Downing Street Says » Bob Woodward

Asked for a reaction to the claim in Bob Woodward’s book that the US authorities had passed on to the British authorities the concerns of the CIA Director that the 45-minute claim in the dossier was ‘rubbish’, the PMOS said that we never commented on intelligence matters. We had also resisted the temptation to add to the publicity of other books in the past and would do so with Mr Woodward’s book as well. Put to him that the 45-minute claim had been mentioned four times in a public dossier and had been mentioned twice by the Prime Minister and that it was therefore not an insignificant point, the PMOS said that he was being asked about conversations between intelligence agencies, as well as matters which were being considered by the Butler Inquiry. It would therefore be wrong on both points to comment.

Put to him that it would appear that Mr Woodward had been given access to excellent British sources for his book, the PMOS said that he was not responsible for Mr Woodward’s book. Asked to deny categorically that the Prime Minister, Sally Morgan or Jonathan Powell had spoken to Mr Woodward, the PMOS said that he had absolutely no intention of getting drawn into a discussion about who had spoken to whom and when. He was not aware of any conversations. Equally, he was not going comment on every single contact between journalists and members of the Government.

2 Comments »

It doesn’t really matter whether the PM answers now or not. If it’s true, it’ll come out in the US enquiry and the PM will be forced to comment. Just like he was forced to hold an enquiry. So predictable…
Comment by DEGREEK — 22 Apr 2004 on 10:36 pm | Link
The Bob Woodward articles are utterly compelling reading. Take a look at:

<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml">http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml</a>

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17347-2004Apr16.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17347-2004Apr16.html</a>
Comment by Tom Steinberg — 23 Apr 2004 on 11:40 am | Link

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» Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Bob Woodward

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