Secret draft of Iraq war dossier to be revealed

The secret first draft of the notorious Iraq dossier that helped to take Britain to war is expected to be released tomorrow, in a victory for freedom of information campaigners.

The early version written by John Williams, then director of communications at the Foreign Office, has been the subject of a three-year legal wrangle amid hopes that it could reveal whether the supposedly intelligence-led dossier was actually based on a press officer's script - and whether it was subsequently 'sexed up' by Alastair Campbell.

The draft is understood not to contain the infamous claim that Saddam Hussein could launch a strike with 'weapons of mass destruction' within 45 minutes, a claim that was central to the final 'dodgy dossier'.

Yesterday Williams attacked the decision to withhold the document for so long. 'If the government withholds a piece of paper, it immediately makes it significant; it almost doesn't matter what it says,' he argued. 'That's what I said at the time: why are we withholding it?'

A former journalist, who left Whitehall in May, Williams said the row was particularly frustrating as he had never wanted the government to produce a dossier. He had argued, he said, that rather than attempting to prove that Saddam did have weapons of mass destruction, the government should have challenged him to prove he did not: 'I was against the idea of a dossier because I thought it was wrong.'

The Hutton inquiry into the road to war on Iraq identified the existence of an early draft by Williams, but was told by Campbell that it had become 'redundant' when John Scarlett, then chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee linking Downing Street to the security services, took charge of the process. However, an information tribunal last month ruled that the Williams draft should be disclosed. Anti-war campaigners regard it as key evidence of who introduced the most contentious material into the final draft, and whether Scarlett was too heavily influenced by aides with an interest in making a case for war.

Williams said that critics of the war were likely to find significant similarities between his draft and Scarlett's version, but insisted that should not be surprising since both were working with 'the same assumptions, the same policy, with much of the same material'.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, is expected to confirm in a statement to the Commons tomorrow that the government will bow to the information tribunal's ruling, rather than exercising ministerial powers to veto it or challenge it in court. Ministers had argued that the draft should not be disclosed because it jeopardised the confidentiality - and therefore candour - of advice given to them by civil servants.

The release is in response to pressure by Chris Ames, a former charity worker from Surrey, who began pursuing the document early in 2005.

The government will hope that the publication finally draws a line under the sorry saga of the dossier, which led indirectly to the suicide of scientist David Kelly after he was identified as the apparent source of BBC reports that the dossier had been 'overspun' by Campbell.

Demonstrators held after Iowa anti-war protests

At least 10 anti-war demonstrators were arrested yesterday during protests in Des Moines over the lack of debate on the war on Iraq in the election campaign.
The protestors, ranging in age from 23 to 76, were taken into custody after briefly occupying the campaign offices of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. Most were held by local police, though some were released with a citation to appear in court at a later date.

The protests were part of a coordinated effort by peace activists to raise the issue of the Iraq war in the campaign.
Earlier this week, the group - a loose coalition of Catholic peace activists and veteran anti-war demonstrators - occupied the Des Moines office of Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.

They pledged a similar demonstration today at the campaign office of another candidate.

The decision to protest at Obama's campaign office displays the dissatisfaction among some on the American left with the leading Democratic presidential candidates' stances on the war in Iraq.

With varying degrees of urgency, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have called for a withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, but would leave in place military personnel to guard US interests, and carry out counter-terrorism missions.

With the exception of long-shot Ron Paul, the Republican candidates have pledged to continue President George Bush's policy in Iraq and the "war on terror".

The protestors, who call their endeavour Seasons of Discontent: A Presidential Occupation Project, want the next president to withdraw all US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan within 100 days of taking office.

"I don't see Obama as the change we want to see," protestor Brian Terrell, 51, said. "We're asking Obama to change."

"This war is a bi-partisan war; the empire is a bi-partisan empire," said Frank Cordaro, a 56-year-old former Catholic priest and fulltime activist in Des Moines. "Clearly, Obama, Hillary and Edwards are lining up in a similar way. They're conceding the fact that they're going to have to continue a US military presence in Iraq. And that's unacceptable."

Four protesters were arrested at Romney's headquarters, charged with criminal trespass and taken to Polk County jail. Romney's campaign was not available for comment.

About 10 demonstrators later entered Obama's headquarters, unfurled a banner, and pledged to stay until Obama promised to do what he could to immediately end the war in Iraq.

The protestors read names of American war dead, then a speech by Dr Martin Luther King. After about one and a half hours, Des Moines police arrived and made the arrests, charging protestors with criminal trespass.

A spokesman for the Obama campaign had no comment.