September 10, 2003	Wednesday	Rajab 12, 1424

LONDON, Sept 9: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged on Tuesday he had requested that part of a controversial official dossier on Iraqi weapons be “strengthened”, without conceding that the government wanted to beef up intelligence to strengthen the case for invading Iraq.

Mr Straw, who was publicly acknowledging for the first time his role in the dossier, said he had requested that part of the document be strengthened to highlight the “centrality of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) to Saddam Hussein’s role” as Iraq’s president, according to an e-mail released to a judicial inquiry into the apparent suicide of British arms expert David Kelly.

Asked whether he had requested, through his private secretary Mark Sedwill, that a “killer paragraph” be inserted into the government’s Sept 2002 dossier, Jack Straw told BBC radio: “This is an accurate reference to an e-mail that was sent on my behalf by a private secretary, and what I wanted was to raise the prominence of Saddam Hussein’s defiance of the United Nations over 12 years. I still do.”

Mr Straw did not say if the dossier released last September was actually strengthened as a result of his request. Nor did he mention if the reference to the “killer paragraph” had anything to do with a controversial claim made in the dossier that Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons in just 45 minutes.

Government scientist David Kelly was the source of a hotly denied BBC report on May 29 that Downing Street had “sexed up” its dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to rally support for Britain siding with the United States in invading Iraq.

A highly respected ministry of defence expert on Iraqi biological weapons, Dr Kelly was found dead on July 18 near his home in the English countryside.

Doubts over the use of intelligence on Iraq and Dr Kelly’s suicide have left Prime Minister Tony Blair dropping in opinion polls and facing the worst political crisis since he came to office in 1997.

Mr Blair’s office announced on Tuesday that the House of Commons cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) would publish its report into events leading up to the invasion on Thursday.

Mr Straw could himself now face questions before the inquiry for the first time after it was revealed that a Foreign Office aide had wanted David Kelly to be named as the source of the contested BBC report.

Among the latest documents released by senior judge Lord Brian Hutton’s inquiry are internal government memos relating to the issue of whether Dr Kelly’s name should be made public.

“I don’t think there is a problem for us if the press name” Dr Kelly, Mr Straw’s political adviser Peter Ricketts wrote in an e-mail on July 9, the same day the ministry of defence told journalists Dr Kelly was the likely source.

“No need for us to be defensive; so I agree... that if the name (Kelly) is presented to us, we should confirm. But let’s do it in an organized way,” continued Mr Ricketts’s e-mail, which was copied to senior figures in the British government.

One of those copied was Mr Blair’s top aide and communications chief Alastair Campbell, who last month resigned his post. There is widespread speculation that Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon could also quit, depending on the outcome of the inquiry.

Asked to comment on the possibility of being summoned before the inquiry in the light of the published e-mails, Jack Straw told BBC radio: “Whether Lord Hutton wishes to talk to me is a matter entirely for Lord Hutton.”

The first phase of the inquiry adjourned on Friday after hearing four weeks of evidence. It is to resume on Monday. —AFP