*Ø* Blogmanac | Bush's man rejects Blair weapon claim

Luke Harding, The Observer
December 28

"Tony Blair was at the centre of an embarrassing row last night after the most senior US official in Baghdad bluntly rejected the Prime Minister's assertion that secret weapons laboratories had been discovered in Iraq.

"In a Christmas message to British troops, Blair claimed there was 'massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories'. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) had unearthed compelling evidence that showed Saddam Hussein had attempted to 'conceal weapons', the Prime Minister said. But in an interview yesterday, Paul Bremer, the Bush administration's top official in Baghdad, flatly dismissed the claim as untrue -- without realising its source was Blair.

"It was, he suggested, a 'red herring', probably put about by someone opposed to military action in Iraq who wanted to undermine the coalition.

"'I don't know where those words come from but that is not what [ISG chief] David Kay has said,' he told ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme. 'It sounds like a bit of a red herring to me.'"

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Short calls on Blair to resign

BBC:

"Clare Short has called on Tony Blair to resign because she says he deceived the British people over the Iraq war. She accused the prime minister of risking his own legacy because of an obsession with 'his place in history'. She predicted he would not lead Labour into the next election and urged him to resign for the honour of Britain.

"Ms Short was international development secretary before the Iraq war but left the cabinet afterwards in protest ...

"Her criticisms were echoed by Labour left-winger Diane Abbott, who told the same programme Mr Blair has risked backbench rebellions by making loyal MPs feel like 'pillocks' over the Iraq war."

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