Blair 'misused intelligence agencies'

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://ickent.icnetwork.co.uk/news/content_objectid=14023545_method=full_siteid=50102_headline=-Blair--misused-intelligence-agencies--name_page.html

Prime Minister Tony Blair has been accused by a former Foreign Secretary of "gross misuse" of the intelligence services to back his case on Iraq.

No previous Prime Minister would have published a dossier under the name of the Joint Intelligence Committee, as Mr Blair did, said Sir Malcolm Rifkind. He insisted it should never happen again.

Requiring the JIC to lend its support to the presentation of the case for war at a time when the country was deeply divided was like asking the Queen to take sides in a political dispute, he said.

Sir Malcolm, who has been picked by the Tories to fight the safe seat of Kensington and Chelsea in the next election, said it was now clear that Mr Blair had taken Britain to war on a false prospectus.

He branded the Prime Minister's refusal to hold a full inquiry into the decision to join military action "perverse".

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