The Blair witch hunt

A British inquiry into Iraq intelligence and its faint echoes in America

ANALYSIS
By Michael Moran
MSNBC

June 19 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair might be excused for wondering how President Bush, his senior partner in the Iraq war, manages to ride high above the accusations that prewar intelligence estimates of Iraq were twisted to drum up war fever. After all, no British troops have died in postwar guerrilla fighting and the vast majority of suspect intelligence came from U.S. agencies. Yet Blair finds himself besieged by allegations — echoed by Democrats in Washington — that the war pre-empted a threat that both Bush and Blair knew to be very remote. Could this be the beginning of the end for Blair? And what does it portend for Bush?