THE NEW YORK TIMES, MINISTERS AND ALLEGED IRAQI WMD

Early day motion 1296, tabled 26 May 2004 by Llew Smith (Labour). Signed by 32 members.

That this House notes the apology to their readers by the editors of the New York times newspaper in its issue of 26th May because of the paper's misreporting on several occasions, in prominently placed articles, that Iraq had possession of weapons of mass destruction; recognises that, with hindsight, the newspaper concedes it was over-reliant on so-called 'intelligence' information; notes that it concedes that 'in some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged ...' and that 'the problematic articles ... depended at least in part on information from a circle of Iraqi informants, defectors and exiles bent on regime change in Iraq, people whose credibility has come under increasing public debate in recent weeks'; agrees with the newspaper editors that it is 'past time' to turn the light on themselves; and recommends to Ministers, including the Prime Minister, that they adopt this same policy of self-examination over their assertions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in the period from the publication of the Government dossier on Iraq's alleged WMD in September 2002 to the present.

Signatures by party: Labour 17, Liberal Democrat 8, Plaid Cymru 3, Scottish National Party 2, Conservative 1, Labour/Co-operative 1.