The JIC Warned Tony Blair

Invading Iraq Would 'Heighten' The Risk Of Al Qaeda Terrorism

In a report assessing the pre-war intelligence on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, the Government's Intelligence and Security Committee referred in passing to this warning. (The report is a 600kb pdf, available from the Cabinet Office.) On 10 February 2003, the Joint Intelligence Committee reported to the Prime Minister in the following way:

'The JIC assessed that al-Qaida and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to Western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq.' (p. 34, emphasis added)

British intelligence told Tony Blair explicitly and clearly before the war that invading Iraq would increase the risk of just the kind of bombings that have taken place in London.