The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
•
“another
one of the very well established sources […] about the
determination
of the
Iraqi regime to have CBW capable missiles, and the reliance on
those
weapons as
being a contributor or an important part of the ability to
project
power in
the region, to establish Iraq as a regional power”;
and
•
“a reliable
source”, “about the use of CBW against the Shia
population
“So there
was a body of reporting by September that was talking not about
technical
details of
production, but about an understanding that these weapons
were
available,
and that there was a clear place for them in Iraq’s thinking about
how
to conduct
itself and how to maintain regional influence.”
278.
Mr Miller
concluded:
“As the
Assessment said, the intelligence was patchy. It was sporadic. It
didn’t flow
through in
great volumes routinely, particularly prior to the summer of 2002.
But I think
the sense
of the community was that yes, we are not getting a full picture,
but we
are getting
here a pretty consistent picture, even if it is a rather patchy
one, sufficient
to inform
these judgements, but certainly as additional intelligence came
through
in the
course of 2002, the sense was that that did then begin to provide a
weightier
basis for
reaching the conclusions that were set out in
September.”133
279.
Asked about
the sources, their background and reliability and whether they
were
providing
hearsay evidence, Mr Miller explained:
“There were
different sources. In the Assessment Staff we didn’t seek to
have
expertise
in the sourcing of the intelligence. So we relied on rather
summary
accounts of
the sourcing given in the reports, which tended to characterise it
as new
or
established, reliable or not yet proven, and we give some
indication of whether
the
reporting was direct or indirect.”
280.
Mr Miller
told the Inquiry that reporting which influenced the Assessment
came
from six
new reports, “from apparently solid sources”.134
281.
Sir John
Scarlett stated that “at the time, the separation of the different
streams
of reporting
wasn’t always clear to the Assessment Staff”, and
that:
“… with the
slight benefit of hindsight, I can say now that essentially we
are
talking about
three different streams of reporting … which were coming
through
132
Private
hearing, 5 June 2010, page 11.
133
Private
hearing, 5 June 2010, page 12.
134
Private
hearing, 5 June 2010, page 15.
166