Subversive Pessimist
25th July 2004, 18:18
Blair admits Iraq graves claim untrue
LONDON, July 18 (Xinhuanet) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office has admitted that repeated claims that 400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves were untrue, The Observer newspaper reported on Sunday.
According to the paper, only 5,000 corpses have been uncovered so far.
The claims by Blair last November and December were given widespread credence, quoted by British lawmakers and widely published, including in the introduction to a US government pamphlet on Iraq's mass graves.
"We've already discovered, just so far, the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves," Blair was quoted as saying on November 20 in the publication "Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves" produced by USAID, the US government aid distribution agency.
On December 14 last year, Blair repeated the claim in a statement issued by Downing Street in response to the arrest of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"The remains of 400,000 human beings (have) already (been) found in mass graves," Blair was quoted as saying.
The report came after an independent inquiry into Britain's prewar Iraq intelligence ruled that Downing Street pushed intelligence reports "to the outer limits" over the threat posed by Saddam's regime.
Lord Butler, who led the probe into intelligence behind Blair's decision to join the US-led war against Iraq, said in his report published on Wednesday that some sources of the British
intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were "seriously flawed."
Saddam probably had no WMD ready for use and the government's claim of Saddam being capable of deploying WMD within 45 minutes should not have been asserted without qualification, Butler said.
However, Butler claimed that no evidence of "deliberate distortion or culpable negligence" has been found during his probe.
Butler's report followed Blair's admission that Iraq's WMD, a major justification used by the United States and Britain for the Iraq war, may never be found in the country.
LONDON, July 18 (Xinhuanet) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office has admitted that repeated claims that 400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves were untrue, The Observer newspaper reported on Sunday.
According to the paper, only 5,000 corpses have been uncovered so far.
The claims by Blair last November and December were given widespread credence, quoted by British lawmakers and widely published, including in the introduction to a US government pamphlet on Iraq's mass graves.
"We've already discovered, just so far, the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves," Blair was quoted as saying on November 20 in the publication "Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves" produced by USAID, the US government aid distribution agency.
On December 14 last year, Blair repeated the claim in a statement issued by Downing Street in response to the arrest of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"The remains of 400,000 human beings (have) already (been) found in mass graves," Blair was quoted as saying.
The report came after an independent inquiry into Britain's prewar Iraq intelligence ruled that Downing Street pushed intelligence reports "to the outer limits" over the threat posed by Saddam's regime.
Lord Butler, who led the probe into intelligence behind Blair's decision to join the US-led war against Iraq, said in his report published on Wednesday that some sources of the British
intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were "seriously flawed."
Saddam probably had no WMD ready for use and the government's claim of Saddam being capable of deploying WMD within 45 minutes should not have been asserted without qualification, Butler said.
However, Butler claimed that no evidence of "deliberate distortion or culpable negligence" has been found during his probe.
Butler's report followed Blair's admission that Iraq's WMD, a major justification used by the United States and Britain for the Iraq war, may never be found in the country.