The conservative Daily Telegraph commented that Blair had emerged “almost unscathed” from Butler’s findings, which were published July 14.

A U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee had presented its report five days earlier on the performance of Washington’s spy agencies on the matter, with comparable conclusions. Both reports criticized the evidence provided by the U.S. and UK spy chiefs on Iraq’s weapons capacities, but concluded that the two governments did not deliberately distort the evidence to rationalize their drive to war. The two reports asserted that Blair and U.S. president George Bush were justified in claiming that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons capability, arguing in particular that Baghdad had sought supplies of uranium from Niger in Africa.

“We conclude that, on the basis of the intelligence assessments at the time,” the Butler report said, “the statements on Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa in the government’s dossier, and by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, were well-founded. By extension, we conclude also that the statement in President Bush’s State of the Union address of 28 January 2003 that ‘The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa’ was well-founded.”

Blair responded to the report by saying he took personal responsibility for any mistakes but insisted that “Iraq, the region, the wider world is a better and safer place without Saddam.” Butler’s account was the fourth exhaustive inquiry to show the government had acted in good faith, Blair said, pointing out that Butler indicated it would be rash to say that “illicit weapons” will never be found.

It was reasonable to assume the Iraqi government was developing “illegal weapons,” Butler said. Iraq, he continued, “had the strategic intention of resuming the pursuit of prohibited weapons programmes, including if possible its nuclear weapons programme.”

Robin Butler, a faithful servant of the British ruling class, was unlikely to have drawn any other conclusion. A former cabinet secretary, he served under five prime ministers: Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Anthony Blair. He is referred to as “Lord Butler” in all the media here. His report serves well the British rulers, who have energetically backed the imperialist assault on Iraq as reflected by the positions of both the Labour government and the Conservative Party (Tory) opposition.

The Blair government has used the publication of the Butler report, and the earlier Hutton inquiry into the death of arms inspector David Kelly, to boost domestic spying and strengthen the overall functioning of UK’s intelligence agencies in line with the reorganization of the British military that follows in the American Pentagon’s footsteps.

The government has announced the recruitment of an extra 1,000 intelligence agents, doubled spending for spy agencies, and appointed Blair ally John Scarlett as head of MI6—now renamed the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Scarlett, as chair of Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee, was the lead author of what is known as the “September dossier” on the Iraqi weapons programs. The Butler report specifically recommended the government reject calls for Scarlett’s resignation. As SIS head, Scarlett will be in the driver’s seat to refashion the intelligence agencies to more effectively pursue the government’s “war against terrorism,” which the Butler report singled out for praise. These moves include greater cooperation between UK intelligence agencies, the establishment of the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center, and more effective collaboration with spy agencies in other countries.
 
 
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