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Former Blair Aide Gives Evidence on War Motives During Britain's Iraq
Inquiry

   VOA News 12 January 2010
   Alastair Campbell, centre, former Director of Communications to former
   British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives to give evidence in Iraq War
   Inquiry at Queen Elizabeth conference centre in London, 12 Jan 2010

Photo: AP

   Alastair Campbell, centre, former Director of Communications to former
   British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives to give evidence in Iraq War
   Inquiry at Queen Elizabeth conference centre in London, 12 Jan 2010

   A  top  aide  to  former  British  Prime Minister Tony Blair has given
   evidence at an official inquiry into why Britain went to war in Iraq.
   Blair  aide  Alastair  Campbell  said  Tuesday that Mr. Blair sought a
   diplomatic solution right up until Iraq was invaded in 2003.
   Campbell also said current Prime Minister Gordon Brown was also a "key
   minister" with whom Mr. Blair would have discussed Iraq.
   Campbell  wrote  in  his  book  The Blair Years: The Alastair Campbell
   Diaries  in 2007 that the Blair Cabinet had serious doubts about going
   to  war with Iraq, on the eve of the parliamentary vote on joining the
   U.S.-led war.
   Mr.  Blair,  who  faces  questioning  in several weeks, says he stands
   behind  the decision to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein regardless
   of whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not.
   The  invasion  of Iraq was sold to the British Cabinet, parliament and
   to  the  public  on  the basis that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass
   destruction and could unleash them within 45 minutes.
   In  a  related  development,  an independent Dutch commission reported
   Tuesday  that  the  Netherlands' participation in the 2003 invasion of
   Iraq was not justified by UN resolutions.
   Relatives  of  British soldiers killed in Iraq and anti-war protesters
   have  long  argued that the British government distorted intelligence,
   including unsubstantiated claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction,
   to justify the war.
   Britain  deployed  45,000  troops  to Iraq in 2003 to take part in the
   U.S.-led invasion.

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