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Newly released evidence to Chilcot inquiry directly contradicts Blair government's claims about dossier

Alastair
Campbell's claim that the Iraq dossier was not about putting the case
for war was strongly denied by a top intelligence

A top military
intelligence official has said the discredited dossier on Iraq's
weapons programme was drawn up "to make the case for war", flatly
contradicting persistent claims to the contrary by the Blair government,
and in particular by Alastair Campbell, the former prime minister's
chief spin doctor.

In hitherto secret evidence to the Chilcot
inquiry, Major General Michael Laurie said: "We knew at the time that
the purpose of the dossier was precisely to make a case for war, rather
than setting out the available intelligence, and that to make the best
out of sparse and inconclusive intelligence the wording was developed
with care."

His evidence is devastating, as it is the first time
such a senior intelligence officer has directly contradicted the then
government's claims about the dossier – and, perhaps more significantly,
what Tony Blair and Campbell said when it was released seven months
before the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Laurie, who was director
general in the Defence Intelligence Staff, responsible for commanding
and delivering raw and analysed intelligence, s... >>>