Sunday, July 18, 2004
Meanwhile, back at the old war... Downing Street secured vital changes to the Butler Report before its publication, watering down an explicit criticism of Tony Blair and the way he made the case for war in the House of Commons.The Telegraph has established that the disagreement between No 10 and Lord Butler's inquiry team centred on a passage in an original draft of the report about Mr Blair's statement to MPs in September 2002. The original passage drew a much clearer contrast than the final version of the Butler Report between the strong case for war made by Mr Blair and the weakness of the intelligence the Prime Minister received about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The changes secured by No 10 diluted the criticism of Mr Blair and helped Downing Street to mount its main defence - that the report showed that the Prime Minister was acting in good faith. (Italics mine)
So Downing Street officials lean on John Scarlett to change the Iraq dossier to say what they want, then they lean on the committee investigating that to say that nothing untoward happened.
So Downing Street officials lean on John Scarlett to change the Iraq dossier to say what they want, then they lean on the committee investigating that to say that nothing untoward happened.
