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Iraq dossier memos could reignite "sexed-up" row

04/09/2008

The information commissioner has ordered the government to release material relating to a dossier on the threat posed by Iraq.

Richard Thomas told the Independent in a ruling he did not believe comments made by Alastair Campbell in September 2002 were covered by national security provisos, as claimed by the Cabinet Office.

"Having considered the information which was withheld by the Cabinet Office, the commissioner is not satisfied that all of the comments on the draft dossier constituted information which engages the section 24 exemption [on national security]," the newspaper quoted the ruling as saying.

"The comments were made by individuals from outside the ‘intelligence community’ and related to the facts and opinions contained within the draft dossier itself.

"Since these were the very facts and opinions which the relevant politicians and officials were minded to publish in the dossier, the commissioner considers that comment on and debate around them is unlikely to be any more prejudicial to intelligence sources or collection methods than publication in the dossier of the facts and opinions themselves."

The 61-page ruling from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) details a requested for drafts of the dossier from September 11th to September 16th 2002. It also requests the release of a covering note and comments on the drafts made by defence intelligence staff and others.

The Independent had sought to obtain the material for a period when some suspect Mr Campbell allegedly "sexed-up" the dossier to make it more politically potent.

The material itself has not yet been released. The Cabinet Office has 28 days to decide whether it should appeal the decision or release the information within 35 days.

"We are considering the information commissioner's decisions notice," a Cabinet Office spokesperson told politics.co.uk.