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VIDEO
Iraq, Tony & The Truth
A BBC - Panorama Documentary 2005
runtime 1:00:13, click play to start
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BBC One, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 22:15 GMT |
Tony Blair once said: "Most people who have dealt with me, think I'm a pretty straight
sort of guy and I am." And he insists he played it straight over taking Britain to war with Iraq.
Last Summer the Prime Minister made an impassioned plea to draw a line under the Iraq issue, saying
"No one lied. No one made up the intelligence... Everyone genuinely tried to do their best in good faith for the country
in circumstances of acute difficulty. That issue of good faith should now be at an end."
But allegations that Mr Blair misled the country persist. On the second anniversary of
the Iraq war, Panorama reveals how several of the claims he made in public during the build up to the war - and afterwards
- conflict with what we now know was going on behind the scenes, as evidenced for instance by government officials and documents.
These cover the Prime Minister's statements about the quality and quantity of intelligence
that he said showed beyond doubt Saddam was continuing to make chemical and biological weapons; that he was confident of getting
the explicit support of the UN Security Council for invasion, that he would be bound by the rule of international law; and
that his stated objective was disarmament not overthrowing the Iraqi regime.
The programme is produced by the team that made the RTS award-winning "A Fight to the Death", on Lord Hutton's Inquiry
into the death of the British Government scientist Dr David Kelly, and "A Failure of Intelligence", on the intelligence the
Government relied on in making its case for war.
Production team
Reporter: John Ware
Producer: Mike Rudin
Assistant Producers: Fiona
Blair, Kenneth Payne, Ben Limberg
Deputy Editors: Andrew Bell, Frank Simmonds
Editor: Mike Robinson
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Source:
news.bbc.co.uk
Transcript
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Most people who have dealt with me, think I'm a pretty straight sort of guy and I am 