London: The United Nations former chief weapons inspector told Britain`s inquiry into the Iraq war Wednesday that both London and Washington relied on dubious intelligence sources ahead of the 2003 invasion.
Hans Blix said the United States and Britain based their weapons assessments on poor quality information.
"They should have realised, I think, both in London and in Washington that their sources were poor," Blix said.
Their sources were looking for weapons, not necessarily weapons of mass destruction. They should have been more critical of that."
Blix said he warned then British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a February 2003 meeting and in separate talks, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Saddam Hussein might have no weapons of mass destruction.
He said he told Rice and Blair his "belief, faith in intelligence had been weakened."
Though Blix had made such comments before, his testimony at the inquiry built on that of others about the dubious intelligence that existed before the war and increasingly drew
a picture of the United States inevitably marching to conflict and ignoring any evidence to the contrary.
Bureau Report
