Former British prime minister Tony Blair privately assured former US president George W. Bush in letters written a year before the invasion of Iraq that Britain would “be there” in any US-led attack on the country, it was revealed at the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war in London on Tuesday.
The disclosure came during sometimes sharp exchanges with Alastair Campbell, Blair’s communications chief and close adviser, who described British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, then the chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister), as “one of the key ministers” Blair spoke to about Iraq.
In almost five hours of questioning, Campbell defended “every single word” in the Blair government’s now largely discredited dossier on Iraq’s banned weapons program. He also said Britain should be “proud” of its role in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and said Blair tried to get the conflict with Iraq resolved “without a shot being fired.”
Blair wrote “quite a lot of notes” to Bush in 2002 and their substance was not shared with the Cabinet, Campbell made clear. Asked if the then British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, knew their contents, Campbell replied: “I very much doubt if drafts went round the system ... They were very frank.”
Campbell said, however, that they were discussed with Sir David Manning, Blair’s foreign policy adviser.
He said the tenor of the letters was: “We share the analysis, we share the concern, we are going to be with you in making sure that Saddam Hussein is faced up to his obligations and that Iraq is disarmed.”
Campbell added: “If that cannot be done diplomatically and it is to be done militarily, Britain will be there. That would be the tenor of the communication to the president.”
Campbell also stoutly defended the September 2002 Iraqi weapons dossier which stated Saddam was continuing to build up a nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program — claims that were shown to be without foundation after the invasion. He insisted Sir John Scarlett, then chairman of the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee, was adamant throughout that he was “100 percent in charge” of the process of drawing up the dossier.
“At no time did I ask him to ‘beef up,’ to override, any of the judgments that he had,” Campbell told the inquiry. “John Scarlett said to me: ‘This is a document the prime minister is going to present to parliament, there are massive global expectations around it and I need a bit of presentational support,’ and that is what I gave him.”
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