Blair's first Iraq weapons dossier used Internet material

3.00pm

LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair's first Iraq weapons dossier used material culled from the Internet to buttress his government's case for war - just like the now discredited second, "dodgy" dossier.

An examination of the document released by Downing Street last September shows at least six separate items about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction were lifted from reports which were then up to 19 months old.

The revelation will be acutely embarrassing for the Prime Minister who only this week robustly defended the September dossier to MPs, and insisted it supported the need for military action.

Blair's combative rearguard action followed scathing criticism by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the second dossier, produced in February, in which intelligence was mixed with other material, including a student's Phd thesis.

The plagiarised documents were used to buttress claims that Saddam was aggressively pursuing a policy of acquiring chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and using them.

They included ballistic missiles; unmanned drones; nuclear programmes; "dual use" of civil material and equipment for military use; maps showing how British bases in Cyprus were within range of Iraqi missiles and Saddam's supposed plan for regional domination.

In his foreword to the first dossier - Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction - Blair says " The document published today is based, in large part, on the work of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). The JIC is at the heart of the British Intelligence machinery. Its work, like the material it analyses, is largely secret. It is unprecedented for the Government to publish this kind of document".

However, although it may be unprecedented for the Government to have published the material, much of it was freely available in the Internet for anyone who cared to look.

In particular, the dossier appears to have drawn heavily from three sources in the public domain.

They are a briefing paper by William Cohen, US defence secretary in the Clinton administration, in January 2001 ; the appearance before the Senate Select Committee on intelligence by George Tenet, the CIA director, the next month; an unclassifed CIA report to Congress covering the period 1 July to 31 December 2000 and a report on Iraq by the International Institute for Strategic Studies published in London last September.

Under the heading "Recent Intelligence", the Downing Street dossier reveals that Iraq was developing " Al-Samoud/Ababil-100 ballistic missiles", and Saddam Hussein's regime had the "technical expertise" to fit them with "chemical and biological warheads".

However, 19 months previously the unclassified report to Congress notes that parts of the supposedly secret project had been in a public parade in Baghdad.

The report states " We believe the development of the liquid-propelland Al-Samoud SRBM probably is maturing".

It adds that this is suggested by the " four Al-Samoud transporter-erector-launchers( TELS) with airframes at the 31 December Al Aqsa Cal parade."The report continues that the development of the "Ababil-100 SRBM...may be moving ahead rapidly", and points out that two TELS for this missile were also at the parade.

The Iraqis could have used such ballistic missiles, armed with chemical and biological weapons against its neighbours.

Among those under such threat would have been British and American personnel in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The "threat" posed by " current and planned/potential ballistic missiles" is shown in a map in the Blair dossier.

Significantly, it shows Cyprus with its British bases and holidaymakers within range.

This was used by Government ministers to show British targets were in Saddam's line of fire.

The map is, to all purposes, identical to one in Cohen's report, and also to one in the IISS report published two weeks before the Blair dossier.

The dossier also highlights the chemical and biological threat with the claim that Iraq " has attempted to modify the L-29 jet trainer to allow it to be used as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) potentially capable of delivering chemical and biological agents over a large area".

This was already mentioned by Cohen " However, Iraq has continued to work on its UAV program, which involves converting L-29 jet trainer aircraft originally acquired from Eastern Europe.

These modified and refurbished L-20s may be intended for the delivery of chemical or biological agents".

The CIA report to Congress states: " Iraq has continued working on its L-29 unmanned aerial Vehicle (UAV) program, which involves converting L-29 jet trainer aircraft...These refurbished trainers are believed to have been modified for delivery of chemical, or more likely, biological warfare agents."The Downing Street dossier repeatedly stresses Iraq's nuclear ambitions.

" ....Iraq retained, and retains, many of its experienced nuclear scientists and technicians who are specialised in the production of fissile material and weapons design.

Intelligence indicates that Iraq also retains the accompanying programme documentation and data."The dossier also makes the claim that Iraq was trying to acquire "significant quantities of uranium from Africa", the inference being that with the expertise already there, the prospect of a nuclear arsenal for Saddam was not far away.

The African uranium claim, since rejected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, is not in the other documents.

However, Cohen's report says " Although Iraq claims that it destroyed all of the specific equipment and facilities useful for developing nuclear weapons, it still retains sufficient skilled and experienced scientists and engineers as well as weapons design information that could allow it to restart a weapons program."The Downing Street dossier maintains that Saddam was benefiting from "dual use" items --- which can have both civil and military use.

" Other dual-use facilities, capable of being used to support the production of chemical agent and precursors, have been rebuilt and re-equipped.

New chemical facilities have been built, some with illegal foreign assistance, and are probably fully operational or ready for production.

The report to Congress has, however, already stated " Iraq appears to be installing or repairing dual-use equipment at CW-related facilities.

Some of these facilities could be converted fairly quickly for production of CW agents".

".....It (the regime) has attempted to purchase numerous dual-use items for, or under the guise of, legitimate civilian use.

This equipment....could also be diverted for WMD purposes".

Another claim in the Downing Street dossier was that " Saddam continues to attach great importance to the possession of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles which he regards as being the basis for Iraq's regional power.

He is determined to retain these capabilities".

Like the other items, there are echoes in past documents.

Tenet told the Senate Committee " Our most serious concern with Saddam must be the likelihood that he will seek a renewed WMD capability both for credibility and because every other strong regime in the region either has it or is pursuing it.

Cohen's report states " Iraq believes NBVC weapons and ballistic missiles are necessary if it is to reach its goal of being the dominant power in the region".

Meanwhile Saddam Hussein and Ali Hassan al-Majid, also called 'Chemical Ali,' are hiding in an area of lush farmland and small villages on the Tigris river between Baghdad and the city of Samarra, according to a former senior Iraqi intelligence officer.

Gen Wafiq al-Samarrai, head of Iraqi military intelligence before he went into exile, who is assisting US forces in the hunt for Saddam Hussein, said the former Iraqi leader has been able to escape capture in this part of Iraq because it is heavily populated and has thick vegetation.

"He is hiding in an area about 60 km long and about 20 km wide, according to my information," Gen al-Samarrai told The Independent in an interview in his house in Samarra. He said that Ali Hassan al-Majid, a senior member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle notorious for using poison gas against the Kurds, is also there but moving separately from the former Iraqi ruler.

The US is giving top priority to its search for Saddam Hussein, for whom it has offered a reward of $25 million, believing that the failure to capture or kill him is destabilising the occupation and encouraging guerrilla attacks.

Gen al-Samarrai, an influential figure in his home city of Samarra, has always been exceptionally well informed about the actions of Saddam Hussein and his senior lieutenants.

In charge of Iraqi military intelligence on Iran during the Iran-Iraq war he was head of military intelligence during the first Gulf War before fleeing to the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq in late 1994. Other Iraqi opposition leaders have said they believe that Saddam Hussein, who disappeared after the fall of Baghdad on 9 April, is hiding a little further to the east near the town of Baquba. But Gen Samarrai is certain that he is in an area which "starts 30km south of Samarra and ends about 30km north of Baghdad."

He said Saddam Hussein has not chosen to hide near al-Ouja, his home village, nor the nearby city of Tikrit, because it is not so heavily populated and is more barren, making concealment more difficult.

Gen al-Samarrai's pursuit of the former Iraqi leader has already led to retaliation. Late at night ten days ago a rocket-propelled grenade was fired into the side of his house, making a small crater in the cement above a window.

The attacker, who fired from a road running past the house, then escaped on a motorcycle.

"I had information that somebody might try to kill me 48 hours before it happened," said Gen al-Samarrai. "But I thought they would try to shoot me in the street."

He is surrounded by armed bodyguards, many of whom are his relatives. Ali Hassan al-Majid and Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, another long-time close aide of Saddam Hussein, were both reported to have been in Samarra seeking false identity papers just after the end of the war.

Gen al-Samarrai said that Ali Hassan al-Majid visited Samarra about a week ago and the US launched a search operation but failed to find him. Gen al-Samarrai does not believe that the death or capture of Saddam Hussein will end the rash of guerrilla attacks against US forces.

He said:"Saddam plays a very, very small role in this. Most of the attacks are by Islamic groups, former military men who are no longer being paid and members of the Baath party." He said the operations they are carrying out are not very large, but there are many of them, at least three or four a week in Samarra alone.

In the final years of the Iran-Iraq war and during the Gulf War Gen al-Samarrai was a close adviser to Saddam Hussein. But when he fled the Iraqi leader bulldozed one house he owned in Samarra - now being rebuilt -- and confiscated another which the former intelligence chief has just repossessed.

He said he had no information on the whereabouts of Uday and Qusay, the sons of Saddam Hussein. At the time of the capture of Baghdad the Iraqi ruler is reported to have split from them so as to more easily evade capture. Gen al-Samarrai said that Saddam Hussein only has a small group with him.

He believes the capture of Abed Hamid Mahmoud, the Iraqi leader's private secretary, on the outskirts of Tikrit, shows that the men who once ruled Iraq "are in a state of confusion."

- INDEPENDENT


Herald Feature: Iraq