British diplomat's document lays bare the lies behind the Iraq war.

[Dammit Ann]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2076137.ece

The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, "at no time did HMG assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests."



THE DAMMIT CHRONICLES

[calimary]

1. Hmmm... evidence that Tony's infected with the bush disease:

Tony LIED.

[Dammit Ann]

2. seems so.

amazing, huh? a liar in government, these days? please.

[neoblues]

3. Such unexpected news...

Not that we didn't already know these things--and even have fair amounts of proof; it's nice to see the Truth coming back to bite these guys (but we need more, better and more dramatic/direct and devastating proof of Bush's malfeasance to come out, here).

[Dammit Ann]

12. i'm TRYING.

really i am...
http://thedammitchronicles.blogspot.com

[Toots]

28. No lying is common place but what is amazing it what they lied about and for.

Clinton lied to protect his marriage because of infidelity. It in no way affected American's daily life. On the other hand Bush* and Blair lied to perpetrate an enormous fraud on the world and especially America and England. It was to Profit from War that they Lied.. I see some difference do you?

[sugapablo]

22. Lots of people lied...

...and they will all die wealthy, in comfort, of old age, in their mansions, never being brought anywhere close to justice.

Meanwhile...people keep dying for their lies.

[IndianaGreen]

25. And many of those that voted for this war knew it was based on lies

but voted for it anyway because they were certain that the war would be over within a month, and that no one other than the extreme Left would care about the lies the government told in the run up to the war.

The best laid plans of mice and men...

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. Bliar

If this doesn't get him a vote of no confidence. . .

[Ghost Dog]

5. Note cf. Dr. David Kelly here:

Mr Ross's evidence directly challenges the assertions by the Prime Minster that the war was legally justified because Saddam possessed WMDs which could be "activated" within 45 minutes and posed a threat to British interests. These claims were also made in two dossiers, subsequently discredited, in spite of the advice by Mr Ross.

His hitherto secret evidence threatens to reopen the row over the legality of the conflict, under which Mr Blair has sought to draw a line as the internecine bloodshed in Iraq has worsened.

Mr Ross says he questioned colleagues at the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence working on Iraq and none said that any new evidence had emerged to change their assessment.

"What had changed was the Government's determination to present available evidence in a different light," he added.

Mr Ross said in late 2002 that he "discussed this at some length with David Kelly", the weapons expert who a year later committed suicide when he was named as the source of a BBC report saying Downing Street had "sexed up" the WMD claims in a dossier. The Butler inquiry cleared Mr Blair and Downing Street of "sexing up" the dossier, but the publication of the Carne Ross evidence will cast fresh doubts on its findings.

[rodeodance]

11. "There was blood on the carpet over this.

One member of the Foreign Affairs committee said: "There was blood on the carpet over this. I think it's pretty clear the Foreign Office used the Official Secrets Act to suppress this evidence, by hanging it like a Sword of Damacles over Mr Ross, but we have called their bluff."

Yesterday, Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons who was Foreign Secretary during the war - Mr Ross's boss - announced the Commons will have a debate on the possible change of strategy heralded by the Iraqi Study Group report in the new year.

[Ghost Dog]

6. The full transcript of evidence given to the Butler inquiry

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2076142.ece

[Ghost Dog]

7. Comment: Saddam seen as no threat - then politicians got to work

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2076119.ece

We have had the gossipy version on the run-up to the Iraq war from Tony Blair's ambassador to Washington, Christopher Meyer, aka the "red-socked fop". We have not, sadly, been able to read the account of Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the former UN ambassador whose memoirs have been blocked by the Foreign Office.

But with the publication of Carne Ross's statement to the Butler committee we have an insider's view as to the state of Britain's Iraq policy before the politicians seized it by the scruff of the neck in 2002.

Mr Ross suggests that the Bush administration was not the only government which changed the intelligence and the facts to fit the policy before the Iraq invasion. Even though he left Britain's UN mission in mid-2002 he confirms that the prevailing wisdom throughout his four years as first secretary in New York was that Iraq's WMD did not represent a direct threat, and had been contained by sanctions.

But as we now know, thanks to a secret Downing Street memo dated 23 July 2002, military action was already seen as "inevitable" by Washington which wanted to overthrow Saddam Hussein. "The intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy," the memo said.

/...

[Ghost Dog]

8. The Independent's front page today:

http://www.independent.co.uk/

[rodeodance]

9. gee, do you think the US media/papers will pick this up???????

dah, now.

[Ghost Dog]

10. Dunno, but AFP already has:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3017103

[rodeodance]

13. its a start.

[rebel with a cause]

14. Good one!

:rofl:

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. Here's the Google page on the story's reporting so far. Very little in US

so far.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1112009016

Reuters has it:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-12-15T055103Z_01_L15226957_RTRUKOC_0_US-BRITAIN-IRAQ-ROSS.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C1-topNews-6

And Associated Press - here's a story posted in a New Mexico news site a few hours ago:
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/53748.html

Now let's see how many other US news venues pick it up.

[Ghost Dog]

18. That's something. But they certainly should refer to

"David Kelly, who may or may not have committed suicide (since on UK government orders there has been no proper inquest) in 2003" ...

[anotherdrew]

16. GWB and his cronies need to spend the rest of their miserable lives in jail for what they've done

who will hold these monsters to account for their crimes?

[neoblues]

20. 'Twould be a good start....

and then they could really get what they deserve (that 'eternity in a lake of fire' thing sounds strangely appropos).

[demo dutch]

17. kick

[yurbud]

19. vote this up on digg too LINK

http://digg.com/world_news/Diplomat_s_suppressed_document_lays_bare_the_lies_behind_Iraq_war

[biscotti]

21. On David Kelly

He emailed dear old Judy Miller shortly before his death saying that there were dark characters around him and that he was worried for speaking the truth. It was so mysterious, his death, the week of his duaghters wedding.

In an e-mail message to a reporter for The New York Times shortly before he left on his walk Thursday, Dr. Kelly discussed his appearance before the committee and referred to "many dark actors playing games."
http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_luskin/truthsquad073003.asp

[IndianaGreen]

24. Blair had Kelly rubbed out

I never bought the bullshit story on the suicide.

[oblivious]

26. There's blood on the bliar's hands.

[IndianaGreen]

23. Britain never thought Saddam was threat - diplomat (The Guardian)

Sir John Major, the former prime minister, backed calls for an independent inquiry into the causes and conduct of the war. It should include "new information that is becoming available", he told Radio 4's Today.

Britain never thought Saddam was threat - diplomat

· UK warned US that chaos would follow tyrant's fall
· Evidence repudiates claims in run-up to war

Richard Norton-Taylor
Saturday December 16, 2006
The Guardian

The British government never believed Saddam Hussein posed a threat to British interests and warned the US that toppling him would lead to "chaos", according to a Foreign Office diplomat closely involved in negotiations in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Damning repudiation of the government's public claims in the run-up to the war is contained in secret evidence to Lord Butler's committee on the abuse of intelligence over Iraq by Carne Ross, a diplomat at Britain's UN mission in New York.

His evidence, in which he says the government privately assessed that Iraq possessed no significant quantity of weapons of mass destruction, has been published on the Commons foreign affairs committee website. Mr Ross gave evidence to the group last month but some MPs had been reluctant to have it published.

Mr Ross told Lord Butler he read UK and US human and signals intelligence on Iraq every working day during the four years he spent in New York up to 2002, and spoke at length to UN weapons inspectors.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1973311,00.html

[alteredstate]

27. kick

[Auntie Bush]

29. Thanks for posting...maybe the evil will be exposed very soon.

:kick: for the donkey!