The Hindu : Blair to announce inquiry plans `shortly'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 03, 2004

International

International

Blair to announce inquiry plans `shortly'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, FEB. 2. Faced with mounting pressure to order a U.S.-style inquiry into intelligence failure over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the British Government indicated today that it would announce "shortly'' plans to address the issue, but gave no details.

The announcement came, as for the first time the Government admitted that there was "need'' to find out why no weapons of mass destruction had been found. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair's official spokesman said there was need to address "vital questions'' about the failure to find the WMDs and to see how this squared with the intelligence ahead of the war.

So far, Mr. Blair has resisted calls for an inquiry but the U.S. decision to appoint a commission has put him under renewed pressure and the Tories have decided to table a motion in the Commons tomorrow to demand an independent investigation into intelligence claims about the threat from Saddam Hussein.

The Leader of the Opposition, Michael Howard, said it was of "utmost importance'' to find out what went wrong.

"I hope that Tony Blair won't continue to be the odd man out on this. Everybody now recognises that something went wrong over the intelligence and it is very interesting that it looks as though President Bush is going to hold an inquiry. I think we do need one here," he told GMTV.

Downing Street said it was in "close discussion'' with the U.S. Government but would not comment until an official announcement was made in Washington.

There was speculation that the Government was likely to let the intelligence agencies take the blame by insisting that it acted on information provided by them. Peter Hain, a senior Cabinet Minister and Leader of the Commons, gave a hint of the Government's likely defence when he told the BBC: "I saw evidence, it was categoric, on Saddam possessing chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction... That informed our decision to go to topple him. I think we were right in doing so. But let's wait and see what the jury finds.''

Mr. Blair is expected to have a rough ride when he appears before the cross-party liaison committee of senior MPs tomorrow.

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