Scapegoating Blair?(Insider Report)

As it riled up the public for war against Iraq, the Bush administration frequently cited supposed findings by British intelligence to illustrate the purported danger represented by Saddam Hussein's alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. References to reports from British intelligence were included in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address, Colin Powell's presentation to the UN Security Council shortly thereafter, and numerous other public speeches by the president and his subordinates.

Extensive on-site searches in Iraq have found no WMDs to date. But even if WMDs are eventually found, it is clear at this point that the administration exaggerated both the size and imminence of the Iraqi threat to justify going to war. Prior to the invasion, President Bush hyped Saddam's regime as an existential menace to our nation; in a recent television interview, however, President Bush tacitly suggested that Iraq may not actually have possessed WMDs when he asked "What's the difference?" between possessing WMDs and trying to acquire them. (See "WMDs vs. WMD Programs: Does It Matter?" in our January 12 issue.) Just as significantly, the government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair is in serious political danger amid accumulating revelations that it knowingly misrepresented the Iraqi threat.

"The Secret intelligence Service has run an operation to gain public support for sanctions and the use of military force in Iraq," reported London's Sunday Times on December 28, 2003. "The government yesterday confirmed that MI6 had organized Operation Mass Appeal, a campaign to plant stories in the media about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction."

According to Scott Ritter, a U.S. Marine officer who ...