by Iraq row, says former minister

IRNA

London, Sept 10, IRNA - Former British Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm 
Rifkind said Wednesday that the credibility of UK intelligence 
agencies had been damaged by the row over the government`s 
controversial dossier on Iraq`s arms threat. 
Intelligence documents had become "articles of propaganda rather 
than articles of information," Rifkind said in an interview with 
e-politix news service. 
He accused ministers of mishandling the compilation of the 
dossier, which has been exposed to unprecedented scrutiny in three 
inquiries. 
As a former foreign secretary in John Major`s Conservative 
government, Rifkind was responsible for the work of MI6, which 
gathers overseas intelligence. 
He said that "of course" the row over the insertion in the 
dossier of the claim that Iraq could use weapons of mass destruction 
within 45 minutes had damaged the credibility of MI6. 
"Once you start having their conclusions replicated in public 
documents without the necessary health warning about the various 
caveats that would normally exist, they become articles of 
propaganda," said Rifkind, who also served as Defence Secretary. 
In an attempt to use intelligence to justify the Iraq war, he 
suggested that ministers had tried to turn the intelligence services 
into an "arm of government in trying to convince the public." 
"The intelligence agencies are there to provide information to 
the government, not to be used to give a character reference to the 
government," the former Foreign Secretary said. 
HC/214 
End