Iraq dossier draft revealed - strengthens case for full inquiry

4.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 18th Feb 2008

Liberal Democrats at the London rally against war in Iraq

The Government have published an early draft of the UK's infamous dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. The document, by Foreign Office press chief John Williams, was an unpublished draft of the September 2002 dossier. The Foreign Office lost its appeal against a ruling the document be published under the Freedom of Information Act.

Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Foreign Affairs said "The Government cannot continue to deny the major role that spin doctors played in creating this dossier. The core analysis of the threat allegedly posed by Iraq is the same in both documents. A press official should never have been drafting a document that ended up being used as the justification for going to war. This takes us no nearer to the truth about the decision to invade Iraq. The Government can no longer continue to resist the overwhelming case for a full inquiry into the war."