BBC - Blair's Iraq evidence 'confusing'

Two former intelligence officers have cast doubts over Tony Blair's use of evidence in the run-up to war in Iraq.

...Dr Brian Jones, a retired top Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) official, told BBC's Panorama he was "confused" by Mr Blair's evidence in the Hutton Inquiry.

...Mr Blair told the inquiry there was "a tremendous amount of information and evidence coming across my desk as to the WMD and programmes associated with it that Saddam had".

But Dr Jones, a critic of the government's Iraq dossier, told Panorama: "Certainly no-one on my staff had any visibility of large quantities of intelligence of that sort."

He said how no-one knew what chemical or biological agents had been produced since the first Gulf War in 1991.

Spy Chiefs 'Retract WMD Intelligence'

Spy chiefs have retracted the intelligence behind Tony Blair’s claim that Iraq posed a "current and serious" threat, it was reported tonight.

The Prime Minister's case for war was supposedly based on evidence that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons stockpiles and was trying trying to produce more.

But MI6 has since withdrawn the assessment underpinning that case, a senior intelligence source has told BBC1's Panorama.

The rare step amounts to an admission that it was fundamentally unreliable, according to The Observer which reveals details of the interview.