3.3 |
Development of UK strategy and options,
April to July 2002
207.
Asked whether
the UK should only take action in accordance with international
law,
Mr Blair
replied:
“Yes,
certainly I agree we should act, as I hope this country always
does, in
accordance
with international law.”97
208.
Asked whether
there was any evidence linking Saddam Hussein with Al
Qaida,
Mr Blair
replied that “as far as he was aware there was no evidence linking
Saddam
Hussein to
the actual attack on 11 September”; there were “various rough
linkages”
to
Al Qaida. The issue (on Iraq) was “weapons of mass
destruction. It is not what
happened on
11 September or the Al Qaida terrorist network.”98
209.
Asked what had
changed since President Bush took office, Mr Blair
replied:
“… First …
it is clear that Saddam Hussein is still trying to develop weapons
of
mass
destruction. Secondly … weapons inspectors where he is still
refusing to
abide by
the UN resolutions … as more negotiations go on and he fails to
comply
and you
know that he is developing these weapons of mass destruction, then
over
a period of
time you are entitled to draw the conclusion that this threat is
growing
not
diminishing. In addition … our pilots are in action virtually every
day over Iraq …
fourth on
11 September you can say either ‘this is a one off event …’ or you
can say,
as I would,
‘there are lessons which should be learned from it’ … What we
should
learn … is
that if there is a gathering threat or danger let us deal with it
before it
materialises
rather than afterwards … people can get the idea that all the
decisions
have been
taken … They have not been but there is a threat … The options
are
open but we
do have to deal with it …”99
210.
Mr Blair also
told Mr Anderson that there would be documentation setting out
the
nature of
the WMD threat and that:
“The only
reason we have not published some of this documentation before is
that
you have
got to choose your time … otherwise you send something rocketing up
the
agenda when
it is not necessarily there. Certainly if we do move into a new
phase,
yes, of
course, we will publish.”100
211.
Asked whether
Parliament would be consulted before British troops were
deployed,
Mr Blair
replied: “… we will keep up detailed consultations with Parliament
… We will
keep the
House very, very closely involved indeed.”
212.
Mr Anderson
stated that “the special relationship with the US is clearly the
key part
of our
security policy and the closeness, the unwillingness to criticise
is justified by the
97
Minutes,
Liaison Committee (House of Commons), 16 July 2002, [Evidence
Session], Q 96.
98
Minutes,
Liaison Committee (House of Commons), 16 July 2002, [Evidence
Session], Q 97-98.
99
Minutes,
Liaison Committee (House of Commons), 16 July 2002, [Evidence
Session], Q 99-100.
100
Minutes,
Liaison Committee (House of Commons), 16 July 2002, [Evidence
Session], Q 87-88.
39