4 |
Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction
13.
The Inquiry
was established by Lord Falconer of Thororton, the Secretary of
State
for
Constitutional Affairs, on 18 July 2003:
“urgently
to conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the
death of
14.
Lord Hutton’s
interpretation of his terms of reference is set out in his
report.5
15.
Lord Hutton
concluded that the “allegations attacking the integrity of
the
Government”,
broadcast on the BBC
Today programme
on 29 May 2003, that:
•
“the
Government probably knew, before it decided to put it in its
dossier ... that
the
statement was wrong that the Iraqi military were able to deploy
weapons of
mass
destruction within 45 minutes of a decision to do so”;
and
•
that No.10
had “ordered the dossier to be sexed up”
had to be
considered under his terms of reference, because it was those
allegations that
had drawn
Dr Kelly into the controversy about the broadcasts.
16.
Lord Hutton
explicitly determined that two other areas fell outside his terms
of
reference.
17.
First, Lord
Hutton stated that the question of “whether, if approved by the
Joint
Intelligence
Committee and believed by the Government to be reliable, the
intelligence
contained
in the dossier was nevertheless unreliable” was a “separate
issue”.
18.
Secondly, Lord
Hutton wrote that he had carefully considered “the view
expressed
by a number
of public figures and commentators” that his “terms of reference
required
or, at
least, entitled” him to consider:
“...
whether the intelligence in relation to weapons of mass destruction
set out in
the dossier
published by the Government on 24 September 2002 was of
sufficient
strength
and reliability to justify the Government in deciding that Iraq
under Saddam
Hussein
posed such a threat to the safety and interests of the United
Kingdom that
military
action should be taken against that country.”
19.
Lord Hutton
“concluded that a question of such wide import, which would involve
the
consideration
of a wide range of evidence” did not fall within his terms of
reference.
20.
The
Review of
Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction by a
Committee of
Privy
Counsellors chaired by Lord Butler of Brockwell (The Butler Report,
HC 898),
was published
on 14 July 2004.6
4
Report of the
Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Dr David L
Kelly CMG by Lord
Hutton
[“The Hutton
Inquiry”], 28 January 2004, HC 247, page 1.
5
Report of the
Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Dr David L
Kelly CMG by Lord
Hutton
[“The Hutton
Inquiry”], 28 January 2004, HC 247, pages 2-3.
6
Review of
Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction [“The
Butler Report”], 14 July 2004, HC 898.
3