3.2 |
Development of UK strategy and options, January to April 2002 –
“axis of evil” to Crawford
201.
The details
provided by Mr Straw about Iraq’s programmes are
addressed
in Section
4.1.
202.
A briefing
paper prepared at Mr Straw’s request was sent to members of
the
Parliamentary
Labour Party and to the members of Cabinet. That described Iraq
as
a threat to
the international community and its WMD programmes as
“massive”.
203.
A briefing
paper on Iraq was prepared at Mr Straw’s request by his Special
Adviser,
204.
The paper
provided more detail on the arguments for addressing the Iraqi
regime
as “a
demonstrable threat to the stability of the region”, which Mr Straw
had set out in
his article
in The
Times, including
the key elements of the strategy of containment,
Iraq’s
failure to
comply with most of the 27 obligations imposed in UN resolutions,
and criticism
of Iraq’s
“notorious” human rights record.69
205.
In response to
the question: “Are you preparing for military action against
Iraq?”,
the paper
stated:
“We cannot
ignore the threat Iraq poses to the international community through
its
massive
programme of development of weapons of mass
destruction.”
206.
The statements
in Dr Williams’ paper on Iraq’s WMD, in particular the accuracy
of
the
statement that Iraq had the potential to develop a crude nuclear
device in about five
years if
its programmes remained “unchecked”, are addressed in Section
4.1.
207.
Mr Straw’s
Private Office signed a letter to members of Cabinet on 6
March,
suggesting
that they might find the briefing paper on Iraq, which had been
prepared
for the
Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), “useful
background”.70
208.
On 6 March,
Mr Blair published an article setting out why Iraq was
still
a threat
to the UK.
209.
An article by
Mr Blair, ‘Why Saddam is still a threat to Britain’, was published
in the
Daily
Express on 6 March, in
which Mr Blair wrote that “we now have to face the
fact
that there
are irresponsible states which either have, or are actively
seeking, biological,
chemical
and nuclear weapons”.71
That was a
threat which President Bush had “rightly
highlighted”
in his State of the Union speech on 29 January.
210.
In relation to
the threat posed by Iraq, Mr Blair wrote:
•
We “know …
from his own history that Saddam Hussein … has mass
destruction
weapons and
will use them …”
68
Statement,
9 January 2011, page 5.
69
Paper
Williams, 5 March 2002, ‘Iraq Briefing’.
70
Letter
Sedwill to Rycroft, 6 March 2002, ‘Iraq: Cabinet
Discussion’.
71
Daily
Express, 6 March
2002, Why Saddam
is still a threat to Britain.
421