MI6 chief to quit after split on Iraq

[Judi Lynn]

MI6 chief to quit after split on Iraq

Succession battle over Blair 'favourite'

David Rose
Sunday August 3, 2003
The Observer

Britain's top spymaster has decided to retire early, dealing a damaging new blow to the Government's credibility over its presentation of intelligence on Iraq.

Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6, is thought to be dismayed by the visible rift between his organisation and Downing Street.

At 58, he had been widely expected to stay in post for another two years, but is now likely to have left by early next year, a little more than four years after he started the job in September 1999.

The move is likely to worsen MI6's crisis of confidence over Downing Street's alleged manipulation of information over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, and to plunge the Prime Minister and the intelligence services into a covert battle over the choice of Dearlove's successor. (snip/...)

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1011404,00.html

[Wonk]

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