Tony Blair faced fresh controversy over his case for war against Iraq last night after a parliamentary committee disclosed that intelligence chiefs had warned him that toppling Saddam Hussein would increase the risk of terrorist attacks against Britain.
The Joint Intelligence Committee told Mr Blair five weeks before the invasion that al-Qa'eda and other terrorist groups "represented by far the greatest threat".
[...]
The main surprise of the committee's findings was that intelligence chiefs had warned Mr Blair so strongly about the dangers of reprisals by terrorists groups such as al-Qa'eda in the event of military action against Saddam.
An assessment prepared by the JIC on Feb 10 entitled International Terrorism: War with Iraq, said there was no intelligence that Iraq had provided chemical or biological materials to al-Qa'eda.
Nor was there any suggestion of any intention by Saddam's regime to carry out chemical or biological terror attacks using Iraqi intelligence officials or their agents.
"The JIC assessed that al-Qa'eda and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to Western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq," the report said.
Gary Williams
"Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign." - John Stuart Mill
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