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The Iraq Dossier

The battles behind closed doors in Downing Street and Whitehall, as Tony Blair's advisers raised the threat of weapons of mass destruction to persuade the country to invade Iraq.

The dossier "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction", lead to the headline "just 45 minutes from attack", persuaded MPs to vote for an invasion of Iraq, and hardened public opinion against Saddam Hussein. Fall out from accusations by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ that the claims had been "sexed up" led to the death of Dr David Kelly and the Hutton Inquiry.

This drama goes behind the scenes of MI6, the Ministry of Defence and Downing Street to dramatise one of the most controversial episodes in British politics.

The author, David Morley, has created the script from the mountain of emails, memos, and first hand testimony submitted to the various inquiries into the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as well as from first-hand interviews with Dr Brian Jones, who died in 2012 and was the MoD's leading expert on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, concerned that exaggeration should not creep into the dossier.

Other key players include Richard Dearlove, head of MI6; John Scarlett, Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Tony Blair's adviser, Alastair Campbell.

Producer: Richard Clemmow
A Perfectly Normal production for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4.

1 hour

Last on

Sat 2 Mar 2013 14:30

Credits

Role Contributor
Dr Brian Jones Richard E Grant
John Scarlett Anton Lesser
Richard Dearlove Peter Firth
Mark Allen Stephen Critchlow
Henry Brown Jon Glover
Jones's Boss Tom Goodman-Hill

Broadcast

  • Sat 2 Mar 2013 14:30

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