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FCO releases draft dossier

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has complied with a ruling from the Information Tribunal to release a draft version of the Iraq dossier written by John Williams, the FCO's former director of communications. The document has been published on the FCO's disclosure log and a written ministerial statement is due to be made to Parliament on Monday.

According to the Observer:

"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?'"

The disclosure is a significant victory for Chris Ames, who first requested its release in 2005.

See also -

John Williams: Dodgy judgements, Comment is Free, The Guardian

Secret draft of Iraq dossier to be revealed, The Observer

Full post as published by UK Freedom of Information Act Blog on February 18, 2008 (boomark / email).