UK: Iraq dossier memos 'must be released'

 Memos and emails showing how the Government's Iraq war dossier was "sexed up" must be released, the information commissioner has ordered.  By Jon Swaine
Last Updated: 9:40AM BST 04 Sep 2008. Richard Thomas has told civil servants to hand over previously undisclosed statements by political figures, such as Downing Street press officers.

Comments about drafts of the dossier which were made between 11 and 16 September 2002 are clearly in the public interest, Mr Thomas said. The move comes after repeated requests made under the freedom of information act by Chris Ames, an investigative journalist. His requests had previously been turned down on the grounds of the protection of national security.  In his new ruling, Mr Thomas said the release of "comments arising from bodies other than the Defence Intelligence Staff" could not be considered a security risk. Confirming the existence of new material, Mr Thomas said: "Having considered the information which was withheld by the Cabinet Office, the commissioner is not satisfied that all of the comments on the draft dossier constituted information which engages the section 24 exemption [which relates to national security]". The dossier, which detailed Saddam Hussein's apparent weapons of mass destruction, was published on 24 September 2002 and set out the Government's case for the war commenced the following March. Its production was overseen by the then head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Sir John Scarlett. Claims that changes were made to the dossier to bolster the Government's case for war were at the centre of a row between No 10 and the BBC. In a report on Radio 4's Today programme, the journalist Andrew Gilligan said that intelligence sources had told him that a key claim - that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons in 45 minutes - had been inserted by No 10 to "sex up" the dossier. Amid a hunt by the Government for Mr Gilligan's source, Dr David Kelly, a Ministry of Defence weapons expert who had apparently met the journalist to discuss the dossier, committed suicide in Oxfordshire. The subsequent Hutton Inquiry into Dr Kelly's death found that Mr Gilligan's claim had been "unfounded."  It also found that Alastair Campbell, then No 10's top press officer, had made 11 changes to the dossier in the week before its publication. These included changing a passage stating that biological weapons "could be used" to "are capable of being used", and changing a detail that Saddam Hussein's sons "may have" the authority to launch chemical or biological weapons to state that they "have" the authority. Mr Ames told The Independent: "The commissioner has laid bare the Government's farcical cover-up, which included shamelessly playing the national security card. He has also given a strong hint that the Government has concealed evidence of sexing-up to save political embarrassment."