... Blair claimed there were WMDs that could be deployed against Britain within 45 minutes, so he's either a liar or incompetent (or both).

If I were about to commit our armed forces to invade a foreign country I would want to know what weapons that country has and the capabilities of those weapons. Blair has since said he was not told the 45 minutes claim was only for battlefield munitions. If he didn't bother to ask the basic questions about what sort of weapons could be deployed against Britain and its troops then he is guilty of sheer incompetence.

On the other hand, if he did know all of this and yet still repeated the 45 minute claim then he is a liar. Since we know no-one has been fired for not telling him the 45 minute claim was only for battlefield weapons I think we can safely assume he's a liar.

So take your pick, either way he's still guilty of participating in an illegal war.

or was he hushed up to discourage anyone else thinking of speaking out. The whole episode stinks and Labour needs to be punished for it.

Will El Reg bring us this event? And perhaps an associated wiki?

I seem to remember that the night before the FOI Act became live lots of civil servants got paid overtime to stay up late and create sh(r)ed loads of cat litter and hamster bedding.

I can second that. In the department I worked in staff went through files shredding 'till the cows came home. The maxim in operation was: If it doesn't exist, there's nothing to give out.

Since FoI came in, I know government depts have been working on ways to have information without actually having it (if you see what I mean...)

Coat: Mines the one with the collar turned up to hide my identity....

I never believed that Kelly did it to himself.

"...or was he hushed up to discourage anyone else thinking of speaking out. The whole episode stinks and Labour needs to be punished for it..."

Um. This assumes that the Government were in charge. I suspect, if we were ever to find out the truth, that a few people in the Government were pushing the policy of 'close coperation with whatever America wants' because they were being 'advised' by senior figures in the Intelligence Services, anxious for a larger role in world affairs after their original role of 'standing up to Russia' had crumbled ten years earlier.

This sorry mess has all the characteristics of a 'folie a deux'. I think it will be instructive to try to figure out who was leading whom when the time comes for punishment....

"...the trust within which confidential exchanges between the United Kingdom and other Governments takes place"

Meaning that the half sentence was basically something like "...because Dick Cheney says so."

The first half being "It is incumbent upon Her Majesties government to invade Iraq..."

Go Home, ya bums, Go Home.

Er, I'm pretty sure sure it's impossible to commit MASS destruction with a battlefield munition - otherwise a machine gun would be a wmd. Blair lied and lied again.

If I were him, I'd avoid going for walks in woods in the future.

I hear a .22 is the weapon of choice :)