Dismayed, but not Shocked

Unfound Weapons Put Bush, Blair Political Career At Stake

British MPs said Sunday that Blair and his strategy and communications adviser Alastair Campbell should be forced to appear before a parliamentary committee to explain why an intelligence dossier produced in March last year on Iraq was shelved, the Independent reported Monday, June 9.

The six-page report, from the Joint Intelligence Committee staff, said there was no evidence Saddam posed a significantly greater threat than in 1991.

It was written in the same month Campbell told journalists in America the Government would produce evidence within two weeks proving Saddam was building WMDs.

The report was delayed, but six months later Blair said Saddam was continuing to produce chemical and biological weapons.

Campbell admitted Sunday that the U.K.-drafted second dossier on Iraq?s alleged weapons had been embellished to justify war.

He wrote a personal letter apologizing to Sir Richard Dearlove, the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, for discrediting the service with the release to journalists last January of the "dodgy dossier." The dossier "had not met the required standards of accuracy", he said.