I don't remember whether I said it here. But I said it elsewhere, and I said it then: in 2002/3, no-one can have reasonably believed that there were ballistic missiles in Iraq capabale of being deployed in 45 minutes. I've said it since. Given what had happened in that region since the original invasion of Kuwait 10 years before, it was simply not credible. (Interesing factoid: allegedly more air missions were flown over Iraq between the two Gulf wars than were flown over Europe in WW2. They were, of course, almost entirely reconnaissance.)
The Guardian reports (...the Mail reporting that...) Adam Holloway, a 'defence specialist', gives further detail about the story that the information came from a taxi driver. Seems that MI6 were 'running' a senior Iraqi army officer --
Pausing there. Did you get that? A senior Iraqi officer was an MI6 agent. This sort of revelation is like that which came out a few years ago, to the effect that Admiral Canaris, head of Nazi intelligence from 1935 to 1944, was in regular contact with British Intelligence. Previously we have heard all about the lack of 'humint', and the necessity to rely on 'elint'. Seems that was a big fib - though an understandable one. Anyway, back to the thread...
officer, who himself was running a taxi driver who operated near the border with Syria. He claimed to have overheard army officers talking about missiles in the back of his cab.
Holloway goes on to say this:
"In the [MI6] analysts' footnote to their report, it flagged up that part of the report describing some missiles that the Iraqi government allegedly possessed was demonstrably untrue. The missiles verifiably did not exist.
"The footnote said it in black and white. Despite this the report was treated as reliable and went on to become one of the central planks of the dodgy dossier." (My emphasis.)
True, or not? But it does suggest that British Intelligence was doing rather better than we had previously been informed, and that the reason we were fed a bunch of horseshit decorated, wrapped and tied up with a ribbon labelled as 'crucial information', was all about politics rather than Intelligence work. (See the thread title.)
There are no missiles, dear Minister dear Minister. Repeat there are no missiles. What exactly should you tell Parliament and the country?
Bookmarks