"Sexed up" dossiers to see the light of day

It was bound to happen sooner rather than later. What have been described as the "sexed up" dossiers produced by the UK Cabinet Office are to see the light of day, as The Independent reports:

"Secret emails and memos showing how the Iraq war dossier was "sexed-up" must be released by the Cabinet Office, The Independent has learnt.

Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, has told civil servants to release undisclosed material which could provide "evidence that the dossier was deliberately manipulated in order to present an exaggerated case for military action".

After repeated freedom of information requests, Mr Thomas says in a 20-page ruling given to The Independent that there is a clear public interest in seeing comments about drafts of the dossier between 11 and 16 September 2002, in the days before Alastair Campbell suggested changes. Mr Thomas adds that there is no national security justification for keeping these comments from politicians secret.

The Government's case for the war was set out in the dossier about Saddam Hussein's weapons capabilities, published on 24 September 2002 and overseen by the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Sir John Scarlett."

What will be interesting to see how all of this reflects on George W, Tony Blair and John Howard.

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