THE GUARDIAN: Eliza Manningham-Buller tells Chilcot inquiry that Iraq invasion radicalised part of a generation of Muslims
The former MI5 director general Eliza Manningham-Buller today delivered a withering assessment of the case for war against Iraq.
Manningham-Buller said the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was low and that the US-led invasion in 2003 had done more harm than good.
Giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, she said Saddam's threat to the UK was "very limited and containable".
In evidence that undermined the case for war presented by the former prime minister Tony Blair, she was asked whether it was feared Saddam could have linked terrorists to weapons of mass destruction, facilitating their use against the west.
"It certainly wasn't of concern in either the short term or the medium term to me or my colleagues," she replied.
Manningham-Buller said the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan had radicalised parts of a generation of Muslims who saw the military actions as an "attack on Islam". >>> Haroon Siddique | Tuesday, July 20, 2010
