Blair should resign

PRIME Minister Tony Blair goes before Lord Hutton's Inquiry and defends himself by stating the obvious. He says he would have had to resign if there was any truth in the BBC report that his government had distorted intelligence information about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Of course he would have had to; but Mr Blair could not be such a simpleton to believe that because he has not in fact resigned that fact makes the charges against him untrue. Our view is that the proper thing for the Prime Minister to do is to resign because we believe the BBC reports were true that, in fact, weapons expert Dr David Kelly did tell reporters that the government had deliberately "sexed up" the dossier on Iraqi weapons to provide an urgent pretext for going to war.

Mr Blair says: "It was an extraordinary allegation to make and an extremely serious one." Of course, it was. But the Prime Minister could not be offering the silly and egotistical argument that, because it was an extraordinary and serious allegation against him, it could not be true. We must say that we found Mr Blair's testimony before Lord Hutton most unconvincing. The best that the Prime Minister could do was to flatly deny the charge that his government had manipulated the September dossier on Iraq's arsenal to make a stronger case for war. He said the claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes came from British Intelligence and was not inserted into the dossier at the insistence of his office as the BBC had reported.

Mr Blair, in fact, said the content of the dossier was entirely the product of British Intelligence, "a document that was owned by the Joint Intelligence Committee and its chairman John Scarlett." But why would the British Intelligence Service want to produce a professional report that was so patently untrue? And why would they include such a ridiculous item as the 45-minute claim which they had no way of proving? Who, in fact, was determined to invade Iraq at all costs and would have used any pretext to justify such aggression, the intelligence people or the Blair government? The sudden resignation by Alastair Campbell, the PM's head of communications, while the Inquiry is still in progress must be seen as a further embarrassment for Mr Blair. Mr Campbell, who is also at the centre of this controversy, has declared he is quitting his job at a time when his credibility is under serious question. The BBC reports, for which Dr Kelly was the source, said it was Mr Campbell who was in actual charge of preparing the dossier and it was he who had "sexed it up" to suit the government's war plans. Mr Campbell's unexpected decision at this time to quit will only serve to create more doubts about the government's case.

However, the fact that the British Prime Minister now finds himself under serious pressure as a result of his decision to join the US in an ill-conceived and illegal invasion of Iraq is in stark contrast to the heroic image being given to US President George W Bush who is really the villain of this piece. On the one hand, one is reconciled by the fact that the British Press has demonstrated its independence in dealing with this issue and a section of the British people, at least, are expressing a sense of outrage at their government's absurd Iraqi adventure. On the other hand, one is dismayed by the almost total indifference of the people and the press of America, the celebrated champion of democracy and human rights, over the atrocity which Mr Bush and his warmongers have committed on the Iraqi people. Indeed, the revenge now being taken on US soldiers occupying the country is being described as acts of terrorism.