What was the purpose of the September 2002 dossier on Iraqs weapons of mass destruction?
Alastair Campbell, who has just resigned as No 10’s director of communications, said a proposed dossier in the spring of 2002 was cancelled because it would “ramp up” expectations of a conflict. But when Tony Blair took the stand, he implied that he decided to publish in September to dampen down talk of war. “Literally every day there were stories appearing saying we were about to go and invade,” he said. “The aim of the dossier was to disclose our reasons for concern.” Later he said the dossier “was not making the case for war”. But Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, asked for a reference to Saddam’s willingness to use prohibited weapons if Iraq was under attack to be removed, because this could be used as an argument against war. How did the claim that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes get into the dossier? It has emerged during the inquiry that the intelligence was in fact hearsay: “an established and reliable line of reporting”, in t
