Concern over nuclear arsenal removed from Iraq dossier

The full extent of government anxiety about the state of
British-Israel relations can be exposed for the first time today in a
secret document seen by the Guardian.

The document reveals how
the Foreign Office successfully fought to keep secret any mention of
Israel contained on the first draft of the controversial, now
discredited Iraq weapons dossier. At the heart of it was nervousness at
the top of government about any mention of Israel’s nuclear arsenal in
an official paper accusing Iraq of flouting the UN’s authority on
weapons of mass destruction.

The dossier was made public this
week, but the Foreign Office succeeded before a tribunal in having the
handwritten mention of Israel kept secret.

The FO never argued
that the information would damage national security. The Guardian has
seen the full text and a witness statement from a senior Foreign Office
official, who argued behind closed doors that any public mention of the
candid reference would seriously damage UK/Israeli relations. In the
statement, he reveals that in the past five years there have been 10
substantial incidents and 20 more minor ones relating to Israeli
concerns about attitudes to their government within Whitehall.

The
Information Tribunal, which adjudicates on disputes involving the
Freedom of Information Act, agreed to remove the single reference to
Israel when it ordered the release of the draft of the Iraqi weapons
dossier written by John Williams, the FO’s chief information officer at
the time.

Along with unfavourable references to the US and Japan,
the reference to Israel was written in the margin by someone commenting
on the opening paragraph of the Williams draft. It was written against
the claim that “no other country [apart from Iraq] has flouted the
United Nations’ authority so brazenly in pursuit of weapons of mass
destruction”.

In statement to the tribunal, Neil Wigan, head of
the FO’s Arab, Israel and North Africa Group, said he did not know who
had referred to Israel in the margin. He went on: “I interpret this
note to indicate that the person who wrote it believes that Israel has
flouted the United Nations’ authority in a manner similar to that of
the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.”

Its disclosure would
seriously damage the UK’s relations with Israel, Wigan said. The
comparison with Saddam and the “implied accusation of a breach of the
UN’s authority by Israel are potentially very serious”. It was
“inevitable” that relations beteen the UK and Israel would suffer if
the marginal note were allowed to enter the public domain, he added.

Wigan
observed: “Unfortunately, there is perception already in Israel that
parts of the FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] are prejudiced
against the country”. The note on the Williams draft dossier “would
therefore confirm this pre-existing suspicion and would increase the
damage”.

Writing in October last year, he noted that “criticism
of Israel received a huge amount of media coverage”. The margin comment
mentioning Israel would thus be given a “high profile”. Harming
relations with Israel would undermine the FO’s ability to prevent and
resolve conflict “through a strong international system”. In addition,
there was “an important national interest in relation to
counter-terrorism”, Wigan said.

The FO insisted on the removal of
the reference to Israel after it lost a long battle to suppress the
draft dossier, which was drawn up in early September 2002. It
originally argued that the name of the author needed to be protected.
It then said the contents of the draft dossier should be suppressed to
protect the need for officials to give frank advice. The Williams
document was finally released by the FO last week, three years after it
was first requested by Chris Ames, an independent researcher, who
pursued his campaign in the New Statesman magazine.

Richard
Thomas, the Information Commissioner, said last year that it was in the
public interest that the document should be released in its entirety.
The FO appealed against his ruling and took it to the Information
Tribunal.

The FO had no objections to references to other
countries in the margin of the Williams document. Alongside the claim
that no other country apart from Iraq had twice launched wars of
aggression against neighbours, the unknown FO official writes:
“Germany?” and ” US: Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico”. Against a reference to
the use of chemical weapons, the official has written: “Japan in China?”

Claims
in the Williams draft are similar to those in the final government
Iraqi weapons dossier published in late September 2002. The Information
Tribunal ordered the release of the draft, without reference to Israel,
observing that it may have played a bigger role in influencing the
final dossier than previously supposed. The government tried to
distance itself from the Williams draft.