http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=437505
The Independent (UK) 27 August 2003 Spy chief undermines key plank of case for war By Kim Sengupta and Paul Waugh One of the crucial claims in the Government's case for the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein could threaten the West within 45 minutes with chemical and biological weapons was seriously undermined at the Hutton inquiry yesterday. John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, which was in charge of compiling the Iraq weapons dossier, revealed that the alleged threat related not to long-range missiles, which could hit the West, but "battlefield mortar shells or small-calibre weaponry" that did not threaten Britain or even Iraq's neighbours. In last September's dossier, the 45-minute claim was made alongside details of Iraq's alleged possession of al-Hussain missiles that could strike British bases in Cyprus. Ministers and officials repeatedly stressed that this meant Iraq was a direct and imminent threat to British interests. In his report on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Andrew Gilligan had said his source believed that the 45-minute intelligence related to "warheads for [long-range] missiles". But Mr Scarlett said it was not. The 45-minute warning related to smaller range munitions, a fact that may have caused David Kelly the subject of the Hutton inquiry to be in a "state of genuine confusion about what the report actually said". The disclosure by one of the most senior intelligence chiefs in Britain is the first official statement on the exact nature of the threat. Lord Hutton himself said to Mr Scarlett that Dr Kelly had suggested the source of the 45-minute claim may have confused it with a "multiple barrelled weapon". Weapons experts said yesterday that the normal definition of an international WMD threat would exclude battle-field mortar shells and small-calibre weaponry, even if they had chemical or biological stocks attached. Such small-calibre arms represented no threat to Britain, they said. Last night, Doug Henderson, a former armed forces minister, said it was "extraordinary" that the 45-minute claim referred to munitions rather than missiles. "The news today is that the weapons that were being referred to were quite different. They were battlefield weapons," he said on the BBC's Newsnight programme.
