<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4522.1800" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#00ffff> <DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">The most telling indictment of the case against Iraq presented by Colin Powell and Tony Blair is the barely disguised contempt for it by their own intelligence agencies.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>Last week, the Blair government was rocked by the revelation that its highly touted dossier on Iraqi deception – cited prominently by Powell in his presentation to the US – was not the product of British intelligence but was plagiarized from old academic articles. </SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">There's an interesting report in today's Independent on that issue and on another document from British intelligence, also leaked to the BBC last week, refuting the allegation of links between Al Qaida and the Iraqi regime, one of the two main charges laid against Saddam Hussein by the US and Britain. The newspaper also points to a CIA report last summer to the Senate Intelligence Committee refuting the other more long-standing charge – that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction which threaten the international community. Finally, US intelligence is also reportedly fuming about the Bush administration’s suppression of intelligence data showing a link between Al Qaida and the ruling royal family in Qatar, a US ally. </SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">You can access the report directly at the Independent site, or it's also reproduced on <A href="http://www.supportingfacts.com">www.supportingfacts.com</A>.</SPAN></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>