4.4 | The
search for WMD
Lord Hutton
concluded that the wider issue of the reliability of the
intelligence contained in
the dossier
did not fall within his Terms of Reference.
The Hutton
Inquiry began its hearings on 11 August.223
The
Report of
the Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Dr
David Kelly
C.M.G.
was published
on 28 January 2004. The Report’s findings are addressed later
in
this
Section.
427.
On
24 July, officials advised Ministers that Dr Kay had brought
new impetus
to the ISG,
which was now operating in a “systematic fashion”.
428.
At the meeting
of the AHMGIR on 24 July, the MOD reported that the ISG was
now
operating
in a “systematic fashion” and that Dr Kay had given new impetus to
its work.224
The
approach was to “understand WMD programmes as whole, with
particular focus
on BW and
the special Security Organisation”. Ministers agreed that the UK
should
continue to
engage closely with the ISG and that the UK should be “fully
consulted
before any
major conclusions were presented publicly”.
On
30 July, General Sir Michael Walker, Chief of the Defence
Staff, issued a revised
Directive
for Op TELIC, superseding the version issued on 18 March and
the
supplementary
material on the ISG issued on 18 June.225
The revised
Directive included a revised strategic military objective that, for
the first time,
incorporated
the search for WMD:
“To support
the Coalition effort, within allocated resources, to stabilise
Iraq, find/
secure WMD,
alleviate humanitarian needs, and help create the conditions for
the
achievement
of the strategic end state.”
The
Directive included instructions on co-operation with the
ISG:
“The shift
towards a pro-active WMD finding, evidence handling and
elimination
(of soft
and hard components) continues and will be led by the ISG. WMD will
not
be located
only at SSEs [locations of Sensitive Site Exploitation], we will
encounter
it
ad
hoc, and we
will have to extend search activities beyond SSEs. WMD
‘soft’
components
and particularly scientists and military experts are very important
to the
evidence
and elimination programme and HUMINT [human intelligence] is an
area
where the
UK contribution is highly valued … You should note that ISG
incorporates
many other
strands in its mission than just WMD. Your mainstream CBRN
[chemical,
biological,
radiological and nuclear] recce assets, principally from the
J[oin]t NBC
Reg[imen]t
will be supplemented then replaced by specialist search teams. You
are
223
Report of the
Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Dr David
Kelly C.M.G.
by Lord
Hutton,
28 January 2004, HC 247, paragraph 6.
224
Minutes,
24 July 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
225
‘Chief of
the Defence Staff Directive to the Joint Commander for Operation
TELIC (Edition 3)’,
30 July
2003.
509