The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
501.
Secondly,
Mr Campbell commented that the draft text on radiological
dispersal
devices
added little.
502.
Finally,
Mr Campbell suggested that the text of the draft relating to
attempts
to purchase
two different machines which “could be used” in a gas centrifuge
uranium
enrichment
process (paragraph 21, fourth and fifth bullets), might be amended
to read
503.
In his diaries
on 19 September, Mr Campbell wrote:
“Most of my
work at the moment was on the dossier. Nuclear timelines just
about
sorted … I
agreed to drop the conclusion. Some people reasonably
convinced,
others not.
We’d end up convincing those who wanted to be and not
those
504.
Sir Richard
Dearlove told the Hutton Inquiry that he “reported to my
directors,
I think
on 19 September that we had had full visibility of the process of
preparing the
dossier and
that the whole process had gone extremely well”.251
505.
The
Foreword for the dossier was largely written by Mr Campbell,
following
conversations
with Mr Blair. It was produced in the week before
publication
separately
from the main text of the dossier.
506.
Mr Scarlett
and the JIC were asked for comments.
507.
In comments on
the Foreword in the draft dossier of 10 September,
Mr Pruce wrote:
“… the
Foreword is good but whose voice is it? Do we need a Minister to
sign
it off? Probably
not”.252
508.
Mr Sedwill
wrote that the Foreword needed to make Saddam Hussein’s
defiance
of the UN
“a key issue”.253
This was
what distinguished him “from other dictators and
holders of
WMD”.
249
Email
Blackshaw to Scarlett, 19 September 2002, ‘Re final points for your
5pm meeting’.
250
Campbell A
& Hagerty B. The
Alastair Campbell Diaries. Volume 4. The Burden of Power:
Countdown
to
Iraq. Hutchinson,
2012.
251
The
National Archives, 28 January 2004, Report of
the Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the
Death of Dr
David Kelly [“The Hutton
Report”], paragraph 187.
252
Email Pruce
to Campbell, 11 September 2002, ‘Draft Dossier (J Scarlett Version
of 10 Sept)’.
253
Email
Sedwill to Gray, 11 September 2002, ‘Dossier 10/9 Version -
Comments’.
208