Iraq Dossier UK: Intelligence chief Scarlett was 'troubled'

Intelligence Chief was also 'troubled' by Iraq dossier

Guardian -Friday August 15, 2003

The row over the evolution of the Iraq intelligence dossier intensified today after it emerged the man who drew it up, John Scarlett, may have been "troubled" by its credibility.

In an email submitted to the Hutton inquiry, BBC presenter Nik Gowing told the director of news, Richard Sambrook, that a senior government official involved in intelligence had approached him in January this year.

During a 20-minute chat at a conference on terrorism in January, the man raised concerns about the "credibility of intelligence relating to Iraq".

Gowing's email was private but it has become part of the BBC's evidence submitted to the Hutton inquiry.

The identity of the man was blanked out but today the Financial Times named him as Mr Scarlett, the chairman of the joint intelligence committee.

> Gowing revealed: "During the free time on Saturday afternoon, I was encouraged into an empty drawing room by [Mr X] ... He was clearly troubled about the issue of the credibility of intelligence relating to Iraq. I took no note of the conversation. But I recall distinctly [Mr X] probing me to find out how willing in the coming days and weeks the media would be to accept all that had been claimed in the government's Iraq WMD dossier from September."

Gowing told Mr X that his job was "not to accept the dossier without question".

He said he remembered pressing Mr X on the issue that Iraq could launch weapons within 45 minutes, the claim at the centre of Andrew Gilligan's Today programme report that sparked the initial row between the government and the BBC.

Gowing said Mr X "winced noticeably" when he raised the subject and "did not choose to give the clear positive response I had invited".

The identification of Gowing's source will come as a severe blow to the government, which has always maintained it did not exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq's weapons programme in the dossier.

The fact the top civil servant in charge of drawing up the government's dossier was worried that the media and the public would not believe its claims is hugely significant and will bolster the BBC's case against the government.

Gowing refused to be drawn into a conversation about the memo today and the BBC refused to comment.

The meeting took place on January 11, more than three months before the row between the BBC and the government over BBC defence correspondent Gilligan's report.

Gowing was clearly nervous about details of the meeting leaking out.

In the email he explained to Sambrook that he delayed sending it until he had returned to the UK from abroad and was able to use the BBC's secure internal email system.

Although the unnamed official "said several times the intelligence was there [to back the government's claims]", Gowing said he felt this was merely the message he had wanted to convey.

"On some of the specifics I had the impression that MI6 was troubled by some (but not all) of the published claims from the government about WMD," he wrote in the email, dated July 2.

Other delegates at the conference included a home office minister, John Denham, and Sir Francis Richards, director of GCHQ, as well as a number of senior civil servants and academics.

In the email, sent on July 2, Gowing said he decided to reveal details of the 20-minute conversation in the hope it might "help in a modest way to fine tune the BBC's case".

"Technically [the meeting] is very deep background and never took place. But I think I should place the information before you in case it helps sharpen for you the current issues of intelligence and Iraq," he wrote.

Gowing today refused to comment on the identity of the official he met.

NOTE:

John Scarlett was a Director in the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) from 1998-2001. He joined public service in 1971, and has had postings in Nairobi, Moscow and Paris. He was educated at Epsom College, and at Magdalen College, Oxford. He is married with three daughters and one son.(Source: number-10.gov.uk

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printed from Iraq Dossier UK: Intelligence chief Scarlett was 'troubled' on 2004-04-29 23:03:57