- Tony Blair is facing severe embarrassment after the US
official running Iraq dismissed his claims that "massive evidence"
of weapons programmes had been found in the country as a "red herring".
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- Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority,
has recorded an interview for broadcast this morning, in which he was unaware
the claims were from the Prime Minister, when he described them as unfounded
and the work of someone trying to undermine the US-led coalition in Iraq.
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- The humiliation comes at the end of a year when Blair's
claims on Iraqi weapons have consistently hobbled his leadership. Currently
on a New Year family break in Egypt, Blair comes back to face publication
of Lord Hutton's report into the circumstances leading to the death of
weapons scientist David Kelly.
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- The Prime Minister also faces a year-end poll, showing
he is the least trusted from a list of 30 British politicians. And with
his other key task next month to win round support for university top-up
fees, he finds his Education Secretary Charles Clarke in the place immediately
above him.
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- Top of the trust table, as compiled by CyberBritain.com
from 13,000 interviews leading up to Christmas, was Chancellor Gordon Brown,
followed by Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and new Tory leader
Michael Howard in third place.
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- Bremer's comments have been recorded for ITV's Jonathan
Dimbleby programme to be broadcast this morning. The presenter put to the
US administrator the claim that the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) had unearthed
"massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories".
The claim went on to say that Saddam Hussein had attempted to "conceal
weapons".
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- That was in Blair's Christmas message to British troops
in Iraq. But without being told whose claim it was, Bremer responded that
the claim was not true and did not square with the survey reports he had
seen. "I don't know where those words come from but that is not what
[ISG chief] David Kay has said," said Bremer. "It sounds like
a bit of a red herring to me. It sounds like someone who doesn't agree
with the policy sets up a red herring, then knocks it down."
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- The American rowed back on his comments when told the
words had come from one of his country's staunchest allies, saying that
"there is actually a lot of evidence that had been made public".
He insisted that the group had found "clear evidence of biological
and chemical programming, ongoing", and there was "clear evidence
of violation of UN Security Council resolutions relating to rockets".
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- Downing Street also defended the Prime Minister's message
as being based on an September ISG report.
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- Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman,
said : "It is high time the Prime Minister cleared this matter up
once and for all.
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- "Just exactly what was the British government's
state of knowledge at the time of military action about the presence of
weapons of mass destruction and the facilities for manufacturing? And what
do they know now?"
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- In his TV interview, Bremer dismissed former chief UN
weapons inspector Hans Blix's claim that there were no weapons of mass
destruction left for Saddam to give up. "You might conclude that Blix
is out of touch," he said.
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- The US administrator went on to defend the US-led action
in Iraq earlier this year. "Weapons of mass destruction or no weapons
of mass destruction, it's important to step back a little bit here, to
see what we have done historically," he said.
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- "We, the coalition, the British and American people,
have done a noble thing by relieving 25 million Iraqis of one of the most
vicious tyrannies in the 20th century."
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- http://www.sundayherald.com/38974
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