Sexed Up..

 

The British government released a once-secret draft document that was drawn up to justify going to war in Iraq, succumbing to three years of pressure from freedom of information campaigners.

The 32-page document, written by a former director of communications at the Foreign Office, cites intelligence sources to state that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and could easily use them since it had done so before.

Yet the document, amended in the margins, makes no mention of Saddam Hussein being capable of launching weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, a false claim later used in another government dossier to make the case for going to war.

The much-disputed 45-minute threat was made in what came to be known as the “dodgy dossier”, a document the BBC subsequently alleged was “sexed up” to make the case for war stronger.