ISC report criticises Hoon

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was criticised today by a Parliamentary inquiry into the use of intelligence on Iraqi for withholding evidence.

The Intelligence and Security Committee said that it was "disturbing" that Mr Hoon did not disclose full details of concerns about the Government's Iraq weapons dossier among Defence Intelligence Staff.

The ISC said that the initial failure of the Ministry of Defence to reveal details of the DIS concerns had been "unhelpful and potentially misleading".

The ISC said that the dossier had not been "sexed up" by No 10 communications chief Alastair Campbell "or anybody else".

But it criticised the way the controversial claim that some Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be deployed within 45 minutes was presented, as "unhelpful to an understanding of this issue".

It said the dossier also failed to make clear that Saddam Hussein was not considered a "current or imminent threat to mainland UK".

And it said that that it should have highlighted the uncertainty within the intelligence community over Iraq's capacity to produce chemical or biological
weapons.

The criticism of Mr Hoon and the Ministry of Defence centred on the withholding of information about two members of DIS who had written formally to their line managers to express concern about the way their intelligence was used in the dossier.

The ISC report said: "We regard the initial failure by the MoD to disclose that some staff had put their concerns in writing to their line managers as unhelpful and potentially misleading.

"This is not excused by the genuine belief within the DIS that the concerns had been expressed as part of the normal lively debate that often surrounds draft JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) assessments within the DIS.

"We are disturbed that after the first evidence session, which did not cover all concerns raised by the DIS staff, the Defence Secretary decided against
giving instructions for a letter to us outlining the concerns."