Hutton probe - on Tony Blair

A bit more from The Guardian -- the findings on Tony Blair "sexing up" the WMD dossier: bq. Lord Hutton picked up Tony Blair's battered reputation today and wiped it clean, clearing him of the two main charges that have arisen from his inquiry. He found the prime minister innocent of presenting an intelligence dossier to parliament on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) which had been "sexed-up" by his personal staff, particularly his communication director Alastair Campbell. He found him innocent of authoring a strategy to leak weapons inspector David Kelly's name to the media as part of the government's battle with the BBC. bq. On the WMD dossier, he concluded that BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan's allegation that it was known that the 45-minutes claim was wrong before the government decided to put it in the dossier was "unfounded". He also judged that Gilligan's claim that the dossier had been "sexed-up" was also "unfounded as it would have been understood... to mean that the dossier had been embellished with intelligence known or believed to be false or unreliable, which was not the case". bq. Lord Hutton stated that Mr Campbell made it clear to the chairman of the joint intelligence committee (JIC), John Scarlett, who was charged with drafting the document, that "nothing should be stated in the dossier with which the intelligence community were not entirely happy". He found that it was not "improper for Mr Scarlett and the JIC to take into account suggestions as to drafting made by No 10 Downing Street", as the dossier was to be presented to parliament and the public. And more: bq. "It was reasonable for the government to take the view that, even if it sought to keep confidential the fact that Dr Kelly had come forward, the controversy surrounding Mr Gilligan's broadcasts was so great and the level of media interest was so intense that Dr Kelly's name as Mr Gilligan's source was bound to become known to the public and that it was not a practical possibility to keep his name secret." bq. He found that though Mr Blair was instrumental in the decision to issue a statement he was not involving in "any consideration" of drawing up question and answer material ordering government press officer to confirm Dr Kelly's name if it is put to them. Way to go Tony! And again, the head of the BBC just resigned.