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Straw: WMD report an embarrassment
LONDON, England -- A dossier released by the British government in the run-up to an attack on Iraq claiming Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction was an "embarrassment," UK foreign secretary Jack Straw admitted. Straw was answering questions Tuesday from the multi-party House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee. It is investigating claims that the report, allegedly proving the regime of former Iraq president Saddam Hussein was in possession of illegal weapons, were overstated. The reports have become known as the "dodgy dossier." The issue has dominated British politics and the media in the absence of any evidence of WMD in post-war Iraq, two months after the fall of Hussein. The committee is examining, in particular, the government's statement before the war that Iraq was capable of launching such weapons within 45 minutes of an order being issued -- a claim widely disputed among some MPs and outside the government. "Of course it has been an embarrassment for the government...," Straw said. But he said assertions that the line about the 45 minute attack had been inserted at the last minute for political purposes was "completely untrue." He denied British Prime Minister Tony Blair had said the threat was "immediate or imminent." The dossier described "a current and serious threat, which is very different," Straw added. Former minister Robin Cook, who resigned his Cabinet job in protest at the war, told the committee earlier this month the dossier released in September was "highly suggestible" and did not contain any evidence that Saddam had the capacity for WMD. The threat posed by Iraq's illegal weapons was the main reason given by the British government for going to war, but inspectors have found no firm evidence of chemical, biological or nuclear arms. Blair has resisted calls for a full public inquiry into WMD and has refused to appear in front of the more limited parliamentary inquiry, some of which will take place behind closed doors. Former UK International Development Secretary Clare Short, who resigned from the Cabinet after the war, has also told the inquiry that Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush had made the decision to go to war last summer. Short said this was the reason why U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix was not allowed any more time to search for evidence in Iraq. The U.S. Congress is to begin hearings into the intelligence case for war this week, but Republicans have rejected calls for a more formal inquiry.
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