Hoon ‘regrets any misunderstanding’ over Iraq dossier
The Defence Secretary addressed MPs in the House of Commons this afternoon, telling them he regretted “any misunderstanding”, but insisting that he had had “no intention whatsoever other than to be open and straightforward” with the Intelligence and Security Committee over the September Iraq dossier.
Mr Hoon claimed that he had volunteered to the committee the information that there were members of the intelligence service who had queried the wording of the Iraq arms dossier and acknowledged it would have been helpful if he had mentioned that concerns was recorded in writing.
“I hope that the committee accepts that I did not in fact mislead them,” the minister insisted.
The ISC’s report on the formation of the dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was published earlier today.
The committee exonerated the Prime Minister and his press chief, Alastair Campbell, of any involvement in the compilation of the second dossier.
The influential committee also cleared Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, of misleading them, but said it was ‘disturbed’ that he had not handed over two letters from officials expressing concerns about the claim that weapons of mass destruction could be launched by Iraq within 45 minutes.
Mr Hoon appeared to give evidence before the committee but failed to make them aware of the existence of letters relating to the reliability of the dossier. The ISC called this decision ‘unhelpful and potentially misleading’ and asked the MoD to ensure that if letters are written expressing concerns about intelligence these should be given to the ISC chair.
The report states, “We regard the initial failure by the MoD to disclose that some staff had put their concerns in writing to their line managers as unhelpful and potentially misleading.
“We are disturbed that after the first evidence session … the Defence Secretary decided against giving instructions for a letter to be written to us outlining the concerns.”
However, the committee stopped short of calling for the resignation of Mr Hoon.
Despite calls for his resignation from the opposition today, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted that Mr Hoon had the full backing of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, stating, “I am in no doubt that the Defence Secretary should and will continue in his post.”
The ISC report also states that no evidence was found of political interference in the formation of the dossier nor that it had been ‘sexed up’ by Downing Street as claimed by the BBC.
The committee chair identified the main problem with the dossier as the public’s understanding of how it was formulated, highlighting public scepticism about how information from the intelligence world enters the public domain.
Senior judge Lord Hutton’s inquiry into the death of Ministry of Defence weapons expert Dr David Kelly had already revealed that intelligence officials had expressed concern about the dossiers contents.
