BRITAIN: Mr Tony Blair defeated a first Commons move last night to force a judicial inquiry into his government's handling of secret intelligence reports in the build-up to the war with Iraq. Frank Millar, London Editor, reports
Only 11 Labour MPs backed the Liberal Democrat motion at the end of a dramatic day at Westminster which saw the British Prime Minister invoke the full authority of the Joint Intelligence Committee to again reject claims that intelligence reports were changed on orders from 10 Downing Street to strengthen the case for war against Saddam Hussein.
In an uncompromising performance during Question Time in the Commons, Mr Blair confirmed that an inquiry by parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee was already under way into the question of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. He said that he would make all intelligence material available to the committee.
However, as he battled to contain a fresh storm provoked by a suggestion from the Leader of the Commons, Dr John Reid, that "rogue elements" in the security services were briefing against the government, Mr Blair told MPs: "I have confirmed with the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee that there was no attempt at any time by any official or minister or member of No 10 Downing Street staff to override the intelligence judgment made by the Joint Intelligence Committee."
Mr Blair was making his first Commons appearance since the controversy was fuelled by claims by unnamed intelligence sources that the security services had been ordered to "sex up" evidence about Iraq's military capability - and, in particular, information that the Iraqi regime could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. Mr Blair made this claim in the foreword to a government dossier published last September and subsequently in the Commons.
However, in the Commons yesterday, Mr Blair flatly refused to withdraw this assertion. To the contrary, he told MPs that the claim "was a judgment made by the Joint Intelligence Committee and by them alone". And to the suggestion that the information was based on the uncorroborated report of one Iraqi defector, Mr Blair insisted that it had in fact come from "an established and reliable source".
In a vigorous defence of his government's policy on Iraq, Mr Blair reminded MPs that the international community had accepted that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) before the conflict. He repeated that an expanded team of some 1,400 personnel from the US, UK and Australia was only now able to step up the search for evidence of WMD and he again expressed his confidence that they would find this evidence.
Despite the acknowledgement by the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, that WMD might never be uncovered, Mr Blair told the House: "I have absolutely no doubt at all that they will find the clearest possible evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." And, in a defiant retort to his own Labour critics, Mr Blair told MPs they should be proud that, in addition to the threat posed by Saddam's WMD, "the people of Iraq are delighted that a brutal dictator that murdered hundreds of thousands of people is gone".
However, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats challenged Mr Blair on Dr Reid's suggestion that the government was itself the victim of "skullduggery" by rogue elements within the security services who were out to "settle scores" with the prime minister and his communications director, Mr Alastair Campbell.
As Number 10 played down Dr Reid's remarks, and said that he and other ministers were not suggesting "some sort of conspiracy by the intelligence agencies per se", Mr Blair conspicuously chose not to repeat Dr Reid's charge. Instead, he paid tribute to the "professionalism and integrity" of the security services.
The Conservative leader, Mr Iain Duncan Smith, branded Dr Reid's comments "disgraceful" and declared: "The truth is that nobody now believes a word that the Prime Minister says." Despite his enthusiastic backing for the war,
Mr Duncan Smith now insists that only a full judicial inquiry under the terms of the Tribunals of Inquiry Evidence Act can restore public confidence in the way that the intelligence material was handled.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, saying that public scepticism would be increased by Dr Reid's claims, challenged Mr Blair: "Who are the public to trust if the government are letting it be known that they can't wholeheartedly trust their own intelligence services?"
However, the former Leader of the Commons, Mr Robin Cook, who resigned in opposition to the war, accused Dr Reid of "running around lighting bush fires" in an attempt to divert attention from the central charge against the government.