'45 minute claim' criticised

The 45 minute claim lacked 'context'

A parliamentary inquiry has criticised the way the claim Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes was included in the government's controversial dossier.

The report by the Intelligence and Security Committee criticised the way the Joint Intelligence Committee - which includes the heads of all the agencies - handled the intelligence relating to the claim.

The Secret Intelligence Service MI6 originally obtained the information from a source in Iraq who had been told by a senior Iraqi officer that the weapons could be ready for firing on average in 20 minutes and within a maximum of 45 minutes.

The 45 minute claim, included four times, was always likely to attract attention because it was arresting detail that the public had not seen before ISC report

Assessments staff at the JIC stated "that they, and the people they had consulted, did not know what munitions the Iraqi officer was referring to or their status. Nor did they know from where and to where munitions might be moved".

The report says: "They assessed that the Iraqi officer was referring to the time needed to move the biological and chemical battlefield munitions from where they were held by Iraqi Security units in forward-deployed storage sites to pre-designated military units."

The Intelligence and Security Committee said this did not add anything "fundamentally new" to the UK's knowledge of Iraq's military capabilities.

"That the Iraqis could use chemical or biological battlefield weapons rapidly had already been established in previous conflicts," the ISC report said.

But when the 45 minute claim later appeared in the September dossier on Iraqi weapons, it did not mention that it was referring to battlefield weapons rather than ballistic missiles.

"The 45 minute claim, included four times, was always likely to attract attention because it was arresting detail that the public had not seen before," the report said.

"The omission of the context and assessment allowed speculation as to its exact meaning. This was unhelpful to an understanding of this issue."