Blair's secret Iraq support letters to Bush
Updated on 12 January 2010
Tony Blair wrote secret letters to George W Bush vowing that Britain would "definitely" back the United States in attacking Iraq, former communications director Alastair Campbell revealed today.
Mr Campbell, who worked at Downing Street between 1997 and 2003, told the Iraq Inquiry today that Blair had written personal letters - as early as 2002 - to his US counterpart to assure him of Britain’s support for military action against Saddam Hussein. The US and Britain led an invasion of Iraq the following year, in March 2003.
Asked to describe Mr Blair's private message to Bush, Campbell told the inquiry: "We share the analysis. We share the concern.
"We are absolutely with you in making sure that Saddam Hussein faces up to his obligations, and that Iraq is disarmed.
"If that can't be done diplomatically, and it has to done militarily, we would definitely be there. That is the tenor of his communications with the president."
Campbell said the message was contained in letters written by Mr Blair personally and kept "pretty private", not made part of the normal Whitehall system of document-keeping.
The fact the Blair was offering military support to the US, months ahead of winning parliamentary backing for such a campaign, will be seen by many as controversial.
Campbell also told the inquiry he had played no role in trying to "beef up" the government's case for military action against Saddam Hussein.
He said he had been cleared of any attempt to "question, override, rewrite let alone...sex up" intelligence assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programme that appeared in the government's September 2002 dossier.
The phrase "sex-up" was a reference to allegations made on BBC Radio in May the following year, after which the phrase's alleged source - the government weapons expert Dr David Kelly - apparently committed suicide.
"At no time did I ever ask [Joint Intelligence Committee chairman Sir John Scarlett] to beef up, to override, any of the judgments that he had," Campbell told the panel.
"At no point did anybody from the prime minister down say to anybody within the intelligence services 'You have got to tailor it to fit this judgment or that judgment'. It just never happened."
Campbell also said the prime minister had been right to tell parliament that the Iraqi WMD program was "active, detailed and growing" in September 2002 - even though committee member Sir Roderic Lyne suggested that there was no intelligence to back up the allegation.
He said: "The prime minister did see Iraq as a unique threat, in part because of its history and its use of chemical weapons, in part because of the means it had deployed to obstruct the United Nations to conceal the weapons programme. He did see that as a growing threat."
Intelligence "beyond doubt"?
Campbell was also pressed on whether a crucial statement in the foreword to the September 2002 dossier was backed up by intelligence reports.
The foreword, signed by Tony Blair, said: "I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt... Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons, that he continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons, and that he has been able to extend the range of his ballistic missile programme."
Campbell said this was the prime minister "giving his assessment of the assessments that have been given to him".
"When it comes to it, you can have all the advisers you want, military advisers and the diplomats, and the rest of it, but [the prime minister] to make judgements, strategic and political, and present those to the public based on his assessment of what the intelligence chiefs are telling him," said Campbell.
But Sir Roderic Lyne suggested Blair had overstated the case based on the intelligence briefings the inquiry had seen.
"If the JIC assessments when we are able – I don't know if we are able to publish them – but certainly we read them, were not to correspond to the phrase "beyond doubt", and if members of the JIC, and we've already heard from someone who did serve on the JIC, Sir William Ehrman , were to say that "beyond doubt" was not a phrase that was justifiable, would you say at that stage that parliament was misled by the PM saying beyond doubt?" asked Sir Roderic.
"No, I wouldn't," Campbell replied.