British Prime Minister Tony Blair stated Wednesday that his government will cooperate with a parliamentary probe into the intelligence on Iraqi arms that he used to justify war.
Blair said the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee had contacted the government early last month to conduct an inquiry into intelligence on Iraq. "I welcome this," Blair told the Parliament. "I can assure the House the government will cooperate fully with it."
Blair described as "completely and utterly untrue" a media report that his office had redrafted an intelligence service report to emphasize a claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.
However, British Labour MPs were not impressed by this latest move. "The committee is a complete waste of time," one senior MP was quoted as saying by a British newspaper. "They are treated with contempt by the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence. There is nobody hard-hitting on the committee." (Albawaba.com)
