London, June 11: British Prime Minister Tony Blair today said he would not appear before a parliamentary committee investigating how intelligence was used to justify the war on Iraq. During his weekly question-and-answer session in the House of Commons, Blair said in "accordance with convention," he would not attend the Foreign Affairs Select Committee hearings, although foreign secretary Jack Straw would. Blair said there was not "a shred of truth" in allegations the government manipulated evidence about Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes in order to make a stronger case for war.
Two parliamentary committees will investigate claims that Blair's office redrafted a dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, published last September, to emphasize the claim that Iraq could fire chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes of Saddam giving an order to do so. Intelligence officials reportedly believed the information was unreliable. Blair will give evidence to the Intelligence Committee, which unlike the Foreign Affairs Committee, meets in private.
The Intelligence Committee had yesterday criticised the government for publishing another dossier on Iraq's weapons programme without first clearing its contents with Britain's intelligence services.
In its annual report, the committee said the document had not been endorsed by intelligence chiefs before it was published in February. Bureau Report