Credibility on the line?

Has the special relationship between the US and UK been damaged?

In a Hardtalk interview on 18 July, Tim Sebastian speaks to former US Assistant Secretary of State, James Rubin, about the state of transatlantic relations in the wake of the controversy over intelligence underpinning the case for war in Iraq.

Click here to watch the full interview

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has met US President George Bush in Washington.

Both leaders, under fire over the intelligence used to justify the war, again insisted their decision to invade Iraq had been based on sound intelligence.

James Rubin served as US Assistant Secretary of State in the Clinton administration.

He says he doesn't doubt Saddam Hussein presented a clear threat, but the two leaders made a mistake of selling the war on the basis that Iraq posed a "present" threat.

"They did exaggerate the urgency of it, the imminence of a clear and present danger. And because they exaggerated the urgency of it, I think from the American and British standpoint we lost the ability to gather the largest possible number of countries to go to war," he says.

While in Washington, Mr Blair became the fourth British prime minister to address a joint meeting of Congress.

He said that even if Britain and the US had been wrong about weapons of mass destruction, history would forgive the removal of Saddam Hussein.

"If we are wrong, we will have destroyed a threat that at its least is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering," Mr Blair said.

Prime Minister Blair was also under pressure to push for two Britons being held at Guantanamo Bay to be returned to the UK for possible trial.

"Guantanamo Bay was probably one of the single biggest reasons why America has lost respect around the world," says Mr Rubin.

The former Assistant Secretary of State says the US has given the impression that it was applying a different standard to prisoners on US soil than international law and Conventions outline.

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