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Official: Britain Did Not Consider Iraq To Be Threat Before 2003 Invasion 76 days ago
(RTTNews) - The hearings in an inquiry into the reasons for Britain joining the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 entered a second day on Wednesday, with a senior official testifying that Britain was not much concerned about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime at the time of the invasion.
Sir William Ehrman, who was the the British Foreign Office's
director general for defense and intelligence between 2002 and 2004, told the inquiry commission that British concerns over Iraq in 2003 was far outweighed by concerns about similar threats from Iran, Libya, and North Korea.
He testified that intelligence reports had suggested then that Saddam Hussein's forces did not have the capability to deploy chemical weapons and did not posses war heads capable of spreading chemical agents.
"We were getting in the very final days before military action some [intelligence] on chemical and biological weapons that it was dismantled and [Iraq] might not have the munitions to deliver it," he said, stressing that there were "contradictory intelligence" reports as well.
"I don't think it invalidated the point about what weapons he had. It was more about their use. Even if they were disassembled the (chemical or biological) agents still existed," he added.
Insisting that intelligence reports played a limited role in the British government's decision to join the war, Sir Ehrman said that intelligence officials were surprised when no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were ever found in Iraq.
Also on Wednesday, Tim Dowse, the former head of counter-proliferation for the UK foreign office, told the inquiry commission that British intelligence agencies "did find some evidence of contacts between Iraqi officials and individual members of al-Qaeda in the late 1990s."
He, however, said that it became clear later that those contacts were "sporadic' in nature, while later intelligence reports indicated Iraq had "stepped further back" from the al-Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
Dowse also echoed Sir Ehrman's statements about the lack of Iraqi government's capability to deploy chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and that he believed Iraq's nuclear weapons ambitions had been contained by earlier sanctions.
The testimonies were made before an independent six-member panel probing the circumstances that led the country into the Iraq war and its subsequent role in the conflict. The panel is headed by Sir John Chilcot, a former civil servant, who has said that he hopes to conclude his report in late 2010.
The hearings began in central London on Tuesday, with panel chairman John Chilcot reiterating the independent nature of the inquiry. He said that no one will be put on trial, adding that his panel will not determine the guilt or innocence of any one involved in the decision making process concerning the Iraq war. He, however, stressed that his panel will "not shy away from making criticisms where they are warranted." In Tuesday's hearing, four senior diplomats and advisers gave evidence on the origin of the Iraqi war.
In the course of its inquiry, the panel will interview major decision-makers in key phases of the Iraq war, including former Prime Minster Tony Blair, who is scheduled to appear before the inquiry committee in January.
Blair, who was much criticized by many in Britain for backing former U.S. President George W. Bush in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has pledged to cooperate "fully" with the inquiry. His unpopularity over Britain's involvement in the Iraq war was one of the main reasons for his resignation in 2007.
Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, had announced in June that his government would launch an independent inquiry into Britain's involvement in the Iraq war. Though he had then stated that it would be held in secret due to national security reasons, Brown was forced to reconsider his decision following objections from various sources, including families of service men and women who had been killed in the conflict.
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