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FM says unaware of nature of Iraq banned weapons before war

PLA Daily 2004-02-12

LONDON, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- It was revealed Wednesday that British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has admitted that he was unaware of the nature of alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction before the Iraq war.

Days after British Prime Minister Tony Blair made the same comments, Straw said in a written statement to the British parliament that he did not know until last June that the government intelligence claiming Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so referred to only battlefield weapons.

Blair, the staunchest US ally on Iraq, told British law makers last week that he was unaware of the 45 minute claim in a September 2002 Iraq dossier when he urged lawmakers to vote for the Iraq war last March.

The 45-minute claim, major justification for the British government to join the US-led Iraq war, came under intense scrutiny after former BBC defense correspondent Andrew Gilligan reported last May that the government had "sexed up" the Iraq dossier to make a stronger case for the war.

During the Hutton inquiry into the death of government weapons expert David Kelly, who was confirmed as the major source for Gilligan's story, British Joint Intelligence Committee chairman John Scarlett said the intelligence about the threat posed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces referred only to weapons such as mortars and shells but not long-range ballistic missiles.

On Straw's admission, the British main opposition Conservative Party on Wednesday criticized Blair's government of failing to examine Iraq intelligence properly.

"That is the job of the prime minister, it is the job of the foreign secretary. He, like the prime minister, did not do his job properly in the run-up to the war," Conservative lawmaker David Cameron told the BBC.

Under increasing pressure over failure on Iraqi intelligence, the British government has established an independent committee to investigate the government intelligence on Iraq.