Blair faces leadership revolt as abuse crisis deepens

Tony Blair was struggling to avoid a collapse of confidence in his leadership last night as Labour MPs denounced his alliance with President George W Bush and the chaotic handling of allegations of abuse against Iraqi prisoners.

Labour backbenchers said contradictory statements from ministers and signs of a lack of grip at the highest levels of Government during a time of crisis had sent morale lower than at any point since the conflict began.


Labour MPs are furious with Tony Blair over the handling of the abuse claims
The sense that Mr Blair was becoming dangerously isolated was reinforced when Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, used far stronger language than the Prime Minister to condemn the way US soldiers had abused Iraqi detainees.

Mr Straw said the International Committee of the Red Cross had exposed "evidence of appalling and disgusting human rights abuses in Abu Ghraib prison for which there is and there can be no excuse."

He said he was in "active discussions" with Washington about the damage caused to the US-led coalition in Iraq.

The impression of disarray within Government was increased when Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the MoD became mired in controversy over whether Britain's envoy to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad at the time, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, had even read the Red Cross document alleging abuse of prisoners.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/12/nirq12.xml

I find it interesting that both the Blair admin and the bush admin have the same "we weren't told" and "we don't remember" disease. Must be just a coincidence eh.

Blair is out, he just hasn't physically left yet, imo.

Torture reports will inflame the Iraqis and endanger our and coalition troops, of which the Brits have the most, even more.

Seems like the PM is out of the loop or they can't tell him bad news. WHICH IS IT?