Events involving: Saddam Hussein

MI6 got its intelligence on the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction from an Iraqi taxi driver, according to a Tory MP and to defense specialist Adam Holloway.

The taxi driver, who had heard Iraqi military talking about weapons, is the source of the now discredited claim that Saddam Hussein had the ability to launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

Tony Blair used the 45-minute threat in 2002 in an effort to gain public support for the war. Ex-spy chief John Scarlett said it was not his intention to mislead people in that dossier. But isn’t disinformation one of the many services offered by MI6 to its people?

If only the taxi driver had known at the time how much trouble he was about to bring to his fellow Iraqis by telling British intelligence what they so desperately wanted to hear.