BRITAIN: British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair's communications chief Mr Alastair Campbell yesterday conceded it would "clearly" have been better if his so-called "dodgy dossier" making claims about Saddam Hussein's regime had never been published. Jon Smith reports from London.
But he dismissed the row about it as a "storm in a tea cup" and accused the BBC of lying when its Today programme defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan quoted intelligence sources as saying he had "sexed up" an earlier, intelligence-led document.
Mr Campbell, in a three-hour grilling in front of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the charge of abusing intelligence material to lead the country to war was as grave as possible.
"In relation to the BBC story: it is a lie, it was a lie, it's a lie that's continually repeated and until we get an apology for it I will continue making sure people know it's a lie," Mr Campbell told MPs.
The BBC hit back in a statement saying: "We do not feel the BBC has anything to apologise for. We regret that Alastair Campbell has chosen to accuse Andrew Gilligan and the BBC of lying.
"We have always been clear in our reporting. Our senior and credible source told us that he and others in the intelligence community were unhappy that real intelligence based on a single source was given undue prominence in the dossier of September 2002. That the dossier was transformed." The statement added: "It remains unclear why the assertion that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be ready within 45 minutes, based on a single source, was given such prominence." Mr Campbell insisted time and again to the MPs that the first, September 2002 document, was a far more serious dossier, approved by the Joint Intelligence Committee, than the second "dodgy dossier" he handed to six Sunday newspaper reporters on a plane during the prime minister's trip to the US.
He told the MPs: "The story that I sexed up the \ dossier is untrue. The story that I put pressure on the intelligence agencies is untrue.
The story that we somehow made more of the 45-minute command and control point is untrue and what's even more extraordinary about this whole business is that within an hour of the story being broadcast it was denied emphatically." He asserted on several occasions that his denial had the backing of the intelligence community leadership.
But asked whether he agreed with Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw that it would have been better if his second dossier for the reporters had never been published he replied: "Clearly".
Mr Campbell also offered a public apology to the academic, Dr Al-Marashi, whose article in a Middle East review based on an earlier thesis had been plagiarised in the "dodgy dossier".
He said: "I take responsibility for that paper, I have accepted that the mistake was made, I'm happy to send an apology to Dr Al-Marashi on behalf of the entire communications team at No 10 and the Communications and Information Centre."
Asked if he agreed with Mr Straw that the second dossier had been "a complete Horlicks", Mr Campbell replied it was more like "a storm in a tea cup".
The MPs are expected to publish their report on the affair on July 7th, two days before Mr Blair is expected to appear in front of the Commons Liaison Committee.
Mr Straw gives his second tranche of evidence to them on Friday. He gave evidence on Monday saying the Iraqi arms dossier caused "embarrassment" to the government.