(Tony Blair communications director) Alastair Campbell rejects Iraq dossier claims

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Source: The Guardian

Alastair Campbell has hit back at a former defence intelligence official who claimed that the controversial Downing Street dossier on Iraq's banned weapons programme was designed to "make the case for war".

The former Downing Street director of communications dismissed the claims by Major General Michael Laurie in a letter to Sir John Chilcot, the chairman of the Iraq inquiry.

Campbell intervened after Laurie, who was director general in the Defence Intelligence Staff, claimed in secret evidence to the Iraq inquiry that the purpose of the arms dossier in September 2002 was "precisely to make a case for war, rather than setting out the available intelligence".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/21/alastair-campbell-rejects-iraq-dossier-claims