Blair blasted on Iraq intelligence
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Cook: "Should have let U.N. weapons inspectors finish the job"
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CIA Director George Tenet under pressure over Iraq WMD intelligence
Blair's government cleared of "sexing up" dossier on Iraq's weapons.
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- A former member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government -- who resigned over the Iraq war -- says "the game is up" and Blair's government should admit it went to war over "wildly wrong" intelligence.
"The intelligence was wildly wrong," Robin Cook, a Labour member of the British Parliament and a former Foreign Secretary, said Friday.
"We were told there were weapons of mass destruction ready for firing in 45 minutes. We now can't find any weapons of mass destruction ready to be fired in 45 minutes or any other period of time."
"Saddam Hussein was not a threat to Britain," he said, "and of course, what that means is we did have the time to let Hans Blix and the U.N. weapons inspectors finish the job, and then we could have found out there was no threat without having to fight a war to prove it."
Across the Atlantic in Washington, politicians lined up to call for an investigation of intelligence failures -- with some calling for CIA director George Tenet's resignation -- in the face of former top weapons hunter David Kay's comments that Iraq was likely telling the truth when it said it had no weapons of mass destruction.
Kay blamed the intelligence agencies for the faulty information, leading some -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry among them -- to call for Tenet's resignation.
"I called for George Tenet to resign several months ago," the senator from Massachusetts told reporters on the campaign trail Thursday. "I think there has been a lack of accountability at the CIA. I regret it. I know him personally, but that's the nature of responsibility."
Calls for the CIA chief's resignation also followed in the wake of last summer's controversy over President Bush's State of the Union declaration that Iraq had sought to buy uranium in Africa, an assertion proven to be wrong.
Then, as now, the administration has expressed its confidence in Tenet's abilities, and the CIA itself cautioned that Kay's criticism is premature and may be wrong.
Kerry and others -- including Kay and Republican senator John McCain of Arizona -- also called for an independent probe into why the intelligence was so wrong and what role, if any, the administration played.
"There has to be an outside commission investigating that and until that happens most Americans won't be satisfied," McCain said Thursday. "But most importantly we have to have lessons learned so we don't repeat the mistakes of the past."
Former Defense Minister William Cohen, a Republican, agreed with the call for "an independent, non-partisan commission to get at the facts." But he disagreed with those who called for Tenet's resignation.
"I think at this point we should not be looking for scapegoats or scalps, but rather the facts," he told CNN's American Morning Friday.
"The faster the president can establish this commission, the better," he added. "This is going to be an issue that's going to fester throughout the coming year."
In London, Cook, who remains as supporter of the British prime minister, echoed Cohen's concerns.
"Tony Blair is in a very strong position this week," Cook said. "I think what he should do now is say, 'Look, I believed in all good faith the intelligence given to me, and I gave it to parliament, and it turned out to be wrong.
