Blair told of doubts about Iraq's WMD

LONDON - Tony Blair was aware of last-minute intelligence revealing that Saddam Hussein had probably dismantled his chemical and biological weaponry, a key adviser has said.

Sir John Scarlett, who was the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee in the run-up to the war, said that two reports received in March 2003, which suggested that Iraq's weaponry had been taken to pieces, were sent directly to the former Prime Minister.

He also said that Blair was made aware of doubts over Saddam's access to the warheads needed to deliver them.

Scarlett, who was responsible for the Government's dossier that claimed Saddam had weapons that could be used within 45 minutes, denied that he had come under pressure to "sex up" the document.

However, he admitted for the first time that a crucial part of the dossier was not clear about the threat posed by Saddam, meaning that the seriousness of the claim that the Iraqi leader could launch an attack was "lost in translation".

He told the Iraq inquiry that the document should have made clear that the 45-minute claim was only meant to refer to battlefield weapons and not those that could be used to attack other countries.

"The matter would not have been lost in translation, if it had been spelt out in the dossier that the word was 'munitions' not 'weapons'," Scarlett said.

He said the dossier had been based on "reliable and authoritative" intelligence, received at the start of September, that was "sufficiently authoritative to firm up whether or not Iraq did currently possess chemical and biological agents".

However, he distanced himself from Blair's foreword to the document, published in September 2002, which claimed that intelligence information meant that it was "beyond doubt" that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

Though Scarlett admitted he had seen the foreword, and even made several alterations to it, he concluded that it was "quite separate" from the contents of the dossier.

"The foreword was an overtly political statement by the Prime Minister so it was his wording and his comments throughout," he said.

On March 7, 2003, less than two weeks before the invasion, Scarlett confirmed that new evidence suggested that "Iraq had no missiles that could reach Israel and none that could carry germ or biological weapons".

A second piece of intelligence on March 17, and discussed at a meeting on the day before the invasion, said "chemical weapons had been disassembled and dispersed and would be difficult to reassemble".

Ed Davey, foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, attacked the inquiry team after it was revealed Scarlett would be giving more evidence in private.

He also said that the former MI6 chief's claim that there were no attempts to manipulate the September dossier "stretched credibility".

"The cursory level of questioning undertaken in public - and the announcement that further appearances will be behind closed doors - is deeply disappointing. It looks like the Chilcot Inquiry may have failed its first test on transparency."

- INDEPENDENT