Tony Blair cleared of personal responsibility for Iraq war

Producer: Felix Tan
First broadcast: 15 July 04, Radio Singapore International

An inquiry into Britain’s justification for war in Iraq has found that the pre-war intelligence was flawed.

The inquiry, led by former top civil servant Lord Robin Butler, cleared British Prime Minister Tony Blair of any personal responsibility.

The Butler report says that ‘no single individual was to blame’ because it was ‘a collective operation’.

But shouldn’t the Prime Minister be partly responsible for depending so heavily on the pre-war intelligence data provided?

Felix Tan put that question to Dr. Joseph Siracusa (JS), of Griffiths University in Australia:

JS: “Well, yes, he should actually because at the end of the day, the Prime Minister, not unlike the President of the United States, is the ultimate user of the material. The Butler report looks very much like the Senate Intelligence Committee report that just came out in the United States, suggesting that the intelligence material or the intelligence product, they called it, was flawed and a lot of it was hyped up. But neither the American government nor the British commission looks at how the government actually used this material. In other words, the US Congress has left Bush off the hook the way the Butler report a little bit left Tony Blair off the hook. Now, the Butler report says just about the same thing as the US Senators - that the intelligence community is not doing a very good job - and of course, neither Bush nor Blair has fired anybody… I mean, heads should have rolled after 9/11, it should have rolled after it became obvious that this information was not used very correctly.”

But how would this reflect on British intelligence… shouldn’t, heads roll?

JS: “Yes! I think heads should roll, I mean, what really happened is that the British and the American intelligence relied very heavily on Iraqi dissidents for information. Neither the British nor the American had any, what they call it; human intelligence sources on the ground and it became, kind of, victims to people who have scores to settle. Now, mind you, Saddam Hussein has plenty of enemies who have plenty of scores to settle. There was a nervous excitement of reporting what was coming out of Iraq and I think the American and British intelligence community, and of course, the American Senate Committee said it was a worldwide failure, I think they overestimate the capabilities of Saddam Hussein and they underestimated their own ability of what they could do about it. And I think assumed too much when they attacked the place. But the point is heads should have rolled - it was an intelligence failure. And I think Mr Blair is a very lucky man because Butler… he let Blair very much off the hook.”

British Conservative leader Michael Howard has asked this question: Does Prime Minister Tony Blair has any credibility left now?

JS: “Well, I think he does still have some credibility left and in a sense, he has done nothing that disqualifies him being Prime Minister of Britain. He did not act capriciously or recklessly with the material that he was given. He pretty much looked at the information there and he sort of connected the dots - or as someone said, there were no dots to connect, but they did not know it at that time. Well, I do not think he has lost his credibility as a matter of fact.”

So, in this sense, does this mean that the Butler report actually absolves or does not put the blame on any individual or individuals… and what is going to happen next?

JS: “Let’s call the Butler what it is - it is a very, very delicate whitewash. I mean, no one has called it that, but that is what it is. I mean, if it is not a whitewash, then what did Dr. Kelly die for? This Butler report only assumed importance after Kelly had gone to the BBC to explain to them that that information was being hyped up, sexed up or rammed up, or whatever they wanted to call it. And I think the Butler report is a very delicate piece of whitewash, pretty much absolves… and you know what it says is the information was terrible, but we cannot blame you for using it. Well, the thing is that no one elected anyone in the British intelligence community, but people did elect Tony Blair. So, they will get the chance to say it at the polls what they think next time.”

There was Dr. Kelly who committed suicide and lives were lost as well in the Iraq war because of this false intelligence. So, what is the British government going to do about this?

JS: “Well, they will have to think more and more about using human assets, they are going to have to rethink about how they gather this intelligence… I mean, intelligence have the same history for the last two thousand years. You try to find out what your enemies do… it is about knowing your enemy. And I think the intelligence around the world has failed since 1990s… I mean, we really have a bunch of the blind leading the blind.