Did the infamous ‘dodgy’ dossier released before the invasion of Iraq damage the credibility of the intelligence services?
I think a lot of that falls on government. There’s been enough written to show the kind of pressure put on the intelligence machine to produce the dossier. I’ve always thought putting that kind of intelligence into the public domain is a bad idea because it’s continually changing. What you believe one day is not what you believe the next day because you have more information. All the caveats were omitted and the dossier was presented as fact. It damaged MI6 and the relationship between government and the intelligence services. You were openly critical of some of the Labour government’s moves on security – 42-day detention and ID cards. Did ministers overreact to 9/11 and then the 7/7 bombings? I did feel some of the things the government suggested were going over the top, and I was heartened that the Lords turned back the legislation (on 42-day detention). It’s a careful balance between civil liberties and security. The original reason given for ID cards was counter-terrorism, but that
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