*Pieces by Richard Norton-Taylor and ex-intelligence officer Crispin Black;

"A recently retired intelligence officer says in the Guardian today that he finds it incredible that Tony Blair or his close advisers did not ask the crucial question about the 45-minute claim in the government's dossier on Iraq's weapons programme."

[....]

"He points out that there were meetings with no minutes; an intelligence analytical group on a highly specialised subject which included unqualified officials in Downing Street but excluded the defence intelligence staff's lifetime experts; vague and unexplained bits of intelligence appearing in the dossier as gospel; sloppy use of language; and a "weird 'last call' for intelligence like Henry II raving about Thomas Becket - but with 'who will furnish me with the intelligence I need' substituted for 'who will rid me of that turbulent priest'."

[also intriguing, a reference to a letter "Medical evidence does not support suicide by Kelly"....]

"A group of doctors also write in the Guardian today that they have continued doubts about Lord Hutton's verdict that the Iraq expert David Kelly committed suicide.

In a letter, six doctors, three more than wrote to the paper last month expressing doubts, say they remain convinced that it was "highly improbable" that Dr Kelly killed himself by cutting his left wrist. "

Black's Beckett analogy rather apt. See rest of article here;

"I looked forward to Lord Hutton making some serious suggestions about how to keep the intelligence process free of political manipulation and analysts free from the preparation of propaganda dossiers. I thought he might help explain, too, why the intelligence community had been taken by surprise by the aftermath of victory in Iraq.

When the report came I was puzzled at first - serious people seemed to be taking it so seriously. And then everyone started to laugh. Some of the passages - particularly "the possibility cannot be completely ruled out that the desire of the prime minister ... may have subconsciously influenced ... members of the JIC ... consistent with the intelligence available to the JIC" are masterpieces of comic writing.

In two years as an intelligence officer, and four-and-a-half years as an analyst at the highest level, I never once heard the phrase "consistent with intelligence". It means nothing. "