Iraq

British lawmaker defends report

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair's office did not doctor an intelligence report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, a lawmaker involved in an official inquiry said Sunday.

Eric Illsley, part of a Parliamentary committee investigating the government's use of intelligence material to justify war in Iraq, said he was satisfied that Blair's communications chief, Alastair Campbell, had not tampered with the dossier.

But fellow committee member John Maples said the remarks were premature. "We haven't come to any conclusions at all yet," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

In part, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee is investigating a BBC report that Blair aides redrafted a file published in September to include claims that Hussein could launch chemical and biological weapons at 45 minutes' notice.

BBC defense correspondent Andrew Gilligan said intelligence officials were unhappy with the "sexed up" report and believed the information about the 45-minute notice came from a single, unreliable source and was incorrect.

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