FT: Blair in spotlight as Hutton releases documents

[huckleberry]

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059479263376

The spotlight has fallen on Tony Blair's role in the naming of government weapons scientist David Kelly following the release of 9,000 documents by the inquiry looking at the circumstances surrounding the expert's death.

Mr Blair will appear before the inquiry on Thurday, a day after his defence secretary Geoff Hoon. Government lawyers will prepare the two men to answer two broad questions: did they exaggerate the case for war? And did political pressure help drive Mr Kelly to his death?

Last week's hearings into his apparent suicide have crystallised a series of issues that the government has to address. A week before its controversial September dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was published, Jonathan Powell, the prime minister's chief of staff, warned it would be wrong for Mr Blair to claim in his dossier that Saddam Hussein posed an "imminent" threat.

So the inquiry's counsel will want to know if the prime minister pushed the interpretation of intelligence further than was justified by describing the Iraq risk as "serious and current".

snip

Mr Hoon may be the most likely fall guy - but the ramifications of Lord Hutton's findings will extend right to the top of the government.