UK knew Iraq was not threat before invading it
Iraq-UK, Politics, 12/16/2006

Britain's Mission to the United Nations in New York frequently warned the US that overthrowing Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq would lead to a chaos, according to previously suppressed testimony.

The testimony from Carne Ross, responsible for Iraq policy at the mission, said that during his posting between December 1997 and June 2002, at "no time" did the British government assess Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed a threat to the UK or its interests.

"On the contrary, it was the commonly-held view among the officials dealing with Iraq that any threat had been effectively contained," Ross said in previously unreleased evidence given to the 2004 Butler inquiry into intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons.

He told the inquiry that he remembered "on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US, (who agreed)." "At the same time, we would frequently argue, when the US raised the subject, that "regime change" was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos," the diplomat said in his testimony published in the Independent newspaper Friday.

The evidence, which adds to the controversy of why the UK joined the US in invading Iraq in 2003, was previously not released because Ross was threatened with being charged with breaching the country's Official Secrets Act.

The diplomat was subsequently posted to Kosovo after resigning from his UN post because of his misgivings about the legality of the war.

In his testimony, he also disputed UK claims about Iraq's threat saying there was no evidence of "significant holdings" of chemical or biological weapons in the possession of Saddam prior to the invasion.

"There was, moreover, no intelligence or assessment during my time in the job that Iraq had any intention to launch an attack against its neighbors or the UK or the US," he added.

The Butler report criticized failings by British intelligence over Iraq and the thinness of evidence used in the government's 2002 dossier warning about Saddam's threat, but came to the conclusion that not one individual was to blame.

Previous Stories:
  David Cameron : Iraq deteriorating security situation casts dark shadow   (12/2/2006)
  Backing Iraq war 'my biggest political mistake,' says ex-minister   (12/2/2006)
  Iraq war Blair's 'big mistake,' says minister   (11/18/2006)

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