Reply #4: British Goverment ordered to release Iraq WMD paper [View All]

Source: London Times

Michael Evans, Defence Editor of The Times

The Government was yesterday ordered to make public a secret document about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction which was drawn up by the head of information at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2002. A ruling by the Information Tribunal rejected an appeal by Foreign Office lawyers who had claimed that the contents of the document were exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Government has always insisted that the official dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction published in September 2002 was drawn up by the Joint Intelligence Committee, then headed by Sir John Scarlett who is now the Chief of MI6.

However, it emerged that there was an earlier draft of a document on the same subject which was written by John Williams who at that time was director of communications at the Foreign Office. There have been claims that Mr Williams’ document played a key part in influencing the content of the dossier produced by Sir John and the JIC, although this has been denied by the Foreign Office.

Critics of the Iraq dossier have accused the Government of using Downing Street and Foreign Office spin doctors to dramatise the contents of the report in order to make the case for invading Iraq. This has always been denied.

Yesterday’s unprecedented ruling by the Information Tribunal followed a request by the New Statesman under the Freedom of Information Act for the Williams dossier to be made public....

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3240548.ece