We Are Many Page #6

at paragraph four,

you've got Lord Goldsmith

telling the Prime Minister,

"I remain of the view

that the correct legal interpretation

of Resolution 1441

is that it does not authorize

the use of military force

without a further determination

by the Security Council."

And just to the left of that,

a little scribble.

"I just don't understand this."

Who wrote that? Tony Blair wrote that.

And then the document was filed away.

The timing of the document

is very significant.

It was written and signed off

on 30th January.

The next day, 31st January,

the British Prime Minister met the

American President in the White House,

and I've seen the internal

British note of the meeting

prepared by Sir David Manning.

And that note makes very clear,

beyond any possible dispute, two things.

First, by 31st January,

President Bush had decided

that the war on Iraq would begin in March

with or without a further

Security Council resolution.

And second point,

Tony Blair told Bush at that meeting

he was with him, whatever happened.

I do remember the steady drumbeat to war.

There was one sane voice in that crowd,

and I remember talking to my dad

on the phone from Saudi Arabia

and saying, you know,

Colin Powell is the only one

that's gonna be able to stop this.

It was the moment the world has waited for.

America's best case against Iraq,

made by its top diplomat.

When the Secretary finished

his dress rehearsal,

the night before the presentation

to the Security Council,

he looked at his watch. It was a little long.

He looked at me,

and he turned to Mr. Tenet,

the Director of the CIA,

and he said, "George, you stand by everything

that I just said, right?"

And Mr. Tenet said, "I'm telling you,

what you just gave is solid."

And he's telling the Secretary of State

it's a slam dunk.

Saddam Hussein has weapons

of mass destruction.

I mean, that's not the exact language

George used with the Secretary,

but it was like that.

And then the Secretary looked at him

and got this smile on his face, and he said,

"Well, George, you're gonna

be with me tomorrow."

"You're gonna be in camera."

That sort of surprised Mr. Tenet

cos generally you don't put

the Director of the CIA on television.

But you look at that film, and you will see

that George Tenet is right

over the Secretary's shoulder.

Saddam Hussein and his regime

have made no effort,

no effort to disarm as required

by the international community.

We have diagrammed what our sources reported

about these mobile facilities.

Colin Powell made his extraordinary

speech to the UN,

in which there were sort of ice cream vans

which we were told were

biological weapons things.

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