Leaked Iraq report criticizes Hoon
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Hoon gave evidence on dossier that alleged Iraq could launch WMDs within 45 minutes.
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has voiced support for his defense secretary after a newspaper published what it said was a leaked parliamentary report criticizing Geoff Hoon for misleading MPs on Iraq.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday Blair refused to comment on the report but denied that his office had leaked it in advance of its scheduled publication the following day.
He praised Hoon though, adding that "under his leadership in the defense department, we have won a magnificent victory in Iraq."
According to the London Evening Standard newspaper, the Intelligence and Security Committee will conclude that Hoon gave it misleading evidence about the government's use of intelligence in a dossier on Iraqi arms.
When Hoon gave evidence to the committee in July he denied knowledge of any concerns among his department's intelligence staff about the government's claims.
The Evening Standard however reports that the ISC report also quotes a memo from a defense ministry official urging Hoon to tell the committee that concerns had been "fully aired" within the department.
Opposition Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith told the Commons on Wednesday that Hoon had been left "twisting in the wind" by Blair's office.
The report reinforces the impression among MPs that Hoon is being lined up as the political "fall guy" for the death of weapons expert David Kelly.
Last month the defense secretary was widely criticized at a judicial inquiry into the scientist's apparent suicide after he was named as a source for a BBC radio report alleging that the government "sexed up" evidence about Iraqi banned weapons to make its case for war.
Hoon denied he had been involved in preparing a controversial dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or had been involved in the public naming of Kelly as a "mole" for the BBC story.
