June 09, 2003|By NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
LONDON - A top aide to Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote to the head of Britain's intelligence service this spring, conceding that the government's presentation of a report on Iraqi arms was mishandled and promising that "far greater care" would be taken with files, a British newspaper reported yesterday.
The government acknowledged that Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of communications, wrote a letter of explanation to the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service. The admission came amid increased questioning of the use of intelligence findings to muster support for the war on Iraq.
The report - "Iraq: Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation" - was made public in February as Blair tried to convince the dubious British public of the need to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
It is now referred to in the British news media as the "dodgy dossier" because of evidence that part of it was downloaded from an American student's thesis that relied on 12-year-old public information.
Tam Dalyell, a Labor parliamentarian who is the longest-serving member of the House of Commons and a persistent critic of Blair and the war, said in a statement yesterday: "The implication of what Campbell said is that Britain went to war against Iraq on the basis of carelessness. I do not see what other conclusion can be drawn."
