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After all these years Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair's Press supremo, cannot tell the truth, he is still covering up for his master,
Shameless, swaggering and STILL lying: Alastair Campbell 'stands by every word' of 45-minute dodgy dossier that took us to war with Iraq
By Tim Shipman
Last updated at 9:21 AM on 13th January 2010
- We'll be there, Blair told Bush: Campbell reveals PM's secret letters pledging early support for war
In a provocative six-hour display, the spin doctor denied doing anything to 'beef up' the case for going to war.
And he dismissed the overwhelming evidence of government papers and his own diaries that he pressured spy chiefs to harden Tony Blair's 'dodgy' dossier on Iraqi weapons.
He put Sir John Scarlett - the former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee - in the dock over the dossier, saying he 'held the pen'.
Yet Mr Campbell's own diaries show that he 'bombarded' Sir John with at least 15 suggestions on how to improve the dossier, which led to assessments of Saddam's nuclear weapons programme becoming more alarmist.
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Yet he insisted yesterday that 'not a single one' of his team 'sought to question, override, rewrite, let alone the ghastly "sex up" phrase, intelligence assessments in any way, at any time, on any level.'
The former No 10 communications chief then defied critics of the war by insisting he was 'very, very proud' of his role - and made clear that Tony Blair will do the same when he testifies later this month.
He added: 'I defend every single word of the dossier, I defend every single part of the process.'
Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesman Ed Davey told the Mail: 'Alastair Campbell's denials of interference in the dossier were totally shameless.
'They fly in the face of evidence that has emerged from Freedom of Information requests, which provide emails and minutes which show he heavily influenced the dossier.'
Reg Keys, whose soldier son Tom was killed in Iraq, said: 'I believe he is a liar. He's lying to save his skin. He knows that the truth was massaged.
'He is party to the corruption of Parliament. He has no regrets. He has dumped on Scarlett. I totally expected it. He and Tony Blair have probably got together and said: "If you cover my back, I'll cover yours".'
Large chunks of Mr Campbell's evidence on the accuracy of the dossier flew in the face of claims made by previous witnesses that the intelligence on Saddam's weapons was patchy.
He dismissed the conclusions of the Hutton Report that spy chiefs 'subconsciously' fixed the dossier to support the government's political case.
Mr Campbell admitted chairing two meetings on the dossier but claimed he had been drafted in to provide presentational advice.
'At no time did I ever ask him to beef up, to override, any of the judgments that he had,' Mr Campbell said.
'John Scarlett was the person who, if you like, had the single pen.'
An anti-war protester makes a stance outside the inquiry yesterday
He even played down the importance of the emblematic 45-minute claim as 'not a big deal' and sparked incredulity when he said he did not 'obsess about headlines' surrounding the dossier.
But the spin doctor came under intense pressure from the Chilcot Committee over the foreword he wrote for Mr Blair which stated categorically that intelligence had shown 'beyond doubt' the threat from Saddam.
In a rare slapdown, Sir John Chilcot, the inquiry chairman, told Mr Campbell: 'Assessed intelligence never establishes anything beyond doubt.'
But Mr Campbell pointed the finger again at the intelligence community, saying Mr Blair had been led by his spy chiefs.
Panel member Sir Roderic Lyne then advanced a likely line of attack against Mr Blair, questioning his statement in the Commons that Iraq's
WMD programme was 'active, detailed and growing'.
'We have been through thousands of documents - intelligence reports - and the idea of growing doesn't really appear in them,' Sir Roderic told him, suggesting that Mr Blair had 'misled Parliament'.
Declarations: Tony Blair (L) delivers the dossier to the House of Commons on September 24, 2002, 12 days after President George W. Bush addressed the United Nations over Saddam Hussein and nuclear weapons
In response, Mr Campbell said Mr Blair believed the threat was growing.
Mr Blair's two foreign policy chiefs, Sir David Manning and Sir Nigel Sheinwald, have both expressed doubts that the cost in 'blood and treasure' was worth it.
But Mr Campbell said he had no such doubts and sought to depict Mr Blair as a man who made a moral choice to disarm Saddam.
'You can go back over it but I think, on the big picture, the leadership that he [Mr Blair] showed, the leadership that the British Government showed on this issue, I was privileged to be there and I'm very, very proud of the part I was able to play.'
Mr Keys, a founder member of Families against the War, condemned Mr Campbell's expressions of pride and called for Sir John Scarlett to be recalled to answer the spin doctor's claims.
'I find it distasteful and abhorrent that he said he was proud of a war in which more than 100,000 innocent Iraqis have died, along with 179 British servicemen killed and hundreds more were injured.
'The blood price of this conflict has been too high. The bottom line is that what they did was wrong and that is abundantly clear from what the previous witnesses have said.'
Norman Baker, an MP who has written a book about the war, accused Mr Campbell of resorting again to spin.
He said: 'All the evidence we have points in the opposite direction.
'All we have on the other side of the scales are Mr Campbell's empty assertions.'
We'll be there, Blair told Bush: Campbell reveals PM's secret letters pledging early support for war
Tony Blair sent George Bush secret letters promising that Britain would 'be there' and back a U.S. invasion of Iraq a year before the conflict.
The then Prime Minister wrote a series of 'very frank' private messages to the American President in the run-up to war which were never shown to key members of the Cabinet.
The revelation was the most important new fact to emerge from Alastair Campbell's testimony to the Chilcot Inquiry yesterday.
He was forced to admit that Mr Blair told Mr Bush America would not have to go it alone after the inquiry panel made clear they have seen the highly classified letters.
Mr Campbell said Mr Blair privately assured Mr Bush that he shared his view of the threat from Saddam Hussein.
Asked to describe Mr Blair's message, Mr Campbell said: 'We share the analysis. We share the concern. We are absolutely with you in making sure that Saddam Hussein faces up to his obligations, and that Iraq is disarmed.
'If that can't be done diplomatically, and it has to done militarily, Britain would be there. That would definitely be the tenor of his communications with the President.'
Mr Campbell admitted: 'The Prime Minister wrote quite a lot of notes to the President. They were very frank and advisory.'
The spin doctor said the letters were seen by himself and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw but conceded they were kept 'pretty private' from the rest of Whitehall.
Despite previous promises from the Chilcot Inquiry team to publish documents on which they are quizzing witnesses, inquiry staff said they had not known the letters were to form a centrepiece of Mr Campbell's testimony.
They refused to say if and when they might be released.
Their existence strengthens the case made by some - including former Washington ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer - that Mr Blair effectively indicated his willingness to go to war in a summit with President Bush at Crawford, his Texas ranch, in April 2002.
Sir Christopher had earlier told the Chilcot Inquiry they made a deal 'signed in blood'.
Mr Campbell insisted the former Prime Minister was committed to a diplomatic solution right up until March 2003.
But he launched a character assassination of Sir Christopher, claiming Mr Blair's U.S. envoy had got it wrong and accusing him of being 'churlish' in his approach to the Americans and 'glib' in his claims.
Mr Campbell said: 'I don't accept this analysis that at Crawford there was a fundamental shift in approach and policy by the Prime Minister.'
He added: 'The context that I am trying to give you is not that George Bush is saying to Tony Blair, "We have got to go to war". It was not like that at all.'
But he did admit Mr Blair was always temperamentally keen on removing Saddam and that military planning began on both sides of the Atlantic in the spring of 2002.
He said Mr Blair did not go to war 'because George Bush wants to do it'. 'This was his genuine belief, that Iraq had to be confronted over its continued defiance of the UN.'
The Department for International Development was frozen out of war planning because Tony Blair did not trust aid minister Clare Short, Mr Campbell revealed.
He said the Cabinet was composed of 'individuals of variable competence and trustworthiness in the Prime Minister's eyes'.
Miss Short, who resigned after the invasion over her opposition to the war, 'would, should and could have been involved in all those discussions' about how to handle post-war Iraq in an 'ideal world', he said.
Mr Campbell added: 'It was no secret that she was very difficult to handle at times. I think sometimes the military found her approach to them difficult to deal with.'
Propaganda chief 's ten big lies
Mr Campbell made several statements that have been directly contradicted by earlier witnesses - or by evidence unearthed in other inquiries. Here are ten of his most questionable claims:
CAMPBELL'S CLAIM: The Bush-Blair meeting at Bush's Crawford ranch in April 2002 did not pave the way for war. 'I don't accept this analysis that at Crawford there was a fundamental shift in approach and policy by the Prime Minister.'
REALITY: Former Washington ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer told the Inquiry that Blair and Bush made a deal 'signed in blood' at the meeting.
CLAIM: His team did not lean on the Joint Intelligence Committee to beef up the September 2002 dossier. 'Not a single one of them sought to question, override, rewrite, let alone the ghastly "sex up" phrase, its intelligence assessments in any way.'
REALITY: Mr Campbell made 15 suggestions to the JIC, most of which were accepted and led to a removal of intelligence caveats.
CLAIM: 'At no time did I ever ask [Sir John Scarlett] to beef up any of the judgments he had made.'
REALITY: Mr Campbell's own diary details how he 'bombarded' Sir John Scarlett with suggestions.
CLAIM: When he chaired meetings on the dossier in Downing Street, 'I think it was entirely appropriate and necessary for me to be there.'
REALITY: The Hutton Report concluded it was inappropriate for a spin doctor to take charge.
CLAIM: 'I defend every single word of the dossier', including the claims in Mr Blair's foreword that 'the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt' the threat from Saddam.
REALITY: Sir John Chilcot repeated the findings of the Butler Report that 'assessed intelligence never establishes anything beyond doubt'. Other witnesses have told the inquiry the intelligence was 'limited'.
CLAIM: The spies could have watered down Mr Blair's foreword. 'If John Scarlett and any of his team had had any concerns of real substance they could have taken that up with the Prime Minister.'
REALITY: Sir John Scarlett said the foreword was 'overtly political' and 'I didn't see it as something I would change'.
CLAIM: Tony Blair wanted the dossier to explain to the public that 'the intelligence picture being presented to him, he assessed that it did show a growing threat'.
REALITY: Inquiry member Sir Roderic Lyne said: 'We've been through thousands of documents and reports. The idea of "growing" doesn't really appear in them.'
CLAIM: Everyone in the intelligence agencies agreed with the dossier. 'John Scarlett, Richard Dearlove [chief of MI6] and others made clear that' media claims the spies did not support the dossier 'did not represent the view of the leadership or how most people in the agencies felt'.
REALITY: Several intelligence officials thought the dossier hyped up. Defence Intelligence Service analyst Brian Jones has said the whole DIS objected to the wording.
CLAIM: The claim WMD could be fired at Cyprus in 45 minutes was 'not that big a point'. Insists spin which made it on to the front of two papers wasn't 'pushed there by us'.
REALITY: The 45 minute claim was in Mr Blair's foreword and raised by him in the Commons. It was one of the few new 'facts' in the dossier. Campbell says he did not ask the media to correct 45 minutes story, something he was normally quick to do if he objected.
CLAIM: 'I have never obsessed about headlines.'
REALITY: The biggest laugh line of the day. Campbell is so obsessed that he spent the lunch break tweeting about media coverage of his testimony.
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