Blair admits he misunderstood "45-minute" claim in Iraq dossier

[Barrett808]

LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had misunderstood a key part of an intelligence dossier on Iraq which he used to persuade a sceptical nation to back a war to oust Saddam Hussein.

Blair told the House of Commons he had been unaware that the controversial "45 minute" claim in the government's September 2002 Iraq dossier referred only to tactical battlefield weapons, and not long-range ballistic missiles.

In a debate interrupted by anti-war protesters, Blair said he had not known what weapons were being referred to by the claim -- that Saddam could deploy some chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes -- when Britain voted narrowly to back the war.

"I have already indicated exactly when this came to my attention. It wasn't before the debate on March 18 last year," he said.

However, Blair, the staunchest international ally of US President George W. Bush in the Iraq conflict, defended the claim's inclusion in the dossier.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=afp/britain_iraq_inquiry

[Mari333]

1. Sooooooooooooo where does the buck stop?

Maybe its the Queen's fault! ya thats the ticket

[nonconformist]

11. Don't be silly!

The blame clearly falls square on Clinton's penis.

[Demonaut]

26. better than misunderestimating

those cigars looked suspiciously like aluminum tubes

[Seldona]

54. ROFL

Okay, I can finaly stop laughing and see through the tears.

What utter bs.

Have we collectively as a people really become so dazed that Blaire's. Rumsfeld's, and *'s shit is going to slide?

These guys make used car salemen credible. (no offense to used car salesman).

God I am hoping it isn't so, but I am losing faith quickly.

[Just Me]

63. C'mon, Tony! Now, you want to convince us you're gullible and stupid?

He and Powell seem to both be pleading gullibility and stupidity these days. Meanwhile, Cheney and Rummy are still saying, "we will find those WMDs", sticking with, perhaps even buying their own propaganda. AND THESE PEOPLE ARE IN CHARGE!!!! I wish they were "at will" employees of the people. They would get their pink slips like yesterday *LOL*.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. I think the meaning of that part of the dossier is

that Iraq could "launch" (i.e. restart) their weapons-of-mass-destruction-program-related-activities (WMDPRA's) on 45 minutes notice.

[cjbuchanan]

5. Oh, you make much sense

I'm sure that is what they meant to say.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

43. No, it means that IF,,, that is IF

they had missles, warheads, launchpads, fueling facilities, technicians to keep all that working

Then THEY COULD concievably have launched an attack 45 minutes after Saddam said so.

That is because the guy with the launch orders had to drive to the missle site in his 18-year-old Puegot and tell them in person.

But, since none of that stuff existed, it is all a moot point.

[Mari333]

6. It would be funny wouldnt it if over 500 kids werent dead

and thousands and thousands and thousands werent wounded or killed..
Thats when I want to see the sword of Damacles drop on these bastards.
No accountability on either side of the pond.

[grisvador]

68. and significant equipment

[pinto]

3. So where was the intelligence lapse? Was Blair skimming the Cliff notes?

This will stop, both sides of the Atlantic, and soon, I hope.

[joeunderdog]

23. "You said minutes? Not years? Ohhh. Never mind."

Is it better to admit to confusion or misrepresentation here? It's almost as bad a self-indictment to say that these little details weren't understood with true clarity as it is to just admit to lying.

Their defense for lying about WMD's is "We Screwed Up." Who gets off with that?

[cjbuchanan]

4. Oh give him a break

I mean why would anyone double check something that was to be his main argument for taking his country to war. Why take the time to ask "So they could hit England in 45 minutes?" I mean that's 8 words, who has the time for that.

I wonder how Blair sleeps at night?

[sushi]

I don't think

he sleeps well at night. That's why he is having health problems.

[truthspeaker]

57. he sleeps on a big pile of money

with a smile on his face

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. Blair's a back-peddlin'

stinkin' dog liar.

Blair, You lie like a dog.
You lie like a rug.
You lie like a dog on a rug.
..and your denials stink to high heaven.

[Rockholm]

8. 45 minutes is 45 minutes..

If my train (or plane) is leaving in 45 minutes, I know what that means. Good grief, these morons can't even lie good anymore.

[CatWoman]

9. If he is this stupid

he has NO business being prime minister.

[prolesunited]

18. My thinking EXACTLY!

If Bush and Blair are that easily confused and misled — which is their BEST defense at the moment — they don't have any business holding office.

Well, sorry we launched a war because we're incompetent. :mad: :mad:

Edit: Too mad to type straight

[salin]

20. Don't know why - but this particular statement

irks me more than a whole lot of pathetic things he and or bushco have said in the past two years. I have comeback to this same article about five times in the past 30 minutes... it just enrages me. It is so assinine - on so many levels - that it shows complete contempt for the public. Utter, arrogant, complete contempt.

[Jacobin]

39. Yes. Complete contempt for citizens

I've been searching for the words that explain what pisses me off so much about this elaborate ballet of lies and misdirection. It's not the mendacity so much as it is their expectation that people will actually believe this drivel.

Thank you for putting it in a nutshell for me

[roguevalley]

49. And the Beeb will be gutted for his lie and stupidity. God save us all.

[reticulatus]

10. Blair is a pathalogical liar

He realy BELIEVES what he says. He lives in a different world.

[Briar]

62. But Hutton says he is 100 per cent truthful!

Inspite of which, he really can't resist it, can he? Lies trip off his lips spontaneously. You'd think if he was going to tell this lie he would have first prepared Geoff Hoon, so he could avoid the subject or something. But no - he was spinning his usual fantasy about why war was necessary and why the BBC was evil to question any part of his white than white "evidence" and out it just popped. Just like that.

Robin Cook isn't letting it go, and Michael Howard is calling for the man to resign. But after Hutton they can't call Bliar a liar - the good judge says he is not. So our government and democracy continue to be warped out of shape trying to cope with this central problem - we can't tell the truth about Iraq. That drains every word spoken of credibility, because it is caught between the truth and the lie and can't get grounded in reality.

[salin]

12. And you didn't ask for clarification? You didn't ask if your

understanding of the dire implications were correct... and you made such an over statement over a misunderstanding and noone tried to correct you so you could make this qualification before smarming the public into war?

Right Tony. Very, very believable.

[Journeyman]

13. So, Tony! ASK QUESTIONS!

Nitwit.

[salin]

17. better yet... he just figured out this mistake.... NOW?

making himself look more and more foolish, isn't he.

[UpInArms]

14. now that is such a

pile of steaming shit.

Tony's made a huge mess on the carpet and no amount of scrubbing is going to get it out.

:mad:

[JohnyCanuck]

15. And even if it only referred to battlefield weapons,,

and not strategic missiles as the deluded Poodle thought, that was a LIE too.

[Malva Zebrina]

16. To this day I do not understand what Blair got out of all of this

I simply cannot understand why he joined arms with this idiot who is obviously below his own level of intelligence, and an lying idiot to boot, and, he slipped over to the dark side and became a liar along with the village idiot.

I do not understand why Blair did that. What on earth was the reward?

The Germans did not do it and neither did the French, the Russians or the Canadians or a whole lot of other countries.

What did Blair get out of this? Or hope to get out of it? It is not clear to me. It seems as if he deliberately committed political suicide to prop up the idiot Bush who has now hung him out to dry.

[Holly]

19. I'll never understand either

the only possible explanation that I've come up with, is that Tony wanted to maintain his "special relationship" with Bush*, and thought that he could position himself as the US/Europe uniter. I don't think that Tony actually believed that he'd be in this mess with Bush* alone. He didn't count on France, Germany, Russia and Canada having the courage that he doesn't possess. Tony Blair makes me sick.

[Briar]

66. He also didn't count on

the Bush administration's commitment to doing things their way, come what may. He may have thought that the famous powers of persuasion on which he so prides himself would have leveraged him a little bit of a say in the war itself and its aftermath. He can't have fully realised how just different and rigid the Bush way of seeing the world really is. So he came up against the Bushco's contempt for anything resembling international cooperation and law as well as anything which might seem to compromise their fiercely flaunted US sovereignty and couldn't budge it one little bit. So we got trapped on a macho, flag-waving ego trip which was set on imposing American values on the world and organising it for the good of the US (for its own good of course - what could be better than to be a province of the greater American Empire?).

[sushi]

21. Good question!

I would like to know the answer too.

[pinto]

22. the answer is in your question.

Whiff of Empire.

[Minstrel Boy]

29. Here's the answer:

United Kingdom Oil Production Curve (with discovery as a bar graph),
Association for the Study of Peak Oil, Newsletter 20, August 2002

http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/britainwhy.htm

And from the BBC, January 20, 2004:
Growing concern over gas imports

The UK is now the world's third largest consumer of natural gas, after the US and Russia.

Which brings us to the current reality. Britain is now running out of its own supplies of natural gas.

The North Sea reserves are drying up (some estimate by 2011), meaning we are going to have to start importing more and more of the stuff.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3401083.stm

[rocktivity]

65. England got a piece of Halliburton's action

I read something about England getting som defense industry manufacturing subcontracts.


rocknation

[PatrickS]

24. Blair is desperate

This "excuse" is 100% unbelievable!

[losthope]

25. He misunderstood???

Lets see, over 500 Americans dead, 10,000 wounded or injured and a countless number of Innocent civilians killed or injured because he misunderstood. He needs to be driven out on a rail.

[leftchick]

53. Janes says 22,000 evacuated since the start

of the invasion. I saw that posted a couple of days ago. Unfucking believable!

[Lorien]

27. Just following Smirk's lead

It's far easier to apologize than to ask permission. The goal has been obtained, so now it's "I had no idea! I was mislead! I misunderstood! It's (fill in the blank)'s fault! Hey-look at that celebrity"!

(white)wash, rise, repeat.

[AndyTiedye]

30. Blair Was Being Blackmailed

No other explanation even remotely makes sense.

[roguevalley]

50. Bush sent his personal lobby dude over and told Blair the USA would

crush him to death if he didn't play ball. There is a
thread somewhere on the DU that has links to stories.
Basically, Blair is a panty waist coward lying little
rat. Come to think of it, that makes him Bush.

[fizzana]

28. Pitiful doesn't even begin to describe this.

n/t

[Snappy]

31. ARROGANCE!!!!

We the people are seen as ignorant and stupid.

The carpet of lies is unraveling.

[cheapbeemr]

32. Excuse me Tony, what's your job again?

You're paid to understand this stuff asshole, to know the difference between a mortar and an ICBM.

Naw, he's just making Bush's mistake of thinking people are as stupid as he want's them to be.

[ignatius]

33. Oh give me a break, this was possibly THE most important

speech of his career, of any leaders career, to convince people to send their children to war, to be killed and kill and he did not understand what type of weapons he was referring to?

For God sakes man, step up to the plate and quit your little boy sniffling. It is becoming impossible to tell who is the biggest liar...I am waitin for the day when one of them breaks down and cries...

[stanwyck]

41. This is what happens when

you have guys in power who aren't used to doing their homework. Bush won't read newspapers and has to have complex issues...like invading sovereign nations...broken down into 2-3 paragraphs. Mistakes happen. How the hell did we get to this point?

[Rex]

34. Traitor!

Send him to the Tower!

From now on all these scum suckers IMHO are traitors and shall be called thus!

[knight_of_the_star]

35. What is there to misunderstand?

The claim seems pretty clear to me.

[4dsc]

36. Tell it to all who have died

for what appears to be another lie!!

[Holly]

37. Robin Cook knew..and said so

"But former foreign secretary Robin Cook, who quit the government because of his opposition to the war, expressed surprise about the idea Mr Blair was unaware of the nature of the weapons referred to.

"In my resignation speech I did make the very point that we were considering battlefield weapons and that Saddam probably had no real weapons of mass destruction," he said.

"I find it difficult to reconcile what I knew and what I am sure the prime minister knew at the time we had the vote in March."

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3460517.stm>

Funny, today Tony claims that he didn't understand, but Robin Cook knew and said so when he resigned. Tony Blair is a liar and a war criminal.

[truthspeaker]

58. by that argument, Robin Cook should be PM

Hey, there's a thought!

[Jacobin]

38. "details, details, details"

Heck, he was only convincing the country to go to war....no big thang.

Tactical, shmactical, 45 minutes, 45 years, what's the difference?

/sarcasm

[salin]

40. This is the same man... who after one of the big flaps (maybe the Kelly

suicide) went on the airwaves and claimed that he has spiritual guidance and had prayed on this decision and knew that what had been done had been right and that he was right with God. I believe he reiterated the dire threat to the world posed by saddam hussein.

Wonder what God thinks about using him to rationalize behavior to the public that leads to a war and thousands of deaths... that you now claim was based on "misunderstood" intelligence. Sorta makes that whole righteous proclamation seem rather silly.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

42. Wait... refresh my memory... wasn't Tony Blair the UK's rep

on the Arms Reduction Talks in the late 80's?

And he was appointed to that post due to his knowledge of arms control?

Hmmmmmm.

Yeah, maybe he forgot.

[loudnclear]

44. So, the leaders of the most powerful nations on earth don't understand

what they are talking about? Great!!!

If Blair didn't understand his script, then you know Bush doesn't understand his script right up to today.

[daleo]

45. How can these liars sleep?

The spies confused me...I don't understand English...bad BBC called me a name...the dog ate my dossier

[KeepItReal]

46. SADDAM HAD *NO* BALLISTIC MISSILES...at any time

The missiles he did have had ranges way less than 1000 miles meaning they were not threat to anyone outside the Middle East... That is/was common knowledge.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/missile.htm

[Voltaire99]

47. He's a quisling

Smarter by far than Bush, yet none the wiser!

[opiate69]

48. So, basically

He's admitting his ineptitude,then? Good... Get his stupid ass out of there.

[pinniped]

51. He didn't bother to get clarification?

?

[rman]

52. yeah, we figured it was exadurated, didn't make much sense then,

still doesn't make sense. That's why people called it 'sexed up'. I think you owe the BBC an appology.

[T_i_B]

55. If Tony knows not why he takes us to war...

...Then Tony should not be prime minister.

[bushisanidiot]

56. Claiming Ignorance is Something Blair Has In Common With the Chimp n chief

only, the chimp just laughs it off when he's wrong. he's the spoiled rich kid who has to go through the motion of turning in a paper to the teacher but the teacher knows she'd better not give him a failing grade else she'll see just what the CIA Director can do to her. blair doesn't have that ace in the hole like president AWOL does..

[truthspeaker]

59. but he does have an ace in the hole

The Labour Party is afraid that without Blair they'll lose parliament. Which is kind of weird because the Tories were even more pro-Iraq-war. If Labour would grow a spine they could dump Blair, repudiate the war, and be even more popular. Some of the backbenchers showed signs of backbone in the tuition fees vote. Hopefully that will continue.

[Spentastic]

60. Did they fuck

The key ones bent over again. Their spines are unfortunately pretty rubbery.

[muriel_volestrangler]

61. Oops, Cook's diary says Blair has now lied to Parliament

Mr Cook discussed Mr Scarlett's assessment with Mr Blair on March 5, at which point the prime minister appeared to agree that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction that could be used long-range, only battlefield ones. Mr Cook recalled Mr Blair telling him that, given the extent to which Saddam had gone to conceal these battlefield weapons, it would be "difficult for him to assemble them quickly for use".

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1056762,00.html

Also:
Howard calls for Blair to resign

"The prime minister's official spokesman accused the media of trying to re-write history by exaggerating the importance of the claim in the Iraq dossier that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk_politics/3460771.stm

The 45 minute claim is important, because battlefield weapons would only be used if we attacked Iraq. That's why Tony doesn't want to say he knew the idea was only for battlefields weapons; to do so would be to admit either they risked causing the use of the feared WMD, or that they didn't take the existence of WMD seriously at all.

The good news is that the BBC is still pursuing this strongly. It hasn't been completely cowed yet.

(PS: Spellcheck doesn't have 'WMD' in it. Does Bill Gates know something we don't?)

[salin]

64. Nice cross refencing of other stories that makes Blair's current

statements even more specious (as if they aren't specious enough standing alone...)

I believe there were also a few Blair advisors who asserted - a long time ago, that they believed that Blair and Bush had come to agree that Iraq must be invaded back in March of 2002 (the visit Blair made to the US and did some joint press appearances... when bush tried to state that there was an IAEA report that backed up their claims about the advanced state of the nuclear program... then had to backup and give qualifications (it was an old report)... and then never mentioned it again after the IAEA demonstrated that NO SUCH REPORT had ever existed...)

[Briar]

67. BBC News 24 isn't

Its bulletins lead with a mind-numbingly boring package on the interest rate rise followed by a piece on Hoon's evidence to that Commons committee. They've always been very cautious and establishment minded, of course. Nick Clark's World at One did a good job though - looks like BBC Radio 4 is still leading the field in terms of journalism.