So – the smoking gun is here. It would appear that Jonathan Powell, the No.10 chief of staff, sent an email asking for a statement that Saddam Hussein would only use gas if his regime was under threat to be taken out of the dossier because “it backs up the argument that there is no threat and we will only create one if we attack him”. To sum up, so far the inquiry has clearly proven that:
a) the dossier was altered to make it more propagandistically useful
b) Kelly did know about it and had seen both versions
c) senior members of the defence intelligence staff were angry about the stuff put in the dossier
d) Alastair Campbell was involved in the process and asked for anything else that would strengthen the dossier to be sent up
e)that No.10 Downing Street was behind this strengthening
Or to put it slightly differently – “the dossier was transformed by No.10 Downing Street to make it more sexy…” So what’s left to argue about? All I’ll say is this: remember to turn out for Operation IRAQI FREEDOM II, the national demonstration in London this Saturday. We were right all along.