4.3 |
Iraq WMD assessments, October 2002 to March 2003
239.
The report
described Iraqi activities to monitor UNMOVIC’s activities,
including that
all
interviews would be monitored and, in relation to any interviews
outside Iraq, that:
“All
scientists and key workers have been made to draw up a list of
their relatives …
The
interviewees know only too well what will happen to them, or their
relatives still
in Iraq, if
it is even suspected that they have said too much …”
240.
The report
stated that Iraq would seek to intimidate and put psychological
pressure
on
individual inspectors.
241.
On 6
February, Channel 4
News reported
accusations that the report contained
material
drawn from published articles, including one by Dr Ibrahim
al-Marashi
from
September 2002, which had been published in the Middle East
Review of
International Affairs.
242.
The FCO
informed the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) on 16 June 2003
that
the report
was compiled by the CIC, “a cross-government team” which reported
to
Mr Campbell
but which was based in the FCO.98
243.
Mr Campbell
told the FAC that the document was:
“… intended
as a briefing paper for journalists to inform them of the way in
which
the Iraqi
state was dominated by its security apparatus and therefore well
placed to
conceal
WMD. When new intelligence material came to light, which was
authorised
for use in
the public domain, which revealed the scale of the regime’s
programme of
deception
and concealment, it was my idea … to base a briefing paper for the
media
upon it and
this approach was agreed by the Iraq communication group in
early
January,
and the paper worked on during that month.”99
244.
Mr Campbell
stated that the CIC was commissioned to produce the paper. He
had
edited it
and changed the title, and informed Mr Blair about the nature
of the report and
its
intended purpose, before it was given it to “six representatives of
the UK Sunday
newspapers”
travelling to Washington with Mr Blair. The document had
subsequently
been posted
on the No.10 website on 3 February and placed in the House of
Commons
Library the
same day.
245.
Mr Campbell
stated that Dr al-Marashi’s article had been submitted to the CIC
and
had been
“absorbed into the briefing paper, without attribution”. It “formed
the basis” of
Part Two of
the report and was then assumed by those asked to comment on the
report
to have
come from Government sources.
98
Memorandum
FCO to Foreign Affairs Committee, 16 June 2003, ‘Memorandum from
the Foreign and
Commonwealth
Office’.
99
Memorandum
Campbell to Foreign Affairs Committee, 24 June 2003, ‘Memorandum
from
Alastair Campbell’.
339