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Iraq Inquiry: Prescott reveals his doubts over WMD reports
Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott privately harboured doubts about the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he disclosed yesterday.
Giving evidence to the final session of the Iraq Inquiry before the summer, he said many of the reports about Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) appeared to be just "tittle tattle".
Lord Prescott also spoke of the intense pressure on former attorney general Lord Goldsmith, saying that he was "not a very happy bunny" as he agonised over whether military action was legal.
And he revealed that he had complained to the Cabinet secretary about Tony Blair's informal style of "sofa government", and that he had regarded the lack of formal cabinet discussion as "dangerous".
Lord Prescott told the inquiry he had been surprised at how insubstantial some of the reports on Iraqi WMD by the Joint Intelligence Committee – the UK's senior intelligence body – had been.
"I kept thinking to myself 'Is this intelligence?' It's basically what you have heard somewhere and what somebody else has told somebody. Presumably that's how intelligence is brought about. So I got the feeling it wasn't very substantial," he said.
"The conclusions were a little ahead, I think, of what the evidence we had. Perhaps that's the way it is. I just thought: 'Well this is the intelligence document, this is what you have. It seems robust but not enough to justify to that'.
"Certainly what they do in intelligence is a bit of tittle tattle here and a bit more information there.
"I didn't totally dismiss it, I didn't have any evidence to feel that they were wrong, but I just felt a little bit nervous about conclusions on Iraq's force that seemed to be (based on) limited intelligence."
Lord Prescott said Lord Goldsmith had found the process of coming to a decision on whether it was legal to invade Iraq without specific authorisation from the United Nations Security Council a difficult one.
"He was not a very happy bunny," he said. "His demeanour was that he had a lot of weight on his shoulders having to give a decision."
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