Post by Mo on Jul 16, 2003 16:41:44 GMT -5
Iraq rift clouds Blair's U.S. trip
By Dominic Evans LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair, facing growing criticism over his case for war with Iraq, heads for a meeting with brother-in-arms George W. Bush tomorrow clouded by an embarrassing rift over intelligence. Blair said on Wednesday he stood behind Britain's pre-war allegation that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy uranium from Africa to revive a nuclear bomb programme -- a charge Bush aides have publicly disowned. He also said a controversial British dossier, which set out the uranium charges and said Iraq could unleash chemical and biological weapons at 45 minutes' notice, was accurate. "I do not accept that people were misled at all. I stand entirely by what was in the dossier," Blair told parliament. "I happen to believe we still did the right thing." Bush and Blair, who sent over 250,000 troops to invade Iraq and topple Saddam in March, based their case for war on his alleged weapons of mass destruction. Both men have been accused of manipulating intelligence to justify attacking Iraq -- a charge they have angrily denied. But three months after Saddam's overthrow, no weapons have been found in Iraq and a senior British official told Reuters last week it would be "extremely difficult" to uncover weapons which could prove their case. In another setback to Blair's justification for joining U.S. military action, the United States said last week its claim Iraq sought uranium from Niger in northwest Africa was based on forged documents. Britain has stood by its own allegations, saying they were based on intelligence from a third country which it could not share with its chief ally or the U.N. nuclear watchdog body, the International Atomic Energy Agency. TEST OF TIES Blair, who has put transatlantic relations at the heart of his foreign policy, faces a major test of his strategy as the United States prepares to send two British terror suspects for military trial and a possible death penalty. Britain opposes capital punishment and a government spokesman said this week the two countries were discussing several options including repatriation of the men, who are being held in a military prison in Guantanamo Bay. Some of Blair's critics, who brand the prime minister Bush's "poodle", say the issue of the terror suspects will show whether his loyalty can yield results. "A special relationship has to be a two-way street," Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said. "What we seem to be encountering at this stage is very much one-way traffic." Blair will address a joint session of Congress and hold talks with Bush but officials said he would not receive a Congressional Gold Medal awarded by the House of Representatives in recognition of his loyal support during the war. The prime minister will fly to Japan for talks on Saturday with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who will brief him on Japan's decision to send soldiers to help rebuild Iraq -- its biggest foreign troop deployment since World War Two. Blair will then head for Seoul to discuss ways to seek a peaceful resolution to North Korea's nuclear crisis with South Korea's president. Britain is one of the few Western countries with an embassy in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. Blair, accompanied by a British business delegation, will then travel to Beijing and Shanghai for talks with President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and former President Jiang Zemin. He will meet investment leaders in Hong Kong on Wednesday and Thursday, before returning to Britain.
Now I'm dizzy, why didn't they just had the evidence planted timely...