Fresh storm on Iraq war intelligence

Tony Blair today faced fresh claims he misled the nation over Iraq when a former senior defence chief accused him of "misusing" intelligence.

John Morrison, the former Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence, said the Prime Minister's claim that Saddam represented a threat was not backed up by evidence within the Ministry of Defence.

Mr Morrison said that no threat existed "in the true meaning of the word" and that such a view was supported by intelligence reports before the war. In a scathing interview for BBC Radio 4's Today programme he also claimed that well before 2002, New Labour's love of news management led to systematic pressure on intelligence experts to make their findings fit political ends.

The former MoD chief spoke out for the first time since he was ousted from a Cabinet Office job for appearing on the BBC's Panorama programme to criticise Mr Blair earlier this year. Mr Morrison said at the time the intelligence services were stunned when Mr Blair warned of Saddam's "serious and current threat" to Britain in his foreword to the Downing Street dossier of September 2002.

"When I heard him using those words I could almost hear the collective raspberry going up around Whitehall," he said. Mr Morrison, who worked for the MoD as late as 1998, became the chief adviser to the Intelligence and Security Committee but his contract was ended early because of his remarks.

Today, he broke his silence over his removal and expanded his criticism to include his bosses within the Defence Intelligence Service (DIS).

He said there was a misuse of intelligence by senior management within the DIS and a misuse of intelligence terminology by Mr Blair over Iraq.

In a statement the MoD said that at the time of military operations, the press office worked closely with all parts of the department, including the DIS, to obtain information for the media.