Hot off the press - get your Butler Report here -- U.K. Intell flawed

[hansolsen]

Here is the link and a few grafs:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=540900

Iraq intelligence 'seriously flawed' says Butler
By Gavin Cordon, Whitehall Editor, PA News
14 July 2004
Intelligence reports on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in the run up to the Iraq war were "open to doubt" and "seriously flawed", the Butler Inquiry said today.
The inquiry said that when the Government began considering military action against Iraq in March 2002, the intelligence was "insufficiently robust" to justify claims that Iraq was in breach of United Nations resolutions requiring it to disarm.
And it said that since the conflict, key claims based on reports from agents in Iraq including claims that the Iraqis had recently produced biological agents, had had to be withdrawn because they were unreliable.
The report also criticised the Government's controversial dossier on Iraqi weapons, published in the run up to war, saying that it went to the "outer limits" of the available intelligence

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. So they did sex up the dossier

RIP David Kelly


The report also criticised the Government's controversial dossier on Iraqi weapons, published in the run up to war, saying that it went to the "outer limits" of the available intelligence.

[soothsayer]

2. Oh, yeah---that poor guy they killed over this

What bastards! How on earth are we ever going to get rid of them?

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Not to mention the over 1000 troops

and 10,000 Iraqis who have been killed, because Tony Blair is either incompetent and/or delusional.

[Bolo Boffin]

8. He committed suicide

Because his reputation had been irretrivably ruined in this matter.

His vindication is late, but it's finally here.

[cal04]

4. KEY FINDINGS

These are the key findings of the Butler report into the use of intelligence in the run up to the war in Iraq:

:: In March 2002 the intelligence available was "insufficiently robust" to prove Iraq was in breach of UN resolutions.

:: Some of the human intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "seriously flawed" and "open to doubt".

:: The Joint Intelligence Committee should not have included the "45 minute" claim in the Iraq dossier without stating what exactly it referred to.

:: There was no evidence of "deliberate distortion" of the intelligence material or of "culpable negligence".

:: The language of the Government's dossier on Iraq's weapons may have given the impression there was "fuller and firmer" intelligence behind its judgements than was the case.

:: Tony Blair's statement to MPs on the day the dossier was published may have reinforced this impression.

:: The judgements in the dossier went to the "outer limits", although not beyond the intelligence available.

:: John Scarlet, the head of the JIC in the run up to the Iraq war, should not resign.

:: It would be a "rash person" who claimed that stocks of biological or chemical weapons would never be found in Iraq.

:: There was no evidence the British Government initiated military action in Iraq to secure continued access to oil supplies.

:: The report raised concern about the "informality and circumscribed character" of the Government's policy-making procedures towards Iraq.

[gandalf]

5. In Short: Nothing dramatic, everybody makes mistakes

some minor mistakes led Britain go war.

The judgments in the dossier went to the "outer limits", which obviously means "but still within the limits". Thus, almost everything OK. Nothing to see here...

As in the Kelly case, shit happens.

[hansolsen]

7. British Whitewash lokks same as any other Whitewash

Here is the "conclusion" that tells you everything you need to know about the politics of Lord Butler:

John Scarlet, the head of the JIC in the run up to the Iraq war, should not resign.

If this statement isn't a direct contradiction to all the other observations in the report (even watered down as they are)then I can no longer read the English language.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Link for full report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3890961.stm


Scroll down to middle of the page, for a link to a PDF file of the full report.

[gandalf]

9. Why this thread was moved is beyond me... nt

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. And I thought

I was just losing my mind.

At least I'm not the only one?