UK's Ex-Chief Justice Rips Into Iraq Invasion

Intelligence ignored, British panel told

(NEWSER) - Prime Minister Tony Blair was told Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction 10 days before ordering British troops into the country in 2003, but Blair pushed ahead anyway, a panel investigating the war was told today. But, said a key intelligence official, the information didn’t weaken the case for the US and British invasion; rather, “it just proved [Saddam Hussein] had been lying and that he had prohibited items.” More»

PM backs controversial move; much of building still shut

(NEWSER) - Iraq’s National Museum reopened yesterday for the first time since its 2003 looting made it a symbol of post-invasion bedlam, the New York Times reports. But with only eight of 26 rooms functional, its reopening symbolizes as much the long road ahead as it does Iraqi reconstruction thus far, Steven Lee Myers writes. Years after thousands of items were stolen, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pushed for the controversial reopening. More»

(NEWSER) - Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction, but America made such a strong case that even the Iraqi leader himself had doubts, the Washington Post reports. Saddam, apparently in awe of US intelligence, asked his top commanders if the nation had stashes even he didn't know about. So says a new book by a CIA investigator, which also notes that Vladimir Putin tried to get Saddam to step down in 2003 to avert a US invasion. More»

Bush says the war must be won

(NEWSER) - On the fifth anniversary of launching the shock-and-awe assault that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, President Bush will make a major speech at the Pentagon today, CNN reports. In excerpts from the speech he acknowledges that "the fight in Iraq was faltering," but praises the progress in the last year. "The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around; it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror." More»

Tory challenger visits Schwarzenegger, Google heads, maybe Bush

(NEWSER) - David Cameron, the UK Tory leader, is in California to meet with politicians and tech gurus and to pitch himself, rather than Gordon Brown, as the future of Britain. Only two weeks ago Cameron's career was in free fall, but after a stellar performance at the Conservative Party's conference and Brown's disastrous about-face on calling an election, Cameron is riding high in the polls and the press. More»