Blair under pressure for ignoring warnings
AFP, London
Prime Minister Tony Blair came under pressure yesterday to explain why he ignored warnings from British intelligence that a war on Iraq would make it easier for terrorists to get hold of weapons of mass destruction. The revelation came out of a 57-page report by the Intelligence and Security Committee, a cross-party parliamentary panel that oversees the work of Britain's three main intelligence agencies. It said an assessment last February by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), which brings together British intelligence chiefs, concluded there was no evidence that Iraq had funneled chemical or biological weapons to al-Qaeda. But it added: "The JIC assessed that al-Qaeda and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to Western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq."
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