OK then Peter I will ask you again as you seemed to have ducked the question:

Subject: "Carne Ross's paper outlining alternatives to war, including targeting Iraq's illegal oil revenues, was not presented to Cabinet."

Question: "The Ross Carne paper dated when?"

Subject: "He (Ross Carne) testified (To the Butler review) that at no time during his work on Iraq (1998-2002) did the UK or US assess that Iraq's WMD posed a threat."

Question: Does he not say "UK or US"? Hence the links provided that show clearly that there were many in the US on both sides of the political divide who thought in the period specified by Carne that Saddam posed a threat. As for the UK, if memory serves me correctly United Nations Resolution 1441 was drafted and proposed by the United Kingdom and seconded by The United States of America. I would suggest that Mr. Ross Carne read through that document and decide for himself whether or not Iraq was considered to be a threat or not.

Subject: "Threat to the UK"

Question: What was the full context and scope of the threat. I believe that when first raised it was couched in the following terms:

"A threat to the United Kingdom, to the national interests of the United Kingdom and to the allies of the United Kingdom within the region."

Now that is a whale of a difference.

"As you well know this is pure speculation Teribus, and NOT a basis for a cogent defence as to why we went to war with Iraq." Sugarfoot Jack

Yes Jack of course what I outlined was pure speculation, but I note nobody has bothered to answer the question regarding why the possibility of that happening could be totally discounted. All immaterial really as all 19 of the United States of America's intelligence and security agencies stated quite clearly that that possibility represented the greatest threat to the USA in the wake of 9/11, and that urgent action was required to eliminate that threat.

Oh and at no point did I state that the scenario I outlined was the basis for invading Iraq. The basis for resuming hostilities with Iraq was their failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the ceasefire agreement that they signed at Safwan in April 1991.

Unfortunately for Saddam he couldn't comply with those terms and conditions could he? Of the 605 Kuwaiti nationals that he had abducted in 1990, the ones he had to repatriate in order to satisfy the terms and conditions of the Safwan Ceasefire Agreement, he had already murdered 602 of them. Bit of a poser for the old boy wasn't it.