UK INTELLIGENCE AND IRAQ

Early day motion 965, tabled 8 November 2005 by Harry Cohen (Labour). Signed by 25 members.

That this House recalls the forged documents suggesting Iraq was seeking to procure uranium from Niger in 1999 exposed by Mohammed El Baradei at the United Nations on 7th March 2003, and the statements of retired US Ambassador Joseph Wilson and Italian reporter Elisabetta Burba, who was herself supplied with false documents by Italian military intelligence, that they found no evidence of any transaction; notes the passage in Seymour Hersh's recent book Chain of Command that a former Clinton official told Hersh that the UK spread false information about Iraq and one member of the UN inspection team assisted by supplying unverified material presented as intelligence; therefore considers that the 2004 Butler Report maintaining there was further evidence from additional sources for the uranium ore being sought, and so the intelligence was credible, is seriously undermined by Hersh's revelations that much of the material was generated by the UK, Italy and the US; and concludes that the Butler Committee's conclusion is now untenable.

Signatures by party: Labour 10, Liberal Democrat 9, Scottish National Party 3, Plaid Cymru 2, Conservative 1.