WE KNEW SADDAM WAS NO IMMINENT THREAT: BLAIR'S CHIEF OF STAFF

Last week, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, testified before the public inquiry looking into the circumstances surrounding the apparent suicide of Dr. David Kelly. Dr. Kelly was at the center of a storm about the government's case for the Iraq invasion between the prime minister's office and the BBC.

I'm not shocked that Powell's testimony didn't make news here in the US last week; we were more worried about Kobe Bryant and Arnold Schwazenegger. I'm surprised however that I missed this story when it came out as I usually read and listen to enough foreign media to avoid such lapses.

Shortly before the government's dossier making the case for the invasion was published last September, Powell wrote, "We will need to make it clear in launching the document that we do not claim that we have evidence that he [Saddam Hussein] is an imminent threat" to the west or even his Arab neighbors, reported The Guardian. Powell also wrote an email to the chairman of the joint intelligence committee stating the dossier "does nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent threat from Saddam."


This was written a week before the prime minister's impassioned speech to the House of Commons where he described Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program as "active, detailed, and growing ... It is up and running now."

Given the close coordination with the White House that the prime minister conceded of before the same inquiry, it's worth wondering how much of this the Bush administration was aware of when they hammered into us that Saddam presented a serious menace to ordinary Californians, Iowans and Rhode Islanders. Either they knew and didn't tell us or they were not informed. Either way, this certainly calls into question either the judgement or the competence of the Bush administration. To put it charitably.

It also makes you wonder. Without a suicide, there is no public inquiry. So if Dr Kelly hadn't apparently killed himself, would any of this have come out?

The full text of the illuminating and highly recommended article can be found by clicking here.