But Blair’s reputation as an aggressive spinner is only reinforced by the recent public disclosure of hundreds of internal government e-mails and confidential documents; they outline the background to the exposure of weapons scientist David Kelly as a BBC news source and his subsequent apparent suicide. In one memo to intelligence chief John Scarlett, Campbell suggests the text of a September 2002 British-intelligence dossier could be tweaked to say Saddam “secured” uranium from Africa; Scarlett rejected the suggestion, saying British spies believed Saddam only “sought” nuclear material (an allegation U.S. intelligence later discredited). Campbell also pressed Scarlett to have the dossier allege that Saddam’s sons “have authority” to order the use of chemical orbiological weapons. Scarlett replied that “intelligence supports only ‘may have’.”
