Britain told Saddam had no al-Qaeda links

Russia News.Net
Wednesday 25th November, 2009

British officials have told panel members reviewing Britain's role in the Iraq war that there was little information that Iraq's then president, Saddam Hussein, had been colluding with al-Qaeda.

They said there had only been sporadic contacts between Iraq and the Islamic terror group over the years and it had been determined by intelligence agencies that early contacts did not appear to be collusion.

Senior officers from the Foreign Office told the panel the US had shared the same view as UK.

The officials, counter-proliferation specialist Tim Dowes and Foreign Office security chief William Ehrman, speaking on Wednesday, said there was only scattered evidence that Iraq may have possessed components of chemical-biological weapons but plenty of doubt that Baghdad would have even had the technology to deliver such payloads.

Former top British intelligence officer Peter Ricketts on Tuesday said British officials had decided in 2001 against participating in talks with US officials about regime change in Iraq.

He said British officials had been aware, well before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, that the Bush administration wanted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein removed.

Anti-war sentiment has been building in Britain, with many people now suggesting the government distorted intelligence information to justify the invasion of Iraq.

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