Britain’s former spy boss has given her strongest condemnation yet of Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq, saying he was told it posed no threat to the UK.Ex-MI5 chief Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said she warned the then Prime Minister military action would put Britain at risk.
“Iraq did not present a threat to the UK. The service advised it was likely to increase the domestic threat,” she told the Radio Times.“It was a distraction from the pursuit of al-Qaeda.“I understood the need to focus on Afghanistan. Iraq was a distraction.”
But she said it was “up to others” to decide if it was the wrong thing to do.She also confessed to being torn over whether Nato should be in Libya – but said Britain was right to “cosy up” to Gaddafi in recent years.“There was a point... to get him to forfeit his stockpiles of WMD,” she said.
The Daily Mirror
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