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Blair asked defence chiefs to prepare war strategy a year before Iraq invasion | Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair asked his defence chiefs to secretly chart out war strategy in June 2002 - nearly a year before the Iraq invasion, an Iraq war inquiry panel has been told. Former
British foreign policy adviser Sir David Manning told the panel that Blair first
talked about the military options in June 2002 after being told that President
George W Bush had set up a "cell" dedicated to planning for a war. "The first
time the Prime Minister asked for military options was in June 2002. At this stage
we are aware that military planning is going ahead, that this cell had been set
up in Florida, and he was anxious to know what sort of options do we have," The
Telegraph quoted Sir David, as saying. The defence chiefs gave Blair three options
for a possible war-like situation. He said the first option would be to provide
air support using existing military bases in the region, the second was an "enhanced
support package" with extra aircraft and naval support, and the third would involve
a land invasion by the Army. The third option would take at least six months to
prepare for. By October, "there was an acceptance that if it came to military
action we would be willing to move to package three", said Sir David. Sir David
also disclosed that Bush and Blair first discussed a possible link between Saddam
and the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US just three days after 9/11. "As far as
I'm aware the first time the president mentioned Iraq to the Prime Minister was
on September 14 in a telephone call and he said he thought there might be evidence
that there was some connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and
al-Qaeda. "The Prime Minister's response was that the evidence would have to be
very compelling indeed to justify taking any action against Iraq." |
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