9/11 led to war decision, Blair tells Iraq probe

LONDON - Former British prime minister Tony Blair Friday put up a strong defence of his controversial decision to invade Iraq in 2003 at an official inquiry here, saying the terrorist strikes of 9/11 changed his view of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

Speaking as hundreds of anti-war demonstrators protested outside the Chilcot inquiry venue, Blair said his view of the Iraqi dictator changed dramatically after the 9/11 attacks.

“Here’s what changed for me: the whole calculus of risk,” said Blair, who had to take a side entrance into the venue two hours before the opening in order to elude angry anti-war protesters.

“The point about this terrorist act was over 3,000 people had been killed, an absolutely horrific event. But if these people, inspired by this religious fanaticism could have killed 30,000, they would have.

However, some media commentators said he had opened himself up to a charge of misleading parliament by admitting that the threats from Saddam’s chemical and biological weapons had not increased after 9/11.

It wasn’t that objectively he (Saddam) had done more,” he said. “It was that our perception of the risk had shifted.”

The online edition of The Times said the comment appeared to contradict a statement Blair made to the British parliament in 2002, when he said: His weapons of mass destruction programme is active, detailed and growing. The policy of containment is not working. The weapons of mass destruction programme is not shut down; it is up and running now.

Opponents of the war say Blair misled MPs over the reasons for taking Britain to war, that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and that Blair was set on ‘regime change’.

Blair said on a television interview last month that he would have sought to remove Saddam even if Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, adding: Obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat.

At Friday’s inquiry Blair also suggested that it was Britain’s duty to support the US.

This is an alliance with America, it’s not a contract, he said, adding the relationship meant you do this for us, we do this for you.

He said former US president Bill Clinton took a really courageous decision by supporting Britain over the Kosovo war despite reservations among the American people.

I said we would stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

Blair said he regarded 9/11 not as an attack on America alone, but an attack on us.