No Iraq WMDs, Blair concedes

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair today conceded it was increasingly
clear Saddam Hussein had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction,
as his credibility was called into question.

Like Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Mr Blair’s central
justification for going to war in Iraq was to rid the country of illicit
weapons.

However, he had little choice but to admit Saddam had not stockpiled
weapons after a long-awaited report by former top British civil servant
Lord Butler found that, before the outbreak of war in March 2003, Iraq
"did not have significant, if any, stocks of chemical or biological
weapons in a state fit for deployment or developed plans for using them".

Mr Blair’s admission was a step further than Mr Howard has ventured.

"I have to accept, as the months have passed, it seems increasingly
clear that at the time of invasion Saddam did not have stockpiles of
chemical or biological weapons ready to deploy," Mr Blair said, before
insisting he did the right thing in sending Britain to war.

"I cannot honestly say I believe getting rid of Saddam was a mistake at all.

"Iraq, the region, the wider world is a better and safer place without
Saddam."

In a speech to parliament on February 4 last year, Mr Howard based much
of his argument for going to war on the need to stop Iraq’s weapons of
mass destruction program.

He has repeatedly denied he misled Australians about Iraq’s weapons
capabilities and said he based his words on the assessment of Australian
intelligence agencies, which received much of their information from
British and US sources.

The Butler report had some positives for Mr Blair and Mr Howard, backing
the British government’s claim it had intelligence that Iraq had sought
uranium in Africa, and that the claim was not based on forged documents.

Mr Howard also used the argument Iraq had tried to buy uranium from
Africa to support his case for war.

For Mr Blair, this week was supposed to be the worst of his political
life, with some predicting the Butler report could be enough to tip him
over the edge.

But instead of contemplating quitting Britain’s top job, he took
advantage of every escape hatch offered by Lord Butler.

By the time he entered the House of Commons to make his response to the
report, Mr Blair had 24 hours to pore over the words and fine tune his
reply.

"No one lied," he declared.

"No one made up the intelligence. No one inserted things into the
(September 2002) dossier against the advice of the intelligence services."

He was smiling and confident as he relayed to the nation he did his best
to deliver information in good faith.

He stressed Lord Butler had in no way found himself or his government
guilty of deliberate exaggeration.

It was a repeat of his handling of the Hutton inquiry, which was handed
down in January.

But Mr Blair didn’t escape the bite of Tory leader Michael Howard, who
reminded the country the Butler report was highly critical of British
intelligence-gathering in Iraq.

"Mistakes were made and you accept responsibility," Mr Howard said.

"It isn’t a question of responsibility, it is a question of credibility.

"Do you have any credibility left?"

Mr Blair bluntly told the Tory leader he should be concentrating on
making Iraq a better place rather than indulging in point-scoring. (AAP)

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