The following is to be found in today’s Times.
Sir, In criticising Tony Blair’s claim that “the whole international community” believed in Iraq’s possession of WMD, Ms Joanna Kirchner (letter, October 2) queries whether France, Germany, Russia and the UN believed any such thing.
Of course they did. They, together with all members of the UN Security Council, were unanimous signatories to Resolution 1441, which stated categorically that such weapons did exist and were being proliferated by Saddam Hussein.
The resolution appeared some three months after Mr Blair’s famous “45-minute dossier” — the sexed-up one which he supposedly used to deceive us all. Clearly, if Mr Blair lied, then so did Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schröder and Vladimir Putin. These nations’ independent intelligence services were obviously presenting their masters with exactly the same information as ours were , unless Ms Kirchner believes they all took Mr Blair’s word for it.
There is a difference between being wrong and lying.
Yours faithfully,
IAN McBAIN,
76 Kingston Road,
Poole, Dorset BH15 2LS.
October 2.
The best thing about Blogging is always getting the first bite.
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at October 4, 2004 11:27 PM | TrackBack